Summer Nectarine Galette

Summer Nectarine Galette

Serves: 8

Difficulty level: Easy

 

Summer Nectarine Galette

As long as there are still peaches, plums, apricots, berries and nectarines to be had, I’m buying them up and making pies and galettes. Today it is galette. A galette is a free-form pie, more rustic than a tart.  It’s probably one of the few desserts that actually embraces imperfections! Any and all stone fruit will work with this recipe – feel free to toss in berries to fill in the holes. How pretty would that be! 

Key Lime Mousse

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Key Lime Mousse

Serves: 8

Difficulty level: Moderate

 

Key Lime Mousse

Imagine a Key Lime Pie light as a cloud, tart one moment, sweet the next.  Imagine it has done away with distraction of a crust. What you have is this Key Lime Mousse! The key lime is in a class all of its own. Much smaller than regular “Persian” limes, the key lime ranges in size from a Ping-Pong ball to a golf ball. The peel is thin, smooth and greenish-yellow when ripe. The flesh is also greenish-yellow, full of seeds, and divided into 10-12 segments, quite juicy and has a higher acidity than the regular Persian limes. It is valued for its strong aroma and their tart, sharp and incredibly sour taste. The green stage is the early stage of ripening and when the Key Lime’s flavor is strongest.  The yellow stage is a final stage of ripening and the flavor is somewhat mellowed. One quick note here: You cannot bottle fresh flavor. Packaged Key lime juice may look easy but it tastes like the shortcut that it is.  Generally made from concentrate and treated for preservation, it lacks punch and often has metallic undertones. Despite their name, key limes are not exclusive to Florida. In Mexico, the same species of limes are called Mexican limes. Key limes have often been referred to as the “bartender’s lime” and they readily complement a whole host of libations.

Dr. Larue's Famous Fudge Brownies

Dr. Larue's Famous Fudge Brownies

Hands down – really, the best!

Makes: never enough!

Dr. Larue's Famous Fudge Brownies 

I know. I know.  You have heard it all before. But did I steer you wrong on the very best flourless chocolate cake (http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/02/ottolenghis-flourless-chocolate-cake.html) or the quickest best ever doubly delicious double fudge chocolate cake? (http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/07/devilishly-delicious-double-fudge-chip.html) This is the best ever – Fudge Brownies. I hear it freezes beautifully but frankly, it has never lasted long enough in my house to make it to the freezer.  Watch out – it will be your sinfully awesome chocolate go-to fancy schmancy chocolate brownie too!

A few words on the ingredients – the cornerstone of the perfect brownie: The difference between the European-style butters and standard butters is the butterfat content.  Regular butter has 80% butterfat and 20% water, while butters like Plugra have about 2.5-3% more butterfat. This gives them a slightly creamier, richer taste. It is the only butter I use when baking. See discussion of different cocoas: http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/07/devilishly-delicious-double-fudge-chip.html

Lastly, I much prefer vanilla paste for all my baking over vanilla extract. Vanilla extract is made by infusing vanilla into some sort of alcohol, usually bourbon, which bakes off during baking leaving the vanilla flavor behind. Infusing vanilla beans into thick, sweet syrup makes vanilla bean paste. The primary difference is that the vanilla beans are scraped into the paste, so you get all those lovely little vanilla bean specks in whatever you are baking along with the vanilla flavor. 

• 1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter – it is worth it to use European butters – love Plugra
• 2¼ C sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1¼ C Dutch-process cocoa (Droste, Lindt, Valrhona, etc.)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp espresso powder, optional (love it)
• 1 Tb vanilla paste (or extract)
• 1½ C unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2C chocolate chips – semisweet or bittersweet pending preferences

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Lightly grease a 9” x 13” pan. (Vegetable or butter spray will work)

In a medium sized microwave safe bowl, or in a pan set over low heat or double boiler, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the microwave, or heat, briefly, just until it is hot (about 110-120 degree F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

While the sugar heats a second time, crack 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder and vanilla until smooth. Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth. Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. If you want the chips to remain visible in the brownies (I usually do!), wait about 20 minutes before adding them to the batter. Otherwise, they will melt. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9” x 13” pan. 

 

The brownie batter

In the pan

Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester or sharp knife inserted in center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. 

How the edges should look when it is done - see how shiny the top is!

Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.  I love them with a vintage port –yum!

Larue

Salted Pumpkin Caramels with Pepitas

Salted Pumpkin Caramels with Pepitas

Makes approximately 60 1-inch caramels

Salted Pumpkin Caramels with Pepitas 

I am not really one to make candy. However, making these caramels made buying a candy thermometer completely worth the purchase. These chewy caramels taste like a buttery pumpkin-ey spicy autumn-leaves-blowing-in-the-wind kind of goodness. I use maple syrup, which lends a rich maple flavor to the caramels. They really evoke the essence of Thanksgiving and the holiday season. The earthiness of pumpkin, softened with cream, permeates each bite, followed by a whisper of spice, and the delicate crunch of fleur de sel sets it off perfectly and offsets the sweetness of the candy. The toasted pepitas are addictive giving each of the finished caramels a beautifully lacquered, dusty green cap.

• 2/3 C unsalted pepitas
• 1½ C heavy cream
• 2/3 C pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 C white sugar
• ½ C light corn syrup
• 1/3 C good maple syrup
• ¼ C water
• 4 Tb unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp fleur de sel 

Dry toast pepitas in a skillet until they start to pop. Line the bottom and sides of 8-inch square glass pan with parchment. Butter bottom and sides of pan. Evenly spread toasted pepitas on bottom of pan, on top of the parchment.

Pepitas 

Toasted pepitas on the parchment (in a pan)

In a saucepan, combine heavy cream, pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice. Get mixture warm but not to boiling.

In a second heavy bottomed pan with sides at least 4-inches high, combine sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, and water. Using medium heat, stir until sugars are melted. Bring to a boil until it reaches 244 degree F (soft ball point on candy thermometer), about 20 minutes. Very carefully add the cream and pumpkin mixture, and slowly bring this mixture to 240-degree F. This can take awhile, 30-40 minutes, watching carefully and stirring. Be careful it does not burn on the bottom.  

Cook to EXACTLY 244 degrees!

As soon as it reaches 240-degree, pull it off the heat, and stir in butter and lemon juice. Stir vigorously so that butter is fully incorporated.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Let cool 30 minutes and sprinkle with coarse fleur de sel over the top. Let caramels fully set – at least 2 hours before using a hot knife to cut them into 1-inch squares and wrapping individually in waxed paper or parchment.

Cut into squares after adding the salt

These caramels are wonderful anytime but particularly around the holidays.  They take some watching when cooking but are worth the time spent.

Enjoy!

Larue

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Makes 12 large

Peanut Butter Blossoms

I loooove peanut butter cookies.  I have shared this recipe for years – and continue to get requests. It dawned on me to post it on my blog for ALL to have and share. It is worth shouting about on rooftops.  Yes, that good. There are really very few potentially controversial ingredients in the basic peanut butter cookie formula.

Your source of fat should be butter, not shortening. Butter will make your cookies taste, em, duh….buttery! Shortening will make them taste suspiciously vacant, flavorless in fact. Yes, shortening yields chewier cookies than butter does, because butter contains water and shortening does not. But you can make up for butter’s crisping tendencies by using brown sugar instead of white. (In the dough, that is; you will coat your cookies in white sugar). The moisture content of brown sugar results in soft, chewy, doughy cookies every time. Plus, its dark molasses flavor nicely complements the roasted notes of the peanut butter.

All you need for Peanut Butter Blossoms

Before baking you will dip your lumps of dough in sugar before baking.  This should really be SOP for more cookie recipes: It adds a pleasant sheen and a delicate crunch to the surface of the finished cookie – not to mention the sweet wallop for the taste buds. However, it is especially nice counterpoint to this dough, which is mellow rather than aggressively sweet on its own.

• 1¾ C all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ C butter
• ½ C creamy peanut butter
• ½ C light brown sugar
• ½ C granulated sugar + more for rolling
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
• Small Reese’s peanut butter cups, chocolate kisses – optional (but my husband says required!)

Heat oven to 350 degree F. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Cream butter in mixer, slowly add peanut butter and both sugars. Mix well.  Add 1 egg and vanilla.  Beat well. Blend in dry ingredients gradually.

Mmmm....nice and creamy

Shape the dough into balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar and place on greased, or parchment lined, cookie sheet.  Put in oven and bake until lightly browned: approximately 8 minutes for small cookies, 10 minutes for larger.

Dough balls coated in sugar

The traditional peanut butter cookie has a crosshatched appearance….the indenting the top of each ball of cookie dough with the bottom side of a fork’s tines right after you pull them from the oven. Sometime in the 1930’s such marks became the international sign for “This is a Peanut Butter Cookie”. It is not required if you want to scoff at tradition and blaze your own path.  Personally, we think more goodliness is even better. 

How to add – is where the diversion lies.  Some prefer more peanut butter taste and squish in a small Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup – others prefer the Hershey kiss variety.  In either case, bake the cookie rounds, immediately after baking, press a Hershey’s kiss (or Reese’s) into the center of each one and gently flatten it slightly thereby creating a seal between chocolate and cookie. I return them to the oven for 2-3 minutes.

Such Hershey’s-kissed confections are known as “Peanut Butter Blossoms”. Now who knew that!

Love, love these treasures….

Larue

Devilishly Delicious Double Fudge Chip Cake

Devilishly Delicious Double Fudge Chip Cake

Makes: 2 - 8” x 4” x 2” loaf, or

5 – 6” x 3” x 2” mini-loaf

Devilishly Delicious Double Fudge Chip Cake (add ice cream!)  

I am often asked what to do with the leftover buttermilk from any of my recipes (cucumber soup [cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/05/amazingly-simple-spicy-chilled-cucumber.html] salad dressings, etc.).  My first and immediate response is to make a batch or two of Devilishly Delicious Double Fudge Chip Cake.  My mother-in-law, and amazing chef, Beverly, gave me this recipe many years ago.  I am certain I have made a hundred of these cakes.  It is a simple, always fabulous, go to chocolate cake – rich, but not too rich, moist and flavorful with discreet chocolate chip ooze.  In addition, it freezes beautifully. 

 

For those days when you just have to have chocolate – let this be the go-to cake – truly an everyday chocolate cake that is made simply in ONE BOWL!  Anything easy enough to be called everyday must be done in one bowl. Most cakes require the addition of eggs and a bit of oil. This circumvents those additions and calls for Mayonnaise instead (yes mayonnaise!) – it works, really, trust me and give it a try.

There are two types of unsweetened cocoa: natural and Dutch process. Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder tastes very bitter and gives a deep chocolate flavor to baked goods. Its intense flavor makes it well suited for use in brownies, cookies and some chocolate cakes. When natural cocoa (an acid) is used in recipes calling for baking soda (an alkali), it creates a leavening action that causes the batter to rise when placed in the oven. Popular brands are Hershey's, Ghirardelli, and Scharffen Berger.  Dutch-Processed or Alkalized Unsweetened Cocoa Powder is treated with an alkali to neutralize its acids. Because it is neutral and does not react with baking soda, it must be used in recipes calling for baking powder, unless there are other acidic ingredients in sufficient quantities used. Droste, Lindt, Valrhona, Poulain and Pernigotti are some popular brands. 

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 C granulated sugar
• ½ C unsweetened natural cocoa (I prefer Scharffen Berger)
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 1 C Mayonnaise (not salad dressing) – I prefer Hellman’s or Best Foods
• 1½ C buttermilk (if unavailable, use 1 Tb vinegar to 1 C milk and allow standing 5 min)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 12-14 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
• Coffee or vanilla ice cream topping (optional)

Here they are....fudge chips!

Heat oven to 350 degree F.  Butter and dust with flour loaf pans.  Combine flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.  Mix well.  Add buttermilk, mayonnaise and vanilla and beat until smooth. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally.

 

Mix until smooth....

...and pour into mini-loaf pans

Bake about 55 min for the larger loaf pans and 40-45 minutes for the mini-loaf pans. A cake tester can be used but be careful to not assume more baking is necessary if you puncture a chocolate chip instead of the cake and misinterpret your findings.  I suggest poking in more that one spot to assure it is fully baked.

 

Hard to resist eating immediately

Let the cakes cool and enjoy. You could add chocolate frosting to top it off, but frankly, it does not need it. It is better heated slightly in the microwave just before eating to melt the chocolate chips, and especially good with vanilla or coffee ice cream on top.

Larue