Tag - whipped cream

Mini Chocolate Pudding Pies

Jason and I have friends from home visiting the Bay Area this weekend. We all met up in Sonoma yesterday for wine tasting and lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze — perfect wine drinking conditions. My original plan was to bring these little desserts for everyone to enjoy, but the 80+ degree heat would have turned these into mushy messes. Either way it was a wonderful Sunday with friends and these pies will just have to be tonight’s dessert!

Mini Chocolate Pudding Pies
9 oz. of shortbread cookies, gluten free
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 Tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
3 cups whole milk
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tablespoons sugar

1. Pulse cookies in a food processor until completely broken down into sandlike crumbs. Add butter and sugar and pulse again until everything is evenly wet.
DSC_0726

2. Put 2 Tablespoons of mixture into seven mini pie dishes. Push up the edges of the pie plates. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 10 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.

DSC_0846

DSC_0798

3. Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch and yolks in a saucepan over low heat. Turn to medium heat and whisk milk in steady stream. Bring to a boil and occasionally stir. As soon as it begins to boil, it will thicken very quickly. Turn to low heat and whisk for about a minute.

DSC_0887

DSC_0891

DSC_0919

4. Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl. Mix in chocolate, vanilla and butter. Stir until combined.

DSC_0933

DSC_0945

5. Place a buttered circular piece of parchment paper and chill in fridge for at least two hours, mine sat overnight.

DSC_0977

6. Put heavy cream and sugar in a standup mixer. Mix with whisk attachment for 3 minutes or until stiff peaks form.

DSC_0985

7. Evenly fill pie crusts with chocolate pudding and cover with whipped cream, lightly dust with chocolate shavings.

DSC_0030

DSC_0100

DSC_0185

DSC_0274

Black Forest Bars

This is another recipe that came from our Cherry Picking Day! I could eat an entire bowl of this chocolate-cream cheese-whipped cream concoction. It was really hard not to. The roasted cherry topping is yummy too, I think it would be great on top of basically any dessert. The gluten free Oreo crust came out a little crunchier than I would have liked but after sitting in the fridge over night it had time to soak up some of the cherry juice and turned it super-awesome.

Black Forest Bars
(Recipe credit to Just Putzing Around the Kitchen)
2 cups cherries, pitted and halved
2 tablespoons sugar
10 gluten free Oreo cookies
3 tablespoons butter, melted
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup Nutella
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips + enough for sprinkling

1. Heat oven to 400. In a small bowl, toss cherries with sugar. Spread them over a baking sheet and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove cherries from the oven and set aside.

dsc_0327

dsc_0345

dsc_0372

2. Place cookies in a food processor and pulse until they become crumbs then add melted butter. Pulse again a couple times until combined.dsc_03801

3. Place crust mixture into a baking pan lined with tin foil. Cook for 10 minutes (NOTE: This was too long or too hot for the gluten free oreos! Try 350 for 10 minutes or 400 for 7 minutes).

dsc_0401

4. While cherries and crust are cooling, whip cream cheese in a stand up mixer until smooth. Transfer into large bowl.

5. (Clean out the mixing bowl!) Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into the cream cheese and mix until incorporated. (NOTE: there may be tiny chunks of cream cheese throughout. This is okay.)

6. Melt chocolate over a double boiler and let briefly cool. Add to cream cheese/whipped cream filling. Add Nutella and stir until uniform.

7. Spoon filling onto crust and then spoon cherries and juice on top. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

dsc_0478

dsc_05071

dsc_0545

dsc_05572

His and Hers Pancakes + Homemade Whipped Cream

Jason and I were both craving pancakes this morning. He loves bananas and Nutella, I prefer strawberries and chocolate chips, so I made his with whole wheat batter and mine with gluten free batter. You can add any toppings to these batter recipes. I’ve used candied walnuts, pecans, blueberries, blackberries, and probably other things I’m not remembering now. Use whatever you prefer!  Each recipe below will make approximately 8 pancakes. I make the full recipe and save half for the next day.

IMG_5439

Whole Wheat Pancake Batter

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Mix dry ingredients together.
2. Mix wet ingredients into the dry.
3. Heat nonstick frying pan and when hot, pour on portions of the pancake mix.
4. Before they start too cook too much, place the toppings onto the batter placed on the pan. Do not overcrowd each pancake with toppings. It’s important that when you flip them, there’s some space for the batter to coat the edges of the toppings.

IMG_5372

IMG_5347

Gluten Free Pancake Batter
1 cup gluten free all purpose flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1 tablespoon flax seed meal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup skim milk

Same instructions as the whole wheat pancakes.
IMG_5388
IMG_5414

Homemade Whipped Cream 
1/2 cup heaving whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Put all ingredients in the bowl of a stand up mixer.
2. Using whisk attachment, turn on high until cream begins to stiffen.
3. Pause the mixer, and use a spatula to mix the ingredients and make sure there isn’t sugar sticking to the bottom of the bowl.
4. Turn machine back on high and mix until peaks form.

IMG_5413

Copyright © 2018. Powered by A & E Cyber Publishers.