Happy Holidaze

These kiddos made quick work of the extra crème brûlée. Emmett abandoned his spoon prematurely while Isla worked on scraping as much out of the dish as possible.

Are you ready for Christmas? Are you relieved that all of the preparing for the Holiday is over so that we can just relax, open presents and eat? Now that we have three kids, I definitely feel as though we are in the thick of it when it comes to Christmas.  So much to do.  So much excitement  (and two of them don’t even really know what Christmas is yet)!  Still, the Holidays aren’t just for kids. And being a parent doesn’t mean that you aren’t still all of the things that you were before. This is a time to celebrate health, happiness, family and friendships - all of the things that are important to us.

I’ve been going out to dinner with a group of girlfriends from law school for fourteen years. Yep. FOURTEEN YEARS! How did that happen? Together we’ve celebrated marriages, the birth of more than a few children and several job and career changes. We've also leaned on each other for over a decade's worth of disappointments, losses and bumps in the road. This month we decided to take some time away from our other obligations to celebrate each other by way of our own holiday dinner party.  Of course the weather didn’t cooperate the evening of the party and I wasn’t even sure anyone would be able to make it. But almost everyone showed and it felt so good to see each other face-to-face, these girls who I’ve been through so much with.  To talk late into the evening about a little bit of everything.  To laugh and reminisce over dark chocolate crème brûlée before heading back out into the snow (for them) and upstairs to bed (for me).  

I hope you had some time to celebrate your long standing friendships this month.  And if you forgot anyone on your gift list I’m currently coveting these, this and this (so cute!).  And I think this or this would be perfect for those hard-to-shop-for men in your life.

Happy Holidays!!!

Dark Chocolate Crème Brûlée

(adapted from David Lebovitz)

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole or low-fat milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for caramelizing

Pinch sea salt or kosher salt

6 large egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

4 oz dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) if using gratin dishes (or 325ºF (160ºC) if using ramekins or custard cups).

Place 4 individual gratin dishes on a high-rimmed baking sheet.

In a small saucepan whisk the cocoa powder with a little bit of cold milk until fully incorporated.

Place the saucepan over medium heat, warm the cream, milk, sugar, chocolate and salt until the sugar dissolves and chocolate is melted, which shouldn’t take long at all.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.

Gradually add the warm cream mixture to the egg yolks in a steady stream, stirring with the whisk until the cream is completely incorporated. Mix in the espresso or coffee powder and strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large measuring cup. Divide the mixture among the dishes.

Place the pan of custards on the oven rack and pour enough hot water into the pan so that it reaches at least halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake the custards for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are just set; watch them very carefully during the final few minutes of baking. If using ramekins, pour hot water in the pan, cover with foil and bake them a little bit longer 30-35 minutes, until they barely jiggle in the center.

Remove the dishes from the pan and set them on a cooling rack. Let the custards cool to room temperature. Then loosely cover and refrigerate overnight.

Just before serving, sprinkle the top of each crème brûlée with an even layer of sugar. I use just enough to evenly cover the tops, particularly when using gratin dishes as they have a lot of surface area and you don’t want overdo it on the sugar.  Using a blowtorch, wave the flame over each custard, 1 at a time, until the sugar melts. Serve immediately.

And when the spoon was no longer cutting it, she resorted to this.

A Sweet Welcome: Chocolate Biscuit Cake

The cast of characters.

We have some new neighbors across the street. Emmett and I, as is quickly becoming our mother-son tradition, decided to bake something to welcome them to their new home.  We made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies and then decided to try something new to add to the basket of goodies we were bringing over.

Kelly, a friend of the stores, sent this recipe to my brother-in-law who forwarded it to me. She spotted this cake in many cafes and bakeries throughout Ireland and noticed that everything needed to make it is available at the Irish Boutique.  It’s really a great idea and one that is so easy and straightforward. Emmett will probably be able to make this all by himself soon enough. Let’s face it, he’ll probably do a better job than I did.

If I’m being honest, this was almost a recipe fail. Isn’t it funny how it can be easier to execute a recipe that involves several components and techniques than one that is basically an assembly-only task? Well, I totally rushed through this one and didn’t trust my instincts but you know what? I think it actually worked out for the best. In fact, since I still have NO IDEA what this was supposed to turn out like, I may have executed it perfectly. The bottom line is that the result was delicious and we had a lot of fun making this.

As you can see from the recipe below, it’s a simple process, a lot like making rice krispie treats. The reason I’m not so sure I did this correctly is because, based on the chocolate biscuit cakes I’ve seen before, including, famously, Prince William’s groom’s cake, the ratio of chocolate to biscuits is usually much higher. This was almost all biscuits held together by a little bit of the syrup-butter-chocolate mixture and definitely had more of a crisp cookie-like texture than that of a cake.

I had my doubts about including all of the crushed cookies when I looked at the amount of syrup-butter-chocolate mixture but went ahead and added them all anyway. Truth be told, I’m glad that I did! I loved the texture of this and the fact that I could taste the biscuits without having them overpowered by chocolate. And, for me, it would have been way too sweet if I changed the ratio of biscuits to chocolate.  It’s still quite sweet and boy, did my middle one Isla enjoy her piece.  So did my co-workers who devoured a tin of them in no time. I would like to try this one again using dark chocolate instead of milk and substituting some of the chocolate called for with unsweetened chocolate (though I’m pretty sure the rest of the family will still prefer this version). I know a couple of little people who would be happy to serve as my cookie smashers.

Thank goodness Isla was napping for this. Otherwise I'm sure there would have been a fight for the crown of No. 1 Biscuit Crusher. 

Chocolate biscuit cake

275g (10 oz; 2 ¼ sticks) Kerrygold Irish butter

150ml (about ⅔ cup) Lyle’s golden syrup

225g (8oz) Good chocolate -  Cadbury works very well*

200g (7oz) Digestive biscuits - broken into small pieces*

200g (7 oz) Rich tea biscuits - broken into small pieces

Packet of Maltesers

You can also add a variety of add ins, like smashed up crunchie bars, raisins,  cherries ,nuts etc.

*If  you want it to be more like Prince William’s reduce the amount of biscuits by ½ (about 7 oz).

Line a 2 pound loaf tin with a double layer of parchment paper.  

He flung the rolling pin aside and got in there with his hands. 

Break biscuits into small pieces.

Melt chocolate in double boiler, add syrup and butter and mix until smooth, being careful not to overheat the chocolate.  

Remove from double boiler and add to your bowl of broken biscuits and stir in maltesers.  Combine until evenly coated.

Scoop mixture into prepared tin.  

Place another piece of parchment on top of cake and press down on loaf to remove any air pockets.  

Cover completely and refrigerate for a few hours.  Once chilled you can remove from pan and slice and serve.  

It is a rich tasting cake so start with small slices to serve.

Make Ahead Upsidedown Pear Gingerbread Cake

It was the first time we had to extend our new table. 

How was your Thanksgiving?  This was the fourth Thanksgiving we’ve had at our house. With a few years under our belts (and our three little additions to the headcount) I’ve learned that anything that can be done in advance, should be done in advance.  Also, delegate. Our people are always happy to bring something and even happier to take requests. And because they are family and friends-so-close-they-are-also-family, I’m not shy. I ask for exactly what we need to round out the meal as well as the specific dishes that I know I want to eat. That takes care of at least half of everything. The rest, well, that’s where planning comes into play.

This year I made one of our desserts a full two weeks in advance and froze it. Paul made fun of me for this but mostly as retaliation for not allowing him to sneak a piece. I won’t lie to you, I made this one for me. I LOVE gingerbread. The deeper and darker the better. My father-in-law has told me in the past that gingerbread is a food memory for him and I’m not surprised. Gingerbread cake goes perfectly with a cup of  tea and the type of brisk late-autumn weather that can be found both in Chicago and Ireland.

I’m not sure how I landed on this particular recipe. I just knew that I wanted to do something different for dessert and after reading all of the reviews for this cake, I was sold. I’m also a sucker for upsidedown-anything and desserts that scream to be served warm with vanilla ice cream on top.

For once I actually followed the recipe (almost), which can be found here. I used ¾ cup dark molasses and ¼ cup agave nectar because I couldn’t find light molasses and I folded about a pear's worth of diced pears into the cake batter before pouring it over the topping. I cooked the cake longer than 50 minutes. I recently learned that the internal temperature of a cake should be 206°F.  This helps immensely in dealing with variation caused by the size and material of different baking pans.  It's more reliable than the toothpick test because it allows you to know when the cake is almost done, so you don't overcook it.  For this cake, I used a 10 inch cast iron dutch oven and it took close to 80 minutes for the center to cook through.

You see all the holes I made while taking its temperature? That was probably overkill on the checking. Good thing this cake is made to be flipped. 

Here’s where I followed instructions that I probably shouldn’t have. I waited 5 minutes before flipping the cake out onto a cake plate. By then the pan had cooled down so much that almost all of my pear pieces stuck to the bottom on the dish. I didn’t let it bother me. My people aren’t prissy. I just stuck the pears back on and went about my day. Yes, the cake would have been prettier without the sticking. But it was destined for a big scoop of slowly melting vanilla goodness anyway and still looked up to the task. Plus, it was freezer friendly so all I had to do on the big day was remove it from the freezer, unwrap it and warm it in a low oven before serving.

My carefully placed pears got all out of line during the flip but still smelled SO good. The top was shiny and sticky in the best way. 

It was a good feeling to head into the Thanksgiving cooking frenzy with one dish stowed away.  It made the rest of the planning that much easier.  But when yesterday came I was reminded that, while we are fortunate to have such an abundance of food, its not what's on the plate that is important so much as the people we are breaking bread with. We've been blessed with an amazing group to gather with each year in addition to the family and friends both near and far who are always with us. There is so much to be thankful for.  

Thank goodness for this guy, my father-in-law, AKA master meat carver. 

And this little blessing too, on her first Thanksgiving.