Homemade Dessert Night

The little ones have yet to understand how much time it takes to say, bake a cake. They think that it if they will cake to appear, it will.  For the longest time they would ask me to bake them something for dessert on weeknights, when there was barely enough time left for a book before bedtime, let alone homemade dessert.  Besides, we really shouldn’t be eating dessert on weeknights anyway should we? Though I sometimes secretly wish it was the 60’s and we ate homemade desserts every night. Who would make them? Not me.  I finally put a stop to all of the asking by instituting the “Homemade Dessert Night” on the weekend. I started to suggest to them that we pick out a homemade dessert to make on either Saturday or Sunday when we have the time for such a project.

This has helped to teach them that desserts, like most things in life, do not materialize out of thin air and has become a fun activity that we all look forward to. We start by selecting a baking book and then a recipe to try. Then we assemble all of the ingredients we need and measure them out so that when it’s time to do the baking, it’s a relatively simple affair.  And, when things go well, not too messy. A couple of weeks ago we made Rachel Allen’s molten lava cakes from her awesome book “Bake” which were such a resounding success that, well, the lack of photographic evidence speaks for itself.

Then last weekend we made Nigella Lawson’s Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake which you can find the recipe for here.  I halved the recipe and again, the cake didn’t last long enough to get any “after” photos. In fact, only a tiny sliver was left to share with family the next day.  The baked cake itself was no beauty. Due to its super moist batter, it sinks quite a bit in the middle, but it’s oh so delicious - the perfect cake for “Homemade Dessert Night”. Easy, simple and impossible to mess up, especially since it’s not meant to be pretty anyway.

Any amount of time when you are waiting for a homemade dessert to come out of the oven is a long time.  When you’re talking about he five and under set, any amount of time is a long time. Period. So it’s not easy. But, when it’s all said and done, it is gratifying to make something delicious from scratch. Try it, I promise it's worth the wait! 

Christmas Cake: Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake with Peppermint Cream Filling

Several years ago, my brother’s girlfriend Jenn gave me a decorative bundt pan for Christmas. I love it.  While it may not be the first thing you think of to give someone as a gift, if you know someone who bakes, it really is the perfect present. Each year I use it at least once, usually for Christmas cake, and I always think of Jenn. Now that my brother and Jenn live in the Caribbean and we don’t see them as much as we would like, it’s nice to have them at our table, at least in spirit (or bundt, as it were).

This year, after falling in love with cream cheese whipped cream at Thanksgiving, I adapted the same recipe to create a peppermint whipped filling for my Christmas cake. This was super simple, I used the exact same recipe as the topping for our Thanksgiving pie (recipe here) except I used peppermint extract instead of vanilla and folded in about a cup of andes peppermint chips at the end. I used this to fill and decorate my Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake that I made by following this King Arthur Flour recipe almost exactly, only subbing half of the white sugar for brown and the vanilla extract called for with peppermint.  I didn’t make the ganache topping that the recipe includes, but if I had it to do over again, I think I might actualy make the ganache. I thought that might be too much but in retrospect, why not? Go big or go home. Alas, this cake was big as is and quite popular (especially with the kids, well, only after I told them that the andes peppermint chips were m&m’s - oh the lies I tell these days).

The final cake was super moist, chocolate and pepperminty. Kind of like a starbucks peppermint mocha in cake form. Yes please. One of the great things about this cake is that you can, and should, bake it the day before because it is even better the next day. I baked it the morning before and left it in a covered cake carrier on the counter overnight.  Then on Christmas morning, after all of the presents were opened, I made the filling, decorated the cake and slipped it into the fridge until it was time for dessert.

 This one helped, and by “helped” I mean, helped eat the cake that I cut out to make room for the filling.

The filling part is pretty intuitive.   After you have successfully released your cake from the pan, let it cool completely.  While it is cooling, wash the pan, dry it thoroughly and put the cake back in. When you are ready to fill it, dig a moat out of the center of your cake - be careful! Don't dig too deep, you don't want to break the cake.  

If you want,  thought it's not necessary, you can cover the filling with some of the cake pieces you took out. 

I used the remaining filling to pipe a border around the cake and decorate - this was primarily to prevent myself from eating too much of the peppermint cream (I could eat it by the cupful with a spoon. I could never be a skinny pastry chef).  Powdered sugar is all it needs (though, like I said, I wouldn't turn my nose up at some ganache).

The day before Christmas, after baking the bundt and turning it out to cool, we headed off the Long Grove.  Emmett enjoyed working the cash register, Isla wanted to play with leprechauns and Eve was all about the vast array of Irish snacks now available at Paddy's on  the Square (Noelle slept through all the fun). If you haven't been in for a while, come check out the selection. I ended up bringing a few items home to try which I plan to write about here in the next couple of months. 

Putting them to work early! 

Soda bread, brown bread, potato farls, sausage rolls, Winston's sausages, meat pies, black and white puddings, Irish bacon and more.

Sampling all of the snacks. Hot and spicy Monster Munch was her favorite. 

Something for everyone. I always gravitate towards the baking mixes, flours and condiments. Paul went for the curried baked beans and Shepherd's pie mix.  The kids, of course, want ALL the snacks and candy.

Thanks for visiting and Happy New Year! 

Pumpkin Pie with Cream Cheese Whipped Cream

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was low-key, in a good way.  I cooked some, but not as much as usual, and I was just fine with that. I can’t stay the meal suffered for it any either, though my ego might have just a tiny bit. Actually, the more I think about it, it’s nice that Thanksgiving, for us, is about the food but more than that, about everyone getting together year after year to share the meal together and reflect upon what we are thankful for. This year Isla wasn’t crazy about being put on the spot about what she was thankful for (maybe she needs another year before she’s ready to speak in front of a group) but Emmett said that he was grateful for “Grocery shopping with his Mama” which was definitely the highlight of my Thanksgiving. Eve, our little bulldozer, slept through dinner and we were all thankful for that.

I thought it was pretty cute that Emmett proclaimed his readiness “to eat his Turkey dinner” a few times throughout the afternoon. At just 4 ½ years of age, this annual ritual that connects us to our families, friends, culture and shared history as Americans is already a part of him. Although he prefers ham and probably didn’t end up even eating any of the turkey, I took his words to express the sentiment that he gets it and he’s in when it comes to this Holiday. It’s kind of amazing to see family rituals being created for your children right before your eyes.

And also, there’s pie. Pie might be my favorite part of Thanksgiving. I like to pack the leftovers for people to take home and do the dishes before serving dessert and tea. This provides a break from eating and also means that by the time it’s “pie time” there’s not a lot of cleanup left for me to do. It means I can relax a little more and really enjoy the last of our Thanksgiving dinner.

Although desserts are some of the easiest dishes to just buy for the Holidays, I’m firmly grounded in the homemade or bust camp when it comes to Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  So I was determined to make a pie even though I was streamlining when it came to the other dishes. Believe it or not I had never made a pumpkin pie before. Crazy. I cobbled the following recipe together using a few tricks that I’ve heard of over time like sauteing the pumpkin first (some people roast it) to remove some moisture and get more concentrated pumpkin flavor and pureeing the filling in a food processor for a more creamy texture. I don’t eat pumpkin pie enough to know whether or not these techniques worked but I can say that the pie was good. As in, I ate a big slice on Thanksgiving and way too much of it in the days that followed - I couldn’t help myself! I topped it off with cream cheese whipped cream, which I chose instead of regular whipped cream for both the stability (it’s pipeable and no weeping for days means you can even frost cakes with the stuff - genius, if you ask me) and because I like the tang that the cream cheese adds.  I think I’ll make this again next year.

Pumpkin Pie with Cream Cheese Whipped Cream

For Pie:

• One homemade or store bought pie crust
• one 15oz can (about 2 cups) pumpkin puree
• 3 large eggs
• 1 and 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (light brown sugar is fine too)
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1 cup  heavy cream
• 1/4 cup milk (any type works, I use whole milk because that’s what we have at home)
• egg wash: 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water

For Cream Cheese Whipped Cream:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 ounces cream cheese (room temp)
• 3-4 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste (I like vanilla paste because it has flecks of vanilla in it)

To make pie:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Roll out chilled pie crust and turn into pie plate. Chill in freezer while the oven preheats and you prepare your filling.

Place pumpkin in a heavy-bottomed pan over a burner set on medium heat. Stir pumpkin, allowing it to dry out a little but making sure not to burn it. Lower the heat if it is scorching. Saute about 15 minutes.

Remove chilled pie dough (in pie plate) from the freezer and brush with egg wash (1 egg plus 1 tablespoon of water); Cover pie dough with parchment paper and fill with beans, rice, or pie weights. Place in the oven and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove pie weights and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

While pie dough is in the oven, combine sauteed pumpkin, 3 eggs, brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, pepper, cream, and milk in the bowl of a food processor and process until very smooth.

Pour filling into warm pie crust. Bake pie until filling is almost set about 55 minutes. Start checking at 30 minutes and cover the edges of the crust with foil if they begin to brown too much.

Once done, cool on a rack for at least three hours then cover tightly and refrigerate for 3 hours more or up to three days.

To make cream cheese whipped cream topping:

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip cream cheese, vanilla and sugar together until fluffy, about 4 minutes.  

In a separate bowl, using the whisk attachment, whip heavy cream on medium-high until soft peaks form. Add whipped cream cheese mixture, about a tablespoon or two at a time and continue to whip on low until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

Pipe or spread onto chilled pie before serving