Category: Dessert

Posted on » by Dino » Theme:

Crispy Cannoli Cups

Crispy Cannoli Cups

Description

I had to combine two separate recipes to be able to have something to serve. One for the cups, one for the filling. Overall, these are pretty easy to make- much easier than making your own cannoli tubes from scratch.

Leaf lard? Nope! Deep drying in 2″ of Crisco? NOPE! Requiring a stainless steel cannoli shaping tube? I DON’T THINK SO! Baking wonton wrappers for 10 minutes? Yes, that will do just fine.

Ingredients

Crispy Cups

  • 1 package (16 oz.) wonton wrappers

Filling

  • 2 cups ricotta cheese, preferably whole milk
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup small/mini semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 lemon

Directions

Crispy Cups

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then press 30-35 wonton wrappers (you can do this in multiple batches) into a mini baking cup pan to form the “cups”. (Be sure that the corners do not fold in after the pan sits for a minute!)
  • Bake the cups for 10-15 minutes, or until the wrappers are golden brown.
  • Remove and let cool.

Filling

  • In a medium bowl, whisk the ricotta until smooth.
  • Sift in the powdered sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Mix to blend.
  • In a separate bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment), beat the heavy cream until fairly stiff.
  • Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the cream into the ricotta mixture.
  • Stir in the chocolate chips.
  • Lightly zest the exterior of the lemon and stir it into the ricotta.
  • Refrigerate for a half hour to an hour.
  • Pipe the filling into the wonton cups using a tip with a large opening to allow the chips to flow through without clogging

References

Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

Fauxreos (Oreo Clones)

I was very happy with how this came out. In my opinion they were pretty similar to Oreo’s and they were maybe a little better.

This is a mix of 2 recipes. I tripled the cookie recipe and doubled the filling recipe and I think that worked out just about perfectly. (may have been the other way around). Anyway in my opinion I over-stuffed a bunch of them (like double or triple stuffed Oreo’s). I think I used ½ inch round cookie cutter for this.

Makes about 24 cookies.

Ingredients

1 3/4 C (9 oz) all-purpose flour

1/2 C and 2 T (2 oz) brut or natural unsweetened cocoa powder. (I used Double Dutch Cocoa Blend which is apparently a dark blend of Dutch-process and black cocoas)

1/4 t Kosher salt

2 sticks (8 oz) room temperature unsalted butter

1/2 C granulated sugar 2 T light brown sugar 3 T honey

For the filling:

2 ounces shortening or unsalted butter at room temperature

5 ounces powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

To make the cookies

Whisk the flour, cocoa, and salt together in a bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugars, and honey together until fluffy, about four minutes. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three parts, beating each until just combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a half an hour and up to two days. The dough can also be made ahead and frozen for up to two months. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and working quickly, roll out the dough on a lightly (rolled in cocoa instead of flour) surface to 1/4 inch thickness. I roll the dough out on a piece of wax paper, and then flip it over onto another piece of wax paper and peel off the piece that is now on the top. This makes it easier to pick up the cookies intact to place them on the cookie sheet.

Gather up the scraps, roll them out, and make more cookies. You might have to put the scraps back into the fridge if it’s warm in your kitchen. Bake each sheet of cookies for 15-18 minutes, until the cookies are firm. Transfer them to a wire rack and let cool completely.

  1. To make the filling: With a hand or stand mixer, cream together shortening/butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Cream on medium speed for five minutes; use a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl down periodically. The long mixing time aerates the filling, making it especially white and less gritty.

Using a spatula, transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip. Alternately, portion with a melon-baller sized ice cream scoop, or by using Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off as a makeshift pastry bag.

  1. To assemble the cookies: Flip half the wafers upside down. Onto each, pipe or scoop 1 teaspoon of filling (specifically: 1/4 oz for Double Stuf, 1/8 ounce for regular) directly into the center. To finish, top with remaining wafers and press down with your fingers, applying very even pressure so the filling will spread uniformly across the cookie.

Transfer cookies to an airtight container and refrigerate for several hours. This is crucial. After whipping the filling, it will be quite soft. Refrigerating it (especially if you’re using butter) will solidify the filling, restoring its proper texture, and bonding it with the wafers. Serve.

Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

Chocolate Stuffed Pizza

pizza

Makes : 1 x 29cm round pizza

Ingredients

  • 100g shop-bought Gü Chocolate Ganache (I used Love N Bake Schmear Chocolate Filling)
  • 2 tsp active dried yeast
  • 250g plain flour (I used bread flour)
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp olive oil, plus a trickle more
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

I did not use these:

  • 6 tbsp double cream
  • 50g dark, milk or white chocolate, or a mixture of all three, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp dark brown sugar

This is what I used:

chocolate sauce

Caramel

  • 2cupsgranulated sugar
  • 1cupheavy cream
  • pinchtable salt
  • 2tablespoonsunsalted butter cold
  • 3tablespoonsdark rum
  • (Makes about 2 cups), 2X more than you need

Equipment

Food processor

Piping bag fitted with a 1cm piping nozzle

Method

Step 1: Pour 150ml of warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with the yeast and leave to stand for about 5 minutes or until the yeast dissolves and starts to bubble.

Step 2: Tip the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a food processor. Trickle in the oil and, with the machine running, pour in the yeast mixture and blend just until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (don’t add too much flour here), and knead for only about a minute or until smooth.

Step 3: Drop the dough into a large bowl, add a trickle of oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover and set aside in a warm, draft-free area for about an hour until the dough doubles in size.

Step 4: Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas mark 7 and place a baking sheet in to heat up to help to give your pizza a crispier base. Punch down the dough to remove any excess air (the perfect time to get rid of any excess frustration), and make it into a neat ball.

Step 5: Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 33cm circle. Fill your piping bag (or plastic bag) with the ganache, if using, and pipe a thin sausage all around the dough base, leaving a 2cm gap at the outside edge.

Step 6: Brush a little water onto the dough around the inside of the ganache to dampen it, and roll over the outside of the dough, but not too tightly, to enclose the ganache. Press the inside edge to seal tightly.

Step 7: Remove the hot baking tray from the oven and slide the dough base onto it. Brush all over the melted butter and prick the centre lightly with a fork. Then bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are starting to brown and the centre is crispy.

Step 8: Drizzle the centre with the cream, scatter with the chopped chocolate and nuts and sprinkle with the sugar. Put back in the oven for a minute, just to warm and melt the topping. I spread my chocolate sauce and caramel and then rewarmed it)

Gü Tip

Use the raw dough straight away or at the end of Step 2 wrap it in cling film and keep it in the fridge until the next day. Just punch it down again and use as above.

Chocolate sauce:

If your kitchen is cool and the ganache becomes too cold and stiff to spread, set the bowl over a saucepan containing simmering water, then stir briefly until smooth and icinglike.

Microwave cream and butter in measuring cup on high until bubbling, about 1 1/2 minutes. (Alternatively, bring to simmer in small saucepan over medium-high heat). Place chocolate in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. With machine running, gradually add hot cream and cognac through feed tube and process until smooth and thickened, about 3 minutes. Transfer ganache to medium bowl and let stand at room temperature 1 hour, until spreadable (ganache should have consistency of soft icing).

Caramel:

If you don’t own a candy thermometer, spot-check the sugar syrup with an instant-read thermometer that can read temperatures in excess of 350 degrees. Otherwise, follow the time approximations in the recipe and watch the color of the sugar syrup; it should be a deep amber color before the cream is added. To keep the sauce from clumping, make sure the cream is hot before adding it to the sugar syrup; try to coordinate it so that the cream reaches a simmer when the sugar syrup reaches 350 degrees.

  1. Pour 1 cup water into 2-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan; add sugar to center of pot to keep granules from adhering to sides of pot. Bring to boil over high heat, covered. Uncover pot, insert candy thermometer, and continue to boil until syrup is thick and straw-colored, registering 300 degrees on candy thermometer, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; continue to cook until sugar is deep amber, begins to smoke, and registers 350 degrees on candy thermometer, about 5 minutes longer. Meanwhile, when temperature of syrup reaches 300 degrees, bring cream and salt to simmer in small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat. (If cream reaches simmer before syrup reaches 350 degrees, remove cream from heat and set aside.)
  2. Remove sugar syrup from heat. Pour about one quarter of hot cream into sugar syrup; let bubbling subside. Add remaining cream; let bubbling subside. Whisk gently until smooth; whisk in butter and dark rum. Let cool until warm; serve. (Can be covered and refrigerated up to 1 month; reheat in microwave or small saucepan over low heat.)