As Isha would say, “That’s a thing.”

So let me tell you about this dish.  It’s not a real tiramisu but rather a dish based on it.

It’s light, airy, sweet, citrus-y, delicious and really only requires a handful of ingredients. It’s three layers of lady fingers, pureed fresh mango and whole milk ricotta with a big of sugar and orange zest added.  That’s it.  It took me like 5 minutes to put together and then it just sits in the fridge for a few hours and voilà!

Impressive yet simple yet delicious yet light yet [insert adjective here] dessert.

If you like this dessert–and you will, I have no doubt–you might also like the strawberry version I usually make.

Related posts:

1. The Mango Tango, pt 1
2. The Mango Tango, Pt 3
3. Strawberry Tiramisu

So that’s pretty much what’s been going on here.  I made the first dish last night--mango ice cream, and mango-ancho chili ice cream.  Why ice cream?  Because:

• I got an ice cream maker for Christmas and have since gone a little ice-cream-making-mad
• It sounded delicious
• I had all the ingredients for that but none of the other items on my list and was too lazy to go to the store yesterday.

It was really easy to make, too, which was a nice bonus.  It also got the most beautiful texture of any ice cream I’ve made thus far, I mean just absolutely gorgeous texture.  Pale yellow color, light and airy and silky.  The flavor was a very light, sweet, fruity flavor, super refreshing.  The kind of thing you really want on a hot day, y’know?  To experiment a bit more, I tried a few different add-ins: coconut, chili powder, ancho chili powder.

The pure mango ice cream was my favorite.  The mango-coconut combination was Josh’s.  The chili powder was ok, but the ancho chili powder was pretty good, giving the ice cream an interesting, unexpected savory flavor.  Other mix-ins and toppings could include fresh mint or cilantro, strawberries, cashews, pecans, caramelized banana, candied bacon…really, anything.

P.S. Put your leftover mango peels in a pot with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar and boil…voilà! Mango simple syrup.  Strain and bottle. 

Related posts:

1. The Mango Tango, Pt 2
2. The Mango Tango, Pt 3

You know what I like about these bars?  Everything.  They were easy to make, very fast, tasty, they made the house smell delicious and they are a perfect fall treat for noshing on with a good sized mug of hot cocoa and whipped cream.

They came about because I was sitting home alone, bored, getting over a cold and therefore in sore need of some comfort food.  I didn’t want the usual sort of snack–cookies, brownies, etc.  Or more honestly, I didn’t have enough chocolate on hand for the usual snack.  Instead, I sifted through the 300 or so recipes in my Evernote cookbook tagged with “dessert” and found a recipe for pecan pie bars.

I didn’t have pecans…but I did have a Costco-sized bag of almonds.  Plus I knew that with a bit of extra cinnamon thrown in, the bars would basically be like eating candied almonds atop a shortbread crust.  And yep, that’s pretty much what they are.  Delightfully, they’re not too sweet at all–so they won’t push you into sugar shock if you eat one or two with a good helping of my homemade cocoa.

Related posts:

1. Double Chocolate Chip Almond Cookie Pie
2. “It happens every time; they all become blueberries.”
3. Lemon Bars, or How Many Lemon Jokes Have You Got?

The brain is clearly the most superior of all the organs, and I’m not just saying that because it told me to.  Well I kind of am.  Ok, I totally am, but with other good–nay, delicious–justifications.  After all, my brain is what told me to buy a couple gallons of cider at the Dexter Mill a couple weeks ago and my brain is what told me to use that cider to make apple syrup, which was delicious, and my brain decided that if apple syrup is good then apple caramel sauce must be just as delicious and obviously, if the brain thinks it’s true, then it must be.

It’s like the Internet.  The Internet would never lie to you.  Right?  Right?!

So a few days ago, I rigged together this little quick easy recipe to make caramel sauce out of leftover apple cider.  I also made apple sugar candy.  There was just all sorts of magic going on that day.  Anyway, the caramel sauce is thick, creamy, caramel-ly with a hint of apple (more so when it’s hot and fresh) and perfect for pouring over ice cream.

The apple candy is crunchy and sweet and great for getting your friends’ kids hopped up on sugar before you send them home to their parents.    Not that I would do that.  Again.  Today.

Related posts:

1. The New Apple Dumpling Gang
2. Apple Syrup. Yes, that’s a thing.
3. 200th Post! Homemade Snickers Bars

One of the perks of living in Michigan is fall.  I know, I know: I said in the plum tart post that I hate fall because it’s basically “pre-winter.”  It is.  It is pre-winter.  However, like any good femme fatale, there are certain things about it that you can’t help but be seduced by even knowing that it will end with gunshots and tears icy roads and snow-shoveling.  Like super crisp blue skies, shimmery gold and red leaves, corn mazes and most of all, Michigan apples.  Because where there are Michigan apples, there’s cider and donuts.  And wherever there is cider and donuts, you’ll find me, nomming out.

So this week will be my Ode to the Michigan Apple.  Starting with super-easy, super-tasty, super-cute apple dumplings.  Recipe Below.

Related posts:

1. Tart it up
2. “It happens every time; they all become blueberries.”
3. Apple French Toast Casserole

…of my summer vacation from blogging.  Did you miss me?  We’ll just pretend you did.  I missed you too.  In fact, I’ve brought you this gift.  This beautiful, delicious gift:

Do you like it?

It’s a plum tart.  I love plums.  I love stone fruit in general.  But I’d never actually cooked plums before, and I generally shy away from anything that requires me to make my own dough.  Today was a “Cook all the things!” kind of day though (I also made a chocolate cake, and cherry cobbler yesterday).  I must have been feeling ambitious.  I’m sure with a good night of slacking and a hefty dose of TV, it’ll go away on its own.  Not to worry.

Anyway, the tart.  It was delightful.  I got inspired by the good deals at the store and bought a bag of tiny little plums and thought, “Tart!” I perused a few recipes online to find something simple, no custards or whisking or large ingredient lists.  Finally, I found and adapted this recipe from Eating Out Loud.

Plum Tart
Adapted from Eating Out Loud

Crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter cubes
3 tablespoons ice water

Plums
1lb plums
4 tablespoons raw sugar + 2 more tbsp
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla extract or 1/2 tbsp vanilla bean paste
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, beaten with a tablespoon of water

Make Crust
Combine flour, sugar salt and cold butter in the processor; pulse a few times until you get that “coarse meal” kind of look.  Then drizzle in a few tablespoons of ice cold water and pulse until the dough comes together into a ball.  Wrap in plastic and store it in the fridge for at least an hour, or overnight.  When ready to use, roll out the crust into a relatively-circle-ish shape and put the crust on a cookie sheet or in a pie pan.  Sprinkle the flour and  1 tbsp of sugar over the crust.

Prepare Plums

Wash the plums, pit them and cut them into slices.  Mine were pretty small, so I cut them into quarters.  Cut yours however you like.  Honestly.  It doesn’t affect me at all.

Toss the plums with 4 tablespoons of raw sugar, the cinnamon and vanilla bean paste.

Arrange the plum slices in a pretty design, like concentric circles.  Or don’t.  Whatever makes you happy.  This is a happy dessert.  It’s the Bob Ross of desserts.  There are no mistakes; only happy, delicious accidents.  Just don’t set anything on fire.  Fold the crust in and pour melted butter over the plums and brush egg wash (egg and water) over the crust, sprinkling it with the last tbsp of sugar.  Bake it in the oven (cause really, where else would you bake it?  The tanning salon maybe) at 400F for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool, slice it up and serve it with a dollop of whipped cream and a sangria.  Consider it a toast to a happy pre-winter fall.

Bonus!
What’s the difference between a tart, a pie and a torte?
Pies and tarts are relatively similar, except that while pies sometimes have top-crusts, tarts usually do not.  Pies often have flaky crusts, whereas tarts usually have shortbread ones but that also has many exceptions.  However, a torte is completely different from either a pie or a tart.  A torte is a rich cake usually comprised of multiple layers that generally features a filling (jam, mousse, buttercream, etc) and is usually glazed or topped with something.  They also contain very little flour.

Related posts:

1. Oatmeal Cream Pies
2. “It happens every time; they all become blueberries.”
3. The New Apple Dumpling Gang

Maggie has little regard for plant life

Winston prefers hardier ground

I’m pretty excited about the herb bed.  It’s the perfect size for what I need and right now has all my favorite herbs in it: rosemary, plenty of basil, oregano, mint, sage, thyme, parsley and cilantro, with garlic chives soon to come.  I wrote the names of the herbs on some old antique silverware my mom gave me and used them as markers.

But now that’s done and hopefully our social calendar will calm down a little bit as well.  I love hanging out with people but I’m ready for a couple days off.  I miss cooking myself dinner.  In fact, today was the first day since Tuesday that I really cooked anything for dinner.  Otherwise, we’ve eaten out with friends every other day this week.  That’s insane.

So in honor of this momentous occasion, I went all out….on a really simple dinner:

-peppered pork chops grilled on a salt block (which is my favorite way to grill things these days)

-baby carrots steamed on the grill

-corn on the cob

-basil oil

-buttermilk biscuits

And a simple pineapple gratin for dessert.  So simple in fact that I neither measured anything nor really took down notes.  Think of this as one of those “recipe guidelines.”

• I combined one 20oz can crushed pineapple with 1 cup of sugar and cooked it in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolved.
• I pour a fourth of the pineapple mixture into the bottom of two personal gratin dishes.  These made really big servings per person.  Multiple smaller gratin dishes would work, as would one regular sized dish, as would cupcake molds.  Be creative.
• Then each dish got: 1/2 c. crushed graham cracker, 2 tbsp unsweetened flaked coconut, another quarter of the pineapple, another 1/2 c. crushed graham cracker, 2 tbsp coconut and finally a couple small dots of butter.
• I placed the gratin dishes on a cookie sheet, to catch any spillover, and baked them at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
• I let them cool and then served them after dinner with big dollops of whipped cream.

They were delicious.  Sweet, tart pineapple, a nice crunchy topping and a hint of coconut.  Creamy but not too heavy.  Josh gave it two spoons up.

And me, I am wholly satisfied, and looking forward to getting back into the swing of cooking. I’m thinking, fried baby artichokes tomorrow.  With lemon.  Pulled pork.  Roasted chicken later this week and maybe another attempt at conquering soup?  We’ll see….

Related posts:

1. Summer Dreams of Strawberry Salsa
2. Seven-Deadly-Layer Bars
3. Apri-can: Apricot Crumbcake

So make a quick trip to the store, throw a batch together, nestle them into a pretty container and let your mom know how much you care…about her having delicious eats.  Do it for the noms.  I mean, moms.  Do it for the moms.

Homemade Mounds Bars
Adapted from Epicurean.org

8oz sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. powdered sugar
14oz flaked or grated unsweetened coconut
24oz or so semisweet chocolate chips
1tbsp canola or vegetable oil

Combine milk and vanilla; slowly stir in sugar until smooth.  Add coconut and combine thoroughly.  You’ll get a firm-ish, sticky mixture.  Pat into a greased 9×13 pan and let chill for a couple of hours.  Cut into about 12 bars (might be a bit crumbly).

Melt chocolate in a double boiler and add in oil until the chocolate is just thin enough for drizzling.  Dip coconut bars into chocolate, coating thoroughly, and place on a sheet of wax paper to set for several hours.  Cut bars into quarters.  Eat.  Share.  Love.

Related posts:

1. 200th Post! Homemade Snickers Bars
2. Toffee Break: Homemade Heath Bars
3. Eat your heart out, Bart Simpson–Homemade Butterfingers

Ogres have layers, bars have layers

It’s that time of year again.  Fat Tuesday.  Mardi Gras.  Carnivale.  For some people, “Paczki Day.”

I, for one, enjoy Mardi Gras.  Who doesn’t like shiny beads and socially accepted overindulgence?  Monks.  But we just won’t tell them about it.  Anyway, I enjoy the festivities.  There is, however, one thing that has always somewhat baffled me about the way people celebrate Fat Tuesday here in southeast Michigan, at least.

Paczkis.  The overwhelming obsession with paczkis.  I mean…why?

Now don’t hate me.  I know that already some of you are going, “Oh my god, you did not just say that,” and others are going, “You didn’t mean it; I forgive you,” and still others are going, “What the hell is a paczki?  And how do you even pronounce it?”  A paczki, pronounced here as puntj-ki, is a Polish pastry made of fried dough filled with jam.

Yeah.  Fried dough filled with jam.

And if you don’t have paczki-mania in your neck of the woods, believe me when I say that here, people order them by the dozens.  People wait in long lines for them.  It’s like a mini Christmas.  Stores send out special ads celebrating they fact that they now have boxes of fried dough filled with jam.

And I just don’t understand it.  I mean, Mardi Gras is supposed to be the most decadent “holiday” ever–a day of unrivaled, sanctioned gluttony where you do everything you can to excess before Lent comes and you’ve given up sweets for 40 days.  And with all of the hedonistic desserts in the world, how can I possibly get that excited over what is essentially a giant jelly donut?

(My Polish friends, particularly Emily, if they are reading this, are disowning me in their heads.  Love you guys!)

So while I know that food blogger after food blogger will be sending you recipes for paczkis and beignets and donuts of every stripe, I on the other hand am going to give you a recipe for an easy dessert (because laziness is an indulgence) that is layer after layer of sinfully sweet nomnomnomings.

Sure, the paczki-defenders will say, “How can you get excited about layer bars?  They’re just a cookie.”  Of course they are.  But they’re cookies with two layers of chocolate, nuts, coconut and a thick drizzle of vanilla caramel so good you will need to go to church when you’re done eating them.  In fact, I like to think that these layer bars represent the seven deadly sins, all the better for a day of debauchery, where the seventh layer is “being awesome” and it’s invisible.  Which makes that seventh sin, obviously, pride.

Now doesn’t that sound delicious?

Seven Layers of Awesome Bars
Makes 9. There’s a 7 of 9 joke in here somewhere.

9 Graham cracker sheets
2 tbsps butter
1 tbsp water
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup semisweet chips
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
15 caramels plus 1 tbsp water (or about a half cup of homemade vanilla caramel)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper.

Put graham cracker sheets, butter and water in a food processor and pulse until the sheets have been reduced to mere crumbs and are soft and soaked with the butter and water.    Press crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Sprinkle the dark chocolate chips over the graham cracker crust, followed by the semisweet, then the coconut and almonds.

Put water in a small saucepan over medium heat and melt the caramels into it.  Stir together until smooth.  Drizzle over the top of the bars.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Let cool completely, a couple of hours, and then use the parchment paper to lift the layers out of the pan and cut them into bars.  Nom away.

Related posts:

1. Homemade Mounds Bars: Do it for the noms. I mean, moms.
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #1-Gianduja Bars
3. Why don’t you take a little time out with me, just Take 5….

So I went a-searchin’ for a recipe and I found this one from About.com that seemed pretty simple.  I made them on Sunday as Josh’s sort-of V-day gift and actually, though I’m not a Butterfinger expert by any means, I thought they turned out pretty well as did Josh, and from what I hear, when he brought the rest to work on Monday to share, they received excellent reviews.  Several people have asked me how hard they were to make.  In terms of homemade candy bars, I’d say that they were less work-intensive than Snickers bars but more work than Heath bars, although the process was relatively similar.

It’s the filling that mystifies everyone.  In this case, you cook water and sugar down until boiling, add in light corn syrup and cook until it’s reached 300 degrees, which is a really high temperature and therefore the odds of burning yourself with molten sugar are rather high.  Then you mix in peanut butter, vanilla and a few other things, and spread it out into a pan to solidify.  Which, by the way, it will start to do almost immediately, making it kind of difficult to spread or thin out, although it won’t get the hard, brittle Butterfinger texture until it’s rested for a couple of hours.  Then you just dip in chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate, the recipe notes that you should use “chocolate coating.”  I did not.  I never do.  Chocolate coating is made from vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter, so it’s easier for dipping and molding and doesn’t melt when your fingers touch it because it has a higher temperature tolerance.  However, it doesn’t taste as good as regular chocolate.  If you want clean fingers, use the coating.  I prefer a better tasting bar, so I used high quality semisweet chocolate chips instead–and people notice; they rave about the chocolate I use.  Occasionally it’s mentioned that the bars melt a bit on your finger tips but I’d rather lick my fingers clean and enjoy the taste than use a less than awesome chocolate or worse, put wax in my chocolate to make it more stable.  But that’s because I’m a chocolate nazi.  You shouldn’t feel at all obliged to be the same.

About.Com’s “Nutterfinger” Butterfinger Recipe

Related posts:

1. Toffee Break: Homemade Heath Bars
2. Homemade Mounds Bars: Do it for the noms. I mean, moms.
3. 200th Post! Homemade Snickers Bars