Red Carpet Nariyal Burfi

A friend of ours is hosting an Oscars viewing party tomorrow and I decided to bring something Oscar themed. I started by reviewing all the nominations, because we haven't been to the movies in ages and I know next to nothing about the films nominated—Brave is the only nominated film that we've actually seen, and I don't think haggis would receive a very enthusiastic welcome at the party.

A couple of films, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, started me thinking about Persian and Middle Eastern dishes. We're hosting supper club in April with a Middle Eastern theme and I thought I could try out a couple of dishes for tomorrow. I was thinking of trying ash-e-jow, an Iranian/Persian barley soup.

But then I learned we'll be going out for a meal before the Oscars start and I decided to focus on a dessert or snack-y food and settled on nariyal burfi—also called nariyal vadi, nariyal barfi, or khobra pak. Think of it as coconut fudge. Since Life of Pi  is nominated and nariyal burfi is a common sweet throughout India (and I recently returned from India), I thought it sounded good.

I don't usually like super-sweet sweets, so I cut the sugar called for from the inspiration recipes in about half. I also swapped unsweetened coconut for the sweetened coconut some recipes called for—I figured if some were calling for freshly grated coconut, it probably didn't need to be sweetened. The result is still plenty sweet, but not cloyingly so. I could see adding some cocoa powder if I make this again. Combining coconut and chocolate makes sense, though I'm not certain how I would like cardamom and cocoa.

Hang on—I have some Dutch dark chocolate cocoa powder in the pantry and dipped a burfi ball in it to check—tastes fine, not really chocolatey, but it does temper some of the sweetness and makes the overall flavor more complex.

Nariyal burfi—Coconut fudge

Nariyal Burfi

Total time: (I forgot to keep track) 1–1½ hours

Ingredients

3 cups shredded coconut—fresh or unsweetened dry

1½ cans (14-ounce size) of sweetened condensed milk (450 ml in the measuring cup)

¼ cup sugar

4 Tbsps ghee (if you can't find ghee at the store, you can make it yourself—it is essentially clarified butter)

1 Tbsp ground cardamom

1 cup slivered almonds

Directions

1. Heat a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat; add the coconut, condensed milk, and sugar, and mix well. Cook until the condensed milk is reduced by about one-quarter and the mixture has a fudge-like consistency.
2. Add the ghee and mix well. Cook until the ghee begins to separate from the mixture.
3. Add the ground cardamom, mix thoroughly and remove from heat.
4. Grease a 9X9 pan (a spritz on non-stick will do, or smear on some leftover ghee if you have any), transfer the mixture to the pan and smooth out. Sprinkle the surface with the almonds.







5. Allow to cool a little and cut into squares while still warm.




I may have a few OCD tendencies.



6. Allow it to set, then remove from pan and store in an air-tight container.

So, you may notice my burfi are not squares. That's because I did not not allow them to set before trying to remove them from the pan. So I ended up rolling them into balls.

Strawberry Crostata

What's more rustic than a tart and super easy to make? Crostata!

I ran across this recipe for Strawberry Crostata on the Buns in My Oven blog and just knew I had to try it. I almost always have refrigerated pie crusts on hand for throwing together empanadas and pot pies and the like, and aside from the berries, everything else is pretty much a staple item as well.

So I made this for the first time a couple weeks ago, but I didn't quite fold the crust edge over far enough (do overs!); it looked sloppy but smelled oh so good while it was cooking and cooling, and tasted even better!

As far as desserts go, this one doesn't seem bad, but the second time around I substituted a reduced-fat cream cheese and used some Splenda in the cream cheese mixture, though I stuck with actual sugar for sprinkling on the berries.

So easy! And so Yum! Yum! Yum!

(And yes, I'm blogging at you instead of drafting my cover letters. I know, I know!)

Strawberry Crostata just screams Summer!

Strawberry Crostata

Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 30–35 minutes

Ingredients

1½ pounds strawberries

2 Tbsps sugar, for sprinkling

8 ounces reduced- or low-fat cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsps flour

3 packets of Splenda

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 pie crust

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400°. Wash, hull, and slice strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar and set aside.


2. Mix together the cream cheese, flour, Splenda, and vanilla.


3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the pie crust in the center. If using a store bought crust, I like to roll it out just a tad more. (I've come to the conclusion that I own the squeakiest rolling pin on the planet!)


4. Leaving a one-inch border, spread the cream cheese mixture on the crust, mound the strawberries on top, and fold up the crust edges.


5. Bake for 20–25 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Divine! (Scoob likes his with a dollop of vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt and blueberries on top!)

Ready to go into the oven.

You'll almost surely end up with a puddle of juice in your pan.
My first try with this recipe was much juicier.

Strawberry (Crostata) fields forever!

Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that friends of ours are moving and they've been getting rid of some things, which means we've been finding some things. Well, one of the things I found was a bundt cake pan. My who being just lit up when I spotted the bundt cake pan. I don't know why I love bundt cake, but I do.

And I especially love lemon poppy seed bundt cake! Actually, now that I think about it, I don't know that I've ever had any other kind of bundt cake. Hmmm. Whatever.

I always remembered my mom saying bundt cakes were difficult, so I was a little scared of what might happen. But my first bundt cake adventure turned out swell. And tasty!

(Yes. I said swell.)

Rockin' the apron!

Out of the oven to cool.

Lo a bundt cake! A lemon poppy seed bundt cake.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

Prep time:1–1¼ hours

INGREDIENTS
Cake

1 cup butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

zest from two lemons

juice from one lemon

1 cup buttermilk

3 cups flour

3 Tbsps poppy seeds

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Glaze

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 Tbsps lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
Cake

1. Oil and flour your bundt pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat butter and sugar together in a medium-sized mixing bowl until fluffy. Add in eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add in remaining ingredients and beat until completely combined.


2. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 45-55 minutes, until cooked through. Remove from oven and set on a wire rack for 5 minutes.


3. Remove from pan and continue to cool on the wire rack. Drizzle with glaze, once cooled.

Glaze

1. Whisk together until smooth. Cover until ready to use.

I thought it had a bit too much glaze. I like the extra punch of sour the glaze adds, but it is quite sweet. If a make this again (if, ha! who am I kidding?) I may cut the glaze in half or just try a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

Easter Buckeyes

I hope y' all had a great Easter. Easter apparently means surprises, and I got a doozey when I rolled over into a "gift" from Madame Barf-O-Matic in bed. So my Easter started with stripping the bed, lots of laundry, and a shower. Never mind that my hair was still wet from last night's shower.

But the day got better. I made up a big Sunday breakfast for Scoob and I and there was lots of cuddling on of the sofa with a very repentant Dozer. And as long as I was doing laundry I decided to vacuum, and scrub the toilets and shower. I even got some time to work on the jigsaw puzzle I've been ignoring for a few weeks.

Scoob said something about wanting Easter eggs for Easter, but I just couldn't bring myself to color up a bunch of eggs. Well, that and he told me this the day before Easter! Because I always keep a pack of Paas dye handy. Don't you? Actually, I think it was all part of his plan to avoid mowing the lawn again. It's getting awfully tall—approaching mid-shin in places—with plenty of great egg hiding places.

So instead of dying Easter eggs, I decided to make Buckeyes shaped like eggs. I'd never heard of Buckeyes before this, but how can peanut butter and chocolate be bad?

What do yo think, do these resemble eggs or acorns?

Even the bluebird is confused.

Easter Buckeyes

Prep time:1–1½ hours

Ingredients

¾ cup ccreamy peanut butter, room temperature

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp kosher salt

½ pound bittersweet chocolate

Directions

1. With an electric mixer, beat peanut butter and butter until creamy. On low speed, mix in the confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and salt (mixture will be crumbly).


2. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into "eggs" and place on a wax or parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes


3. Melt the chocolate. (I melt mine in the microwave on full power in 30 second bursts, stirring between bursts.) Dip each "egg" into the chocolate about halfway and return to the cold baking sheet. Refrigerate on the baking sheet for 30 minutes.

Our New Sweet Potato Classic

This is so good! Every time I've made it, desert has been left untouched.

Seriously!

I've never really gone for the classic sweet potatoes with marshmallow on top at Thanksgiving, but Scoob loves sweet potatoes so I'll usually make sure it gets on the table. This last Thanksgiving, however, I decided to try something different and now we'll never go back to the marshmallow-topped stuff again!

I've been tweaking the recipe and feeling a bit like Goldilocks.

When I made it at Thanksgiving it was too runny and cloyingly sweet, so I added more sweet potatoes; at Christmas the filling was not quite sweet enough, so I cut back on sweet potatoes; and for Valentine's the filling was just right, but the topping seemed a little too sweet still, so I'm cutting back on some brown sugar with this version.

Scoob has requested another turkey dinner for his birthday (Saturday), so I'll give this a go then, but I think it will be just right.

Our very favoritest sweet potato recipe.

New Sweet Potato Classic

Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS
Filling

4–5 medium sweet potatoes

¼ tsp salt

3 Tbsps all-purpose flour

¼ cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup white sugar

2 Tbsps heavy cream

Topping

¼ cup butter, softened

3 Tbsps all-purpose flour

½ cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS
Filling

1. Preheat oven to 350, line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray. Cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and place cut-side down on the foil. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until they begin to soften. Remove from oven and allow the potatoes to cool enough so you can handle them.


2. Peel the potatoes (the skins should slide right off) and place in a large bowl. Add the salt, flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, white sugar, and heavy cream and mash until smooth. Transfer to an 8 x 8 baking dish.

Topping

1. In a medium bowl, combine softened butter, flour, brown sugar, and chopped pecans. Mix with a pastry blender until crumbly. Sprinkle over sweet potato mixture.


2. Bake for 30 minutes until topping is crisp and slightly browned.

Given how easy this is to make and much we like this recipe, I'll have to try and healthify this up. I think I could substitute 2 Tbsps no-trans margarine and 2 Tbsps applesauce for the ¼ cup of butter in the filling. And I wonder if we would even notice if I left out the heavy cream. The butter for the topping could also go no-trans margarine, but I wouldn't use applesauce here. Might could swap out some sugar for Splenda, too.

Chocolate Blackout Cake

I saw the recipe for this Chocolate Blackout Cake come across the facebook feed for America's Test Kitchen a couple weeks back and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

I've been having insane chocolate cravings nearly every waking moment since. Even while sleeping my mind is on chocolate—I dreamt of an episode from high school days when my bestie miraculously encountered the limits of her seemingly infinite tolerance for chocolate with a hot fudge sundae, extra fudge.

So, since Scoob's only Valentine's request was a turkey dinner, I decided to try the Blackout recipe, in part to mark the day as special, but also to satisfy my own obsession. And once I'd made the decision to try it, all I could think was "Try not. Do or do not! There is no try!"

And boy, oh, boy. Do I did!

I didn't alter a thing in the recipe. Though I did hit a snag with the pudding instructions, which delayed the Valentine's treat until the day after, so I have changed those for clarity.

Chocolate Blackout Cake

INGREDIENTS
Pudding

1¼ cups granulated sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

½ tsp salt

2 cups half-and-half

1 cup whole milk

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 tsps vanilla extract

Cake

8 Tbsps unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing pans

1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting pans

2 tsps baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup brewed coffee

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
For the pudding:

1. Whisk sugar, cornstarch, salt, half-and-half, and milk in large saucepan. Set pan over medium heat. Add chocolate and whisk constantly until chocolate melts and mixture begins to bubble, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in vanilla and transfer pudding to large bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours or up to 1 day.

I read this and assumed the bubbles they spoke of referred to heat bubbles, but after whisking for 10 minutes without getting heat bubbles I figured they must have been talking about the bubbles from the whisking action, so I went ahead and put it in the fridge. WRONG. When I came back 6 hours later I had some very nicely chilled, delicious chocolate soup.

I put the soup back on the stove and heated it just to boiling, which worked beautifully. I'm happy I rescued it, but was bummed it wouldn't be ready for Valentine's dessert. So, as someone who had never made home-made pudding before, I would change these instructions.

REVISED pudding instructions:

1. Whisk sugar, cornstarch, salt, half-and-half, and milk in large saucepan. Set pan over medium heat. Add chocolate and whisk constantly until chocolate melts and mixture begins to thicken. Continue whisking until the you feel drag on the whisk and mixture begins to bubble, 6 to 10 minutes. Stir in vanilla and blah, blah, blah.

But that's just me.

For the cake layers:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl.


2. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in cocoa and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Off heat, whisk in coffee, buttermilk, and sugars until dissolved. Whisk in eggs and vanilla, then slowly whisk in flour mixture.


3. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool layers in pans 15 minutes, then invert onto wire rack. Cool to room temperature, at least 1 hour.

If you're one of those people convinced that chocolate makes you break out, just making this cake is going to have you feeling like your skin is back in high school.

To assemble the cake:

1. Cut each cake in half horizontally. Crumble one cake layer into medium crumbs and set aside. Place one cake layer on serving platter or cardboard round. Spread 1 cup pudding over cake layer and top with another layer. Repeat with 1 cup pudding and last cake layer. Spread remaining pudding evenly over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle cake crumbs evenly over top and sides of cake, pressing lightly to adhere crumbs. (There's a nice picture tutorial on the website.) Serve. (Cake can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

I tell ya' though, assembly is messy. I had cake crumbs every where. And trying to wipe them up from the counter just doubled my work since I ended up getting more on the floor than in my dish towel. I should have just vacuumed the counters.

And then there's the dish clean up. Since we don't have kids and Scoob's such a hard worker and couldn't take a break, I was forced to lick spatulas and bowls myself.

Oh, the sacrifices I make!

It's really not a pretty cake. In fact, it's kinda scary. Looks more like a doorstop. Feels like one, too; it's heavy!

If it didn't already have a name, I'd call it Chocolate Intimidation.

It's much prettier after you slice into it (though not much), which is probably why they chose to use the photo at the top! (And how did they get that photo without all the crumbs that flew everywhere? Some definite staging.)

I'd cut a slice this size for Scoob and one for myself. We couldn't finish it and had the leftovers with lunch today. Also, be ready for some serious chocolate overload. I knew the chocolate kick would be strong, but wholly cow!

I knew that chocolate contains caffeine and triggers the brain to release endorphins, giving us a happy feeling. But the jolt I got after eating half a slice prompted me to look up how else chocolate effects the brain. Turns out that in addition to the caffeine and opioid endorphin reaction, among the 350+ natural chemicals in chocolate three chemicals trigger cannabinoid receptors (the same receptors triggered by tetrahydrocannabinol, or marijuana) and several stimulants, one of which, phenylethylamine, is related to amphetamines.

So, probably not a good après dinner evening treat. Unless, of course, you're planning to stay up into the wee hours and work off some of your energy with your sweetie, in which case it's an excellent choice!

This is a dense, rich, and extra chocolatey cake. The recipe says the cake will serve 10–12, I say, cut smaller slices! And my god, do not serve it to children!

What's for Dessert? Indian Pudding

We had our hugely-anticipated progressive holiday dinner last weekend. I say hugely-anticipated because so many people in the supper club that we're now part of were just soooooo excited about it. And the more they talked it up, the more it seemed like it was going to be a big fancy production and, of course, the more I became filled with dread.

Anyhow, we managed to get off the hook for hosting one of the stops for dinner, mostly because we don't have enough plates to entertain 12 people and forget about finding a seat for all of them. But, I did volunteer to piggy back with one of the host homes.

I figured dessert would be easiest to help out with and transport. And since I was picking an easy option, I decided to challenge myself and try something new. The weekend before I did a test run with a couple recipes just to make sure they were fit to serve.

I made a pumpkin rice pudding, which sounded yummy in theory, but not so good in reality. I thought it was way to sweet, but Scoob liked it and gobbled up pretty much the entire pot over the course of the week.

I also tried this Indian Pudding, which I adore. Think pumpkin pie without the crust. And without the pumpkin, for that matter. But it has that consistency and flavor.

It's not very pretty, so no pictures. I was thinking if I baked it in little ramekins it might look a little more table worthy, but I'd need to figure out how to adjust the cooking times.

Indian Pudding

Prep time: 30 minutes
Total time: 3 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk

⅔ cup finely ground cornmeal

½ cup molasses

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for the dish

¼ cup light or dark brown sugar

½ tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg, plus more for garnishing

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups (1 pint) heavy cream, whipped to firm peaks

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F


2. In a large saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring 3 cups of the milk to a boil. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining milk and the cornmeal. Whisking constantly, slowly add the mixture to the boiling milk. Reduce heat and simmer gently, stirring frequently, for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the molasses, butter, brown sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla.


3. Transfer to a buttered 1 1/2-quart casserole dish. Set the casserole in a roasting pan, pull the oven rack out halfway, and place the pan on it. Carefully add enough hot water to the pan to reach halfway up the casserole. Cover both pans with a single large sheet of foil. Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil. Bake until the pudding is almost set but still wobbly,1 1/2 hours more. Transfer casserole to a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Spoon onto plates. Serve with the whipped cream and sprinkle with nutmeg.

I missed the extra butter in the pan the first time around but didn't have any problems with it sticking, so I think you could skip it. I also skipped the heavy cream; with the 4 cups of milk (and the 6 cups in the rice pudding) I figured I was pushing the lactose-sensitive envelope.