Category: Desserts

Apple and Pear Beignets with Vanilla Bean Sugar

Recipe here.

I wanted to make something a little special this morning because Girl had a couple of friends to spend the night last night and so I was feeding a crowd for breakfast.  These were a big hit with the girls, who immediately noticed that the sugar “tasted REALLY good” and “MUCH better than plain sugar.”  True, the vanilla beans in the sugar were fantastic.  Not cheap, because I made a double batch (2 vanilla beans!,) but well worth the expense.  I should have cooked the beignets a tiny bit longer, because they could have been a little more cooked in the middle, but they were still fantastic.  I used an OXO cookie scoop to plop the dough in the oil.

I had quite a bit of the vanilla bean sugar left over, so I’ll be finding some luxurious uses for it soon.  It might be fantastic to top a creme brulee with.  We’ll see!

Bananas Foster

Adapted from Southern Living September 2006

Absolutely delicious and startlingly easy.  Hubby has a serious and long-term rum aversion (thanks to a youthful over-indulgence on a long-ago trip to Belize), so I subbed Grand Marnier, instead, without incident.  Yum.  Use your own conscience to help you decide whether or not this is kid-appropriate.  Most kitchen scientists believe that a dish has to simmer for a long time (over 20 minutes) before the alcohol burns out completely.  It is likely, because of the short amount of time that this dish cooks after the booze is added, that there is still a significant portion of the original alcohol left.  The total amount of alcohol in the dish, however, is pretty small…less than a cup for 8 servings so less than 2 tablespoonfuls per serving, even if NONE of it cooked out.  I did serve this to my kids and they LOVED it, but I wouldn’t recommend serving it to very small children (or someone else’s children without their knowledge/permission), just to be safe.

Lemon Shortbread Bars

Recipe here.

Mmmm…what is there to say?  Probably my favorite dessert EVER.  A true classic.  Buttery, crispy crust and tangy, creamy lemon filling?  Yes, please.  These were easy and wonderful.  The recipe, as is not uncommon, makes a bazillion lemon bars, so send them in for your kids to share with their classmates and teachers or you’ll still be eating lemon bars next year sometime.

Banana Tart Tatin

Recipe here.  Helpful video here.

Serve this RIGHT AWAY after unmolding it from the baking pan.  We weren’t quite ready for dessert yet when ours came out of the oven, so we let it sit a little bit too long and the puff pastry got soggy and chewy.  We all pretty much just ate the bananas off the top, which were delicious, but that wasn’t exactly the idea, was it?  I would also highly recommend watching the video, to help you visualize how to assemble and unmold this dish, before attempting to make it.  Quite yummy, but I will probably try it again to see if I can do better next time.  Oh, and the ice cream?  Not optional…it’s a must.

Brown Butter Raspberry Tart

Tart (from L to R):  before baking, serving slice, while cooling.  Click on photos to see them bigger.

When I saw this recipe in Bon Appetit this summer, I knew that I would HAVE to make it.  I’m a sucker for anything containing browned butter and I LOVE any kind of berries.  I never suspected that I would be making it in January (so far out of berry season,) but Costco had some lovely organic raspberries yesterday and I decided to go for it.  I am absolutely and totally sure that I am going to hell for using raspberries from California in January and there is nothing that you can do to convince me otherwise, but I think this tart might just have been worth it.  It also makes your kitchen smell amazing when it’s cooking.  I know this doesn’t sound so great, but did any of you have those Strawberry Shortcake-type dolls as a kid?  The ones that actually smelled like whatever fruit they were supposed to be?  Well, it’s a bit obvious, but my entire kitchen smelled like a “Raspberry Tart” doll.  Or, rather…maybe the dolls were made to actually smell as they were supposed to…

The browned butter adds great richness.  The crust is a bit tricky to get evenly layered into the pan and mine still ended up a bit thick and crisp and, although not to the detriment of the dessert overall, it needed a bit of care when cutting each bite so as not to send bits (bites?) of tart flying off your plate.  Would have been even better (as Hubby pointed out) topped with a small bit of vanilla ice cream.

Alton Brown’s Funnel Cake

As a family, we love amusement parks.  We have been to ones all over the South, from Texas (SixFlags and SeaWorld) to Florida (Disney/Epcot, Universal, SeaWorld/Discovery Cove) to The Carolinas (Carowinds) to Virginia (Kings’ Dominion) and many more.  One of our favorite treats (the very last thing, before leaving the park) is to share a funnel cake together.

Well, it’s been a really long time since we’ve been to a park (July, and that was only Boy and me,) so I decided last night to make one of these critters for us.  I halved Alton Brown’s recipe (since we didn’t need 10…our tradition is to share one) and I made it as one giant, funnel cake, as it is traditionally served at our beloved amusement parks.

Fabulous.  A little difficult to turn over in the pan, but WELL worth the effort.

Slow-Roasted Grape and Yogurt Parfaits

Recipe here.  Click on the pretty photos to see them bigger.

This recipe looked delicious when I saw it in the magazine, although it strikes me as a bit strange.  I mean, really…something that has to roast for 3 hours for BREAKFAST?  Am I supposed to wake up at 3 am?  And roasting grapes in the first place strikes me as a bit odd, but the photos were SO pretty and the ingredients are all things that we like, so I wanted to give it a try.

First off, I highly recommend roasting the grapes the day before and storing them in the fridge for the next morning.  If you do this, however, you should start before 9:45 so that you don’t have to go to bed and then set an alarm to wake yourself up in the middle of the night to pull them out of the oven.  Not that I know that from personal experience, or anything…

So, these were a hit with all of us.  The flavor and sweetness of the grapes gets concentrated and they soften a bit, but you still get a little crunchy “bite” from the grapes’ skin.  I substituted pecans for the walnuts and used vanilla yogurt instead of the plain because plain yogurt makes Hubby gag because we prefer them.  I also forgot to add the mint very intentionally decided against using the mint (even though I remembered to buy it at the store and now will have to use it elsewhere…grr).  Oh, well…it will make a nice garnish for tonight’s brown-butter raspberry tart (stay tuned.)  This is a very filling breakfast…you really don’t need anything to go with it and BONUS:  The grapes smell DELICIOUS as you’re cooking…seriously, you’ll think that there’s a grape jelly factory in your kitchen.

This recipe is strange and a bit time-consuming, but I would make it again.  This would be perfect for a festive brunch or when you have out-of-town guests staying with you and you want an impressive breakfast.  This would be a VERY easy recipe to double, or even triple, if necessary.  This also could serve as a healthy dessert, if you’re so inclined.

***Correction:  It just occurred to me that maybe this recipe was actually SUPPOSED to be a dessert?  Oh, well…we just had dessert for breakfast.  My kids will be thrilled to hear this.

Just checked Cooking Light’s website again and this is, indeed, a dessert.  There are even dessert wines listed that are suggested to pair with it.  So, my thought is that the serving size is WAY to big for a dessert.  If you decide to prepare this recipe that way, I’d cut the serving size down and make 6 desserts out of one batch, instead of 4, but I still say it makes a great breakfast.  You could also use the sugar-roasted grapes to top pancakes, waffles or ice cream, etc.  Oooh….they would be STELLAR over peanut butter ice cream.  Might have to explore that option…