Chocolate Pudding Cake

This was another pre-Passover experiment in flourless chocolate cake baking. (I should point out that I have quite a few more traditional flourless chocolate cake recipes that I know work, but I've made most or all of them for my family at some point and I really want to try something new for the holiday.)

Two Pies for Pi Day

I'm sure I've mentioned that Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays. If you haven't heard of it, Pi Day is so called because March 14th or 3.14 is, of course, the begining of pi. This year (since it is pi month--March 2014--and we get those so rarely) I made two pies, one savory and one sweet.

James Beard Auction and Gala

A very blurry Mario Batali walking by my table!

Lucky me, I got invited to the James Beard Auction and Gala because I won a James Beard scholarship this summer (as announced at James Beard Chefs and Champagne)! Of course it was held on the first night of the cakes unit at school, but I don't mind missing one class--it's not every day I get invited to a gala.

Mussel risotto--my favorite hors d'oeuvre of the night.

The whole thing was a ton of fun. The cocktail reception was a bit awkward--I'm not a good mingler--but the food was good enough to make up for that. At the dinner I was seated with a bunch of other scholarship winners, which was quite pleasant. The food was wonderful! It should have been; Mario Batali was cooking it. Among other things, dinner included:

A perfectly cooked sea scallop with an

incredible amount of shaved truffles

A creamy butterscotch and sea salt budino (pudding) 

with delicious pine nut and rosemary cookies

(and surprisingly good decaf coffee)

Almost Traditional Bread Pudding, con't

  

Here's the promised photo, I'll post the recipe tonight.

Almost Traditional Bread Pudding

As I mentioned when I made the chocolate chip bread pudding, Pops didn't like the chocolate chips too much.  He wanted a more traditional bread pudding, so I made him one!  The main change I made was to substitute raisins for the chocolate chips.  I also added some Grand Marnier (instead of rum) and orange zest.  I realize this may be a step away from the traditional, but it was really good!  I tweaked some other things as well, stay tuned for that.  Pops whipped up some heavy cream to put on top of the hot pudding and that was that.

I'll be posting a photo and the recipe tomorrow!

Well, I just started my last semester of college...

My last semester of college started two weeks ago and, as you might have guessed from my absence, it has not been a slow start!  Having a long winter break is wonderful, but it makes it harder to get back into the swing of things.  I'm pretty sure I'm back, though, so you'll be hear plenty from me again!  

It's late and I have a ton of reading to do tomorrow, so I won't post anything new tonight.  But I'll give you a preview of what's yet to come: I will be posting a recipe for almost traditional bread pudding, I will be blogging about my new favorite scones (from Sarabeth's cookbook), and I will be giving a riveting English Lit presentation.  Hold on, that's not quite right, that last one's for school not my blog...  (See what I mean about being busy?!)

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding, con't

Oops, I forgot to blog about this yesterday.  You know, I'm not sure I like using the word "blog" as a verb...it feels very unnatural.  I digress.

This bread pudding was really excellent and incredibly easy to make...even easier than other bread puddings I've made.  The recipe, from Nigella Kitchen, replaced the traditional dried fruit with chocolate chips.  That isn't a problem for me as I prefer chocolate to raisins.  However my pops, being British, wanted raisins in it, so I added them to the recipe.  He still wasn't thrilled about the chocolate (that didn't stop him from eating it, don't get me wrong!)  Next time around, and that will be soon, I'll try it with no chocolate and see how it comes out.

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Doesn't that look lovely?  Basically it's bread, cream, milk, eggs, sugar, liquor, raisins, and chocolate chips baked together in a pie plate.  I'll tell you more tomorrow...

Chocolate Bread Pudding

  

Wow this is good!  It is from Ghirardelli's cookbook.  I usually don't like cookbooks put out by brands, but I have to say this is a great one.  I've liked everything I've made from it (I don't believe I've posted anything else from it because I baked it before I started this blog...but I'll post them at some point).

Anyway, this was really good and very simple to make.  It just involves making a chocolate, egg and milk mixture and soaking bread (I used a baguette) in it until the liquid is mainly soaked up.  Transfer it to a large baking dish and bake.  That's it.  Very easy.  And very, very yummy.  It gets nice and gooey (but not too runny) and just a little chewy on the inside with a nice crispy crust on top, which is just how bread pudding should be (in my opinion).  This recipe calls for raisins and chocolate chips to be mixed in with the bread when you add it to the liquid.  I know raisins are traditionally put in bread pudding, however I've never been a fan.  So I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins.  It was such an improvement in my book.  The cranberries hold up to the soaking and the heat much better than raisins so they don't get that puffy, soft texture that raisins get in baked goods.  Plus, I really like combination of cranberries and chocolate.  Oh and by the way, the chocolate chips mixed in are excellent.  They get all melty and make everything that much more chocolate-y!

I will warn you, it is a little dangerous: my mom and I ate almost the entire 9x13in pan of it!

Middle Eastern Rice Pudding

 

When I was in England this summer (with my friend Adriana who you may remember was one of the judges on the Great Blueberry Muffin Showdown), we stayed a few nights with my cousins.  We were very happy to be in a kitchen again, so we decided to make dinner and dessert as a thank you for letting us stay with them.  My cousin Alex cannot eat gluten and I didn't have any of my cookbooks with me, so I had somewhat limited options.  I settled on rice pudding.  As Alex is also diabetic, I figured I should make it sugar free, so I needed to make sure it was still flavorful.  I made a basic stove top rice pudding with arborio rice (also used for risotto) and skim milk.  I added orange zest (in large strips), whole cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods to the milk before I started cooking the pudding to flavor it without using sugar.

Making rice pudding is actually more similar to making oatmeal than risotto.  Unlike risotto you don't have to stir constantly and you add all the liquid at once.  But, that said, it is more finicky than oatmeal and does involve more stirring and more cooking time.  Anyway, while I prepared the pudding, Adriana shelled the pistachios and chopped them.

I fished out almost all of the cardamom (I missed a few, oops!) and all of the cinnamon and orange.  We then topped the pudding with the chopped pistachios, fresh cinnamon sticks, some powdered cinnamon and absolutely amazing dates from Harrods.

It was really delicious and the mixture of flavors was complex but still subtle enough that no single flavor overwhelmed the others.  And, I have to say I really didn't miss the sugar at all!