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Today, I visited an overseas friend who taught me some of her native dishes. To celebrate her arrival to our town, I baked her The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake, which has only 3 mandatory ingredients: chocolate, butter, and eggs, and an optional one: coffee liqueur, which I obliged. |
Archive for Recipe:Baking
The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake
Chocolate with The Key Chocolate Class
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We had a cooking class with teenagers from The Key, a youth-run community-based organization. |
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The common ingredient was Mexican chocolate — which we prepared as Champurrado, a hot drink, slightly thickened with corn masa. Here is the Champurrado recipe. |
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and a luscious chile sauce called Red Mole. In the picture, it is served with roast turkey. Here is the Red Mole recipe. |
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Traditionally, the meat is slowly cooked (braised) in the mole for about 1 1/2 hours. But to fit into our 2-hour class schedule, we roasted free-range chickens instead. Here is the Roast Chicken recipe. |
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Unfortunately, we ran out of time to prepare a Hot Fudge Pudding Cake, a fun dessert with a brownie-like layer that floats on a pudding-like chocolate sauce. Here is the Hot Fudge Pudding Cake recipe. |
Basic Waffles
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Sweet Lou, a new waffle shop just opened in our town. Predictably, Andi, Alyssa and their friends have taken an interest in waffles. For the times that we can’t hang out in the new cool shop, we make them at home. Pictured is a topping of blackberry preserves and crème fraîche. |
Here is the recipe.
Muffins
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An officemate asked me “How do you make muffins rise?” I consulted the reliable Cooks Illustrated and found the following advice: “Make enough batter to fill up the cups for big, shapely muffins.” Here is a Lemon Blueberry Muffins recipe that shows the trick. |
Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze
This American classic is baked in an unusual way — in a cold oven set at 225°F for 20 minutes and then at 325°F for 30 to 40 minutes more. The result is a very moist cake. We served this cake at home last night to a party of teens and grown-ups. Every piece was consumed with delight. Here is the recipe.
Salmon Tortellini and Cornmeal Pizza
Phil, our co-op’s new general manager, asked us to use some of the packaged goods promotional items in our demonstration. In response, we selected frozen vegetables (properly thawed) for three dishes.
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First, we used frozen sweet peas in a salmon tortellini with a lemon cream sauce. We used egg roll wrappers for the pasta covering. Here is the recipe. |
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Then, we sautéed frozen spinach with caramelized garlic and red pepper flakes and used the mixture as topping for a cornmeal-crusted pizza with feta cheese. |
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Finally, we sautéed frozen squash purée with caramelized onions and used the mixture as topping for a cornmeal-crusted pizza with feta cheese. Here are the pizza recipes. |
Scalloped Potatoes with Milk, Cheese, and Garlic (Gratin Dauphinois )
A short while ago, I met a friend in a store. When I learned that she just bought a box of scalloped potatoes for her family, I volunteered to give her a recipe for this dish that did not include preservatives and artificial flavors that the box version contained. My friend confessed that she was not a good cook but I assured her that I was going to draw the recipe so that she could follow it.
Here’s the recipe, in drawing form. I hope that you can take a look at it and let me know if it is easy to follow.
Luigi Cooks 