Wish Upon A Chef

Labor Day marks the last official holiday of summer and it's amazing how quickly some people put the sun and fun behind them and start focusing on decorating for fall. Not me. I hang on tightly to those warm summer days and the bounty of summer fruits and vegetables . I'm just not ready to give it up and it takes me quite some time to assimilate to the fall and winter food offerings.

My lovely caterer friend Linda Omura from Cherry Tree Catering in Lansing, MI shared this quick and easy recipe with me and it's perfect for dragging out those almost gone summer days. It's also perfect served as part of the menu for a ladies luncheon or perhaps a bridal/baby shower.

Crisp and delicious, this Apple Snickers Salad combines two of my favorite foods...tangy Granny Smith apples and Snickers candy bars. I actually bought a package of snack size candy bars but ate them before I got the salad made and had to go back for more! This salad is easily adapted to serve as many people as you need and easy to pull together at the last minute, so no advanced preparation is needed. Also, it's best when dressed just before serving.

Let's not be so quick to wish Summer 2009 away as we'll never be here again and for those of you in the Lansing, MI area, please be sure to check out Linda's lovely food creations for all your entertaining needs and tell her that I sent you!


Apple Snickers Salad
by Linda Omura of Cherry Tree Catering

Granny Smith apples (I used 2 large apples)
Snickers candy bar (I used about 4 of the snack size)
dried cranberries (a generous handful)
chopped walnuts or pecans (a generous handful)
8 ounces plain or vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
lemon juice for dipping apples

Core and dice apples into bite-sized pieces. Toss with lemon juice to prevent browning. Slice candy bars into bite-sized pieces as well and add to apples along with cranberries and nuts.

In a small bowl, combine yogurt, orange juice and honey. Drizzle over salad ingredients just before serving and toss well.

After spending a weekend slaving in the kitchen, dirtying every dish in the house and washing them countless times, running a load of kitchen towels through the laundry, and recovering from a week-long headache, I am finally ready to reveal this month's Daring Baker's challenge. The headache had absolutely nothing to do with the challenge ~ I just thought I'd throw that in there for a little sympathy and to explain why my post is a day late getting published. It's really hard to accurately describe the details of making a 6 layer cake smothered in luscious creamy chocolate buttercream when there are lightening bolts repeatedly firing at your medulla oblongata like a semi-automatic weapon.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

After my last experience with sponge cake, I was a bit apprehensive about trying this recipe but a challenge is a challenge and I'm not about to back down from one yet. Worse case scenario, I would end up with yet another set of floor mats for my car but my DB hosts did not disappoint...the cake came together beautifully. I'm still convinced that the F&W people couldn't bake a sponge cake if their life depended on it (because no way could it have been the fault of the cook!)

The chocolate buttercream with the butter and whipped sugar/egg mixture was like no other that I'd ever made before. Very rich and creamy, but I strongly recommend keeping the cake in the refrigerator if you live in a humid area because it's not as stable as other versions of buttercream. The toffee also reportedly works better in a non-humid environment. Mine was a bit sticky but nothing worth getting stressed over.

The cake, as a whole, came together beautifully and I'll have to admit that it was one of the prettier desserts that I've ever made. I carted the Dobos Torte off to work the next morning where soon enough it met its terrible fate in the office break room.

Be sure to visit the Daring Kitchen website here for the recipe and be amazed at the gorgeous creations presented this month. Heck, while you're there, go ahead and sign up to be one of us and we'll look forward to seeing you next month!

I've told you ad nauseum about how much I love all things Italian, so is it any surprise that I would join a club called "The Italian Social Club"?
One of the (many) things I love about living in Charlotte is that if I wanted, each and every day of my calendar could be filled with a social event. The number of social clubs in the area is simply astounding ~ no matter what your interests are, I can guarantee there is a club that specializes in it.

The Italian Social Club, in conjunction with Good Eats! Charlotte, hosted an Italian Cook-Off and Summer Party where members were asked to bring a dish to be shared by others. Those who didn't want to enter the cook-off were welcome to bring a bottle of wine and as you can imagine, there was plenty of food and drink to go around! I knew it would be the perfect opportunity for me to try the Italian Trifle with Marsala Syrup from the December 2008 edition of Food & Wine.

Trifles are fairly easy to prepare, can be made ahead of time and make a lovely presentation. This one was no exception...well, except for one thing. When I took the sponge cake out of the oven, had it said Mazda, I would have sworn it was a worn out version of the floor mat from my car. While mixing it up, I seriously had my doubts that 6 eggs and 3 cups of dry ingredients could fill a half sheet pan. I knew the sponge cake was supposed to be thin, but you could have read a newspaper through this once it was spread into the pan. And baking for 20 minutes?? Yeah, right. Within 10 minutes it was nearly burnt. Not willing to waste yet another 1/2 dozen eggs, I went to Plan B. Any good (former) caterer always has one. My back-up plan consisted of running to the grocery store to pick up a Sara Lee pound cake. Once soaked in the Marsala syrup, no one would know the difference and besides, there were no rules saying the dish had to be made from scratch. The pastry cream was absolutely divine ~ I could have eaten it with a spoon ~ and the addition of fresh strawberries added an extra burst of color and freshness.

There was a lot of stiff competition in each of the categories and in the end, my trifle won 2nd place in the dessert category! I'm including the link for the original recipe if you feel the need to try to master F&W's version of sponge cake, but don't say I didn't warn you. If you'd like to try it my way, I can guarantee it's a winner. And in case you still can't understand my fascination with the Italians, let me just stress that it's their enormous.....um, sense of humor that gets me every time!

Italian Trifle with Strawberries and Marsala Syrup
inspired by Food & Wine


PASTRY CREAM
1 quart milk
1 plump vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 dozen large egg yolks
1/4 cup cornstarch

MARSALA SYRUP
1 cup sweet Marsala
1/3 cup sugar

1 Sara Lee pound cake, cut into 1" cubes
2 pints fresh strawberries, sliced (save 1 or 2 pretty berries for garnishing)
Whipped cream, for garnish

Make the pastry cream: In a large saucepan, combine the milk with the vanilla bean and seeds and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat, cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Discard the vanilla bean.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the cornstarch and the remaining 1 cup of sugar. Whisk in 1 cup of the milk mixture. Whisk the egg mixture into the milk in the saucepan and cook over moderately high heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until the custard just begins to thicken, about 4 minutes. Switch back to a whisk and cook, whisking constantly, until the custard is very thick and bubbling, about 4 minutes longer. Transfer the custard to a large heatproof bowl. Let cool, then press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Make the Marsala syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the Marsala with the sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Let cool.

In a large glass trifle bowl, arrange a layer of pound cake squares. Using a pastry brush, soak the cake with some of the Marsala syrup. Top with a layer of pastry cream, and then strawberries. Repeat with the remaining cake, syrup, pastry cream and strawberries ending with the berries. Cover the trifle loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight. Top the trifle with the whipped cream and a whole strawberry fan and serve.

Make Ahead
The trifle can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Call me a procrastinator. Go ahead....I'm a big girl and can take it when people call me names. Especially when they're true. Give me any amount of time to complete a project and you'll find me in the 11th hour trying to put the finishing touches on it. True to form, here I sit finalizing this post for the July Daring Bakers' Challenge on the eve of it's due date even though I've had an entire month to complete the project. I'm not ashamed of my procrastination habit ~ I'm quite proud of it, actually, because I work better under pressure. When time is of the essence, I can turn out some fabulous results.

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

The pressure was on this morning when I finally rolled out of bed at nearly 10am to get these cookies done. Each individual component was easy enough on its own but like most DB challenges, the time involved was rather extensive. We had a choice of making one of the cookies or both and since I was already under the gun, I chose to only make the chocolate marshmallow cookies. It was an all-day project and the results turned out great even though I wasn't overly impressed with the finished product. I'm more of an ooey-gooey, warm, slightly under baked chocolate chip cookie kinda girl myself but I think the guys at work will lay waste to these little chocolate dipped treats in no time.

The recipe said it yielded 2 dozen cookies so can anyone tell me how I wound up with 4 dozen cookies?? And exactly enough marshmallow to pipe on all 48 cookies? And just enough chocolate for dipping all of them? The longer I worked, the more they multiplied....it was like rabbits! The only problem I ran into is that, nearly 4 hours after they were dipped, my chocolate still has not set up. That may only be because I chose to use what I had on hand and combined 3 different types of chocolate. I wound up being 1 ounce short so I shorted the vegetable oil just slightly. I'm currently financially embarrassed thanks to a busted air conditioner and a trip to the beach, so it was nice to not have to add to my already exorbitant grocery bill for this challenge.
The real treat in this challenge was the homemade marshmallows. I've never made them before and I'm already thinking of other projects that I want to do with them and these will be at the top of my list!

Thank you Nicole for a great Daring Bakers' challenge and for giving me the inspiration for yet another project!





Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: about 2 dozen cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows
• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze (I actually balanced my cookie on the fork and used a spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the cookie).
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade marshmallows:
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff (the recipe didn't state how long it would take but I found it took nearly 15 minutes to achieve a stiff consistency).
6. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate glaze:
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

After California, the state of South Carolina is the second largest producer of peaches and so consequently peaches can claim their rightful place as the state fruit. And if you've driven down Interstate 85 near Gaffney, SC you've most likely seen this water tank that often gets mistaken for my a huge butt.

In 2006, the SC Department of Agriculture reported that the peach industry brought in an estimated $40 million to the state and I'm quite sure the figures have soared even higher in more recent years. Just a few weeks ago, I forked over 6 of my hard earned dollars for a small basket of nearly ripe peaches from McLeod Farms in McBee, SC.
I figured since the town Constable was nice enough to not pull me over for speeding this time and make me pay a hefty fine, it was the least I could do.

There was a mad rush of people in the store and if I'd had more time, I would have enjoyed perusing the aisle of all things peaches ~ jams and jellies, salsas, freshly baked breads ~ but I was pressed for time and it's probably a good thing or else they'd have gotten more of my money. When I bought the peaches, they still needed a few days to ripen so I left them out on the counter until I decided exactly what to do with them. If you need them to ripen sooner, place them in a brown paper bag, close the bag, and lay it on the counter. They will ripen almost overnight because of the gases they emit.

And then it hit me....why not make something totally South Carolinian with my South Carolinian peaches? I rummaged through my recipe collection and finally found exactly what I was looking for ~ a recipe written by my friend Peggy Waller, the Inn at Merridun bed and breakfast owner from Union, South Carolina.

Carolina Peach Soup is quick, easy, and perfect on these hot and humid summer days. It's perfect as a first course as part of a brunch or light lunch and I also enjoy it for breakfast with a slice of freshly baked quick bread. And what the heck...have some for dessert too because it's just so good! Enjoy the recipe and, Peggy if you're reading, drop me a line because I want to come visit you very soon!



* Exported from MasterCook *

Carolina Peach Soup

Recipe By :Peggy Waller
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Soups

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
5 large peaches -- peeled and quartered
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon orange juice
peach slices and mint for garnish (I also added a sprinkle of ground cinnamon)

Puree peaches, sugar, lemon juice, and wine. Add sour cream and orange juice concentrate; blend until smooth. Refrigerate until well chilled.

Serve in a pretty bowl or cup with peach slices and fresh mint.

Source:
"Culinary Memories of Merridun"