Valentine’s Day Dessert Round-Up
If you are a dessert lover, this week is a great opportunity for sweet indulgence. We've put together a collection of tempting dessert recipes, from gooey , to spicy, exotic, to homey, luxurious, to simple. Go ahead, make yourself something sweet!
Salted Caramel & Pear Bread Pudding
Dessert descriptions are thorny things. When it comes to sweet things I find that eloquence often fails me, and unhelpfully divide desserts into two camps, delicious… or, not. While clear cut, these categories do not offer the reader much to recommend this decadent Salted Caramel & Pear Bread Pudding. Besides the obvious “delicious, ”a brief description is in order. Salted Caramel & Pear Bread Pudding has some great things going for it. The bread is toasted to maximize its ability to absorb all the decadent custard, the custard is silky and aromatic with a whopping ¼ cup of vanilla, and is further treated to a topping of caramelized pears with accompanying pan sauce of pear infused salted caramel. For all its flavor and texture complexity, this dessert is also subtle and balanced. This recipe is adapted from one of our favorite cookbooks: Rustic Fruit Desserts. The gorgeous pears for this dish come from our Penn's Corner CSA.
Red Wine Poached Pears
Some recipes have a timeless appeal, and are reinvented over decades, even centuries. Pears poached in sweetened wine are one of the oldest confectionery treats. Dating back to Medieval Europe, pears were looked on more favorably than apples and often cooked in honeyed red wine with spices. Our version of Red Wine Poached Pears is a simple and easily adaptable dessert redolent with rich warming spices, evoking the vibrant hues of autumn. Poached Pears make a unique topping to an ice cream Sunday, and we like to serve them with red wine sauce and homemade caramel. If you have pears leftover, try our Salted Caramel & Pear Bread Pudding.
Blackstrap Molasses & Fresh Ginger Cake
Blackstrap Molasses and Fresh Ginger Cake is a dark, moody, and moist dessert masterpiece. Warm spices are on prominent display with fresh ginger, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, and the rich and smoky tones of blackstrap molasses. This cake is a great foil to a rich frosting (stay tune for Paul's salted maple buttercream next week), but has the verve to stand alone as simple seasonal dessert. Blackstrap Molasses and Fresh Ginger Cake is crowd favorite whenever we make it and is a stunning high holiday treat. We've adapted this recipe from one of our favorite dessert authors, David Lebovitz. Check out our review of his cookbook at our Bookshelf.
Dessert Round-Up
Thanks for following along with our new adventures! We recently moved from Pittsburgh to Haiti where we are starting a 5 year volunteer assignment with a non-profit relief and development organization. We will be in transition for the next few months as we complete our in-country orientation, language study, spend time living with host families in both the countryside and capital... and lest we forget, have our first baby somewhere in there as well! Please bear with us as we will not have ready access to internet or a kitchen throughout this time. We will continue to share new recipes that we've prepared in advance, and updates on our new life in Haiti as often as we are able.
In anticipation of the dessert making and eating season, we've put together a collection of both Paul and Rebecca approved desserts. You will find some very quick and easy slam-dunks among the group, and a few of Paul's more complicated creations, that are honestly worth the time investment.
BLACK FUDGE PUDDING CAKES
OAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
MAPLE WALNUT BAKLAVA
BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES COOKIES
MOCHA MASCARPONE MOUSSE
BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES & FRESH GINGER CAKE WITH SALTED MAPLE BUTTERCREAM
MEXICAN CHOCOLATE CUSTARD CAKE
RED WINE POACHED PEARS
SALTED CARAMEL & PEAR BREAD PUDDING
ALMOND MERINGUES WITH CRÈME ANGLAISE & BERRY SAUCE
THREE LAYER PARSNIP CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
MEYER LEMON POSSET
6 Chocolate Recipes for Valentine's Day
Post-delivery, I've found myself craving chocolate...lots of chocolate. This weekend is a great excuse to indulge! We've put together a collection of tempting chocolate recipes, from gooey, to spicy, luxurious, to simple. Go ahead, make yourself something sweet!
