Posts Tagged “sweets”
I ran across this very simple recipe from noted pastry chef Gale Gand via her Italian mother-in-law. Sweet enough, but not cloyingly sweet. Kinda round, but not perfectly shaped. Crispy on the outside, soft, moist and lovely on the inside thanks to the ricotta cheese. And we fell in love.
It’s November as I write this and really the only fresh fruits in season are apples, pears, grapes from – somewhere – and those little Clementine oranges. Most citrus hasn’t even yet gotten great. So I am especially grateful for this light, not-too-sweet pear clafutis treat.
This dessert is so simple as to almost not count as cooking. If that bothers you, you can certainly make these with a real pie crust. But if you’re in a hurry or busy or tired (who isn’t one of those?) and don’t want to bother all that much, you will enjoy this.
I wanted to grill the fruit to bring out its sugars and its flavor and to lend just a touch of smoke. I used a gas grill, not charcoal this time. Grilling the fruit was a great choice. The nectarines came off the grill tempting, wet and oozing with summer, the sugar of the fruit dark and caramelized.
if I’m going to eat some fried sugary confection, I want to be bowled over with culinary bliss. And I wasn’t. Admittedly, they were a little better after a few minutes in the microwave. And while I’ll probably try others, I am neither glazed and infused not dazed and confused. I’m not even crazed and amused and I am very rapidly losing interest in this donut rage.
Bread pudding, also known as “poor man’s pudding,” was created by housewives and cooks who couldn’t afford to waste anything. Today’s bread pudding it is a trendy comfort food that creative restaurant pastry chefs enhance to try to outdo each other with exotic ingredients, rich sauces and extravagant platings.
The whole thing took all of 15 minutes to make and produced one of the richest, most luxurious, dark chocolate reverences I have ever had. Think of the softness of black velvet or a doeskin glove; the warmth of a moonless summer night. Sweet, dark and rich, but not close to cloying. Adult richness and creaminess that borders on food porn.
You have probably noticed that most of life is a rush, Fellow FoodBeest. I’m not complaining. These are the times I live in. This is the life I chose, it’s just I sometimes miss the luxury of leisurely everyday meals when everyone sits together and talks to each other.
I put the dark chocolate-covered square to my mouth and tasted … salt! Sea salt. I took a bite. It was that wonderful sweet/salty thing: vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate and salt. I kept eating until I saw some thing poking up though the middle of the vanilla ice cream. What was it? I thought it was a chocolate thing, but NO! It was a chocolate-covered pretzel in the middle of the ice cream bar. What’s more it was top of that stubby chocolate-covered handle. This was too good to be true.
Clafouti is a very grown up dessert. Or it’s an interesting breakfast. It contains relatively little sugar. It is somewhere between a custard and a cake. And it’s full of fruit. Invented in Limousin, France, clafoutis (as it is spelled in France) typically is studded with cherries. With the pits (the French say it gives it a slight almond flavor). Sometimes other fruits are used like nectarines, plums, blackberries or, as in the play God of Carnage, apples.
