dessert

Diced! – Ajax – Lemon Tart with White Chocolate Mascarpone Cream and Macerated Brandied Blueberry Sauce

May 14, 2013

The Ranting Chef Recipes, Vegetarian, Baking, Dessert, Kosher, Fruit Gourmet, recipes, recipe, vegetarian, baking, food, cooking, fruit, dessert, Kosher, postaday 5 Comments

Today we have an entrant for the final course of the Diced! competition. Contestants were instructed to create or find a recipe for a dessert containing the following ingredients: mini white powdered doughnuts, white chocolate and Fresh blueberries. They were instructed to make their dish and create a blog post about it, including pictures. You can help determine who advances to the next round. On Friday, after the last post, I will post a poll where you can vote for up to two of the contestants to move on. Vote for the post you like the best. You can vote because of the inventiveness, the yummyness, the use of ingredients, the quality of the writing and pictures or for any other reason. The poll will be active for one week only. Check back and vote. In the event of a tie, the Ranting Chef will choose who advances. More information about Diced! can be found here.

We started with five contestants and have two remaining (in alphabetical order): Ajax and Maggie. Ellie had the fewest amount of votes after the first round, Jenna had the fewest after the second round and Mikaela had to drop out of the competition.

Today’s contestant, AJAX is a F-16 pilot and blogger over at Like A Fighter Pilot. His posts, as demonstrated below, contain entries for mind, body and spirit. Check out his blog and his Diced! entry below…

Out of your element

Tail 90-0768 My Aircraft

Mind – The final round of Diced is here, and unfortunately for me, The Ranting Chef threw a curve ball. If you have followed LIKEAFIGHTERPILOT.com you know we really don’t do desserts. We work on the mind, body, and spirit, and when it comes to eating, our focus is making tasty, expedient, dinners. You have to know when you are out of your element in order to be able to operate in it. But one thing about flying fighter aircraft, you can’t shy away from things that are tough, or situations that make you uncomfortable. The only way to get better at difficult tasks is to dive in and practice. I can distinctly remember learning how to fly with nigh vision goggles. Imagine greatly reducing your natural field of view and taking away all your depth-perception and then flying in close proximity to other aircraft. Then imagine flying low altitude at 510 knots (600 mph) under the same conditions…sucking up seat cushions is how some describe the experience. Practice is important, but so is bringing in the right people on your team. For this task I brought on the team my secret dessert weapon, my wife Lisa. So fights on Maggie, I think you will all love the dessert.

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Body – Sports Day

Wingman/Flight Leads/Instructors

30 minutes of boxing bag work

- 15 on the heavy bag

- 15 on the speed bag

Weapons Instructor Course

30 minutes of sparring

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Recipe of the Day

Lemon Tart with White Chocolate Mascarpone Cream and Macerated Brandied Blueberry Sauce

The Lemon Tart by Marcella Rosene

The White Chocolate Mascarpone is Lisa’s

The Blueberry Brandy sauce is by AJAX’s

Photo by AJAX

Serves – 8

Prep time – A lot, this is not a quick prep item.

Nutrition – Calories…a lot, its dessert the gym

Ingredients

For the Tart Shells

3/4 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature

2 1/4 cups flour

Filling:

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon arrowroot

1 1/2 teaspoons finely minced lemon peel

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

First the Lemon Tarts

1. To prepare the tart shells: Place the powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process just long enough to remove any lumps. Add the butter in small pieces and process until the mixture is almost fluffy. Gradually add the flour and continue processing until the mixture forms a firm dough. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a large piece of plastic wrap. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap. Chill just until the dough is no longer warm from processing, no longer than 30 minutes. (The dough needs to be at room temperature to form the shells.)

2. Spray eight 3-inch tart tins with a nonstick cooking spray. Separate the dough into 8 equal pieces. Place a ball of dough in the center of each tin and press in the bottom and up the sides. The dough should be spread very thin. Refrigerate the shells at least 20 minutes before baking. (The shells can also be frozen.) Prick the bottoms before baking.

3. Place the shells on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated 325-degree oven 15 minutes. Rotate the shells and continue baking an additional 15 minutes. Cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes. Loosen the shells from the pans with the tip of a knife if necessary and remove. (The unfilled shells can be held at room temperature in a tin for a week.)

4. To prepare the filling: In a food processor place the whole eggs, yolks and lemon juice. Process until the eggs are well beaten. With the machine running gradually add the sugar, arrowroot and lemon peel. Add the cream cheese a chunk at a time and puree until specks of cream cheese are no longer visible.

5. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture coats a spoon but is still thin enough to pour. When the filling has begun to thicken pour into a measuring cup. If the filling has thickened so that it is no longer pourable, stir in a teaspoon or two of warm water.

6. Place the pastry shells on a cookie sheet and carefully pour the hot filling into the shells. Place the tarts in the oven and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven 6 minutes or until the filling does not jiggle when the tarts are moved. Remove from the oven and let cool. Cover loosely and refrigerate up to 24 hours.

Ingredients

White Chocolate Mascarpone

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

4 large egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

9 oz Mascarpone cheese (room temperature)

4-6 Tablespoons brandy

4 oz good quality white chocolate such as Lindt

1. In a small bowl combine the Mascarpone and the brandy.

2. Break the white chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double boiler. Allow to cool, then stir into the Mascarpone and brandy bowl.

3. Combine sugar and water in a small non-stick pan over high heat, bring to a boil.

4. In a standing mixer with whisk attachment lightly beat egg yolks until blended, increase speed and beat until light yellow and frothy.

4. Using a candy thermometer cook sugar syrup until 240 degrees Fahrenheit/soft ball stage.

5. With mixer on high, slowly pour sugar syrup down the sides of the bowl and incorporate.

6. Whisk egg yolk on high speed until cool, up to 10 minutes, add one half teaspoon of vanilla and combine for 1 more minute.

7. Stir the egg yolk sugar mixture into the Mascarpone brandy and white chocolate bowl, combine well and refrigerate for two hours. Set aside.

Macerated Brandied Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup brandy

1. Combine blueberries and brandy, simmer on medium heat until reduced. While simmering crush blueberries slightly with a fork. Let cool slightly before topping tart.

Assembly

1. Cover lemon tart with large dollop of Mascarpone White Chocolate, drizzle with brandied blueberry sauce, then sprinkle lightly with crumbled white powdered donut.

Enjoy

AJAX

MackNBee taste rating 4 out of 4

AJAX ease of prep rating 1 out of 4,

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Spirit – Sometime you just need to rest your body and your mind. Sit back relax, consider all your blessings and have a tasty dessert after working hard.

Cheers

AJAX

The views of LIKEAFIGHTERPILOT are those of the author alone and should not be considered any official DoD, Government, or USAF position.

Remember – check back after the last post to vote on who advances in the Diced! competition.

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Diced! – Maggie – Donut White Chocolate Cheesecake with Fresh Blueberry Sauce

May 13, 2013

The Ranting Chef Baking, Cheese, Chocolate, Dessert, DIced!, Fruit, Kosher, Recipes, Vegetarian baking, cheese, chocolate, cooking, dessert, food, fruit, Gourmet, Kosher, postaday, recipe, recipes, vegetarian 6 Comments

Today’s contestant, Maggie is no stranger to The Rantings of an Amateur Chef. As the author of the popular Maggie Monday series, she has brought us quite a few great dishes. Now it is time for Maggie to go toe-to-toe with our other contestants.

Well, two tries are better than one, right? When I first read over the ingredients for this DICED challenge, I immediately knew I wanted to make bread pudding. I thought it would be perfect- donuts and blueberries in the bread pudding, and a white chocolate Frangelico sauce. I went straight home and got baking. Everything came together as I hoped.

It smelled amazing as it was baking. I took it out of the oven.

It was the ugliest thing I’ve ever made.

But, we had to taste it. Actually, it was pretty darn good. But it was so stinking ugly that my family wouldn’t eat the leftovers. Including #1 son who eats mustard sandwiches. Hmmmm. I’ve included photos of the hideous yet curiously tasty dish. And the recipe in case anyone might wish to improve upon it. Good luck!

I was back to the drawing board.

My next thought was to try a white chocolate cheesecake. It would be easy enough to adapt my basic cheesecake recipe-which is a classic New York style- dense, not too sweet, with a sour cream topping. I used the mini-donuts in the crust and garnish, added melted white chocolate to the cheesecake filling, then made a fresh blueberry sauce for topping. I thought about pouring a pint of fresh blueberries over the crust before putting the filling in for baking, but chose not to this time as I wasn’t sure that the density of the crust would hold up to the berries. I may do this next time as I think it would work.

Everything came together beautifully, and this cake smelled so good in the oven. When I took it out to cool before putting the sour cream layer on it was all we could do not to dig in.

I was so pleased with how pretty this cheesecake is. The crust was delicious, and you could really take the donuts in it. I had not thought about adding white chocolate to the cheesecake filling, and it was great- still not too sweet, but did add richness. As if cheesecake needs to be more rich! I had to give a nod to the donuts with my garnish, so I made a little Donut Tower. Isn’t it cute?

So, this cake came out of the oven the day Son #3, Daughter #2 and her boyfriend came home from college. #3 was so inspired that he wants to try to bake one himself. We’ll see how that goes!

The second attempt was well worth it, and I will be making this again. With the donuts!

Donut White Chocolate Cheesecake with Fresh Blueberry Sauce

What you need:

Crust:

10 mini-powdered donuts- stale- a day or two old is best

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

¼ cup melted butter

Filling:

10 oz white chocolate, melted

1 oz white chocolate, grated

4-8oz packages cream cheese, softened

½ cup plus 2 Tbs sugar

4 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

2 Tbs flour

1Tbs pure vanilla extract

Sour Cream Topping:

1 cup sour cream

1/8 cup sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Fresh Blueberry Sauce:
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (3 oranges)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
4 half-pints fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

What you do:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare a 9”spring form pan by spraying the bottom with baking spray, lining bottom with parchment paper, and spraying again. Place mini donuts in a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Add almonds and graham cracker crumbs and pulse until blended. Pour crumb mixture into a mixing bowl, and add melted butter. Mix until well blended then press into bottom and about ½” up side of pan.

Melt chocolate in microwave until smooth. Using a mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add sugar, and bet in whole eggs and egg yolks, adding one at a time. Add the flour and vanilla, mix well, then add in the melted chocolate, beating the entire time until well combined. This is easiest in a stand mixer, but can be accomplished using a hand mixer.

Pour filling over the crust and bake cheesecake for one hour or until top is firm to the touch. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees.

While cake is cooling, whisk together sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Once cake has cooled for about 15 minutes, pour sour cream topping over the top of the cake, smoothing out with a rubber spatula if necessary. Place cake back in the oven at 450 degrees and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and place on a rack. Cool to room temperature.

Once cake is at room temperature, cover and refrigerate overnight to fully set.

Before serving prepare the blueberry sauce. Combine the orange juice, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. When the mixture is translucent and thickened, stir in the blueberries and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, just until a few berries have burst but most are still whole. Stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice and cool.

Garnish cake with blueberry sauce, mini-donuts, and grated white chocolate.

Remember – check back after the last post to vote on who advances in the Diced! competition.

Maggie Monday: A “Mouse” in the Dessert

April 22, 2013

The Ranting Chef Baking, Chocolate, Dessert, Fruit, Kosher, Vegetarian chocolate, cooking, dessert, food, fruit, Gourmet, Kosher, postaday, recipe, recipes, vegetarian 5 Comments

I could never be the next Iron Chef. If I were on the competition I might be able to get enough points on taste and originality, but when it comes to presentation, I lack. A lot. A whole lot. Lucky for me there are chefs like Maggie who do all three very well. Take a look at her mice below…

We were invited to dinner at a friend’s home and I offered to bring dessert. They too, have a lot of kids, so I wanted to bring something that would feed a lot of people, be kid friendly, and somewhat easy to make. I had never made a trifle before, but decided this was an opportunity to give it a shot. I even sent my husband out to buy a trifle dish, and he did so with success. My husband is not a cook, so this was quite an accomplishment. He scored!

So, as I was pulling this plan together, I was browsing on Pinterest and saw a photo of little mice made out of Hershey Kisses, chocolate covered maraschino cherries, and sliced almonds. They were so dang cute that I had to incorporate them into the Trifle. Hence- Chocolate “Mouse” Trifle.

This was super easy, and very fun to make. It was a huge hit, and I will make it again. The kids couldn’t wait to dig in. Mmmmmm!

Chocolate Mouse Trifle

What you need:

1 box chocolate cake mix
2boxes prepared chocolate mousse instant pudding
1 package of Heath Bar bits (where you find Chocolate Chips in the baking aisle)
4 cups fresh whipped cream

Sliced strawberries (optional)

Mice:

Hershey Kisses

1 jar maraschino cherries with stems attached

½ cup chocolate chips

1 small package of slice almonds

What you do:

Bake cake according to directions on box in a 13 x 9 inch pan. When cooled, cut into bite size pieces. Prepare the chocolate mousse according to directions on box. Mix up your whipped cream, or buy prepared whipped cream or topping. Thinly slice strawberries if you are choosing to include fruit. Beginning with mousse, layer all ingredients in trifle bowl. Finish with the whipped cream, then sprinkle with Heath Bar bits and arrange chocolate mice on top. To make mice, remove cherries from jar and gently dab dry them with a paper towel. Unwrap the kisses, and pick out unbroken sliced almonds. Melt the chocolate chips in microwave.

Dip the cherries in the melted chocolate, and immediately attach a kiss to the cherry to form the mouse head. Slip in two sliced almonds for ears, and repeat until you have all the mice you want. Refrigerate until serving. Serves: 8 to 12 people.

Pop Tart Family

April 13, 2013

The Ranting Chef Baking, Breakfast, Dessert, Fruit, Kosher, Snack, Vegetarian baking, breakfast, brunch, cooking, dessert, food, fruit, Gourmet, Kosher, Pop Tart, postaday, recipe, recipes, Snack, vegetarian 17 Comments

We are a Pop Tart family.

Over the Christmas holidays, we ended up playing a family game with a group of relatives that was focused on products and brands. My boys were on a team with a third person and a card came up that had to do with cereal. I knew they would be at a loss as the only one in our house that will touch cereal is me.

When my wife and I were first living together I found that she had the same breakfast every day: one package of unfrosted strawberry pop tarts. Me, I needed variety, but she was perfectly fine having that same breakfast every day for years.

Those years went by and after making a conscious decision to eat healthier came, the pop tarts were replaced, but by that time my kids were hooked. They liked a variety of pop tarts, but still wanted those rectangular pastries for breakfast. They still do today, unless I force an outage and drive them to other items.

I came across this recipe a while back and saved it until just recently. These were pretty straightforward to make.

The recipe called for grape but it will work just as easy with any flavor.

Making the dough.

Resting in the fridge.

Rolled out and cut. Use a ruler.

After I started making the tarts I realized I had just used up all the parchment paper in the house with another recipe. As a consequence and not wanting to burn the tarts, I baked them on a baking stone. Unfortunately the stone does not have a lip to it and as some of the jelly ran out during baking, I made a mess in the oven.

Photo Dec 29, 5 16 48 PM

Noticed the edges crimped via fork? Fancy….

Making the glaze.

The glaze had a distinct orange flavor (I did add the optional orange liqueur). I think next time, I would choose a less sticky choice and go with a standard glaze.

Grape Jelly Breakfast Tarts

Prep Time: 1 hours 30 minutes | Cook Time: 0 hours 30 minutes | Makes: 5 tarts | Difficulty: Intermediate

Ingredients:

For the Tarts:

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold shortening, cut into small pieces
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup grape jelly
1 large egg, beaten
1/3 cup milk

For the Glaze:

1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Juice of 2 oranges
2 tablespoons orange liqueur (optional)
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
Grated orange zest, for topping

Directions:

Make the tarts: Pulse the flour, granulated sugar and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the shortening and about one-quarter of the butter and pulse until they disappear into the flour, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining butter and pulse a few times, until the mixture looks like coarse meal with pea-size bits of butter. Add 1/2 cup ice water and pulse once or twice, until the dough just comes together. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, form into a disk and wrap tightly; chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. (For quicker tarts, use refrigerated pie dough and skip this step.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 10-by-14-inch rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out ten 4-by-3-inch rectangles using a toaster pastry press or a paring knife. Transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Chill at least 15 minutes.

Spread 5 of the dough rectangles with a heaping tablespoonful of jelly each, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Brush the edges with the beaten egg, then cover with the remaining 5 dough rectangles. Crimp the edges with a fork or use the toaster pastry press to seal. Chill at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake the tarts until flaky and golden, 20 to 25 minutes, brushing with the milk after 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Meanwhile, make the glaze: Bring the granulated sugar, orange juice and liqueur (if using) to a simmer in a large skillet over low heat; cook until reduced by half, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Let cool. Brush the glaze on the tarts, sprinkle with the orange zest and let set, 5 minutes.

Source: http://m.foodnetwork.com/recipes/recipe/560315

Easter Recipes

March 28, 2013

The Ranting Chef Appetizer, Baking, Beef, Cheese, Dessert, Eggs, English, French, Fruit, Kosher, Lamb, Low Carb, Pork, Recipes, Salad, Seafood, Side Dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian Appetizer, baking, cheese, cooking, dessert, dinner, Easter, food, fruit, Gourmet, Kosher, low carb, party, pork, postaday, recipe, recipes, salad, seafood, side dish, spices, tomato, vegetable, vegetarian, wine 12 Comments

Getting ready for Easter? Take a look at some of the recipes below for your Easter Dinner. In reviewing I realized that I had not yet made a baked ham, so you won’t see one down there. I’ll rectify that this year.