Things with custardy fillings, textures and flavors taste like heaven to me. I love Portuguese custard pies, crème brûlée, flan, English bread pudding and of course, any decant cream-soaked French toast. A toast to French toast, I say!

decadent French toast

Last Friday I went to the new La Boulange bakery that has just opened nearby my office in the Financial District of San Francisco. My co-workers Caroline and Megan wanted to taste their popular open faced smoked salmon sandwich and soup for lunch. It looked delicious, like everything else on the menu. The pastries seemed amazingly crispy and browned to perfection. While waiting in line, I couldn’t take my eyes off of this shinny, glossy, sesame seed-covered, braided brioche (challah). It was begging to come home with me. What can I say? I’m irresistible.
I used the brioche for this marvelous breakfast the next morning.

key ingredients for decadent French toast. Mmm, that brioche loaf looks good!

decadent French toast

1 challah/brioche loaf cut into thick slices (about 6 to 8 )
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup half and half
½ tsp Kosher salt
3 tbsp sugar
~ 1 tsp canola oil
powdered sugar

Add eggs, sugar and salt to a bowl and whisk until incorporated. Add half and half and whisk again to combine. Soak bread slices on both sides for about ½ minute each. Allow bread slices to soak up liquid to almost completely saturate them with the cream mixture. Don’t let them break apart though, as it will ruin the presentation.

Meanwhile heat up a skillet with ½ tsp of canola oil, add as many slices as your skillet accommodates and fry them for about 3-4 minutes, flipping them half way. Be careful not to burn or under cook. Transfer to a serving platter, repeat with remaining. Dust powdered sugar over and serve. We had ours with some blueberries, butter, maple syrup and a nice big cuppa strong coffee.

frying the cream soaked brioche

dig in!

My friend, Stevie, a WC bigwig, just had a birthday. I couldn’t make it to see him physically that day, as I’m so glamorous that I was travelling abroad or something equally fabulous. But I missed him, so the next time we met for dinner, I brought over a pumpkin pie with a message, “Happy Belated Birthday,” in red cake icing.

cream cheese pumpkin pie

The process of making the pie and doing all the mixing feels good during the gloomy weather we’ve been having in San Francisco. Creating the dessert feels cheerful and productive, and you get the reward of sharing deliciousness with friends. Every year when it gets cold outside I crave comfort food like pumpkin pie. I try to make my pies healthy, without too much fat or eggs. I’ve been experimenting so this time I tried it with cream cheese for a different flavor. Look here and here for some more variations.

cream cheese pumpkin pie

“Whole Foods” pre-made whole wheat pie crust (making it easy as pie as you don’t have to roll out the dough!)
one package of cream cheese
one can of pure pumpkin
½ cup of maple syrup
¾ cup of pure cane sugar
½ cup of soy milk
3 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice from “Trader Joes”

Pre heat oven to 375F.

Soften the cream cheese and mix it together with the pumpkin, soy milk, sugar, maple syrup and spices until you get a smooth texture with no lumps. Fill your pre made pie crust. Then bake for 45 minutes for a yummy pie. Cool and decorate if you want.

The cream cheese adds a certain pleasant thickness and consistency that was different from other pies I’ve made. We all enjoyed this with a refreshing after-dinner drink.

These date bars are my mother’s recipe. She got it from a cookbook on bars and cakes, though I’ve no idea its name. They have to be my all-time favorite dessert that she makes: I like these even more than her celebrated homemade cream puffs or Italian Christmas cookies. Last year, she mailed me a care package for the holidays that included a small container of date bars. Yum! They got a bit mashed up in the post but it hardly mattered.

Medjool date bars with almonds

me and the folks on vacation to wine country this fall

Whenever she makes them, I feel young. Though the funny thing is that we never ate these when I was a child. I don’t think that she discovered this amazing recipe herself until I had already left home for good. Yet, I feel that they’re part of my entire culinary life back to my earliest memories. Strange how the mind works. I know it isn’t true yet I cannot help believing we’ve always enjoyed these date bars in my family. Could this be what initially attracted my father to my mother? Hmmm…

Maybe not, but if the quantum physics people are right, perhaps that’s exactly what happened in some alternate universe.

It’s nice to dream.

Medjool date bars with almonds

1½ lbs Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1 cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup sugar
¼ plus ¼ tsp salt
½ cup sliced almonds
1½ cups flour
1½ cups rolled oats
½ cup brown sugar
12 tbsp butter

Add dates, sugar, ¼ tsp salt and orange juice to a saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer for five minutes, covered, until the fruit softens and forms a thick paste. Set aside.

Grease and flour a medium baking dish—mine was an oval one about 9 by 14 inches. The original recipe calls for 9” by 9”. Pre-heat oven to 375F.

Mix flour, oats, remaining salt, and brown sugar together. I used my food processor with the dough blade. Roughly chop butter and process into dry ingredients until coarse crumbs form. Press half of oat mix into base of baking dish. Cover with cooked dates. Top with remaining oat mix. Bake 30 to 40 minutes until the crust slightly browns. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Cut into bars.

cranberry sour cream upside-down cake

I found this wonderful recipe for cranberry upside-down cake on Moveable Feasts, a great foodie blog that we’ve been following and enjoying for a while. Right now, Barbara, with a group of other blogger friends, is in the middle of this really engaging series called “Gourmet’s 50 Women Game Changers in Food,” where she’ll post a biographical sketch of one famous woman chef/entrepreneur at a time with one of her recipes which she prepares as part of the story. It is truly amazing to learn about these talented folk and all the interesting ways that they’ve made food their passion and life. Follow this link for the recent story about Nancy Silverton from La Brea Bakery, among other places.

Anyway, back to the cranberry cake. I’ve been on the hunt lately for an appropriately Thanksgiving-ish dessert that seems original. I’m not too into chocolate (I know, it is a real flaw) and I’ve already been asked to prepare classic pecan pie, so another pie’s out. So what could be better than a cake with cranberries?

In her post, Barbara warns about the caramel spilling out of the dish while baking. I used a deep 10-inch glass baking dish and placed mine on top of a baking sheet covered with foil to catch any spillage. There was a bit though really not much at all. Because my dish was larger in diameter, I needed more cranberries to cover it. Also, her recipe specifically calls for “unsulphured molasses,” but I’m not sure what that is. I had some date molasses at home already, so used that instead. Otherwise, the recipe is essentially the same.

The cake had a dense almost poundcake texture that was really complimented by the sour sweetness of the cranberries, caramel and sour cream. It makes a wonderful dessert and is excellent for breakfast, too. This yummy treat is well on its way to becoming a holiday classic in my home.

cranberry sour cream upside-down cake

2½ cups fresh cranberries
2/3 cup light brown sugar
12 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp date molasses
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream

Pre-heat oven to 375F. Thoroughly grease baking dish with butter. Then cover base of dish with wax paper cut to size.

In a small pan, add 4 tablespoons melted butter, brown sugar, molasses, and ¼ cup water. Bring to boil, mix then pour into base of prepared cake dish.

Next fill base of cake dish with cranberries, making sure to lay them evenly and cover caramel sauce as much as possible.

Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat eggs together with sour cream. Add remaining butter to egg mixture and combine. Add flour mix to egg mix and beat until smooth.

Gently cover batter over cranberries. Bake 50 to 60 minutes. Test for doneness with a clean toothpick. Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes. Then run a small knife around the edge of the cake and gently invert into a serving dish.

This is not something that I’ve ever tried before: deep frying apple rings in a corn flour batter. I read about it in the New York Times Magazine recently. The article had a dozen recipes for apples. Of course, I was only drawn to the deep-fried section Aside from this one, they recommended a way of making tempura-style apple rings, which sounded great but looked more complex; plus the more widely-known apple fritter.

batter fried apple rings

This dish calls for corn meal, but I didn’t have that, so I used corn flour instead. I made this for breakie, though I think that it could be a fun sweet-treat, especially served à la mode with vanilla ice-cream. If you’re feeling particularly frisky, then add hot fudge or caramel sauce and some whipped cream. Now that sounds good!

batter fried apple rings

2 medium apples—I used Granny Smith
½ cup flour
½ cup corn meal or flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/8 tsp cayenne
Canola oil to fry with

Peel and core apples. Cut into about quarter inch thick rings. Soak in the buttermilk.

Mix dry ingredients together. Toss apples into flour mixture. Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Let drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

Our next-door neighbor, Ann, keeps bringing us fresh produce from her country home, and we like it. Thanks for your amazing generosity Ann! This summer we were regaled many times with ultra fresh tomatoes, basil, bok choy, sweet corn, lemons, eggplants, oranges, and pears: all delicious and organically produced, and all consumed with gusto.

rustic pear tart

We had a huge bag of pears, so I decided to bake something with them. I wanted something easy because it was mid-week and I didn’t want to spend the evening in the kitchen. While checking my google reader I spotted the perfect recipe: Torta Rústica de Pêra from my blogger friend, Fernanda. Her recipes are incredible; so are her writing, blog design and pictures! Congrats Fer and happy birthday to you!

This tart is extremely simple to make because the puffy pastry dough is store bought. I have used this same kind in a very successful savory tart before. It works perfectly every time. The only problem with this tart, if it truly is a problem, is that once you start you can’t stop eating it.

rustic pear tart ready for the oven

rustic pear tart

8 organic pears
1 container Duflour puff pastry (2 sheets), defrosted
½ container apricot preserves, I used Bonne Maman
1/3 cup water
Egg wash (1 egg plus 1 tbsp water beaten)
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
Few drops of lemon juice

Pre heat oven to 350F.

Lay parchment paper on two large baking trays.

Dust the surface of your counter top with flour. Stretch each puffy pastry, giving it a rough rectangular shape. Place them on paper lined trays.

Add water and apricot jam to a saucepan, stir and warm until it becomes runny. Remove from heat

Remove tops, bottoms and core pears, cut into thin half moon shaped slices. I did not peel mine, to add to the rusticity. Brush puff pastry with egg wash. Arrange pears over pastry, slightly overlapping one another. Squeeze few drops of lemon over pear slices. Brush with melted apricot jam. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Watch it for the last 10 minutes to prevent burning.

Whenever Hegui and I travel to Brazil, one of my favorite desserts to enjoy there is “Romeo e Julieta,” which consists of a small plate with a piece of very white, salty and mild cheese and either a small scoop or slice of red guava preserves. The colors are always dramatic: pure white and deep red. I’m fascinated by the taste and the name: Romeo and Juliet? I’ve asked many times which is which? Is the white cheese Romeo and the red guava Juliet or vice versa? Nobody seems to know the answer.

Romeo and Juliet croissants

In preparation for this story, I’ve been reflecting more on the colors of the two filling ingredients. To me, the whiteness of the cheese implies purity, cleanliness, simple joy, innocence, naivety, and surrender; the deep red, passion, lust, love, anger, and blood. Really then, the Brazilian dessert might be about the relationship between Romeo and Juliet, which as almost everyone knows was full of innocent love, blood lust, passion, surrender, naivety and all the rest.

When I think of these star-crossed lovers, I’m reminded of that amazing modernized film version of the Shakespeare play directed by Baz Luhrmann, Romeo + Juliet. Have you seen it? It’s the one with Claire Danes as Juliet and Leonard DiCaprio as Romeo. The filming is visually stunning. I especially love the famous part where Romeo climbs to Juliet’s balcony at night. In the film version, they fall into a breathtaking Southern California-style swimming pool in their party costumes as they hide from detection by the Capulet guards and Juliet’s Nurse. I’ll never forget it. Here’s the link on U-tube if you haven’t seen it.

ROMEO
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
It is my lady. O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold…

JULIET
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

This was my inspiration for today’s friendly cooking challenge: Julia Child’s croissants. Actually, this time I suggested making croissants for the challenge, but my dearest Heavenly was the force behind the organization of the delightful event. If you haven’t already, check the links below to see how the other participants’ creations turned out.

Heavenly from donuts to delirium
Vanessa from Sweet Artichoke
Anna from Keep it Luce
Joumana from Taste of Beirut
Glamorous Glutton
Jamie’s Girl
Christina from Thyme to be Loved
Erika Beth from Life’s too Short to Skip Dessert
Faith from An Edible Mosaic

Sadly, I have to admit that I had some trouble with this recipe. I followed Mamaliga’s instructions and her really helpful photos demonstrating the various moves as well as I could. I made some accidental alternations to Ms. Child’s original recipe. I forgot to buy milk, for one, so I used soy milk instead. And trying to be really cool and P.C., I got an extremely overpriced tiny bag of organic pastry flour to make my 2:1 ratio of pastry to all purpose flour mix, only to realize when I got home that the pastry flour was whole wheat. I’m not sure but I think that that made a difference.

my two bags of flour with the printed instructions and illustrations for Julia Child's croissants

adding the butter to the leavened dough

I even used a ruler to measure the dough, just like was recommended.

To make these “Romeo and Juliet” croissants, I filled each with about a teaspoon full of guava butter (from my local Brazilian market) and mascarpone cheese (the traditional salty dessert cheese from Brazil doesn’t really melt that well) before rolling them into their final shapes and letting them undergo their last rise. That’s my only addition to this straightforward yet challenging recipe.

As you might have guessed, making these takes forever. You have to let the dough rise; then add butter, fold and rest; then fold and rest again; then shape and rise again, then bake. The French must be very patient people. But the taste, divine! My god, these little messes were really, really, really good. And I don’t write that very often at all. These were good!

my guava and mascarpone

the final rise

I’m not going to recreate the recipe here, since in all other respects I followed it as precisely as I could. And really, Mamaliga’s pics in the kitchen are way better than mine ever could be. I had a lot of trouble at the end forming the final bits of dough into the correct triangular designs to roll smoothly into similarly shaped croissants. Plus I was a bit rushed, as our dinner guests where about to arrive. Instead, I fear that mine looked a bit like malnourished newborn puppies, all wiggling around in a basket.

I will make these again, eventually, perhaps when I’ve hours and hours of unstructured time on my hands. But for now, I’ll just daydream.

tasty, and fun to play with, too

The idea to make carob balls was inspired from an exercise in a culture awareness class I recently took as part of the curriculum in my counseling/psychology program. Yes, I am studying to become a counselor. As you know food has a direct link to culture. The last assignment for the class was to make a recipe from your family of origin, which would be your mom dad and sister etc., and bring it to share with the other classmates.

carob balls

So, I searched my memory and thought of tofu stir fries much like timely tasty tofu, and the traditional oatmeal with margarine we would always have for breakfast, because back in the ‘80’s everyone was using margarine on food instead of butter…even though now we find it has “trans-fats,” so all those years we thought we were doing ourselves a favor we probably should have been using real butter! Unfortunately I couldn’t really bring the tofu stir fry in for breakfast as it was a morning class and it would have needed to be heated.

I had an “aha” moment and recalled a dessert we would get when my dad wanted to give us a special treat, carob balls. Our parents made mostly health food items for us to eat and we weren’t really knowledgeable about chocolate goodies, so we always got the alternative, which happened to be carob. This was back in the day when people used to say, “Can you dig it?” so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.

My dad said his recipe actually originated from trying to make frosting for a batch of brownies also made from carob. Carob comes from the ground up seed pod from the carob tree. It is commonly used as a substitute for chocolate (without the side effects)! Carob is very healthy and actually has nutritional value like protein etc. My dad learned about it as a boy because there was a carob tree on his block in N. Hollywood where he grew up. He used to gnaw on the pods and taste sweetness. He relearned about carob later when becoming health food conscience.

carob chips

Anyway, the frosting he was trying to make was mixing up too thick and was much too dense to spread evenly on the brownies, so he and my mom just started eating it out of the bowl. Cooling it and rolling into balls was an afterthought to make the mix cleaner and easier to eat. Though now, I think of them as chocolate truffle alternatives. Overall, carob balls bring up recollections of a loving Dad making a treat for his family which kindles good spirits and connections channeled through a yummy family recipe.

carob balls

2 cups carob powder (found in bulk at most health food stores)
¾ cup softened butter or smart butter veggie margarine (now Trans fat free!)
½ cup honey, or as my dad says, a “glob” of honey!
Optional: raisins, carob chips (also available at health food stores), chopped walnuts, sunflower or sesame seeds, maybe even shredded coconut

Blend softened “butter” and carob powder in a mixing bowl. Blend in “glob” of honey. Mix until it’s like a thick frosting. Add optional ingredients(s) if using. Mix it all together and form into balls or cut into squares or lumps: whatever. Then put in refrigerator to cool or freezer to cool faster. These are best served cold, otherwise they might get messy. You can coat the ball with the shredded coconut or sunflower seeds for decoration! Enjoy compliments of my Padre!

I made this cake as part of the “cheesecake challenge” suggested by the ever-stylish Heavenly. It is based on a recipe by Yotam Ottolengi for caramel and macadamia cheesecake. H had a slice of this luscious dessert at Ottolengi’s restaurant in London and was apparently so captivated, that she couldn’t wait to try it at home. I do wish that I’d been there for that meal!

dark chocolate covered cashew turtle cheesecake

Quite a few delightful bloggers participated in this challenge. If you haven’t already, you should check out their great blogs ASAP. Follow the links below:

Tammy from il doce bacio
Liz from tip-top shape
Reenie from cinnamon and spice
Nanzeen from coffee and crumpets
Vanessa from sweet artichoke
Heavenly Housewife from donuts to delirium
Ros from more than the occasional baker
Amanda from glamorous glutton

Ottolengi’s recipe is very specific, which made me hard pressed to come up with a meaningful variation still in the spirit of the thing. But after the chocolate truffle challenge, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that everyone else in the entire world has known forever: chocolate makes things better. Duh!

I don’t especially enjoy macadamia nuts, so gladly traded them for cashews, which I adore. The simple chocolate topping comes from Emeril Lagasse’s 2003 recipe for chocolate covered turtles. It firmed up pleasantly after refrigeration, giving the cake a crisp outer shell.

This dessert is a pain to make. My cake broke a bit when I removed it from the spring form pan. But no worries. The toppings are so thick that all imperfections were hidden away. I thought that it might be excessively sweet, but again, not to worry. The toppings themselves are time consuming and even a bit dangerous to make: sugar burns, anyone?

Nevertheless, this cheesecake was impossibly good. I really would have devoured the entire cake in a day had it stayed at home. (Hegui and I did share a large slice.) Instead, I brought it to work, where it was vacuumed up by my fellow staffers in less than thirty minutes.

this is a messy decadent treat for any occasion

dark chocolate covered cashew turtle cheesecake

For the cake:

24 oz cream cheese at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
Vanilla pod
4 eggs
¼ cup sour cream
Confectioner’s sugar

For the base:

6 oz chocolate graham crackers
3 tbsp melted butter

For the nut topping:

1 cup raw cashews
~½ cup sugar

For the caramel sauce:

5 tbsp butter
¾ cup sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream

For the chocolate topping:

1 scant cup dark chocolate nibs
1 tbsp vegetable shortening

To prepare the cake:

Preheat oven to 285F.

Lightly grease an 8 inch spring form pan. Cover with wax paper to facilitate removal of cake.

Crush chocolate graham crackers in a food processor. Add melted butter. Press into bottom of pan with a large spoon.

Beat cream cheese and sugar together until mixed. Scrape vanilla seeds from pod and add to cream cheese. Add eggs and sour cream. Beat until thoroughly mixed. Pour over graham cracker base. Bake between 60 and 90 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Carefully remove cake form mold and gently place on a serving platter. This part is tough and my cake crumbled a bit here. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

To prepare the cashew topping:

Place cashews in a single layer on a baking tray. Roast at 285F for about 5 to 8 minutes to lightly toast. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large saucepan, add sugar for nut topping. Heat on medium to medium high until sugar becomes a caramel. This took me about ten minutes or so. Do not stir or move sugar. Carefully add toasted cashews to caramel. Mix with wooden spoon to cover and pour onto a baking tray covered with wax paper. Let cool.

Break into bite-sized portions.

To prepare caramel sauce:

Place butter and sugar in a sauce pan on medium. Stir with a wooden spoon constantly. Cook until a dark caramel forms. This, too, takes at least ten minutes. The caramel went through fascinating stages, becoming a thick paste, then releasing liquid and all sorts of other changes. I wish now that I had made an iPhone movie to show you! Whatever happens, stir until it is the color that you want. Then add heavy cream while continuing to stir. Remove from heat.

To prepare chocolate topping:

Melt chocolate and vegetable shortening together in a double boiler. Stir constantly. Remove from heat to cool a bit then re-warm to tempter the chocolate.

To assemble cake:

Dust cake with confectioner’s sugar. Sprinkle candied cashews on top. Pour caramel sauce over that. Finally, drizzle chocolate sauce on top of everything. Cover and chill for a few hours. Then enjoy!

This is another great recipe from Tess Mallos’ North African Cooking. We served it after the mouthwatering broiled corvina in charmoula marinade, based on a recipe from the same book, the day our super good friend, Kristen, came into town. A meal with guests wouldn’t be complete without dessert, so this adaptation of basbousa, a semolina almond cake, was perfect.

basbousa: semolina almond cake

The original calls for caster sugar and fine semolina; neither of which we had. So as usual, we improvised. I think that the fine sugar and semolina would’ve made the cake taste smoother. Though I actually enjoyed the rougher texture, as this way it reminded me of Brazilian corn cake, a perennial favorite.

basbousa: semolina almond cake

for the batter:

¼ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups semolina
1tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¾ cup plain whole milk yogurt
½ cup slivered blanched almonds

for the syrup:

2 cups sugar
1½ cups water
Juice of a large lemon

for the whipping cream:

1 cup heavy cream
Confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350F.

Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add eggs. Keep beating until fully incorporated. Meanwhile sift remaining dry batter ingredients together. Fold it into butter mix alternating it with yogurt. Fold in almonds. Transfer batter to a buttered 9 by 12 baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Begin making the syrup by dissolving sugar in water under moderate heat. Bring to a boil, add lemon juice and let liquid reduce by a third. Remove from heat and let cool down to room temperature. Pour syrup over hot cake right out of the oven.

pouring sweet lemon syrup over hot basbousa

Whip cream together with a tiny amount of Confectioner’s sugar until light and fluffy.

Plate cake slices on individual dessert dishes with a dollop of whipped cream.