Poached Pear in Spiced Whiskey Syrup

I love pears. I mostly eat them plain or in a salad, and rarely with dessert. That changed a couple weeks ago. This month's recipe was inspired by a free weeknight and ingredients I had in my kitchen. The result.. a pear-y tasty dessert.

Note: this recipe can be doubled if you wish to make more servings at one time.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 Bartlett or Anjou pears, peeled, halved, and cored
1/3 cup cane sugar
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (or substitute with cane sugar) - used for syrup
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 star of anise
1-2 slices of lemon or orange rind
3 whole cloves
a dash of vanilla extract
1 ounce bourbon/whiskey (optional)

Directions:
1. Bring water, cane sugar, honey, vanilla extract, and spices to a boil. Stir until sugar is fully dissolved.
2. Add pears and reduce water to a simmer. Cover water and let simmer for 25-30 minutes. Pears should be mostly submerged. Add more water if pears are not submerged enough.
3. Remove pears with a slotted spoon. The pears will be quite soft when finished. Cover and chill. (I put mine in the fridge while finishing the syrup)
4. Add 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar and (optional) 1 ounce whiskey to pear liquid. Stir added ingredients.
5. Increase heat to medium/high and continue to boil ans stir the remaining pear liquid. (This step is how the liquid is reduced to a syrup.) Keep liquid on stove and boiling until it is syrupy and has reduced to approximately 1/2 cup.
6. Remove pear syrup from heat and strain out the spices.
7. Serve chilled pear with a syrup drizzle. (Optional: serve with ice cream too!)
8. Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Sauce

April's recipe is up on the 1st?! April fool's! This is my recipe for March. 

This is my go to caramel sauce. I have drizzled it on ice cream, brownies, lava cakes, cupcakes, used it fas a frosting base, and even just eaten by the spoonful. Do what you want with the caramel sauce. It's delicious!

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fleur de sel

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring minimally (once or twice), until the sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking without stirring while the sugar cooks. 

 2. Cook until the sugar has reached a medium to dark amber color. Then immediately take the saucepan off the burner. (Pay attention! Caramel can go from great to burnt very quickly. If using a thermometer, cook the sugar until it reaches 345° F.

 3. Once the pan is off the heat add the heavy cream (it will bubble up when combined with the caramel), Whisk in the butter until smooth. If the caramel develops any lumps, place it back over low heat and whisk until smooth. Let stand for a few (2-3) minutes, then add the vanilla extract. Season the finished caramel with fleur de sel to taste. Be careful not to add too much salt.

4. Enjoy!

White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

One of my bonus goals is to bake outside of my comfort zone. I doubled up on this challenge in February. How? 1) Using white chocolate and 2) Mousse without egg whites.

White chocolate does not contain any cocoa in it - it comes from the butter of a cocoa bean - and in my mind this disqualifies it from being real chocolate. As a result, I rarely bake with it. Another difficulty is white chocolate melts at a lower temperature than regular chocolate. The biggest challenge I have is melting but not overheating white chocolate. I've learned that overheated white chocolate gets clumpy and doesn't melt at that point.

Mousse. I have made many a mousse in my day, always using whipped egg whites folded into the chocolate mixture. I heard that whipping cream was also an option. Having never tried it I gave it a whirl this month. Turns out (homemade) whipped cream also works well. It gives a much denser and sweeter taste to the mousse.

This recipe makes about 4 large servings.

Ingredients:

1 ½ c heavy cream

2 egg yolks

6 ounces chopped white chocolate

2 tablespoons sugar

6 ounces raspberries

¼ tsp lemon juice

½ c sugar

Directions:

Raspberry Purée:

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat combine raspberries, lemon juice, and sugar. Let sit until raspberries release their juices and are soft. Stir occasionally.

2. Purée can be sealed and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days

White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse:

1. Put 6 ounces of white chocolate in a large mixing bowl

2. Using a hand mixer, mix sugar and egg yolks until they are a pale yellow.

3. Bring ½ cup of heavy cream to a boil and then remove from heat. Slowly pour the hot cream into the egg/sugar mixture; slowly mix while adding the cream. Do not over mix.

4. Pour the cream mixture over the white chocolate and stir until smooth. (Optional – pour the hot mixture through a fine mesh sieve directly onto the white chocolate).

5. In a separate bowl, whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks begin to form.  Add 3-4 tablespoons of raspberry purée, and continue whipping the cream until stiff peaks begin to form.

6. Fold ⅓ of the whipped cream to the white chocolate mixture. Repeat this process three times or until all the whipped cream is folded into the chocolate. The mousse should be smooth and somewhat runny.

7. Transfer mousse to your choice of serving dish (I used stemless martini glasses). Cover and refrigerate overnight.

7a. (optional) Before transferring mousse to dish pour a small amount of raspberry purée at the bottom of each dish, and then add the mousse.

8. Before serving top the mousse with a drizzle of raspberry purée. Serve chilled.

9. Enjoy!

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

New year, new goals, same old blog.

My goal for 2016: one new recipe per month. Sounds easy, but here I am on the last day of January typing up my recipe for this month.

I have a battle each time I make cookies - to put them in the oven or not to. I'd be lying if I said all batches of cookies eventually make it in the oven. These chocolate chip cookies are the exception. I overdose after two dough cookies and in the oven they go.  And then out comes the perfect chocolate chip cookies!

This cookie is the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever made. They are super soft, buttery, rich, and filled with chocolate in every bite. Happy baking and eating!

Ingredients

1½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter (at room temp)

½ cup white sugar

¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 cup chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Set butter out to get to room temperature. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, and salt.

2. Cube the butter. Using an electric mixer (or stand mixer) beat the butter with the sugars until creamy. Add the egg and the vanilla; Beat on low speed until just incorporated.

3. Add the flour mixture to the dough in 3-4 small doses. Beat until the flour is just incorporated before adding more. DO NOT OVER-BEAT once flour is added. Add the chocolate chips and mix on low for a few seconds.

4. Scoop the dough into 18 balls and place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 9-10 minutes until the cookies are puffy and barely golden around the edges. DO NOT OVER BAKE.  

5. Let them cool on the pan for 15-20 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Do not immediately transfer to a cooling rack. The cookies will be too soft and are easily squished.

6. Enjoy!