Five Days of Cinco de Mayo: The Dessert

May 3, 2013 By Love & Flour in Other 1 Comment Tags: holiday, pepitas, pudding

Mexican chocolate pudding topped with sweet pepitas is my choice of Cinco de Mayo dessert this year. A classic chocolate pudding goes Mexican-style with a dash of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne. Pepitas, initially introduced in a pumpkin seed salsa recipe to kick off the week, now get the sweet treatment courtesy of sugar and agave nectar.

If spiced chocolate pudding does not appeal to your taste buds, simply omit the cinnamon and cayenne pepper to enjoy a classic chocolate pudding. As for the pepitas, they are as delicious scattered across a dish of ice cream, oatmeal or fresh fruit as they are pudding. Or just enjoy them by the handful. I definitely did, and I enjoyed every bite.

Thanks for joining me for Cinco de Mayo week. Enjoy a happy weekend!

Day 1: The Appetizer - Pumpkin Seed Salsa

Day 2: The Main Dish - Mexican Noodle Casserole

Day 3: The Side Dish – Baked Mexican Style Beans

Day 4: The Drink – Michelada

Day 5: The Dessert

Five Days of Cinco de Mayo: The Dessert

Author: chocolate pudding adapted from John Scharffenberger via Smitten Kitchen, pepitas from The Inspired Vegan by Bryant Terry

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For the Pudding
¼ cup cornstarch
½ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used dark chocolate)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
For the Pepitas
2 cups raw (green) pepitas
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons sugar

Instructions

Whisk together the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler (or a dish – not Pyrex – set above a saucepan filled with a bit of water).
Slowly whisk in the milk until fully incorporated with the dry ingredients.
Bring the water in the double boiler to a simmer, and occasionally whisk the ingredients on top to ensure they remain incorporated.
Add the chocolate when the mixture thickens to the point that it coats the back of the spoon, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Stir the chocolate in for until the pudding is smooth and thickened, about two to four minutes.
Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and cayenne.
Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any lumps (don’t stress if you do not have a strainer- you will just enjoy the occasional lump in the pudding) and into a serving bowl.
Pour into serving dishes and refrigerate at least 30 minutes until soft set. To prevent a skin from forming on the pudding, cover the top of the pudding itself with plastic wrap before refrigerating. If you like the pudding skin, simply cover the top of the dish with plastic wrap.
While the pudding sets, prepare the pepitas by stirring them together with the olive oil and agave nectar followed by the sugar.
Transfer the pepitas into a skillet over medium-high heat. Make sure you get all of the sugary mixture into the skillet as well.
Stir constantly until the pepitas are fragrant and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about two to four minutes.
Spread the warmed pepitas across a sheet of parchment paper and allow to cool.
Before serving, heap a few spoonfuls of the pepitas onto the dishes of pudding.

Swedish Chocolate Balls

Apr 22, 2013 By Love & Flour in Other No Comments Tags: chocolate, no-bake, oatmeal

The situation looked something like this. It was 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, and I had to leave the house to enjoy a casual dinner with friends by 6:00. I felt as though it was up to me to bring a dessert long before I confirmed the appetizer, a side dish and the entrée were covered. I had nothing.

On the list of things I do not particularly like to do, “shop at the grocery store” hovers near the top. It is right up there with other non-fun things like “take out the trash.” And a trip to the grocery store in the middle of weekend afternoon madness… In my privileged little corner of world, that is something I do my best to avoid.

This is why – my desire to share a dessert with friends that met head on with my desire to put as little as effort as possible into the process (i.e. avoid the store) – I did not anticipate a positive outcome. Add to that the fact that I have not felt much like baking lately, and things were not looking good on the dessert front.

So, there I was. Lounging on the floor on Saturday afternoon, flipping through a binder of recipes, looking like I had not a care in the world and nothing but time on my hands. But on the inside, I was desperate for a solution. The answer soon appeared, as answers always seem to do.

The form my answer took was Swedish Chocolate Balls. I had everything I needed on hand, and since my elusive desire to bake had not yet escaped with my willingness to stir things together and form them into balls, I was all set. Except I wondered…are these babies really Swedish?

I am fairly certain I enjoyed these lovely treats at Scan(dinavian) Fest a few years ago. I remember eating and loving a small chocolate dessert very similar to this one. And according to the cookbook where I found the recipe, “these treats are enjoyed with a cup of coffee in their namesake Sweden.” Still, I remained skeptical.

I have not yet been to Sweden, and I do not know anyone in Sweden. I do, however, have a favorite Swedish food blogger. Sure enough, according to Anne’s Food Swedish chocolate balls are legit.

With that, wherever you find yourself this week, enjoy!

Swedish Chocolate Balls

Author: Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Moskowitz and Terry Romero

Serves: just shy of 24

Ingredients

3¼ cups oats
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
⅓ cup cocoa powder
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) butter
½ cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1½ cups shredded of flaked coconut or chocolate cookie crumbs

Instructions

In a large bowl, stir together the oats, sifted powdered sugar, cocoa powder and salt.
Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the oat mixture. Use a pastry cutter or fork to incorporate the butter into the mixture. Using your hands to achieve a crumbly mixture is perfectly acceptable.
Stir in the milk and vanilla extract until well combined. Using a rubber spatula works great here.
Form the mixture into balls. I used a two tablespoon scoop, but you can make them smaller.
If you have a food processor, give the coconut a few spins through to make coating the balls a bit easier.
Roll each chocolate ball in the coconut or cookie crumbs until well coated.

Notes

A ½ cup chilled brewed coffee can be used in place of milk. I used vanilla coconut milk, but you could also use any chocolate milk of your choice. As for the coatings, finely chopped nuts or a sugar of your choice would also work. I also tried coating the balls with turbinado sugar, but it did not quite provide the look I had hoped for. Instead of sparkling like rock candy, it just sunk into the candy.

No Fooling Around: Spiced Poached Pineapple

Apr 1, 2013 By Love & Flour in Other 2 Comments Tags: pineapple, spices, sugar syrup

April 1 is my new January 1. I am 99 percent certain this has to do with starting a new month on a sunny Monday. The other one percent I attribute to a lingering sense of renewal and hope after Easter. I have imposed this second quarter New Year’s Day upon myself because, quite frankly, I have failed miserably at my New Year’s Resolutions.

I have not forgotten the goals I set to make small improvements, it just seems as though I had to peel back a layer of life junk before I could get to them. Sort of like how you have to peel the prickly skin from a pineapple to reveal the sweet fruit inside. The goodness is there all along, but you have to do a little work to find it.

One of the reasons I continue to blog is the fact it keeps me accountable to the ever mounting pile of recipes I clip, copy, bookmark and otherwise collect. Oftentimes, I simply enjoy the experience of a new recipe, and it is somewhat rare that I think to make it again. This is not so much a testament to the recipe as it is the cook/baker. I tend not to reread books, and I usually do not rewatch movies. That said, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail and StarWars get me every time.

This recipe, originally titled Chilled Poached Pineapple with Vanilla and Spices, is the StarWars of my movie world. For those of you who do not know, I own a Princess Leia Christmas tree ornament. Two of my very best friends gave me a Princess Leia costume as a high school graduation present. I really like StarWars, though now that I read what I just wrote, it sounds like I really like Princess Leia. Perhaps I should call this Princess Pineapple. I am way off track here, but this dessert really is fit to serve a princess.

The good news is, poaching pineapple in a simple spiced sugar syrup is a breeze. Granted, it takes a bit of time (four to five hours split across three steps) to allow the flavors of the vanilla, star anise, cinnamon and white peppercorns to infuse the syrup and then the pineapple. Active cooking time, however, is only about 15 minutes. Then you are left with richly spiced, sweet piece of fruit to enjoy alone, over ice cream, with cottage cheese or any other way you enjoy your pineapple.

Despite my new found love for this dessert, there are two things to be aware of. The first is the intense sweetness that results when you soak a naturally sweet piece of pineapple in liquid sugar. As you have likely deduced, a very sweet dessert results.

The second is the amount of sugar syrup the recipe yields. I could have easily poached two pineapples in the amount of liquid that results. I will halve the sugar syrup recipe the next time I make this dessert. In the meantime, I have plenty of reserved syrup to use as a sweetener for tea and mixed with club soda for a homemade soda pop. I am sure there are plenty of ways to use it in a cocktail as well, so I’m off to experiment. Enjoy!

No Fooling Around: Spiced Poached Pineapple

Author: From the Chilled, Poached Pineapple with Vanilla and Spices Recipe as seen in The Seasonal Baker by John Barricelli

Ingredients

2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 pieces of star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon white peppercorns
1 tablespoon vanilla paste or pure vanilla extract
1 ripe pineapple
1 pint vanilla ice cream for serving (optional)

Instructions

Stir together the water and sugar in a medium saucepan.
Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar, then remove the saucepan from the heat.
Stir in the star anise, cinnamon stick and white peppercorns. If using vanilla paste, stir it into the sugar syrup along with the spices. If using vanilla extract, hold tight – you will add the extract at a different step.
Allow the mixture to steep for one hour.
While the spices infuse into the sugar mixture, prepare the pineapple. Cut off the top and bottom and remove the prickly peel. Quarter the fruit lengthwise, cut out the core and chop into one-inch chunks.
After an hour has passed, set a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl and pour the syrup into the bowl. Reserve the spices for later, then return the sugar syrup to the saucepan.
Add the pineapple chunks to the saucepan with the syrup.
Bring to a simmer and cook until a fork or skewer easily pierces the pineapple, about two to five minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and transfer the contents back into the large bowl. Allow this mixture to sit for one hour to cool to room temperature.
Now add the reserved spices back to the bowl. If using the vanilla extract, stir it into the mixture at this time.
Refrigerate the pineapple and syrup until cold, about two to three hours, before serving alone or with ice cream. Be sure to remove the spices with the strainer before serving as well.