Flourless Chocolate Cake
If you are looking for a dessert for your Valentine, you might want to make this cake. The cake is made without any flour and trust me, you will never miss it.
This is a dessert everyone seems to love whenever I make it. This is also a great dessert option for those who can’t tolerate gluten. The texture is dense, but not heavy. With only 5 ingredients, it is also pretty simple to make. While it can be baked in any cake pan, I chose a heart shaped pan this time.
Once baked and cooled, the cake can be served as is, or garnished with any number of things. Fresh berries are always a nice touch, or a light dusting of powdered sugar. Sometimes I’ll pipe some whipped cream around the edges.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
½ c. each sugar and water
1 stick butter
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate
6 eggs
¼ dark rum or other liqueur
Butter an eight inch cake pan and line with parchment. In saucepan heat together water and sugar until they boil. Stir in butter and bring to boil. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted. Beat in eggs until smooth and stir in rum. Pour batter into prepared pan and place pan in a roasting pan. Pour boiling water into roaster to come up sides of pan 1 inch. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 45 minutes. Cool, invert onto plate.
Serve cake topped with whipped cream and decorate with raspberries, other fresh fruit or even toasted nuts. Dense and rich this cake serves 8-10.
Beignets
Beignets are a fun addition to any Fat Tuesday/ Mardi Gras celebration. Beignets are the official fried dough of New Orleans. These squares of fried dough are often referred to as a fritter or doughnut.
Beignets can be made with a choux pastry- like the type of dough used for cream puffs. They can also be made from a yeast raised dough. I made mine with a yeast dough.
Once fried, beignets are drained on paper towels and then tossed in a bag with powdered sugar. They are served hot, or at least warm. The fresher the better.
They really aren’t that difficult to make. The dough is soft and pliable. Very easy to handle. When you roll the dough into a rectangle to cut into squares, do your best to get the corners squared off. But don’t get too concerned. I always end up with the four corners a little misshapen. They still taste good. I use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares.
Beignets
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup evaporated milk
7 cups bread flour
1/4 cup shortening, softened butter or oil
Oil, for deep-frying
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
Mix water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. In another bowl, beat the eggs, salt and evaporated milk together. Mix egg mixture to the yeast mixture. In a separate bowl, measure out the bread flour. Add 3 cups of the flour to the yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add the shortening and continue to stir while adding the remaining flour. Remove dough from the bowl, place onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Brush a large bowl with a little oil. Put dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rise in a warm place for at least 2 hours. Preheat oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees. Add the confectioners’ sugar to a paper or plastic bag and set aside. Roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness and cut into 1-inch or 2- inch squares. Deep-fry, flipping constantly, until they become a golden color. After beignets are fried, drain them for a few seconds on paper towels, and then toss them into the bag of confectioners’ sugar. Hold bag closed and shake to coat evenly. Makes about 4 dozen, when cut in 2-inch squares, 8 dozen when cut in 1-inch squares.
Note: This recipe makes a lot. I cut the recipe in half when I don’t need so many. You can cut them a little smaller, if you prefer. They puff up a lot when fried.
Sweetheart Sugar Cookies
For Valentine’s Day, not every dessert has to be chocolate. These sugar cookies would be a great way to share the love.
I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut out hearts. Then used a smaller heart cookie cutter and cut out smaller hearts from the center of half of the cookies.
Sandwich the baked cookies together with homemade strawberry preserves. Use one of the “cutout” cookies on top. It gives a pretty effect to the finished cookies. I used strawberry jam, but any red jelly or jam could be used.
Since I also had a bunch of tiny heart cookies from the cut outs, I used melted chocolate to turn them into tiny heart shaped sandwich cookies.
Sweetheart Sugar Cookies
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
3 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
3 T. milk
Extra sugar for sprinkling, if desired
strawberry preserves or jam
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Beat in milk. Heat oven to 375-degrees. Roll dough on lightly floured surface to about 1/3- inch thickness. Cut out with lightly floured cutters and sprinkle with sugar or colored sugar if you like and if you are not going to frost them. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 10-12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet 3 minutes before placing on wire rack to cool completely. Sandwich together with jam when cooled. Makes about 4 dozen.
Sweetheart Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Crepes
These chocolate crepes make a great dessert, or breakfast, for Valentine’s Day. The crepes pair nicely with fresh berries, but you could add any number of fillings. Ice cream, jam, pudding, custard or whipped cream all work well.
I topped mine with berries and whipped cream. You could also add some shaved chocolate as a topping.
If you haven’t made crepes, this might be just the recipe to convince you. They aren’t that hard to make. It just takes a little practice.
I often make a double batch of the crepes, then freeze some, between layers of wax paper. That way I can have crepes whenever I want.
You can fill these crepes with all sorts of stuff. I had fresh berries, so that is what I used. I added some Kahlua to the batter for a little extra flavor and it worked out just great.
You can have all the components ready, then just assemble when ready to serve. Such a lovely dessert.
Here is the recipe.
Chocolate Crepes
1 c. flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
¼ c. cocoa
3 T. sugar
¼ c. Kahlua or other coffee flavored liqueur or ¼ c. strong coffee
1/4 c. butter, melted and cooled
Mix all ingredients in blender (except butter) until smooth, scraping sides often. Add butter and blend well. Let stand for 30 minutes before using, or batter can be refrigerated, covered, overnight. Beat again, just before using.
Heat 6 or 7 inch skillet. Brush with butter or oil and pour in about 1 tablespoon of batter, tipping pan to cover bottom of pan completely with batter. Cook until edges start to brown, turn over and cook until lightly browned (about 2 minutes per side.)
Crepes can be made day ahead or even frozen between sheets of waxed paper and frozen. Makes 18.
Strawberry filling: I just sliced a couple of pounds of berries and added a little sugar- about ½ cup- a tablespoon of vanilla and a healthy dash of cinnamon.
When filling the crepes I spooned some berries down the center of the crepe and added some whipped cream. Folded over, topped with a few berries and another bit of whipped cream.
Coconut Ginger Soup
This recipe is inspired by a favorite dish at a local Thai restaurant. The recipe is pretty simple. Coconut milk and chicken stock are the base. The soup has a few veggies added and a healthy dash of lime juice and ginger. Then it is just a matter of adding some additional seasoning and the cooked chicken.
If you are starting with raw chicken, you could add it with the initial ingredients and just simmer long enough to cook the chicken. Small slices of chicken would cook in a few minutes. Since I had cooked chicken, I added it at the end. It was in the soup just long enough to warm it up. That way the chicken wouldn’t get tough from over-cooking.
The soup is meant to have a nice, citrus flavor from the lime juice. Adding the juice from three or four limes should be plenty, but all limes are not the same. If your limes are smallish, or not really juicy, feel free to add a little more.
For a soup thrown together so quickly, it really has a wonderful flavor. It is one of my favorite quick meals. So here is the recipe. Enjoy.
Coconut Ginger Soup
1 can, (13.5 oz.), coconut milk
2 c. chicken stock
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 jar bamboo shoots, drained
2 T. fresh grated ginger
Juice of 3-4 limes
Hot sauce to taste
3 T. fresh chopped cilantro- or parsley
3 T. chopped green onions
salt to taste
8 oz. cooked chicken, sliced in bite-sized pieces
Heat first 7 ingredients in a saucepan until heated through. Simmer about 5 minutes. Add cilantro and green onions and season to taste. My limes were pretty juicy. Feel free to add a little more lime juice, if you like. Add the chicken and simmer a few minutes longer. Serves 2-3.
Wonton Soup
For me, Wonton soup always brings back memories of going out for Chinese food with my family, when I was a kid. The restaurant would serve it family style, and my mom or dad would ladle out everyone’s soup. It always looked and smelled wonderful. Tasted wonderful, too. Even more special, because we only had it when we out to dinner.
The one problem I find when trying to make this soup at home is finding wonton wrappers that are thick enough. The square ones I find at the neighborhood grocery store are OK, but thinner than the ones in Wonton Soup at a restaurant. At a local Asian grocery I have found round wrappers that are labelled for dumplings and are thicker. That is what I used. They worked out better. You can play around with fillings. I often add shrimp as both a filling, and to the soup itself.
Wonton Soup
1½ lb. chicken
1 head bok choy, or 4-5 baby bok choy
3 T. hoisen sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
24 won ton wrappers
2 qts. chicken stock
1 t. ginger
1 t. hot pepper sauce
Chopped green onions
Sesame oil
Bake the chicken until cooked. I used boneless chicken thighs, but even leftover roasted chicken would work. You can also used pork. Once cooled, I minced enough of the chicken to give me 1 cup of meat. The rest I cut into thin strips. I then took stems from the bok choy and minced enough of them to make 1 cup. Combine the minced chicken with minced bok choy, the hoisen and the garlic. This is the filling for your wontons. Slice more of the bok choy- using mainly the leaves, into thin shreds. This will go into the soup later, along with the strips of chicken. You should have at least a couple of cups of the shredded bok choy, but more is OK, too. To make the wontons place one on your work surface and spoon a rounded teaspoon of the filling into the middle of it. Moisten edge with water, fold in half and press to seal. I used round wrappers, but square wrappers are fine, too. Repeat with remaining wontons and fillings until done. Bring stock to a boil and add the ginger and hot sauce. Add the wontons to the simmering stock. Simmer gently for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the strips of chicken and the shredded bok choy greens. Cook about 5-6 minutes longer. Finish soup with chopped green onions and a drizzle of sesame oil. Serves 6-8
Chocolate Lover’s Waffles
These waffles can make a great start to Valentine’s Day, or any day for that matter. Chocolate for breakfast? Why not? They also make a wonderful dessert.
The waffle batter has cocoa in it, for the chocolate flavor, but I added some cinnamon and nutmeg for a little spice. The flavor is wonderful.
Top them with whatever you like. For breakfast, warm maple syrup or a dusting of powdered sugar work well.
For dessert try topping them with whipped cream and berries. Or you can add a scoop of ice cream and hot fudge. If you like, you can even add some chocolate chips to the batter for a stronger chocolate taste.
Chocolate Waffles
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled
1 t. vanilla
1 c. buttermilk
1 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. cocoa
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. each baking powder and baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
Beat first three ingredients until light and foamy, about 2 minutes. Stir in milk. Beat in dry ingredients just until blended. Bake until waffles are cooked through. Makes 4 cups batter. Serve with whipped butter or sour cream and fresh fruit. I like them just dusted with powdered sugar, too.
Mardi Gras King Cake
If you are planning a Mardi Gras party, you will want a King Cake. King Cakes are a long-standing tradition in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. A small plastic baby is often hidden in the cake, although you can use a bean or even a whole pecan or almond.
Tradition has it that the guest who finds the “surprise” in their piece of cake will host next year’s party. Be careful to warn guest so they don’t break a tooth or swallow the “prize”. You can also use a whole nut inside the cake and just set the baby on top of the cake when serving.
The “cake” is really a sweet cinnamon swirl bread. This recipes, with a whole pint of sour cream in the dough, is both rich and tender. The yeast dough is rolled out, spread with butter and cinnamon sugar, and rolled up. Then the dough is shaped into an oval shape.
After it is baked, the king cake is decorated with colorful frostings, sugars or both. Traditionally the colors used are yellow, green and purple, but, hey it’s your cake have fun with it.
If you want just the sugars, and no frosting, then brush the king cake with a beaten egg before baking and sprinkle with the sugar then. Otherwise, you’ll decorate the cake once baked and cooled.
King Cake
1/4 c. butter
16 oz. container sour cream
1/3 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1 T. sugar
1/2 c. warm water
2 eggs
6 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. white sugar
2 T. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter, softened
Colored sugars and frostings (recipes follow)
Heat together the first 4 ingredient to about 100 degrees. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in large bowl and let stand 5 minutes. Add butter mixture, eggs and 2 cups of the flour. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed and gradually work in enough flour to form a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, about ten minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease top and cover. Allow to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Stir together 1/2 c. sugar with cinnamon and set aside. Punch dough down and divide in half. Roll out one piece of dough into a 28×10-inch rectangle. Spread dough with half of the butter and sprinkle with half of the sugar mixture. Starting at long end roll up jelly roll fashion and pinch seam to seal. Shape dough into an oval shape and pinch ends together. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining piece of dough except remember to add the toy baby, nut or bean if you want the “surprise”. Cover and let rise about 20 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool before decorating with tinted frostings and colored sugars. Makes 2, serving 24.
Frostings
3 c. powdered sugar
3 T. melted butter
3 t. milk
1/2 t. vanilla
Green, yellow, red and blue food coloring
Combine sugar and butter and add enough milk to make the glaze a drizzling consistency. Add vanilla and divide mixture in three small bowls. Tint one bowl yellow, one green and one purple, using both the red and blue food coloring. I often don’t bother to tint the frostings, but rely on the tinted sugars for color.
Tinted sugars
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
Food coloring
Place 1/2 c. sugar in each of three small bags and add a couple of drops of food coloring to each. One use yellow, one green and one both the red and blue for purple. Shake the bags to distribute the color. You should only need a couple of drops of each.
Decorate the cake by making bands of the colored frostings and then sprinkling on the sugars.
Asian Turnip Cakes
If you are planning a party for Chinese New Year, you might want to make turnip cakes.
I first had turnip cakes at a local Asian restaurant. I loved them, and was intrigued at how to make them. They were little squares, lightly crisped on the outside, smooth and creamy in the middle.
When I first heard turnip cake- I was thinking of the purple and white turnips I knew. That is not what these turnip cakes are made from.
It helped a lot when I realized the “turnip” cake was actually made from Daikon radish. Daikon radishes are also called Chinese turnips. They are really big, white radishes. They are available at Asian grocery stores and other grocery stores. Now that I knew the ingredient I needed, I had to find a recipe.
I searched the internet and found a lot of different variations for how to make them.
The first recipe I tried was more like a potato pancake. Shredded radish paired with eggs and bread crumbs. They were good, but not what I had at the restaurant. The turnip cake I had enjoyed was smooth and sort of starchy. Plus, it was a neat square shape.
I found several recipes that included the steaming step. This enabled the cakes to be set up with a starch, cooled and sliced before the final frying step. This was what I wanted!!
The most promising recipe included rice flour- but I was out of rice flour, so I improvised with cornstarch and a little wheat flour. It worked really well.
Many recipes included shrimp or Chinese sausage and sometimes green onions. I decided, this time, to make them vegetarian. That worked well, but you certainly could add meat or shrimp to yours.
I shredded the daikon pretty fine, but you could still discern the radish in the final dish. I liked that a lot. I did not grate them as some recipes suggested.
So here is my version of turnip cakes. They sound like a bit of work, but it really is worth the time. I also like that all the prep can be done a day or two ahead of time, then just slice and fry when you want them.
Turnip Cakes
1 large Daikon radish- about 1¼ lbs., give or take
1 c. water
½ c. minced onion
1 t. salt
½ t. white pepper
½ c. cornstarch
2 T. flour
Oil for frying
Oyster sauce for dipping, optional
Peel and shred radish. I used a fine shredding blade. Squeeze out some of the liquid from the radish. Place shredded radish in bowl with the water and onion and steam in microwave for 4-5 minutes- you can also place radish and onion in saucepan with water and simmer 4-5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Combine the radish mixture with the cornstarch, flour salt and pepper. Oil an 8×4-inch loaf pan. Place the radish mixture in the prepared pan and steam for 50 minutes.* I placed plastic wrap over the pan to prevent water from dripping into the pan. Remove pan from steamer and cool down for at least 30 minutes. . At this point you can finish preparing the turnip cakes- or place in fridge until ready to make them. When ready to fry the turnip cakes, remove from the pan and cut into slices- about ¾ -inch thick. Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Cook cakes in oil on both sides until golden brown and crisp. Drain on paper towels. Serve with oyster sauce- or whatever dipping sauce you prefer. Makes about 10.
* To steam the mixture- I just used a large stock pot with a cooling rack in it. I brought about 2 inches of water to a boil, placed the pan on the rack and covered the pan. You could also steam in the oven with a roasting pan, with an inch of boiling water in it and covered with foil.
Slicing the turnip cakes before frying
Ready to serve
Hot and Sour Soup
Many years ago, my dear friend, Martha, got me to try Hot and Sour Soup. I have been in love with it ever since. I stock up on the ingredients when I am shopping at my local Asian grocery store. Since many of the ingredients are canned or dried, it is easy to keep them on hand. The soup itself does not take that long to make. You do need to soak the black mushrooms for a little while, but once they are ready, the soup comes together pretty quickly. The black mushrooms are available already sliced in thin strips. That is what I use. You can also find them dried whole. In that case, you would soak the mushrooms first, then slice them.
Feel free to play around with the additions. Sometimes I’ll add some shredded nappa cabbage. I have also made a vegetarian version by using vegetable stock and omitting the sliced meat. It was still a very tasty bowl of soup.
You get plenty of heat from the white pepper, but you can add some hot sauce, if you like it hotter.
Hot and Sour Soup
5 c. chicken broth- or vegetable broth
2 c. pork, sliced in thin strips or you can use chicken or omit
1 T. soy sauce
¾ c. dried sliced Chinese black mushrooms, soaked 30 minutes in water and drained
1 can straw mushrooms, drained
1 c. sliced bamboo shoots – I use the braised ones in a can- nice flavor
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
10 oz. tofu, cubed
½ -1 t. white pepper
¼ c. cider vinegar
4 T. cornstarch mixed with 1/4 c. water*
2 beaten eggs
Sesame oil
1 green onion, sliced thin, or chives
Combine broth with pork, soy sauce, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts in pot and simmer 10 minutes. Add tofu, pepper, vinegar and cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil. As soup thickens and clears pour egg in slowly. Remove from heat; stir in a little oil and onions and serve.
Serves 4.
Note: For extra heat you can add hot sauce to taste.
* I use a type of cornstarch called Clear Gel. It remains thick, even after reheating. You can find it in Amish stores and on line.
