Vanilla Flan

I made flan for a recent dinner with friends. Flan is a simple and yet elegant dessert. There are many variations out there. I’ve made flan with different additions like lemon zest, coffee and even chocolate. I still go back to the simple vanilla flan most of the time. The prep is pretty similar. Sugar is melted and poured into a pan. A mix of eggs, dairy, sweetener and flavoring is added. This custard is mixed well and poured over the melted sugar in the pan and baked. When finished the pan is inverted and the custard is covered in  caramel sugar syrup. It is dense and rich, so a little goes a long way.

Vanilla Flan

8 eggs
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups white sugar

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Have ready 9 inch round cake pan. In blender or food processor, or using electric mixer, combine eggs, condensed milk and vanilla and blend until smooth. In medium saucepan, cook sugar, stirring constantly, until it liquefies. When it starts to turn light brown, remove from heat and pour into waiting pan. Pour egg mixture over liquid sugar. Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel. Place baking dish on towel, inside roasting pan, and place roasting pan on oven rack. Fill roasting pan with water to reach half way up the sides of the baking dish. Bake 70 minutes in the preheated oven, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove pan from water bath and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Run a knife along the edge of the pan, place a serving plate on top and invert. Serve. Serves 6.

Coconut Chocolate Snowballs

Right about now these snowballs look pretty good to me. They are a variation of the coconut cake squares you can buy at local bakeries or make yourself. Normally you bake the cake, freeze it and then cut it into squares. I bake the cakes in mini muffin pans or standard muffin pans. After the cupcakes  are baked I freeze them. The frozen cakes are dipped in a chocolate sauce and then rolled in dessicated coconut. Here is the recipe. I used a cake mix, Duncan Hines, but you can make them with any white cake recipe you like.

Coconut Cake Squares

1 white cake, prepared and frozen solid*
1 c. cocoa
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 c. water
1 t. vanilla
½ c. desiccated coconut (available at cake supply stores and some health food stores)

Cut frozen cake into small squares, or cake can be baked in regular or mini cupcake tins. Keep cake frozen until ready to use. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients, except coconut in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil then simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
Using toothpicks or fondue forks, dip cake in sauce let drain a few seconds, then roll in the coconut. Can be used right away or frozen again for later use.

*If you make the cake in muffin tins you’ll get 24 cupcakes or about 60 mini cupcakes.

Spelt Bread

Spelt flour is a close relative to wheat. I love cooking with it because it is so easy to work with. It doesn’t require much, if any kneading, when you make yeast bread out of it. Spelt has a texture much closer to white flour in baking other things like muffins or biscuits. It does contain gluten, so it’s not an answer for people with gluten issues, but for those who do cook with wheat, spelt provides whole grain nutrition in a delicate, less heavy package. The bread I baked today was so easy to make and gives me all the taste and fiber of whole wheat bread with less work. Spelt flour is still tricky to find. Some larger grocery stores carry it, but you might have to go to specialty markets.

Spelt Bread

3 ¼ c. whole spelt flour
1 pkt. Active dry yeast
1 c. water
1/3 c. honey
¼ c. oil
1 t. salt
1 egg
Place 2 c. flour, yeast and salt in a medium bowl. Heat together water, honey and oil until warm (120-130 degrees) Add water mixture to spelt mixture and beat on low speed of electric mixer for 30 seconds, or until moistened. Add egg and beat on high 3 minutes. Stir in enough spelt to make a soft dough. Cover bowl with towel and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and use a rubber scraper to transfer dough into prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, another hour. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Cover top with foil during last 10 minutes of baking. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when lightly tapped. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Makes 1 loaf.