Dessert | I Can Cook That

Dark Chocolate ROOT Cake

I have wanted to try to incorporate ROOT into my cooking for a while now. ROOT is basically the alcoholic version of root beer. For the history/back-story, check out their website. Here is also a video on the stuff:

The spirit contains birch bark, smoked black tea, cinnamon, wintergreen, spearmint, clove, anise, orange, lemon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and pure cane sugar so I thought it would go really well in a chocolate cake. I used this rum cake recipeas a starting point, and substituted in ROOT and dark chocolate, as well as a little instant espresso coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor.

Ingredients for the cake:
6 ounces coarsely chopped dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso coffee
5 ounces (1-1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
2/3 cup ROOT
4 large eggs, separated
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup flour
Pinch saltIngredients for the chocolate glaze:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8 ounces roughly chopped dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon espresso powderIngredients for Chantilly cream (optional):
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon sugar or to taste
Small pinch salt

Grilled Watermelon

We kind of went on a grilling spree this week. (And by “we” I mean my boyfriend and his roommate. I only did the prep work.)

We were throwing basically anything on there. Burgers, chicken, asparagus, salmon… and watermelon. So. Here’s a super simple recipe for grilled watermelon!

Ingredients:
Honey
Sliced watermelon

Spread a little bit of honey on each piece of watermelon.

Place on a grill for about 2 minutes on each side.

Or until grill marks appear on the watermelon.

It’s amazing that grilling watermelon for a few minutes completely changes the taste of the watermelon. It’s quite tasty! The sugars in the watermelon and honey caramelize, making a new taste to the fruit. Yum!

Berries with Lemon Mint Syrup

I came across this recipe while researching different ways to incorporate mint into my meals. This dish sounds like the perfect summer dessert, so I thought I’d give this one a try.

Ingredients (this made 3 servings):
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup mint leaves, or 1/3 cup dried mint
Zest from 1 lemon
A bowl full of mixed berries, such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and quartered strawberries

Prepare your mint (if using fresh mint) by removing the leaves from the stem. I used a cup of loosely packed mint leaves and had plenty of mint flavor in my syrup.

Add the water, sugar, lemon zest, and mint to a pan over medium-high heat.

Bring to a boil.

Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 20 minutes. While waiting, prepare your fruit. Wash all fruit in a colander and cut the strawberries into quarters.

After 20 minutes, remove all leaves and lemon zest from the syrup using a slotted spoon or a strainer.

Add the syrup back to the pan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and add the berries.

Stir. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool before serving.

So it goes without saying that berries on their own are delicious. But when you add a syrup that is infused with lemon zest and mint, berries become the absolute perfect warm weather dessert. I can’t even describe how tasty this was!

Chocolate Mint Pudding

Chocolate Mint Pudding. Need I say more? This recipe is actually really easy, and it tastes amazing. I made a few changes to the original recipe depending on what I had on hand.

Ingredients:

3 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Continue reading Chocolate Mint Pudding

Rhubarb Crisp

Another offering in my CSA share this week was rhubarb. I had no idea what rhubarb was, let alone how to cook it. So for those that are in the same boat as me, rhubarb “have large leaves that are somewhat triangular-shaped with long fleshy petioles. Although the leaves are toxic, various parts of the plants have culinary and medicinal uses. Fresh raw stalks are crisp (similar to celery) with a strong tart taste; most commonly the plant’s stalks are cooked and used in pies and other foods for their tart flavour.” (Thanks Wikipedia) Thankfully, the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative must have assumed people would need help, and posted a recipe on their blog for rhubarb crisp.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for greasing pan
5 to 6 cups rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1½-inch pieces, tough strings removed
¼ cup turbinado sugar (raw sugar) — This is just what I had on hand
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
pinch salt
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray, or use some butter to grease the pan. Prepare your rhubarb by cutting it into 1.5 inch pieces.

Toss prepared rhubarb with turbinado sugar (or whatever sugar you have), orange juice, and orange zest. Spread in the baking dish.

Add butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt to a food processor. Pulse for 20 to 30 seconds, or until it begins to clump together. Add oats and pecans and pulse until combined.

Crumble the pecan oat topping over the rhubarb mixture.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until brown and bubbling.

I dare you to put that much sugar in any dessert and make it taste bad. It was really sweet (obviously), and honestly might have needed a bit more acid. Maybe a squeeze of lemon? The oats and pecans stayed nice and crunchy, while the rhubarb softened so that it could easily be cut with a spoon. Yum!

Yellow Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

My little sister is graduating college and her party is next weekend. She asked me to make a cake for her and I couldn’t say no. So I decided to do a test batch this week to make sure I like the recipe (she asked for yellow cake with chocolate icing). I naturally can’t just buy cake in a box, so I’m going to make yellow cake with dark chocolate ganache with raspberries.

Ingredients for cake (this makes enough for 2 9-inch cake pans):

1 cup unsalted butter
2 ½ cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups buttermilk
3 ¾ cups cake flour (you can use all-purpose flour as a substitute)
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
Cooking spray

Ingredients for ganache:

16 ounces chocolate, finely chopped (I used dark chocolate)
2 cups heavy whipping cream

This is a double layer cake, so I also needed icing for in between the two layers. You can just buy chocolate icing in the store and use that, but I only want to deliver the best for the little sister.

Ingredients for chocolate frosting:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 stick of unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup water
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
¼ teaspoon salt
16 oz chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Continue reading Yellow Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Barbuzzo’s Salted Caramel Budino

Tasting Table posted an adapted recipe of Marcie Turney’s Salted Caramel Budino. If you’ve never been to Barbuzzo in Philadelphia, your taste buds are missing out on one fantastic dessert. So, if my attempt at this adapted recipe is even half as good as the original salted caramel budino, I will consider this a win.

Barbuzzo’s version is described as “dark chocolate crust, vanilla bean caramel, sea salt.” The Salted Caramel Budino version below omits the crust, but maintains the vanilla bean salted caramel poured over a maple flavored custard.

Ingredients

Salted Caramel:
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 3 tablespoons water
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more for garnish
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pudding:
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2½ cups half-and-half
- 1 large egg plus 2 large egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- Whipped cream, for serving

Continue reading Barbuzzo’s Salted Caramel Budino

Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting

With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to test out my recipe for Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting before the big day to make sure it didn’t need any tweaking.

Guinness cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes that use a dark stout to enhance the flavor.

To keep with the theme, I decided to also make Bailey’s frosting.

Ingredients (makes 24 cupcakes)

Guinness Cupcakes:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 12 oz bottle of Guinness (or any other dark stout) – if your bottle is more than this, just measure out 12 oz
1 (4 oz) stick of butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream

Baileys Frosting:

2 (4 oz) sticks of butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
1/4 tsp salt
8 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar

Continue reading Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting

Cookies Everywhere!

I can’t even begin to know a thing about baking. I still follow recipes to a T. I spent last Saturday making batch after batch of cookies, and all of these were well received.

The recipe for Black and White Chocolate Chip Cookies can be found here. These ended up looking almost like macaroons (shiny, cracked) but were delicious. I used Kahlua, not coffee, but I think the coffee might take some of the sweetness out, in a good way. (I forgot to take a photo! So sorry)

I attempted the Peanut Butter-Fudge Cups, recipe here. Despite following the recipe, I ended up with half of the number of cups and they look NOTHING like the photo with the recipe. But, they were delicious.

The Pecan Bar Cookies were surprisingly delicious. (Recipe here) They stayed chewy days after making, but were also nicely crunchy on top. I mixed the chocolate chips within the batter instead of melting the chocolate down and spreading on top.

My pumpkin obsession continues. These Iced Pumpkin Cookies (recipe here) made me so happy. These are a little more spicy (as in many spices, not hot) than a typical cookie, but the drizzled icing is a great contrast.

pumpkin cookies pre-iced

iced pumpkin cookies

Sugar cookie recipes can be found everywhere, I think you can even pick up sugar cookie mix, or pre-made cookie dough. I honestly doubt there would be much of a difference between the recipe I used here and buying dough from the store. The real fun with sugar cookies is decorating them! I used cookie cutters I picked up from the dollar store. For icing, I mixed confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and a small amount of milk. I split the icing into different bowls and added food coloring. I also used sprinkles from the local grocery store to add some more pizazz. I know they look like a child made them, but I think that is part of their charm.

Happy cookie making!