Frozen Goodies

My popsicle molds get a lot of use. When I was a kid living in Texas, I remember always having frozen orange juice or grape juice popsicles, and a lot of times that's still what I'll have in my freezer. But I also need some chocolate now and then...

All the recipes I found for fudgsicles involved mixing up a box of instant pudding and then freezing it, which I was not going to do. Then I saw a recipe in Martha Stewart FOOD for vanilla pudding pops. I tried a batch (which I infused with cardamom pods - yum.) So then I took the chocolate pudding recipe I usually use, and tweaked it a little bit...then stuck it in the freezer. I think I have made it two or three times this summer.

Later in the summer my dad made some incredible strawberry jam. One batch didn't set, so he was left with some strawberry syrup. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it...(see the picture above!) I used this recipe for lemon pudding, then swirled the strawberry syrup through it. I can't even begin to express HOW GOOD these are!

Fudgsicles

- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- generous 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, starch and salt in a saucepan. Whisk in milk, then yolks. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until first bubbles appear, then cook another minute (pudding will be starting to thicken.) Take off heat. Pour through seive, then add vanilla. Pour into popsicle mold and freeze.

Lemon Pudding, and my sorry excuse for a sink.

I've been meaning to show you my kitchen sink for awhile, but I'm not sure this photo even does it justice. It is shallow to start out with, and then the divider down the middle makes it even less functional. Did I mention that I do not have a dishwasher? What I am saying here is that it is a wonder that I ever make anything BESIDES pudding.

I've been making pudding a lot lately. It is so easy, doesn't dirty a lot of dishes, and satisfies my sweet tooth without making me feel ill. I usually make chocolate, but I recently got the bug for lemon pudding. I wasn't even sure there was such a thing outside of the world of Jello. I finally found a recipe on the Food Network. It was just like any other pudding, only you cook the milk with lemon zest, then at the end you stir in a bunch of fresh lemon juice. This fascinated me - I thought for sure it would cause the pudding to curdle. But it didn't! It just made it taste really lemony, and not at all heavy.

Lemon Pudding - from the Food Network.

- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 2 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp butter
Whisk the sugar and the cornstarch together in a medium saucepan. Add milk, stir until smooth. Add the egg yolks, zest, salt and cook, stirring frequently at first and constantly towards the end, over medium heat until thickened enough to thickly coat the back of a spoon.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and butter. Pour through a strainer. Cover and chill.

Chocolate Pudding

Seriously - chocolate pudding. This is not something I would normally crave. I'm sure it has been years since I have even eaten pudding. But I got a hankering, and then my curiosity took over (how do you make that stuff, anyway?!)

It turns out it is easy and yummy and now I wish I had more. It was a little too sweet for my taste, so I may experiment with less sugar next time, but otherwise I had no complaints - it was exactly what I would want chocolate pudding to taste like.

Chocolate Pudding, slightly modified from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 2/3 cups milk (I used 1%)
- 4 egg yolks, whisked
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Put sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt in medium saucepan, and mix together. Add milk, and heat over medium, stirring constantly, until beginning to bubble and thicken - cook for two more minutes, continuing to stir. Remove from heat. Gradually stir 1 cup of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, then return egg and milk mixture to saucepan. Continue stirring over medium heat until it comes to a very gentle boil; cook for two more minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Mix well, then pour through fine mesh strainer into bowl and cover with plastic wrap pressed to surface to chill.

Fruit Tart

I have a friend that moved to the United States about 8 years ago. Every since he learned that I like to bake, he has been requesting a "fruit cake". I figured that something was getting lost in translation - there was no way he could possibly be asking for an actual Fruit Cake. I thought maybe something along the lines of strawberry shortcake? Nope. Finally one day, we were walking through a Whole Foods bakery and he exclaimed, "That's it! That's what I want! A fruit cake!"

I made this "fruit cake" for his birthday. It was my first time making pastry cream, and now that I have done it, I can't wait to move on to Boston Cream Pie and eclairs. It was way easier than I imagined, and tasted heavenly. I followed the directions exactly, but still had a moment of terror just after the mixture came to its final simmer - suddenly the cream appeared to curdle, and looked like it was rapidly becoming scrambled eggs. But I just continued to whisk vigorously as I removed it from the heat, and the cream turned out beautifully.(!?) I don't know if that is normal or not, but the final product was wonderful. The tart shell was also delicious, and the dough was easy to roll out and work with. It tasted like not-too-sweet vanilla sugar cookies.




I used the recipe for the "Fresh Fruit Tart with Pastry Cream" in Baking Illustrated: the Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker, by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine. The recipe calls for either currant or apple jelly to glaze fruit - I used neither, and did not miss having a glaze. For the fruit part, I used blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, champagne grapes, and mandarin orange slices. The recipe called for unwashed berries, because any moisture left on the fruit would cause the pastry cream to weep. My O.C.D. tendencies in the kitchen prevented me from following that direction. Please note the drying fruit in the following picture...










Sweet Tart Pastry for 9 or 9 1/2 inch tart shell, from Baking Illustrated, p223

- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups (6 1/4 ounces) all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (2 2/3 ounces) powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I used salted)

Whisk yolk, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside.

Place flour, sugar, and salt in food processor and combine. Scatter in butter and process until resembles coarse meal, about fifteen pulses. Turn on machine and pour in egg mixture; process until dough just comes together, about 12 seconds. Turn dough onto plastic wrap, press into 6 inch disk, wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

If dough has been refrigerated for longer than 1 hour, remove dough from frig and let stand at room temp until malleable. Roll out between lightly floured sheets of parchment to a 13 inch circle. Transfer dough to 9 or 9 1/2 inch tart pan with removable bottom and carefully press dough into corners. Roll over pan with rolling pin to trim edges. Freeze tart pan for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, oven to 375 degrees, rack to middle position. When dough is done freezing, place pan on baking sheet. Line with foil, and fill tart with pie weights. Bake for 30 minutes on baking sheet, rotating half-way through. Remove from the oven and carefully remove foil, lifting weights with it. Bake another 5 to 8 minutes, until tart shell is deep golden brown. Set baking sheet on wire rack to cool shell completely.






















Pastry Cream, from Baking Illustrated, p227

- 2 cups half and half
- 1/2 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 5 large egg yolks
- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 4 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 4 pieces
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat the half and half, 6 Tbsp sugar, and the salt in a saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occassionally.

Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks and 2 Tbsp sugar in medium bowl until creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in corn starch until pale and thick, about 30 more seconds.

Gradually whisk simmering half and half mixture into egg yolks to temper. Return mixture to saucepan and bring to simmer over medium heat, whisking CONSTANTLY, until a few bubbles burst on surface and the mixture is thickened, about 30 seconds. Add butter and vanilla off the heat. Strain through fine-mesh sieve over a bowl. Refrigerate at least 3 hours with plastic wrap pressed directly on surface to prevent skin from forming.

Do not assemble this tart until very close to the time that you will be eating it, particularly if you are using sliced or washed fruit (see above).

Woolly Coconut-Lime Birthday Cake

This was my birthday cake. I had been craving lime and coconut, I think because I associate those flavors with trips to Mexico and summer was nowhere to be seen when my birthday rolled around a few weeks ago. This cake turned out to be exactly what I wanted, and I won't change a thing the next time I have an excuse to make it. The cream cheese frosting wasn't too sweet, and it was heaven with the lime curd (I was having an impossible time not eating spoonfuls of each while waiting for the crumb coat to chill.) The cake actually tasted of coconut too (just like the recipe promised) without any annoying coconut flakes in the batter itself. The half-toasted sweetened coconut smashed on the outside was actually WAY better than I was expecting. It was chewy-crunchy, which added a great contrast to the cake, but it also added a lot more flavor than I had anticipated.

(It is warm outside, my windows are open, I have wobbly-tired legs from a fifty mile bike ride today, and I am listening to Neil Diamond while I write this. Meow.)

I had searched high and low for a recipe that used coconut milk instead of "cream of coconut" (which I find a little scary - it contains several mystery ingredients), but I wasn't having much luck. I was surprised when I saw that the Cooks' Illustrated recipe even called for the stuff, but then they explained themselves (yay Cooks' Illustrated!). Apparently when they were testing recipes with coconut milk they had wildly varied results. With a little research they discovered that from can to can, coconut milk's fat content can vary as much as 33%. Hence, the cream of coconut.




Martha's Lime Curd, (slightly modified) from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

- 8 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp lemon juice (I actually used more lime juice - I only had 1 lemon)
- zest of 2 limes
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 sticks cold butter, cut into pieces (10 Tbsp)(I used salted)

Put yolks, juice, zest and sugar in heavy saucepan. Whisk well to combine, then cook over medium-high heat, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until mixture coats back of spoon and is 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer (about 8-12 minutes).

Remove from heat. Stir in salt. Add butter pieces gradually, stirring until mixed well. Press through sieve into bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing onto surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate at least one hour.





Coconut Cake, (modified slightly) from Baking Illustrated.

- 2 1/4 cups (9 ounces) cake flour (I used 9 ounce AP flour)
- 1 egg
- 5 egg whites
- 3/4 cream of coconut (Coco Lopez)
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp coconut extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 sticks butter (12 Tbsp), softened but cool, cut into 12 pieces
- 2 cups packed sweetened shredded coconut

Oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a large measuring cup, mix egg and egg whites with a fork, then mix in cream of coconut, water, and extracts.

In bowl of mixer, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter one piece at a time, and mix until resembles coarse meal with no pieces bigger than a pea, about 2 - 2 1/2 minutes.

With mixer running, add a cup of the liquid mixture. Beat on med-high until fluffy, about 45 seconds. With mixer still running, add remaining liquid in steady stream over about 15 seconds. Scrape down bowl and beat for another 15 seconds.

Divide batter between pans. Batter will be thick - spread with spatula. Bake for about 30 minutes, until toothpick is clean. Remove cakes, and toast coconut spread on baking sheet for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until half of coconut is golden, half is still white.

Cool cakes on wire racks, remove from pans after 10 minutes to finish cooling.


Ina Garten's Cream Cheese Frosting, (slightly modified) from the Barefoot Contessa at Home

- 1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 sticks butter at room temperature (I used salted)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pound powdered sugar

Beat together everything except the sugar. When it is well combined, add the sugar, and beat until smooth.






















Assemble and eat! (I put a thin coat of frosting on the bottom layer before the lime curd.)