Red Velvet Chocolate Squares (A Sugar Free Surprise)

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It's been over a month since I last posted anything.

I'm sorry.

However, I do have an excuse—sort of.

I decided to give up sugar for Lent. I'm not Catholic, but I really like the idea of Lent and have observed it for the past several years.

Giving up sugar hasn't been too terribly difficult. I do have the occasional cravings, but the dreams about candy have finally subsided. One recurring dream involved going out to dinner with my family and my parents. I had a giant stash of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups under the table. Every time no one was looking, I would shove one in my mouth. I felt so guilty but couldn't stop.

Needless to say, baking treats that I can't try doesn't seem to be much fun. I could have made healthy recipes to post, but I found it best to just stay out of the kitchen.

The reward? I've dropped 8 lbs.!

Last week, I received the Costco "magazine" in the mail. It's basically all advertisements for stuff they sell. I usually give it a quick glance before tossing it into the recycling. As I thumbed through the pages, I stopped on a picture of an amazing looking chocolate dessert. I thought maybe I would hang onto the magazine and try out the recipe after Easter. However, as I read through the ingredients, not only did I notice some very interesting and odd ingredients, I noticed the recipe didn't use any sugar. I could try it now!

The recipe comes from Rocco DiSpirito's new book, Now Eat This! Diet. The odd ingredients in these red velvet chocolate squares are beets and red beans. This reminded me of some rather tasty desserts I tried in China that had red beans in them.

I followed Rocco's recipe exactly, and decided to test it out on my kids. Of course, I didn't tell them what was in squares. If they had known, they would never have tried them. All three kids ended up loving them and would have finished off the pan if I had let them.

I then put the chocolate squares to the ultimate test—the in-laws. While not picky eaters, they're probably not the most adventuresome eaters either. I still don't think they ever gave my peanut butter pizza a fair try. Without knowing they were sugar free and made with beets and beans, the in-laws offered glowing compliments.

I highly recommend these red velvet chocolate squares. I liked them so much that I think I will check out Rocco's book.

For those of you wondering if it will be after Easter before I post again, do not fear. One of my students has a birthday Friday. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to make, but I have a feeling it's going to be grand. Stay tuned!

Never have vegetables tasted so good!

Macadamia Fudge Torte

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I was going through pictures on the camera and found some photos of a cake I just realized I never posted. Rachel, one of my student employees, had a birthday in December, and I made this Macadamia Fudge Torte. We celebrated Rachel's birthday appropriately by singing "Happy Birthday" in our best opera voices, as is our custom, and all enjoyed the cake, Then, Christmas happened...

Now, I'm getting caught up. This is a recipe I wanted to make sure I posted because it's been a family favorite for about fifteen years. In 1996, it was the Pillsbury Bake-Off million dollar grand prize winner. You do have to use a box cake mix, which I am generally opposed to; however, this cake is worth every penny of that million dollars. I've also modified the recipe just slightly. For desserts, I never use "low fat" or "light" ingredients, and I topped the cake off with dulce de leche.

Interestingly, this cake uses pureed pears in the batter. I have no clue why. For all I know, you could easily use applesauce. However, this last time I made the cake, a student came to me and said, "What's that flavor? I think I taste pears." Wow, those are some highly developed taste buds.

This cake is always a showstopper, and it's very easy to make. If I received a dollar for every compliment for this cake, I could actually someday become a millionaire.

Give it a try, and enjoy!

Rachel, the birthday girl, who is also worth a million

I'm salivating. I think I need to make this again.

Last Second Entry—S’More Lamingtons

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Mr. P extended the deadline to enter the Re-Inventing the Lamginton Contest, so I thought I'd give it one more shot. Of course, I've left it to the last minute to post the recipe and only have a few minutes left, so this will be a brief post. And, please pardon any grammatical or spelling errors.

For my first two entries, I did Argentine and Austrian inspired Lamingtons. I thought I'd do another international version. However, I couldn't come up with any good ideas. Actually, I came up with some pretty horrid ideas. How does a Japanese Lamginton with seaweed and little dried fish sound? See what I mean? Not so great.

After much contemplation, I decided to make a totally American Lamington. But, what's totally American? It seems like all of our cuisine has been borrowed from somewhere. After looking through some vacation pictures of the family in Carpinteria at our favorite beach, I knew what I had to make—Lamingtons based on that famous campfire dessert, S'Mores.

I made the Lamgintons out of graham cracker pound cake filled with marshmallow cream. I then covered them in chocolate and sprinkled each with graham cracker crumbs. They were somewhat messy, but that just added to the authenticity.

My family has certainly enjoyed my Lamington experimentations, and they certainly loved these s'more versions. My son even said, "Dad, You're the best Lamington maker in the world." I'm not sure about that, but that's compliment enough to know these are pretty darn good and that you should give them a try.

The picture's not the best, but that's what you get when you're in a hurry.

If it's too cold for camping or you want something a little more gourmet, these will do the trick.

Re-Invent the Lamington Contest Entries—Alfajore Lamingtons and Sacher Lamingtons

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I just looked at my calendar.

January 26...

Hmm... Do I have something going on today that I can't remember? It sure seems like I do. But what?

Aaaaah! It's the deadline for the Re-Inventing the Lamingtons Contest! I wanted to enter the contest last year, but never got around to it. When I saw that Mr. P was holding the contest again, I decided I was not going to procrastinate and submit an entry. Now, it's the last day, and with the time difference, I probably only have a little bit of time to get this entry posted.

I'll let you read through Mr. P's entertaining blog for the history and background of the contest. But basically, a lamington is an Australian dessert consisting of squares of cake with a jam filling covered in chocolate and shredded coconut. For this contest, you just have to get creative.

So, I would like to submit two entries.

First, I give you the Argentine inspired Alfore Lamingtons. I actually created it last year after the first Re-Inventing the Lamington Contest had already ended, so click on the link to read all about them. These are sooo incredibly good. I have made them several times, and they always receive rave reviews. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with Dulce de Leche.

Seriously YUM, YUM YUM!

And now for my second entry—the Austrian inspired Sacher Lamington.

Vienna is possibly my favorite city in the world, and it's famous for the Sachertorte. In 2009, I was fortunate enough to celebrate my birthday at the Sacher Hotel and enjoy a slice of heaven. The Sachertorte is a chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and covered in a dark chocolate ganache.

I decided to create a Lamington based on this cake. For the cake, I wanted something dense that could easily be dipped in chocolate. I chose to make two loaves of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Chocolate Bread. For the filling, I used my wife's marvelous homemade apricot jam. After cutting the cake into squares and spreading on the jam, I covered the Lamingtons in semi-sweet chocolate. Since the original Lamington is covered in shredded coconut, I wanted to add one more ingredient. However, coconut did not seem to fit well with the Sachertorte theme. I looked around the grocery store for inspiration and basically came up with nothing until I hit the candy aisle. I decided to sprinkle shavings of the best and darkest European chocolate I could find, which happened to be Lindt's Excellence 99% Cocoa Bar.

Here is the result.

Wunderbar!

To be really authentic, serve your Sacher Lamington with a big dollop of whipped cream.

I brought these to a dinner party recently, where they were a huge hit. I definitely plan to make them again.

Well, there you have them, my two entries in this year's Re-Invent the Lamington Contest. I've already begun thinking of other countries to inspire more Lamington recipes. Hopefully, Mr. P will sponsor the contest again next year, and hopefully, I will be a little more on the ball.


Wish me luck!

EPIC FAIL Macarons

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Dang it!

It was beginners luck.

In my previous post, you may have read about my first attempt at making macarons. They came out absolutely perfect, and I was mighty proud. "What's the big deal," I thought. They're a snap!

Well, as the proverb says, "Pride goeth before the fall."

And boy, did my macarons fall.

After my first batch of lovely macarons, I decided to make more to impress friends and family, and in keeping with the Christmas theme, I decided this time to make green shells. I had visions of delivering boxes of macarons to colleagues, friends, and neighbors. I would watch the look of total amazement come over their faces as they bit into their first macaron. And then, I would humbly accept all their praise and compliments.

Ooops. I think there is a life lesson to be learned here.

I thought I followed the exact same method of making the macarons as before. But, something went horribly wrong. Even Ms. Humble's blog post dedicated to troubleshooting macarons could not explain...

...this.

As we say in Utah, "What the heck?!"

I give you my entry for the Ugliest Macaron Contest.

I won't tell you what my kids think is on top of that macaron on the right, but I bet you can guess. I have no idea what happened, but interestingly enough, the cookies tasted great. It didn't take any time at all for the family to finish them off, and we all had a good laugh.

Will that be my last attempt at macarons? Noooo. I'm planning to get back on that horse and try again. I will not be defeated! Macarons, here I come!

Stay tuned...

Christmas Macarons—Peppermint with Chocolate Ganache Filling

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I finally gave them a try—macarons.

I would venture to guess that 99.9% of Utahns have never heard of these cookies, and I only learned of them about a year ago when I discovered a fun food blog, Not So Humble Pie. After long experimenting and perfecting, Ms. Humble has written multiple blog entries about macarons with amazing sounding recipes and photographs. I think it was her exhaustive troubleshooting post that made me most apprehensive about attempting to make the cookies. If so many things could possibly go wrong, they must be difficult, right?

I then discovered that macarons have been the trendy thing among food bloggers for a while now. When I googled "macaron recipe," it came up with 75 pages. So many different colors and flavor combinations, so many wonderful photographs, so many detailed descriptions of these little confectionery delights—I knew I must try one for myself.

I began my hunt. And, it wasn't easy. Utah tends to usually be a few years behind when it comes to trends. I first looked in all the grocery stores. Nothing. I moved on to the bakeries. Nada. I even went to a French bakery. Absolument rien. Finally after six months, I found a box of macarons at Trader Joes while on vacation in California. And even though some of the shells were cracked, the family and I thought they were pretty darn fantastic.

The ideal macaron is perfectly round. The shells are characterized by smooth, domed tops with ruffled bottoms. This bottoms are called the feet, but I find that kind of gross because it reminds me of dissecting a clam in junior high biology. The shells should have an egg shell-like crust with a moist and airy interior. They should practically melt in your mouth. Macarons are commonly filled with a frosting, ganache, or jam filling which is sandwiched between two shells. The Mecca of Macarons seems to be the Pierre Herme bakery in Paris. Someday, I hope to check it out.

So, for this first attempt at making macarons, I decided to go with the easiest looking recipe I could find. I decided to set my expectations very low. I would consider the venture a success if my cookies turned out somewhat round, and it would be OK if they didn't have the all-important feet ruffles. As I searched through recipes, I immediately threw out anything metric. Not only am I a mathematically challenged American, I do not own a kitchen scale. I decided I'd invest in a scale, if this first attempt was marginally successful.

Since it's the Christmas season, I decided to go with a recipe from Gourmet or Gourmand for peppermint macarons with chocolate ganache filling. I modified it slightly after reading tips from Ms. Humble and others.

And the result? Total perfection! I don't have a clue how I did it, but I've got pictures to prove it. The kids absolutely love them. We could have easily devoured all of them. However, I managed to box up some for coworkers, who also gave them rave reviews. These may even surpass sour cream cookies as my all-time favorite cookie. I'm now excited to try more.

I think I'll even add a kitchen scale to my Christmas wish list. Actually, it's probably too late for that; I'll just go buy one at an after-Christmas sale.

But...

I'm nervous about one thing. Was this beginners luck?

Not bad for my first try. I'd be willing to put them up against Pierre's.

Perfectly smooth, domed shells. And feet!

Rivarly Week Recipe #2—True Blue Velvet Cake

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Even though I hate the expression, I needed to kill two birds with one stone. (If anyone knows a less violent phrase, do share.) First of all, we had a 1/2 birthday to celebrate at the office, and I wanted to make something to post on the blog in connection with the BYU vs. University of Utah Food Drive. The student alumni association from each school tries to collect the most food and money the two weeks leading up to the big rivalry football game.

I'm the advisor for the BYU Student Alumni, and these students have been doing an amazing job raising funds and collecting food for a wonderful cause. Everything collected by BYU goes to Community Action Services and Food Bank of Utah County. Here's an interesting fact. Did you know Community Action Services can leverage every dollar donated to equal about 15 to 20 lbs. of food? That's amazing! And, even in Utah there is a great need. Please take a moment to donate by clicking here.

Before I get to the recipe, here is a video the students made to promote the food drive. Enjoy!

If you haven't seen the commercial this parodies, click here.

Now, the recipe...

I decided to make a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting but with a twist. Instead of using the color of the opposition, I substituted blue food coloring. I didn't have enough food coloring on hand to make it real BYU blue, but it turned out pretty well. And, it was a lot of fun.

I just hope it brings good luck to the Cougars as they face the Utes, and inspires everyone to give this holiday season.

 

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Lisa, and GO Cougars!