Category: Food

Frozen Assets

Rushing about, trying to finish two week’s worth of work in just the few days preceding my trip to Paris, I practically had one foot out the door when I got word from my boss. Although she had just as much on her plate as well, it seemed like high time to begin a new project: A “supper club,” bringing us one step closer to a full-service restaurant. After years of only creating prepared foods for takeout, this would be a huge change for all of us at the restaurant, and I couldn’t respond fast enough to express my enthusiasm. The problem was, naturally, our first dinner would be scheduled for the week I would be away. Big, fat, bummer.

Still anxious to get in on the action, I simply couldn’t keep my hands out of the project. With my embarrassment of riches in the way of fresh berries, and my mind still fixed firmly on frozen treats, I proposed combining the two for a seasonal, crowd-pleasing, and easy make-ahead dessert. How could you say no to an offer like that?

Using only a touch of coconut milk to add creaminess, this concoction is heavy on fresh raspberries, bursting with pure fruit flavor. Accented with a touch of lemon zest to add brightness and some much needed acid, it’s a refreshing end to a summer meal, just what I thought this supper club needed.

But don’t you know, life isn’t that simple. While away in Paris, that dinner never came to fruition, and those pints remained frozen solid in the back of the freezer, just waiting for their time to shine. Happily, that time has now come, and I can even be a part to help serve it! Our first supper club is now scheduled for this Thursday, and while I realize it’s rather last minute, I would love to invite anyone in the area. Interested? Check out the details and RSVP!

Should you find yourself halfway around the country, or world, for that matter, don’t fret. You can still enjoy this delightful raspberry ice cream anyway; it’s just too good not to share.

Raspberry-Lemon Ice Cream

3 1/2 Pounds Raspberries
6 Tablespoons Arrowroot
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Zest of 3 Lemons
3/4 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice
3 Cups Coconut Milk
1 1/2 Cups Light Agave Nectar
2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract

*This makes 3 quarts, more than the average household ice cream maker can process at once, so you will either need to scale down this recipe as desired, or plan to churn it in batches.

Begin by tossing all of your berries into a blender or food processor, and completely puree them. Pass the puree through a fine mesh sieve, and discard the solids. Set aside.

In a large pot, first whisk together the arrow root and salt. Add in a small splash of the seedless raspberry puree, and whisk it thoroughly to make a thick paste. Once you’ve gotten out any lumps or dry clumps, add in the rest of the puree, along with the lemon zest, lemon juice, coconut milk, and agave. Set the pot over moderate heat, and stir occasionally, until the mixture thickens significantly and comes to a full boil. Turn off the heat, and whisk in the vanilla. This amount of ice cream base will take a long time to cool, so simply make sure you whisk it every 15 minutes or so, to prevent a skin from forming on top, until it’s just barely warm to the touch. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard, and let chill thoroughly in the refrigerator before churning according to your ice cream manufacturer’s directions.

Transfer the ice cream into air-tight containers, and let freeze solid before serving, at least 3 hours.

Hannah (BitterSweet)38 Comments

Berry, Berry Sweet

Just imagine, if you would, the results of relentless raspberry hunting for a full week, in a heavily-fruited area. Overflowing buckets of raspberries line the shelves of my fridge, and sheets of fresh berries to be frozen are endlessly rotating in and out of the freezer. Even with my voracious appetite, chowing down on a solid pint per day, minimum, there’s no way all of these edible treasures could be eaten as is before they spoil. Alarmed at how quickly the white fur has already begun to appear in spots and patches over the oldest batch, there’s no choice but to whip up some dessert to use up a greater volume of these gems, and fast. It’s a rough job, but somebody’s got to do it!

Such perfect little berries seem to call for simple applications, as there’s little that can be done to make them even better than they already are. Parfaits, verrines, and trifles immediately come to mind, and have the added bonus of typically being no-bake fare, so there’s no need to heat up the kitchen. With the oppressive heat and humidity that has been lingering through the weeks, every little bit helps! Plus, the final dessert is chilled down to a cool, refreshing temperature, sure to take the edge off one’s hunger and thirst all at once.

Matcha and raspberries are a match made in heaven if you ask me, the slight bitterness and tartness from each echoing a common ethos. And then chocolate, well, chocolate just goes with everything. Although the chocolate pudding lining the bottom is nothing special on its own, it simply provides the depth, richness, and creaminess that is so essential to a well-balanced parfait. Semi-solid cubes of matcha pudding up the ante, lending just a bit more texture, and visual interest. Then of course, those flawless wild raspberries are mounded on top, and the whole production is crowned with a soft, fudgy brownie cookie.

With a dessert like this, I don’t think I’ll have any problem using up all of my raspberries in no time at all.

Yield: Makes 4 – 6 Servings

Chocolate, Matcha, and Raspberry Parfait

Chocolate, Matcha, and Raspberry Parfait

Matcha and raspberries are a match made in heaven if you ask me, the slight bitterness and tartness from each echoing a common ethos. And then chocolate, well, chocolate just goes with everything. Although the chocolate pudding lining the bottom is nothing special on its own, it simply provides the depth, richness, and creaminess that is so essential to a well-balanced parfait. Semi-solid cubes of matcha pudding up the ante, lending just a bit more texture, and visual interest. Then of course, those flawless wild raspberries are mounded on top, and the whole production is crowned with a soft, fudgy brownie cookie.

Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Additional Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients

Matcha Cubes:

  • 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Arrowroot
  • 1 Teaspoons Powdered Agar Agar
  • 1 Teaspoons Matcha
  • 1 Cup Coconut Milk
  • 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Apple Juice
  • 1/3 Cup Birch Beer
  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Brownie Cookies:

  • 3/4 Cup Vegan Butter
  • 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
  • 1 Cup Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder
  • 3/4 Cup Vanilla Vegan Yogurt
  • 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • Pinch Salt

To Assemble:

Instructions

  1. For the matcha cubes, lightly grease an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan and set aside.
  2. Begin by whisking together the sugar, arrowroot, agar, and matcha together in a medium sauce pan to equally distribute all of the ingredients throughout. Slowly drizzle in just enough coconut milk to create a thick paste, and stir well to ensure that there are no lumps remaining. Add in the rest of the coconut milk, along wit the apple juice and birch beer, and whisk until smooth. Place on the stove over medium heat, and whisk gently until the mixture comes to a full boil, at which point it should feel significantly thicker. Take off the heat, and whisk in vanilla.
  3. Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf pan, and let sit undisturbed at room temperature for at least two hours. Do not be tempted to hasten the cooling process by placing the pan in the fridge, as rapidly chilling agar will make for a weaker, watery gel. Only after it has reach room temperature can you cover it with plastic wrap and move into the fridge.
  4. For the brownie cookies, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan and set aside.
  5. Thoroughly cream together the margarine and sugar using the paddle attachment in your stand mixer. Once smooth and homogeneous, add in the cocoa powder, followed immediately by the soy yogurt. All the mixer to work for about a minute on low speed, and then introduce the flour and baking powder together. Start on a slow speed, but once most of the dry ingredients are incorporated, turn it up to high and beat the mixture for about one minute. Add in the vanilla and salt, and beat briefly to combine.
  6. Transfer the mixture in big dollops to your prepared baking pan. Now, here’s the messy part- Thoroughly grease your hands, and press the cookie batter evenly into the bottom of the pan. It’s a very sticky, squishy mixture, so be prepared to get in there and get dirty! Once the surface of the cookie dough is smooth and level, place the pan in the oven and bake for 15 – 18 minutes, until it no longer appears shiny and no longer feels wet when tapped. Let cool completely, and then cut out shapes as desired. Try to keep the shapes fairly small, as larger ones are more likely to break or crumble.
  7. To assemble, place a dollop of chocolate pudding in the bottom of each parfait lass. Turn the matcha gel out onto a cutting board, and slice it into equally sized cubes. Place a handful of cubes into each glass, and top with raspberries as desired. Finish each glass with a brownie cookie.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 762Total Fat: 34gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 4gUnsaturated Fat: 19gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 121mgCarbohydrates: 94gFiber: 6gSugar: 64gProtein: 8g

All nutritional information presented within this site are intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on BitterSweetBlog.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. Even though I try to provide accurate nutritional information to the best of my ability, these figures should still be considered estimations.

© Hannah Kaminsky
Cuisine: American / Category: Miscellaneous Desserts

Hannah (BitterSweet)37 Comments

Urban Foraging

Look carefully as you drive through more heavily forested areas of the neighborhood, and you may just see a few errant polka dots of red here and there in the bushes. Take the time to investigate, and your curiosity will be rewarded; It’s raspberry season, and wild berries abound, free for the taking. Although initially difficult to locate, just one good patch of these edible jewels will produce plenty of good eats, and good fun too! If you’ve ever spotted some of these rarities but haven’t known how to proceed, fear not- It’s really quite simple. It’s not rocket science after all, but many years of tireless picking has taught me a few valuable tips…

If you’re not 110% certain that your berries are edible, unsprayed, nontoxic, and otherwise fit for human consumption, just don’t pick them. It’s a real bummer to see berries go to waste, but trust me, they’re simply not worth risking your health for.

Dress appropriately. Sure, it may be 90 degrees out and humid as hell, but you should still plan on wearing long pants and sleeves. Berries tend to go hand in hand with thorns, and they’ll tear up your arms and legs if you’re not covered. Sneakers are mandatory too… As for foraging in high-heels, I can tell you from experience that it’s a very bad idea, period.

Be prepared to fight. You’re not the only one out there that wants those sweet jewels! There will be bugs, and lots of them; mosquitos, spiders, beetles, slugs, miscellaneous creepy crawly things, you name it. If you can’t handle the thought of accidentally picking a big, meaty insect instead of that berry you were after, you might not want to try this.

Be critical and selective. When you find a good spot, the sheer number of potential treasures can be overwhelming. Instead of just grabbing every colorful gem in sight, really look at what you’re taking and only go for the biggest, most deeply colored berries you can find. Give the smaller ones a chance to grow, and you’ll be happier on subsequent visits.

Think like a berry. Where do berries like to grow? Don’t just approach the bushes at eye level- Crouch down, poke under leaves, push through branches. The best clusters are often hidden deeper inside the bush, more protected from the hungry wildlife.

Don’t be overzealous in your picking. Leave any berries that seem to be overripe, moldy, or infested with bugs. If they squish between your fingers and leave you stained with juice, they’re generally no good (just make sure you aren’t grabbing them too roughly in the first place though!) Let the pale or under-ripe berries be as well, since you can always come back in a few days and do another round of picking, getting much better berries than you would have in the first place.

Plan on either eating, freezing, canning, or baking with your berries immediately. They don’t last like store-bought produce, and tend to go bad in just a few days. Don’t waste time! To freeze them, I lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, freeze until solid, and then transfer them all into a big air-tight plastic container. Repeat as needed.

Should all your best efforts fail, check out the U-Pick or Pick-Your-Own farms in your area. It may not be as thrilling as hunting down your own wild berries, and you will have to pay, but they’re still guaranteed to be fresher and tastier than anything you find in the supermarket.

Now, don’t waste any more time, get out there and start picking- The season won’t last long!

Hannah (BitterSweet)25 Comments

Three Tiers of Terror

By no stretch of the imagination could I claim to know every last cake decorator on earth, or even in the US, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that they all have one thing in common: They are absolutely crazy.  Especially those who specialize in wedding cakes, let me tell you.  That job requires a heightened level of madness, a degree of which I still have yet to fully comprehend.  I know this for sure because for however brief, I joined their ranks.

Still jet-lagged and bleary-eyed the day after returning from Paris, it was game time, and a trial cake had to be baked.  Never before had I made a wedding cake, nor even a round cake bigger than 10 inches in diameter, and somehow it seemed sensible to have only one test cake.  The madness had already begun to descend, you see.  Lacking the time to make the whole assembly, it was really just for reassurance that the recipe would still work when baked in a 3-inch thick layer… But of course, lest I get too comfortable with the concept, even the smallest top tier ballooned like a soufflé and promptly fell like a bombed out mine field.  Meanwhile, experiments with creating the perfect low-sugar frosting weren’t going any better, the whisk of my mixer dejectedly pushing around a thin, soupy icing that refused to gain any volume.  What a fun situation to return home to.

But there wasn’t enough time in the day to fix all of the kinks (ie, everything), and exhaustion began to set in, so in favor of not ending up face-first in a vat of cake batter, all I could do was high-tail it off to bed.  Never mind that the whole cake would need to be baked and crumb-coated tomorrow.

Simple enough, right?  Take all day and bake a cake.  But it’s no little birthday cake, no cute little two-layer affair.  These monstrous rounds require somewhere around 70 total cups of batter, and the largest layers took nearly two hours to bake, each.  Then, they must cool, and have you ever sat around waiting for a 14-inch round, 3-inch tall cake to cool?  Absolute torture.  At the very least, nothing had exploded in the oven, and I was making some progress.  Did I mention that this cake would be due at noon the next day?  Not that I was stressing over the deadline at all, no way.

Some how, some way, at the end of the longest day of my life, there actually was a wedding cake.  A feat in itself, but it was even on time and exactly as ordered!

While I’m normally opposed to using non-edible items on a cake, I could hardly argue with the bride’s request for fresh flower decorations. Besides, it saved me the heartache of trying to pipe some crude squiggles that might have only looked like flowers if you closed your eyes. At that point, I was just happy to throw some roses and such on it and be done with the thing.

After that maddening experience, it’s clear that only a very unbalanced, somewhat delusional, and absolutely obsessive person would choose to make wedding cakes for a living. And of course, I say that with great admiration.

Hannah (BitterSweet)67 Comments

Tomatoes: In, Strawberries: Out

If for only a moment, there comes a fleeting stretch of time where seasonal fruits intersect on their ways in and out of season. Both perfectly ripe, but some barely clinging to their final days at their prime, while others finally just hitting their stride. In perfect harmony for however briefly, it’s this window of opportunity where some of the most unique and unusual pairings can be made. It might sound crazy on paper, or on screen for that matter, but I was elated to finally try marrying tomatoes and strawberries into one inclusive dessert.

Composed of thinly sliced grape tomatoes and petite strawberries arranged in overlapping layers on top of an almond crust, these tartlettes couldn’t be any easier to make, but they seem to make a big impression on unsuspecting eaters. Lightly brushed with vanilla-infused agave, and finally topped with a sprinkle of grated lemon zest and fresh thyme, it’s one of those special treats that can only be enjoyed once or twice a year at most. Highlighting perfect produce, they hardly need anything to dress them up, and thus it’s hard to consider adorning the tartlettes any further.

Despite throwing in a couple of plain old strawberries tartlettes for good measure, just in case my taste testers wouldn’t go for this unusual idea, the tomato-layered sweets were still the first to disappear.

I’m afraid it may be too late for some of you, depending on what’s going on in your local markets, but if you happen to have the fortune of a late strawberry crop coming in, don’t let this one chance pass you by!

Hannah (BitterSweet)45 Comments

Cacao with a Kick

Come summer time, not only do eating habits have to change to accommodate the sweltering heat, but so do online ordering habits. Yes indeed, I’m guilty of rampant internet shopping practices, sending every wacky, interesting, and simply new food product to my virtual cart without a care in the world. With such easy access to otherwise unattainable vegan novelties, it’s hard to curb that impulse, and especially when it comes to innovative sweets. Unfortunately, mail ordering chocolate is a big no-no for me from about June through September, for fear of receiving a semi-melted, bloomed glob of cocoa butter and solids instead. Normally this isn’t such a difficult policy to follow, and the arrival of fall is always happily greeted with a big shipment of all the chocolates that had been tempting me through the summer… But I’m breaking all the rules this year. The decadent promise of Xan Confections’ vegan chocolate collection was simply too great to delay another month!

As soon as that brown cardboard box landed on my doorstep, I swooped in, tearing through plastic tape and a styrofoam cooler, eager to rescue my prize… Only to find my worst cocoa-covered fear inside. Never before had I broken the seasonal chocolate rule, and I’d be damned if I didn’t pay for it. Boxes smashed open, ice pack dripping wet and leaking all over the contents of that tiny cooler, it was enough to make a grown woman cry. And maybe it did. But regardless, through this tragedy, I discovered that the people of Xan Confection’s are understanding and caring human beings, taking pity on my situation enough to send out another package, no questions asked. Happily, this one arrived intact and looking positively mouth-watering.

There’s no way around it; These molded chocolates are absolutely stunning eye candy. The aptly named Jewel Collection consists of colorful, shimmering chocolate shells enclosing a variety of flavored caramels. Each different hue indicates a different flavor, but none are specifically marked or designated, so the element of surprise makes each bite just a little bit more exciting. Especially true if you happen to pick up the purple-tinged chocolate first, as I did… What a shock to discover a spicy, cayenne-flecked, flowing caramel sequestered inside that unassuming chocolate casing! This one really made me sit up and take notice- It was a real wake up call, with the potency to rival that of a cup of coffee!

The following flavors were somewhat less arresting, but no less tantalizing. Bright, fresh strawberry flavor, just like homemade strawberry jam, leapt out from within a pink-dusted gem to great delight. A pure caramel core with a perfect hit of salt in another truly made my tongue sing. The firm bite of a solid ganache center was another unexpected treat, incredibly rich with intense chocolate flavor.

Each new truffle kept me guessing, concealing any number of delicious flavors and textures within every last jewel. Part of the fun is that unknowable element, so instead of having me spell which each and every chocolate is, I think it’s just best if you taste these for yourself! Gem-like in every sense of the word, every little morsel is a true treasure.

Incredibly, the Saintly Sins collection packs the same punch of flavor and sublime texture, but is light in both fat and calories. I had trouble believing it myself as I bit through the perfectly tempered chocolate pieces, teeth meeting with a satisfying snap. Though the filling was runny to the point of being syrupy, and potentially quite messy, that problem is easily remedied by popping the whole truffle in your mouth at once! The fruit flavors were all fresh and intense, perfectly paired with the gently bitter chocolate exteriors.

It’s hard to find vegan chocolates of this quality, so if you’re craving a truly satisfying fix, it’s well worth the hazards of ordering Xan Confections through the internet, even in the hottest of months!

Hannah (BitterSweet)29 Comments