Recipe of the Week: Ganache Dessert Cups

My recipe this week is a party dessert. Over the weekend I helped host a baby shower. One of my duties was to make a ganache dessert. It needed to be served in some form of an edible cup, with a topping, and bite-size. I had never made ganache before, but they were a favorite at the party. Many people asked for the recipe so here it is from my experience. There are two recipes that I used for the over all dessert, one for the ganache and the other for the cup.

Ganache

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Place chocolate chips in a large bowl, or in a bowl of a stand mixer. Pour the cream into a saucepan, and bring to a boil. As soon as the cream boils up to the top of the pan, quickly remove it from the heat, and pour it over the chips. Let stand for a minute or two, then stir with a whisk, or use the paddle attachment for the mixer, to mix until smooth. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl occassionally. Stir in the vanilla until well blended. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface, and allow to cool at room temperature, or in a refrigerator.

"Ganache recipe used in many bakeshops. Melt, and pour over cakes as a glaze, or chill and whip until light for a filling. Ganache is a very versatile icing. This can best be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or about 3 days at room temperature."

Found on www.allrecipes.com submitted by Pastrychick101

Chocolate Cookies-and-Cream Crust

2 1/2 cups coursely crushed cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (Oreos)

1/3 cup melted butter

Stir together all ingredients; firmly press crumb mixture on bottom, up sides, and onto lip of a lightly greased 9-inch pie plate (I used a mini-muffin pan because I needed individual desserts). Bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack, and cool crust 1 hour or until completely cool before filling.

Found in June 2008 edition of Southern Living magazine

From My Experience:

For this dessert, I combined the two recipes shown above to make the ganache-filled cookie cups. They are both fairly easy recipes, but the whole process takes time. The good news is you can make both ahead of time if necessary. I made the ganache first the night before. I thought I would be health-conscious so I purchased half-and-half instead of heavy cream. It boiled and mixed like normal. Which reminds me, make sure to watch the cream because it boils over easily and makes an extreme mess! Anyway, after the half-and-half was mixed with the chocolate it didn't thicken like I knew it should, so it was back to the grocery store and then starting over. Buy the heavy cream; it's loaded with fat but that's what makes it thick and rich. And this is definitely a special occasion dessert so everyone can splurge once in a while. Once I repeated the process using the heavy cream, I could tell a difference in the consistency and knew I had done it right this time. After the mixture cooled enough, I put it inside a plastic bag and left it a room temperature to cool. If you put it in the fridge, it will thicken making it difficult to fill the cups.

The next day I made the cookies-and-cream cups using a mini-muffin pan though the recipe was originally for a piecrust. The trick to making the cups so small is putting about a spoonful of the moist crumb mixture into each section. They will turn out a little thicker but it will be easier for them to stay intact once they are baked. After pouring the mixture into a one of the slots, push down to form a more dense consistency. If you keep pushing down in the middle, eventually it will start moving up the sides to form a concave cup. They still needed to be baked for 10-12 minutes. Because I needed to quicken the cooling process, I put the whole pan in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Once they were cooled, then I finished it off with the filling.

The ganache was sitting at room temperature in a plastic bag so I could pipe it into the cooled cookie cups. I cut one corner of the plastic bag and squirted the smooth ganache to fill each cup. Even if the cookie crust doesn't reach the top of the muffin pan, fill the ganache to the brim. Once again, I needed to speed up the chilling process so I stuck the muffin pan back into the freezer for about 15 minutes. Once removed, the ganache had thickened and hardened so I could now pop them out. Take a knife and run it along the side to loosen the cup-shaped crust. I placed the ganache-filled desserts in another pan because they needed to stay refrigerated until served. Once ready to serve, I placed a quarter slice of a strawberry on top of each ganache dessert.

The dessert was delectable, very rich with chocolatey goodness.

Moment with Daddy

Another one, yes....

The family was all in our bedroom, Jake and Sloane playing on the bed, Lily laying on her bed, and me getting ready since we needed to leave shortly. Jake wanted to take a quick nap, but as you can see Sloane made that difficult. She would stretch her leg as far as it could reach and repeatedly kick Jake in the face meanwhile playing with her crinkly book! Somehow he managed to catch a few zzz's with some intermittent awakenings to scold me for letting Sloane toy with him during his slumber. But instead of moving her, I went to get our camera; it was too funny to let go of this memory! Here is Sloane preoccupied by her book while resting one foot on Jake's face.

She looks at me like, "What's wrong? I'm just chillin."

"Ah, that's much better."
"Now I am going to kick him somewhere else!"

Moments with Daddy

Jake was on bath duty on this particular evening. When I went to check on their progress, I found Jake, Sloane, and Lily on the floor with her toy basket and a book. Jake was reading but Sloane was holding the book so interested in the pictures. It was so cute, I rushed to get our camera. There are four pictures with the last capturing both of their happy faces!

Recipe of the Week: Pumpkin Crisp

Pumpkin Crisp

1 (15-oz.) can pumpkin

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 (18.25-oz.) package butter-flavored yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup butter, melted

whipped cream (optional)

Ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Stir together first 5 ingredients. Pour into a lightly greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly with pecans. Drizzle butter evenly over pecans.

2. Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with Whipped cream, if desired. Sprinkle with nutmeg, if desired.

Recipe taken from Southern Living 2009 Annual Recipes

From My Experience:

This recipe was so good! I made it for our small group last Thursday because I was feeling the October fever and wanted something with pumpkin power! It was a success. As you can see from the close-up picture, I added about a cup of uncooked oats on top. To me this has to be included to be called a "Crisp" plus it added to the crunchy topping. I left out the nutmeg since I didn't have any, and served it with vanilla ice cream. It was another easy and yummy recipe I will definitely make again, maybe soon!

Recipe of the Week: 3 Dips

I love dips! They can enhance many foods and are easy to make. So I combined two weeks worth of recipe challenges to give you a trio of dips for all occassions.

Chili's Salsa

4 tsp. fresh or canned (not pickled) diced jalapeno pepper
1/4 cup diced onion

One 14.5 oz. can tomatoes and green chiles

One 14.5 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes, with juice

3/4 tsp. garlic salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp. cumin, or more to taste

1/4 tsp. sugar, or to taste

1. Place the jalapeno and onion in a food processor; pulse for a few seconds.

2. Add both cans of tomatoes and the garlic salt, cumin, and sugar.

3. Process all ingredients until well blended, but do not puree. You want the salsa to be chunky.

4. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

found in America's Most Wanted Recipes

From My Experience:

The author of this book takes restaurant favorites and creates a copycat version. I love Chili's salsa and decided to give it a try. Mine didn't come out tasting exactly like their version because it was alot spicier but it did have the same texture and appearance. I used a whole jalapeno seeds and all thinking my h usband would appreciate the heat. The salsa turned out so hot I couldn't taste much else; no complaints though from my husband.

Peanut Butter Dip

makes 1 1/2 cups

3/4 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup reduced-fat peanut butter

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

In a small serving bowl, stir together all ingredients.

Found in September 2010 Family Circle magazine.

From My Experience:

This was printed in a section about after-school snacks and suggested serving it with apples, celery, and pretzels. I thought this dip was really good! I tried it with the celery and pretzels and liked it with both. I thought it would be a great after-school snack and it's super easy to make. The amount of yogurt required is about the amount in a single serving container and the amount of raisins called is a handfull. I will definitely make it again and I'm thinking about trying it with hazelnut spread in place of the peanut butter just to have another variety.

5-Minute Humus

makes 1 1/2 cups

1 15oz. can of chickpeas, rinsed

1 clove garlic

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for serving

2 Ttsp. fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp. tahini (sesame seed paste, optional)

1 tsp. ground cumin

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. paprika

In a food processor, puree the chickpeas and garlic with olive oil, lemon juice, tahini (if using), cumin, and salt until smooth and creamy. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency. Transfer to a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the paprika before serving.

From My Experience:

I really like humus. The store-bought kind is awesome, but it is definitely more affordable to make it yourself and easy to do so. While you may not create the splendor of a name-brand version, you will be able to create a similar version of your liking. When I tried this recipe, I didn't use the lemon juice or paprika because I didn't have any. I also didn't add more olive oil because I thought it would be too oily. For my humus, I also added a red bell pepper, some green olives, and some of the olive juice instead of water; I like mine salty! I just threw them in the food processor. On the matter of the optional tahini, I used it. I think it helps the chickpeas become the creamy and smooth humus and adds a special flavor.

Sloane Laughs at Lily

I hope this works! After Jake and I returned home from dinner last Friday night, we let Lily out in the front yard to play before we all went inside for the night. Jake started throwing sticks in the air for Lily to catch. Sloane thought this was so funny, she broke into laughter! It didn't matter how long we continued to throw these twigs, it never got old for Lily or Sloane. The sound of her laughter will bring a smile to your face.

7 months

I couldn't decide which picture and there wasn't one great one so you got four! Sloane is now 7 months, and has made progress in the last month. We don't think she has grown too much but she can no longer wear her 3-6 months footed pajamas; she has long legs. She still sleeps about 12 hours a night and takes two naps a day. She has stopped taking a nap in the evening even though it is obvious she is sleepy. She takes 4 bottles a day and eats a fruit and vegetable during the two afternoon feedings. She eats whatever I feed her without a complaint.

Schedule:

7:30=wake-up

8:00=8 oz. bottle

9:30/10=nap

12:00=fruit or vegetable & 5/6 oz. bottle

1:30/2=nap

4:00=fruit or vegetable & 5/6 oz. bottle

7:00=8 oz. bottle

7:30=bedtime

Here are some things Miss Sloane can do:

*sit without support

*turn in the direction of a voice

*babbles more frequently especially when playing by herself

*work to get a toy out of reach

*rake object with fingers and pick it up in her fist

*stand on legs holding on to someone

*push up and put weight on arms straightened

*get on her knees

*notice when Lily is nearby

*stick her hands out for Lily to lick

Sloane is still such a happy baby. She has started to become more vocal about it too. The only syllables detectable are ma-ma-ma which she says usually when she is upset. Sloane hasn't cut any teeth yet nor do we see any approaching, but she puts everything in her mouth and has been drooling since she was 3 months old. She isn't crawling yet either but she can get on her arms and her knees just not simultaneously. She still smiles at everyone who talks to her. Her favorite toy is our dog, Lily. She started to really notice her this past month. She likes to watch her and tries to grab any piece of Lily she can reach. Sometimes she just looks at Lily and laughs when Lily is doing nothing funny at all. Her favorite though are licks from Lily; doesn't matter where either!