Cardamom Dark Chocolate Tart with Raspberries

I found this recipe while I was browsing through food gawker and thought it looked so scrumptious!  I was going to make it exactly as I found it, but when I couldn't find culinary lavender (and I was a little afraid it would taste like soap), I decided to add raspberries instead.  The chocolate ganache is delicious (but, really, when your mixing chocolate and cream, can you really go wrong?).  I love the cardamom lemon flavor in the crust, but I thought it was a little tough.  I might try to do a more traditional pie crust next time and just add lemon and cardamom.  Regardless of the texture, it tasted really rich and yummy!

Ingredients

Pastry

2 cups + a little more flour
1 tsp ground cardamom
zest from 1 lemon
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp coarse salt
7 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
2 Tbsp cold water

Ganache

10 oz heavy whipping cream
12 oz dark chocolate, chopped
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp butter
coarse salt

Raspberries

Pastry

1. Using a stand mixture, mix together flour, cardamom, lemon zest, salt and sugar until combined.  Add in the butter and mix until mixture has the texture of small peas.
2. Add in the egg yolk and then slowly add the lemon juice and water, just until the dough begins to form when pressed between two fingers.
3. Form the pastry into a ball and refigerate for at least an hour.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Press the pastry dough into ungreased pan (I used a nine inch spring-form pan, but a pie pan should work as well).  Prick the dough all over with a fork.  Place a sheet of parchment paper over the dough and fill with dry beans.
5. Bake for about 15 minutes until the edges begin to turn golden.  Remove the beans and parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until the crust is golden all over.  Allow to cool.

 Ganache

1. Combine the cream, honey and butter in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.
2. Remove from heat and add chocolate.  Whisk together until smooth.  
3. Immediately pour into prepared crust.  Sprinkle with the coarse salt.  Allow several hours for the chocolate to set.  Serve at room temperature with fresh raspberries on top.

Orange and Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts

This week is a semi-failure.  Well, it started out as a failure, but I was able to fix it.  I've been wanting to try to make doughnuts for months now, but I never seem to do it.  So this week I decided to try - homemade doughnuts are so good!  Except they just weren't as good as I was hoping!

I combined a couple of recipes and came up with this one.  I liked that you made the dough the night before and then cooked them in the morning.  When I tried that, they didn't really rise!  Problem was, I think that the warm setting on my oven was too warm for the yeast, and after rising a little bit, the yeast ended up dying before they got big enough.

I also liked the idea of a baked doughnut - it would be better for you. I ended up making two trays of doughnuts and one tray of holes.  Since only two pans would fit in my oven, the holes sat on the counter to rise (instead of proofing in the oven).  They rose much better than the actual doughnuts. I also decided to fry them instead of baking them.  Wow!  What a difference proper rise and frying makes in a good doughnut.  I learned that if I am going to make a delicious treat, if I try too hard to be healthy also I might just end up not satisfying my craving and then wanting more junk food later. 

I also thought that the chocolate glaze would be my favorite, but the orange glaze was so good that I just couldn't keep away from the orange doughnuts!

Dough:

2 cups milk
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast (1 package)
1/3 cup applesauce
1 tsp salt
6 cups flour

1. Combine milk, shortening, maple syrup and sugars in small sauce pan over medium heat.  Heat until shortening melts and sugars are dissolved then remove from heat.
2. Allow milk mixture to cool until it is between 100 - 110 degrees F and then add the yeast.  Allow this to sit for about 5 minutes.
3. Combine 4 cups flour, salt and applesauce and then add the milk and sugar mixture.  Continue adding flour until the dough is sticky, but doesn't stick to your fingers (about 2 more cups).
4. Cover dough and lit rise until double - or about an hour.
5. Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut into doughnut shape and place on greased cookie sheets.

Here's where the directions diverge.  You can either...

1. Place cookie sheets in refrigerator overnight.  In the morning set your oven to its lowest setting (if your oven has a proofing setting this is what you want) and allow doughnuts to rise in oven for 30 minutes to an hour, until they have doubled.  
2. Turn oven to 350 degrees F and cook doughnuts for 10-15 minutes.  Glaze them while they are still hot.

Or you can....

1. Allow doughnuts to rise again for about an hour or until doubled.  
2. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat.  Fry the doughnuts in batches, flipping them over halfway through, until they are golden brown.  Glaze them while they are still hot.

Personally, I'm going to fry them from now on.  So much better!


Glazes

Orange Glaze
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp orange juice
1/2 tsp dried orange peel or 1 tsp fresh orange peel
1 cup powdered sugar

Chocolate Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 Tbsp milk

Whisk ingredients of glazed in small bowls and dip doughnuts in when they are done.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Frosting

I have to admit, the main reason I wanted to make these was so that I would have a means of shoveling peanut butter cream frosting into my mouth. The cupcakes themselves turned out pretty good, too!


I found the cake recipe here, but I altered it slightly. My 2 year old is allergic to eggs, so instead of using eggs, I used Ener-G Egg Replacer. It worked great! I added more cocoa powder than the original recipe, and the original recipe was for a cake, and I made cupcakes instead. The butter cream I took straight from this site.



Cupcakes

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tbsp Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked w/ 4 Tbsp water (or use 2 eggs)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare your cupcake pan with liners.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the boiling water last. Batter will be thin. Pour about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of batter per cupcake.
3. Bake 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting

• 1 cup butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

1. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the sugar.
2. Add the vanilla and cream.
3. Beat in the peanut butter until creamy.

Frost your cupcakes and enjoy!