My Go-To Pumpkin Dessert

It is no secret that I like to consume a dessert before I go to bed (even if it is past midnight sadly).  This requirement of course means that I bake regularly so that dessert is available.  Since I never have enough time for anything these days, I opt for desserts that are take as little time to make as possible and do not require the electric mixer (the noise might wake up the child).  This chocolate pumpkin bake thing fulfills both requirements.  (If you can think of a better name for it, please let me know!)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup wheat flour (or any combination of wheat and all purpose flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cooked pumpkin (1/2 of a ~15oz can)
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Get out an 8x8 inch square dish (Pyrex works well).  There is no need to butter the dish.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnomon and salt
3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin, sugar, vanilla and vegetable oil and mix well.  (No need for an electric mixer or anything even remotely that vigorous.)
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix just until combined. 
5. Add the chocolate chips and mix just enough to distribute the chips.
6. Spread the mixture in the oven proof dish and bake for 30+ minutes or until the toothpick comes clean (unless it hit a chocolate chip). 

Notes:

• This recipe can easily be doubled--use a 13x9 inch baking dish and a whole ~15oz can of pumpkin.
• The baked result freezes really well
• If cooking the recipe as written, you can use half of a 15oz can of pumpkin and freeze the rest. Using the previously frozen (and now defrosted) pumpkin pure will most likely increase your baking time because it will make the batter more liquid.  The result will taste just as yummy.

Inspired by:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars from Cook Woman
Pumpkin Muffins from Smitten Kitchen

Chouquettes (Or Empty Cream Puffs)

Mom decided to let me make dessert for a dinner she hosted on Saturday night. On Thursday evening I poured over recipes and decided to make a second attempt at cooking a Napoleon. (Some of you may remember my first rather unsuccessful attempt...) A few hours later I promptly abandoned that idea after completely destroying yet another batch of pastry cream.

So instead of a Napoleon, I spent Saturday morning baking chouquettes--essentially cream puffs without the pastry cream inside sprinkled with some coarse sugar. I followed three almost identical recipes (David Lebovitz, SmittenKitchen, and a cook book by Nick Malgieri "How To Bake"). All three are pâte à choux recipes with the only difference being the amount of sugar used in the dough and the baking temperature.

My dough was a little too liquidy, but the chouquetts puffed up sufficiently anyway. Next time I may try to deep a few of them into chocolate.

Thanksgiving Recap--Napoleon

Napoleon is one of my favorite desserts that my grandmother used to make when she was younger. Napoleon, the dessert, refers to layers of puff pastry frosted with pastry cream. When done well, a Napoleon is light, moist and melts in your mouth, and my grandmother’s Napoleons did just that. When I learned that my grandparents were coming to Boston for Thanksgiving, I decided that it was my one-in-a-million chance to learn how to make Napoleon from the master herself.

When my grandparents came over to my apartment, my grandma and I set out to prepare the puff pastry dough. Under Grandma’s close watch I mixed water, eggs and flour, and rolled the butter into the dough folding it into envelopes. In the course of the day I repeated the rolling and folding process one more time. Grandma said that she sometimes rolled and folded the dough two more times, but she thought that the extra effort was unnecessary.

In the evening, after my grandparents left, I made a double portion of the pastry cream from the Boston Cream Pie recipe. Unfortunately, I accidentally overheated the mixture, and the cream cooled into a jingly solid. So the next evening I made another batch of the pastry cream, now using Grandma’s recipe.

Unfortunately I had to bake the puff pastry without Grandma’s supervision, and I might have kept it in the oven for too long. It was well after midnight, when I frosted the baked puff pastry sheets with the newly made pastry cream.

After spending the night out on the counter my Napoleon acquired the proper sweetness and flavor thanks to the pastry cream. Still the pastry was far from melt-in-your-mouth. In fact it was so hard, that breaking a piece off with just a fork was impossible. I tore into my piece with my teeth, while Nick, civilized as he is, used a knife.

Chocolate Truffles by the Spoonful

Like many women, I love chocolate, and chocolate truffles hold a special place in my heart. The bitter taste of cocoa powder on my tongue turns sweet as I bite through the rich chocolate center. Only special occasions deserve such special desserts.

When I was little, living in the Soviet Union, I remember both my mother and my grandmother hiding chocolates. They did not hide them from me. Rather they saved these difficult-to-obtain chocolate covered wafers to serve them to guests.

While there is no shortage of chocolates in the United States, I still save the particularly fancy desserts for a special occasion. Several years ago, when someone gave me a box of chocolate truffles, I put it away. I wanted to treasure it until a particular gathering warranted such a fancy dessert. Unfortunately, no occasion seemed important enough, and nearly a year later the treasured truffles still lingered in the back of my pantry.

It is indecent to serve a year old dessert to anyone, let alone special guests. So one night when other chocolate supplies have dwindled in our house, I opened the box on my own. Instead of pretty balls of chocolate ganache covered with cocoa powder, thick brown liquid spilled out of the box. I almost threw this chocolate mess away, but I could not bare to part with it. Instead, I indulged in liquid chocolate truffles for the next several months—one spoonful a night.

Eating chocolate truffles with a spoon is not something people imagine often, and even Nick found it a bit odd. So next time someone presented me with a box of truffles I was determined to use it while the truffles were still in a solid state.

Alas, it was not meant to be. A few days ago, I opened the box only seven months after receiving the gift, and it revealed the familiar sweetly bitter thick chocolate liquid. So I am back to eating my liquid chocolate truffles every night, this time out of a glass jar—still one spoonful at a time.