Molten Chocolate Mocha Cake

I don't know about you, but I grew up always celebrating Fat Tuesday. Maybe it's just a southern thing, but the holiday is so much fun that I have taken it with me wherever I have moved. Unfortunately, King Cakes are pretty hard to come by up here in NYC, so we won't be having one of those this year. If you're still craving a delicious cake, this one is a doozy. This Molten Chocolate Mocha Cake is surprisingly easy to make. (Have I mentioned that I'm a truly terrible baker?) This one is easy enough even for me, and the presentation is super impressive. It's great for dinner parties or a romantic dinner in. The addition of espresso powder really takes it up a notch in terms of flavor. I also added some scraped vanilla bean seeds for this batch, but with the chocolate and espresso flavors going on in these, the vanilla is definitely optional.

Molten Chocolate Mocha Cake
Serves 2

• 1 2/3 oz chocolate
• 3 tbsp + 1 tsp butter
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 c powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp flour
• 1 vanilla bean (optional)
• 1/4 tsp espresso powder

Preheat oven to 450F. Butter 2 ramekins. In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and butter together over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg and egg yolk. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into eggs if desired. 

Add powdered sugar, chocolate mixture, flour and espresso powder.

Divide batter equally between 2 ramekins. (Up through this step may be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let sit on the counter for 20 minutes before baking if refrigerated.)

Bake until cakes are set but center remains soft and runny, about 11 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and run a knife around the edges to separate cake from dish. 

Place a plate over the dish, and, holding both securely, flip the cake onto the plate. Serve with ice cream. (I used butter pecan, and it was delicious.)

The Delightful (Almost) Perfect Cookie

I'm heading out of town for a few days to visit my family and have some meetings in Atlanta, my home town, so I decided to leave my husband something sweet (read: food). Since we already have plans for sushi for dinner tonight, that left dessert as the only option.

Now, I am a generally terrible baker, as in - really, really bad. When my husband and I were dating long-distance, I decided to make French bread from scratch as a surprise for his first night in town. I had gone to a baking class and thought it was easy enough to replicate, so I bought the correct pan and had the recipe from the class. It should be easy enough. When the loaves came out of the oven, I was so excited! They looked perfect. They had that gorgeous golden brown crust and hollow sound that you want from a loaf of French bread. When my husband (then boyfriend) arrived, I proudly showed them off. We both cut slices to try with some dipping oil. Even cutting the loaves, they had a great texture - perfect crumb. It wasn't until I took the first bite that I realized (and it became abundantly clear) that I had forgotten to salt. Needless to say, I haven't lived that one down, but I have tried repeatedly to improve my baking skills!

Instead of attempting to leave him bread, I decided to go with cookies. I can do a pretty solid chocolate chip cookie, but I wanted to make something a little bit special. I've also been a bit obsessed with tropical flavors. I'm attempting to channel summer through my taste buds, so I decided to add coconut. Making cookies gave me a chance to use some of this homemade Vanilla Extract that I bottle in December.

I also only had 1 stick of butter and just over 2 cups of flour, so I improvised, which is what generally makes me a terrible baker. Luckily, these coconut substitutions worked beautifully. The cookies are balanced, sweet, salty and incredibly perfect looking! They didn't flatten out at all and magically taste like cookie dough. The next time I make these, I might try them with macadamia nuts instead of walnuts, but the walnuts were delicious.

The (Almost) Perfect Cookie

• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c coconut oil
• 1 c light brown sugar
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1/2 c coconut flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 c shredded, unsweetened coconut
• 1 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375F. Cream butter, coconut oil, light sugar, brown sugar and vanilla together using a mixer.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. 

Add both types of flour, salt, baking soda and powder. Mix well. Batter should be fairly stiff and should not stick to your fingers when you grab a pinch. Add shredded coconut, chocolate chips and walnuts. Mix well. 

The batter will be quite dry. Form into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. You may want to tightly pack the balls to ensure you use all of the good mix-ins. Bake for approximately 9 minutes, until the peaks are just starting to turn golden brown. 

Cool and devour.

Broiled Peaches with Rosemary Honey

I can only have Peach Cobbler so many times before I just want something different. For this dessert, I wanted something a little lighter, and I really wanted to let the flavor of the peaches shine through. You could broil them as I did, or you could easily grill them instead. You'd get a nice smoky element that way, but, living in NYC, we don't have a grill so the oven works just fine. The rosemary adds a rich flavor, and the caramelized peaches and honey are so sweet that this dish goes better with a plain fat free Greek yogurt than ice cream. The tartness of the yogurt adds one more level of complexity to the flavor of this dish. Plus, it looks quite pretty when you serve it.

Serves 2

• 2 large, fresh peaches (not over ripe)
• 1 tbsp butter, melted (or butter cooking spray)
• 6 tbsp honey
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1/2 c plain fat free Greek style yogurt

Heat honey and rosemary in a small saucepan over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until honey is very runny and you can smell the rosemary. Be careful not to let it get too dark.

Meanwhile, turn on broiler. Slice peaches in half and remove pit. Brush cut-side of peaches with melted butter or spray with butter cooking spray. Place in pan under broiler. Broil for about 5 minutes, or until tops of peaches are just starting to turn golden.

Serve each peach with 1/4 c yogurt drizzled with a few tbsp of honey. Garnish with a fresh rosemary sprig.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

As part of our CSA Farm Box this week, we received slightly over one gallon of strawberries. They are gorgeous - unbelievably sweet and perfectly ripe. However, that means that I have slightly over one gallon of strawberries to cook this week because I have a feeling that more are coming in the box next week as well. Fortunately, our farmer was kind enough to pair the onslaught of strawberries with some fresh rhubarb so that I could make the always sublime Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

With my focus on my waistline, I wanted to cut back on the sugar just a bit, and I knew these strawberries were sweet enough to work with. I also omitted the common lemon or cinnamon because I wanted to let the fruit stand on its own. Here is my recipe for a delicious, though maybe not nutritious, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

• 3 1/2 c fresh, ripe strawberries, halved or sliced
• 3 c rhubarb sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp flour or cornstarch
• 2 pie crusts (you can make your own, but frozen really works just as well)

Preheat oven to 400F. Toss strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and flour in a large bowl. Pile into the bottom pie crust. Top with second pie crust. Crimp edges together. Slice holes in top pie crust to allow steam to escape. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 350F. Bake for another 40 minutes or until top crust is golden brown. Allow to cool thoroughly before serving. Pie will last for up to 3 days at room temperature, but it likely won't stick around that long.

Riff on Strawberry Shortcake

I absolutely love strawberry shortcake. I was having a dinner party last weekend, and I really wanted to serve strawberry shortcake for dessert. Strawberries, whipped cream and cake - what's not to love? Well, the calories for one. Both we and our dinner guest are watching our calorie intake, so I decided to create a spin on the old favorite. Instead of big fluffy slices of shortcake, I made mini shortbread biscuits. Theses mini treats were buttery and delicious, and their size made for a nice presentation. Instead of luscious and oh-so-sinful whipped cream, I made a ricotta cream blend with a bit of cream cheese, sour cream and honey. And, just to turn the dish on its head, I substituted blueberries and raspberries for the traditional strawberries. The result was dinner party-worthy!

For the shortbread cookies (makes 12 mini cookies)

• 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 c (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1/4 c confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350F. Whip butter and sugar with beaters until combined. Add vanilla and flour. Whip until combined. Batter will be loose and crumbly. This is normal. Grease mini-muffin tin with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly between 12 spots, pressing into tin. Bake until they are light golden brown on top and a deeper brown around the edges (approximately 12 minutes). Flip muffin tin over onto cooling rack immediately after removing from oven and allow cookies to cool.

For the ricotta cream:

• 5 tbsp reduced fat ricotta
• 2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream
• 2 tbsp reduced fat cream cheese
• 1 tbsp honey

Whip all ingredients until smooth. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

To serve:

Plate 2-3 cookies. Add 2 tbsp ricotta cream. Sprinkle with fresh berries of your choosing. Serve with a sprig of fresh mint for garnish.

Minted Watermelon

Spring and Summer bring such a wonderful abundance of fruits and vegetables. One of my favorites is juicy, sweet watermelon. With it's bright pink color and amazing ability to fill me up and satisfy my sweet tooth, it's a summer go-to. Here's a super easy way to jazz it up.

• 1/2 large watermelon
• 1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped

Chop the watermelon into 1/2 inch cubes and place in a large bowl. Add the chopped fresh mint and toss together. That's it. Really. It's that easy and  SO delicious!