Tag-Archive for ◊ white chocolate ◊

16 Sep 2010 Gingerbread Biscotti
Author:  |  Category: Cookies & Bars, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

The first of my gingerbread posts of the season: gingerbread biscotti. This biscotti is not sweet and it’s lovely and crumbly, the perfect, light ‘little something’ with a fall cup of tea or coffee. I am quite proud of this recipe.  I did my homework before I made it.  I looked at a lot of gingerbread biscotti recipes. I choose the highest concentration of ginger to flour and the highest concentration of overall spices to flour. I wanted something that screamed gingerbread, but didn’t offend. The finishing touch of white chocolate is optional, but I think it fancies up a plain biscotti quite nicely 🙂 .

Gingerbread Biscotti

1/3 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp ground cloves

Icing

White chocolate (about 1 1/2 cups)
Cinnamon Sugar (1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)

  • Preheat oven to 375°F.
  • Beat butter with brown sugar and molasses until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
  • Stir in baking powder.
  • Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  • In another bowl sift together flour, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
  • Beat flour mixture into butter mixture.
  • Divide dough in half. With flour covered hands shape each half into a log about 12 inches by 2 inches.

  • Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
  • Cool on cookie sheet for an hour.
  • Transfer log to a cutting board and cut each loaf on the diagonal into slices, each slice about 1/2 inch thick. Lay slices, cut side down, on a cookie sheet and bake at 325°F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and turn slices over. Return to oven and cook for an additional 8 minutes. Cool slices on a wire rack.

  • Melt about 1 cup of white chocolate.
  • Finish Option #1: Dip the bottoms of each slice into white chocolate and then into cinnamon sugar mixture. Lay on wire rack to dry.
  • Finish Option #2: Place remaining chocolate in a heavy duty Ziploc bag and MW for 45-60 sec on 50% power. Squish chocolate to bottom corner of bag. Snip off corner and drizzle chocolate over one side of the biscotti. Let dry.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today…, come back again soon!

27 Jul 2010 Strawberry Volcanoes
Author:  |  Category: Fruits, Seasonal, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,  | 2 Comments

Everyone is making chocolate covered strawberries now. Everyone. Sooooo…, it’s time for us to move onto Strawberry Volcanoes! Just look at that picture! Am I right, or am I right?! I saw a picture of Strawberry Volcanoes on TasteSpotting a few weeks ago and knew then this was the direction in which to move. Their picture was one of strawberries filled with freshly whipped cream, but I wanted something that would hold up longer on a dessert buffet. I decided to fill the strawberries with a cream cheese dip that I have made and served with strawberries for, hmmm…, at least a few decades. I loved the name “Strawberry Volcanoes”, so I am keeping THAT. The recipe below is just a guide. Dip your strawberries in a favorite chocolate and then fill with a favorite filling. Go for it! Create your own, “signature” Strawberry Volcanoes! You can start with my version or just make them like this all the time (like I am going to do)!

Strawberry Volcanoes

Adjust the quantities to fit the number of volcanoes you want to make. Don’t worry, though, leftovers of any component should not be a problem! ( Leftover chocolate? Stir in toasted coconut, raisins and/or nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let chocolate harden and snack! Leftover dip? Get more strawberries and dip them in it, or use as a filling for a cake or cupcakes. Leftover strawberries? Just eat, or freeze for a smoothie later.)

About 48 very large, very ripe strawberries
1 12 oz. package chocolate chips or a favorite large chocolate bar (you’ll need at least 6 oz.) Any kind of chocolate will work … milk, dark or white.

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

Wash strawberries and remove the green stem and leaves. If necessary, slightly slice the strawberry so it has a nice flat bottom and sits nicely on a platter. Let dry on paper towels.

While strawberries are drying, make the filling. With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese with the sugar, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth and creamy (no lumps). Transfer the mixture to a large Ziploc bag or a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Line a tray big enough to hold all strawberries with wax paper and set aside.

A few hours before serving time, melt chocolate or chocolate bar in the microwave on 50% power. (You might only need 1/2 the bag of the chips, you can start with that if you want and then melt more as you go, or melt the whole bag, up to you.) First, set the microwave oven for two minutes on 50% power, stir, and return chocolate to microwave for an additional minute and an additional stir. Repeat as necessary until the chocolate is completely melted. Dip the wide top end of the dry strawberry into melted chocolate. Place on the wax paper covered tray and let sit on it’s chocolate “bottom” (stem end, really) until hard (place tray in refrigerator to speed up this process).

With sharp knife, cut an X into the pointed (non-chocolate covered) end of the strawberry. Make the cut go about halfway down the strawberry. Fill the X with the filling, letting a  little “erupt” out of the top (remember you are making strawberry volcanoes!). If using the Ziploc bag method, push all the filling to one bottom corner of the bag. Snip the corner off, and squirt the filling out of the hole in the bag. If you have a piping bag and a star tip, you know the drill!

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today.  Come back again tomorrow!

22 Jul 2010 Fresh Blueberry White Chocolate Pie
Author:  |  Category: Fruits, Pies & Tarts, Seasonal, Sweets  | Tags: , , , , , , ,  | One Comment

I make two no-bake pies in the summer, a Fresh Strawberry Chocolate Pie and this Fresh Blueberry White Chocolate Pie. Fresh pies are quick to pull together, don’t heat up the kitchen, and are real crowd pleasers. Just remember to start early in the day to allow a few hours for the filing to set before serving. This pie usually doesn’t keep well, but maybe I say that because I never have any left over! And my daughter Abby made this pie 3 days ago, which still looks good enough to eat tonight.

The white chocolate graham cracker crust aspect is my own idea (got it from my Strawberry Chocolate Pie) but the blueberry filling part came from Epicurious a few years ago. I haven’t mastered crumb crusts yet (mine are always too hard) so while I am still working on getting the right recipe and the right technique, I use a pre-made crust.

Fresh Blueberry White Chocolate Pie

4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup water plus 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
grated zest, to taste (one lemon, or half of a lemon)
pinch of salt
1 or 2 tablespoons butter

1 graham cracker or shortbread crust (I prefer shortbread)
Approx. 1/2 bag white chocolate chips (Ghiradelli or Guittard–don’t use Nestle or a store brand they don’t taste right)
1 – 2 teaspoons Crisco (optional, just helps with melting and spreading-sometimes I use, sometimes I don’t)

whipped cream (make fresh if at all possible)

Prepare the crust first. Melt the white chocolate with the optional shortening in the MW on 50% power for about 2 minutes. Stir well after every 30 seconds. Do not overhead. Carefully spread a THIN layer of white chocolate onto the sides and bottom of the pie crust. You need to cover all the crust, so the filing can’t seep through and make the crust soggy, but you need to keep the chocolate covering thin enough to not make the pie too sweet! So…, as THIN as you possibly can while covering the crumbs completely! Put prepared crust in refrigerator to set (pssst…, if you have any melted white chocolate left, drizzle it on some pretzels and then put them into refridgerator to harden… Yummeeeeee.  White chocolate covered pretzels will keep, covered, in the fridge for, well, probably longer than they will last!).

Measure out 1 cup of the blueberries, choose the softest most imperfect ones. Put these berries in a medium saucepan with 1/2 cup water. Cover the pan and bring mixture to a boil. After the mixture comes to a boil, remove the lid, lower the heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, for 3 – 4 minutes.

In a small bowl mix the additional 2 tablespoons water with 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Add this cornstarch mixture plus the sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and salt. Simmer mixture for a minute, or until the blueberry mixture becomes translucent. When the mixture becomes translucent immediately remove from heat and stir in remaining 3 cups fresh blueberries, lemon zest and 1 – 2 tablespoons butter.

Spoon blueberry mixture into white chocolate covered crumb crust and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours before serving. When set, the blueberries will remain very juicy, but will not flow out of crust.

Just before serving pipe or spread whipped cream around the sides of the pie, leaving the center unadorned and brilliantly glistening.

According to the original recipe, the pie can be kept at room temperature (minus the whipped cream) for two days. (I keep mine in the RF though)

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