Tuesdays With Dorie: WHITE ARBORIO RICE PUDDING

I love pudding. All kinds. So I was a bit excited about making rice pudding for TWD. I love the idea of making it with arborio rice, the kind probably most famous for risotto. Its short, stubby thickness worked really well for the pudding, and I will definitely use it in other rice pudding recipes.

Dorie listed two possible varieties: white or black (vanilla or chocolate). Chocolate rice pudding? I'm not so sure about that one, so I stuck with vanilla and added drunken cranberries and crushed almonds. Delicious! I just made half a recipe so it was a nice little treat waiting in the fridge when my mom and I returned from an afternoon (and evening) of shopping. It was our perfect little ending to a fabulous day.

I ran into a small dilemma when I went to steep the cranberries. I'd never before steeped dried fruit in alcohol and wanted some guidance on it. I googled and searched but found nothing. I tried to use what common sense I have and soaked the fruit in the sherry, then drained it. It added a lovely though strong sherry taste.

Tuesdays With Dorie: KUGELHOPF

This is my very first TWD posting, and let me tell you, for the past eight hours or so I've been questioning what sort of thing I've gotten myself into. I am leaving the country for three weeks and so am doing three posts in as many days, plus packing, attending a friend's wedding, and not getting any sleep. But being part of a blogging community just seems so fun. And it will challenge me to make things I probably wouldn't otherwise...like this lovely bread which has a name beginning with K and ending with...whatever sound pf makes. The way I've been saying it, it's kind of a "pufff" sound. If anyone out there knows, please clue me in. I need help with the pronunciation!

I have blisters on my palms from cooking for the first time ever. Who knew a wooden spoon could be so dangerous?

I mixed and mixed that darn dough for half an hour. I wanted it to turn into an actual dough, not just a sticky, stretchy bowl of dough-type goo. Dorie's directions said to use a machine, but, not having one, I decided man power would suffice. And it did, eventually.

I like this bread. It's not too sweet, and would be great toasted with butter and jam. Great with coffee and tea. I'm not sure if I'll make it again though. It was a lot of work, and while it was great, I wasn't bowled over.

CARROT CAKE BITES

My Granny's 82nd birthday is just a few days away and since I will be out of the country I want to send a gift box with all sorts of goodies. Every girl needs a cake on her birthday, and so I decided to make cake bites and dress them as mini cupcakes for easy packaging and shipping.

I made one layer of carrot cake and one recipe of cream cheese icing, and chilled the combined mixture for several hours before molding them into little cupcakes. Thankfully they didn't dry out a bit, but stayed very moist.

My plain cupcakes look a little like mushrooms. I molded them by pinching the base, but I think a tool would help a lot. I experimented with white and dark chocolate and caramel to cover the cakes. For the carrot cake, the white chocolate was definitley the best. It also formed the nicest coating.

CARROT CAKE

1 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

3/8 cups milk

3/8 cups oil

3/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup of carrots, grated

4 ounces of pineapple with juice, blended

1/2 cup of coconut

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Add dry ingredients.
3. Combine carrots, coconut, and pineapple. Add carrot mixture to batter and fold in.
4. Bake for 1 hour at 350^ F.

CREAM CHEESE ICING

1 8-ounce cream cheese

1/4 cup of butter

1 cup of 10X sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Mix all ingredients together until smooth.

After the cake is baked, cool completely. I put mine in the refrigerator. Then crumble the cake in a large bowl and add the frosting. Mix until well combined. Chill for at least one hour, or until ready to mold into balls or cupcakes. I made round balls and then pinched the bottoms to form bases. I dipped the bases in the white chocolate first and laid them bottoms up to dry. Then I dipped the other side in a different color. I wasn't too neat with the white chocolate and it got a little messy. But messy kitchens are fun kitchens and they still looked cute enough to eat.

THE SWEET 100

I have seen The Omnivore's 100 list plastered all over perfectly good food blogs. Honestly, as a non-meat eater, some of the items send my stomach lurching in competing directions, or at least that's what it feels like. Not a good feeling.

Today I found the perfect antidote! Cakespy made their very own list: The Sweet 100. And just how very sweet it is!

1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions!
2) Bold all of the sweets you've eaten--or make them a different type color.
3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat.
4) Consider anything that is not bold or crossed out your "To Do" List.
5) Optional: Post a comment here linking to your results--or just post a comment letting us know how many you've tried, or what you're going to try next!

1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Princess Torte
3. Whoopie Pie
4. Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
5. Beignet
6. Baklava
7. Black and white cookie
8. Seven Layer Bar (also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
9. Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
10. Kringle
11. Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
12. Scone with clotted cream
13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
14. Halvah
15. Macarons
16. Banana pudding with nilla wafers
17. Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls")
18. Dixie Cup
19. Rice Krispie treats
20. Alfajores
21. Blondies
22. Croquembouche
23. Girl Scout cookies
24. Moon cake
25. Candy Apple
26. Baked Alaska
27. Brooklyn Egg Cream
28. Nanaimo bar
29. Baba au rhum
30. King Cake
31. Sachertorte
32. Pavlova
33. Tres Leches Cake
34. Trifle
35. Shoofly Pie
36. Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
37. Panna Cotta
38. New York Cheesecake
39. Napoleon / mille-fueille
40. Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake
41. Anzac biscuits
42. Pizzelle
43. Kolache
44. Buckeyes
45. Malasadas
46. Moon Pie
47. Dutch baby
48. Boston Cream Pie
49. Homemade chocolate chip cookies
50. Pralines
51. Gooey butter cake
52. Rusks
53. Daifuku
54. Green tea cake or cookies
55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
56. Crème brûlée
57. Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake) Mine was an Oreo
58. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
59. Jelly Roll
60. Pop Tarts
61. Charlotte Russe
62. An "upside down" dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
63. Hummingbird Cake
64. Jell-O from a mold
65. Black forest cake
66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
67. Kulfi
68. Linzer torte
69. Churro
70. Stollen
71. Angel Food Cake
72. Mincemeat pie
73. Concha
74. Opera Cake
75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
76. Pain au chocolat
77. A piece of Gingerbread House
78. Cassata
79. Cannoli
80. Rainbow cookies
81. Religieuse
82. Petits fours
83. Chocolate Souffle
84. Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
85. Rugelach
86. Hamenstashen
87. Homemade marshmallows
88. Rigo Janci
89. Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
90. Divinity
91. Coke or Cola cake
92. Gateau Basque
93. S'mores
94. Figgy Pudding
95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
96. Joe Froggers
97. Sables
98. Millionaire's Shortbread
99. Animal crackers
100. Basbousa

I have eaten 65/100. Not too shabby, but I've definitely got some eating to do.

GRAPE FREEZE TART

I made this quick, easy treat one evening when I was craving something cold and sweet. I wanted an individual serving so I wouldn't be tempted to finish off something meant for a family of four. I whipped it up and stuck it in the freezer before I headed out for a run, and enjoyed it when I returned all hot and sweaty. It's not the most sophisticated desert, but it more than did the trick. In fact, I made it for the next three days!

GRAPE FREEZE TART

2 Marie biscuits (or other tea biscuit)

1 Tablespoon cream cheese

1 Tablespoon grape jelly

1 Tablespoon soy (or regular) milk

Layer Marie biscuits in the bottom of a ramekin or other small dish or bowl. In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, jelly, and milk. Stir until well combined, about two minutes. Pour over the biscuits. The biscuits may float to the top, so be sure to push them down. Put in the freezer for about one hour, or until frozen.

PINEAPPLE AND GREEN PEPPER SALAD

This salad was one I made with ingredients I had on-hand. I had two ripening pineapples, and didn't think I could handle eating plain pineapple for days in a row. Thus I wanted to find it an accompaniment for it. I think the bell pepper worked nicely, especially since this salad was better the next day when all the flavors had settled together and the bell pepper was still crisp. It reminds me of a mango salad a friend fixed in Ghana, combining sweet, tangey fruit with mellow yogurt and a little spicey heat. I'm not sure I'll be fixing this anytime soon, but it was a good.

PINEAPPLE & GREEN PEPPER SALAD

1 pineapple

1 green (or red) bell pepper

1 Tablespoon white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

pinch of cayenne (optional)
1 Tablespoon plain yogurt

1/2 Tablespoon soy mayonnaise

3 Tablespoons coconut milk

juice of half a lemon

1. Cut pineapple and bell pepper into 1-inch chunks. Sprinkle with sugar, salt, and pepper.


2. In a seperate bowl, mix yogurt, soy mayo, & cayenne. Add to the pineapple and mix well.
   

Note on cutting a pineapple: I learned how to cut a pineapple from sellers in Ghana. Pineapple sellers are usually women who walk around with large stacks of pineapples balanced on their heads. When a customer purchases a fruit, they unload the large metal plate of pineapples, and use a machete to peel and cut the fruit into bite-size pieces that fall into a strategically held plastic bag. Stick a toothpick in the bag and you're ready to eat, all in under five minutes.

I don't have a machete (good thing, the phrase "wielding a machete" comes to mind and I do not feel quite up to the task), however, I do cut my pineapples in same manner:

1. hold the pineapple at the base of the leaves (carefully, they can be prickly)


2. remove the bottom by cutting straight across


3. peel the body by cutting straight down from top to bottom, all the way around
4. make vertical slits from top to bottom, cutting through the pineapple. the fruit will still be attached to the stem at the top where the leaves are but will dangle at the bottom


5. now start at the bottom and cut horizontally across the pineapple, making cubes.

NO-BAKE BARS

In addition to the Candied Cashews, I also made No-Bake Bars for my friend's visit. These started out as No-Bake Cookies, until I saw that I was going to run out of cookie-dropping space. Instead of clearing off the table, the laziness side of me won out with a peeping voice that said, "Dump them in a pan! Cut them like bars!" And so I did, and I think it was much easier, both in the cooling stage and in the storing stage. These turned out to be very good breakfast bars as well. Not something to have every day perhaps since they are a desert, but the oats, nuts, and peanut butter seem to redeem them just a little. For a vacation, they were perfect.

NO-BAKE BARS

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 cups white sugar

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 cup mixed nuts, chopped

1/2 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

2 cups rolled oats

1. Put all the ingredients from the first list in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil stirring often.


2. Let boil for about a minute.


3. Remove from heat and add nuts, coconut, and oats.


4. Stir well to blend. Let stand for about two minutes, until the mixture begins to thicken.


5. Pour into a 9X13 pan and smooth down. Cool completely before cutting. (I stuck mine in the refrigerator to speed the process.)
   

These can be stored either at room temperature or in the refrigerator. I stored mine in the frig because my kitchen gets a lot of sun during the day and can become quite humid in the Miami heat.