Blueberry Coconut Ice Cream

Ice Cream is good and almost everyone likes it. I have a very loved Cuisinart ice cream maker that I use quite often. So often, in fact, that I have 4 freezer bowls for it. I like to have ice cream as dessert if we're having friends over for dinner in the summer and I like to have more than one flavor. Last year my husband and I really thought about opening a hand-crafted ice cream shop. I did all the research and we learned that we would be the first company who's actually making ice cream from scratch -every other ice cream company in the state uses a ready-made mix. These mixes scare me; who knows what fillers and preservatives are found in them. Anyway, for many reasons, we chose to put this idea on hold, but, the experimenting with flavors sure was fun and that's what led me to own 4 freezer bowls.

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, chosen by Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. I was serving a Hawaiian themed dinner and blueberries don't really fit into anything tropical so I tweaked the recipe a little. I replaced the heavy cream with coconut milk, I used lime juice and lemon zest and I decreased the amount of sour cream to 1/2 cup. I thought about adding a little candied ginger or some shredded coconut but I decided to keep them out- I didn't want to play with the recipe too much. Blueberries still aren't tropical, but who cares- I've been enjoying them more this summer than ever before.

This ice cream recipe is an easy one as it doesn't involve making a custard first. That process produces my favorite kinds of ice cream- super rich and creamy ones. This recipe is simple and still makes something really good and in a shorter amount of time.

If you want to try an easy, delicious ice cream that doesn't take too much time to prepare, try this one. It's worth it!





Blueberry Coconut Sour Cream Ice Cream



Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours

1 cup of blueberries- fresh or frozen

1/3 cup sugar

pinch salt

1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon lime or lemon zest

3/4 cup of coconut milk

1/2 cup of sour cream

Place blueberries, sugar, lime or lemon juice and zest in a non-reactive saucepan (I use stainless) and cook on medium heat about 3 minutes. The blueberries should soften and pop and the sugar should dissolve.


Put blueberry mixture into a blender, or food processor and whir away until you have a fairly consistent mix- this should take no more than a minute. Add the milk and sour cream and pulse until it is incorporated.


Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before you churn it in your ice cream maker.


Smile and enjoy.

Summer Fruit Galette

This week's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe was a Summer Fruit Galette. It was chosen by Michelle in Colorado Springs -thanks Michelle!


I was so lucky with my choice of fruit- I was able to use huckleberries that I had picked that morning, rhubarb cut from my friend's garden the night before, and cherries dropped off that morning from another friend's orchard. The fruit couldn't have been more local or fresh. How perfect was that?


Last year, I joined the Slow Food Movement. It is an organization that was started in Italy and is devoted to the art of eating slow food (not literally chewing slowly, but eating food that is the exact opposite of fast food) and eating locally. Slow Food is about knowing your farmer, following the path your food has traveled in order to be on your plate, savoring flavors and simplicity, eating what is in season, organic when possible and most of all, eating consciously. Slow Food does not focus just on organic, because truthfully organic is not always the solution. I say that because organic asparagus in the dead of winter, flown from New Zealand, should not be purchased. It won't taste good, I assure you, and the carbon footprint on those asparagus stalks is just awful to think about. The solution isn't clear and it isn't easy when it comes to this conundrum. Is it better to buy local greens, picked that morning from a local farmer, who isn't certified organic, than the big tub of Earthbound Farms organic greens from your local Costco? It is a difficult choice and I choose the farmer, but admittedly I do undertand if you're choosing Costco. If you want to learn more, try reading Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma or Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I consider them must-reads for everyone.

So, enough of that and onto this week's choice. I love making galettes! They are rustic, easy, and delicious. Dorie Greenspan's recipe called for a custard filling, which was interesting to try, but I probably won't use it again. I was able to use the freshest of fruit and I didn't really want to mask the bright flavors of them with a custard. Perhaps in the winter, when frozen berries will be used, the custard will find it's way back into the galette.

Dorie calls for a sprinkle of crushed graham crackers over the inside, bottom of the galette. I used crushed savoirdi cookies (the kind used in Tiramisu) instead of graham crackers. They are really crispy and light and work really well. I also tossed my fruit with a little lemon zest and about a tablespoon of sugar to offset the tartness of the rhubarb and the huckleberries.

Dorie Greenspan's recipe for pie crust is a breeze to work with. I've said it before, but I must say it again- if you're going to use shortening, try to use the healthiest ones out there. My go-to is Spectrum Organic Shortening . It is made with organic palm oil and is trans-fat free. Stay away from Crisco! The crust is mostly made with butter, which makes it really taste good. I usually use an all butter dough as I prefer to sacrifice some of the flakiness for more flavor and butter just always seems healthier than shortening, even if it is organic.

Here is the recipe as written in the book. My changes were slight- I used cherries, huckleberries and rhubarb (unpeeled) and added some sugar and lemon zest to the fruit. I used a huckleberry jam too, which is spread on the bottom, just below the cookie crumbs.





Dorie Greenspan's Summer Fruit Galette

from Baking From My Home to Yours

What you'll need:

• Good For Almost Everything Pie Dough for a single crust-see recipe below


• 2-3 tablespoons jam or marmalade, chilled


• about 2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs


• Fresh summer fruit: about 10 apricots, 8-10 nectarines, 8 ripe but firm peaches, 8-10 firm plums or 2 stalks rhubarb


• Decorating (coarse) or granulated sugar, for dusting-raw sugar is my choice


• Custard- see recipe below

For the Custard:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled


• 1/3 cup sugar


• 1 large egg


• ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix all the above ingredients together and set aside

For the Pie Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour


• 2 tablespoons sugar


• 3/4 tsp salt


• 1 1/4 sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into tbsp size pieces


• 2 1/2 tablespoons very cold vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces


• About 1/4 cup ice water

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse just to combine the ingredients.

Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don’t overdo the mixing- what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley.

Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 6 tbsps of the water- add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a work surface. Shape the dough into a disk and wrap it. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling (if your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge).

Putting it Together/Creating your Galette:

Center rack in the oven and preheat to oven to 425 degrees F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment (see below) or a silicone mat.

To make it easier to move the pie dough onto the baking sheet, roll the dough between sheets of parchment paper ( in which case, you can use one of the rolling sheets to line the baking sheet) or wax paper or plastic wrap.

Alternatively, work on a well-floured surface, taking care to keep the dough moving by turning it and flouring the surface often.Roll the dough into a large 1/8 inch thick circle.

Using a pastry wheel or a paring knife, time the dough to a 13 inch diameter. Feel free to approximate this-I did.

Using a cake pan or a pot lid as a template and the tip of a blunt kitchen knife as a marker, lightly trace a 9 inch circle in the center of the dough- this is the area for the filling.

With the back of a spoon or a small offset spatula, spread some of the jam over the circle- how much will depend of the jam flavor you want.

Sprinkle over the crumbs, adding a little more than 2 tablespoons if you think you’ve got particularly juicy fruit.

Put a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper over the dough and refrigerate it while you prepare the fruit.

Wipe the apricots, nectarines or plums clean with a damp towel and cut in half; discard the pits. Blanch peaches for 10 seconds in a pot of boiling water, transfer them to a bowl of ice water to cool, then slip off the skins.

Halve and pit the peaches or peel rhubarb to remove the strings, and cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces (if your rhubarb is young and thin, you do not need to peel it).

Arrange the fruit on the dough, cut side down if using stone fruits, then gently lift the unfilled border of dough up and onto the filling. As you lift the dough and place it on the filling, it will pleat. If you’re not in a rush, freeze the galette for 15 minutes to give the crust a rest.

Brush the dough very lightly with a little water, then sprinkle it with a teaspoon or two of sugar.

Bake galette for 25 minutes, or until the crust is brown and the fruit is soft.

When the initial 25 minutes or so of baking is up, remove the baking sheet from the oven (leave the oven on), and carefully pour the custard around the fruit. Depending one how much juice has accumulated and how much space you have between the fruit, you may not be able to pour all the custard into the galette, but even 2 tablespoons can give the right effect. Pour in as much custard as you can, then carefully return the pan to the oven. Bake for another 12 to 15 minutes, or until the custard is set- it shouldn’t jiggle when you gently shake the pan.

Cool the galette on the baking sheet on a rack for 10 minutes.Very carefully slide a small baking sheet or cake lifter under the galette and slip the galette onto a rack to cool. The galette can be served when it is just warm or- my preference- when it has reached room temperature. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

Summer Fruits Pie

I was supposed to make a double crusted blueberry pie (doesn't that sound so good?) for this past week's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe. The issue was, I still had rhubarb, and a big bag of frozen huckleberries, so this AMAZING pie became a huckeberry-blueberry-rhubarb pie. I know the huckleberries were frozen, and I didn't have to use them, but I wanted to. I really wanted to. Our huckleberry picking season starts in about a month and I have plans to pick gallons and gallons this year. There are no huckleberry farms. These small, purple berries only grow in the wild and sometimes they are a bear to pick (you can run into bears too while you pick them which is not my idea of a good time). I did choose to add fresh blueberries as well and the combination of the 3 was sublime.

The fact that the pie was absolutely delicious made up for the fact that it was not the prettiest. It was hot here the day I made it. Too hot to be dealing with buttery crust. I made an amateur move and put the pie in the oven, with the soft, melty dough, when what I really should have done is popped it into the freezer to firm it up; the crust drooped and looked awful, but it tasted so good. So good in fact that a friend and I may begin to sell these at a farmer's market in town.

I used Dorie's exact recipe for the crust. It calls for both butter and shortening and thankfully the butter ratio outweighs the shortening. Butter will give it a delicous flavor and the bit of shortening gives it a flakiness that can't be beat. I don't usually cook or bake with shortening, but when I do, I make sure to use the organic shortening by Spectrum from the health food store. Pick some up and try it- it's not as smooth and creamy as that disgusting Crisco, but the tradeoff is way better. Dorie's crust was perfect. Flaky and buttery and light- exactly how it should be.

To see the full recipe for this week's Double Crusted Blueberry Pie, check out Amy's blog, South in your Mouth.

Fruit Cobbler-No, Fruit Crisp- Yes!

Okay, so I tweaked this week's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe so much that I turned it into a different recipe, which essentially is breaking the rules and I hate to do that. The thing is, Dorie's recipe said no strawberries and that's what I had, strawberries- beautiful, sweet, organic strawberries that were calling out to be used. I also had been given a garbage sized bag of rhubarb. So, strawberry and rhubarb- what's a girl to do? We were taking the dessert to a friends house for dinner- this was our first invitation over and I did not want my dessert to flop. After reading the many posts about the cobbler topping being a little lackluster, I had to make the switch- you understand right? It was the pressure of the dinner party and the strawberries and rhubarb calling out to me- I just couldn't say no. Once I made the decision, I felt completely relieved as I like crisp better than cobbler anyway. Lucky me, I also had a huge bag of frozen huckleberries in my freezer. We're entering this year's huckleberry season, so it's time to use the old ones up. They made the crisp a beautiful, vibrant purple and the dessert vanished quickly. Blueberries would also work for this, fresh or frozen. Served warm, with a scoop of ice cream, this was the perfect dessert to share with friends while sitting in a log cabin in the woods during a huge thunderstorm.

This week's actual Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was Mixed Berry Cobbler, chosen by Beth. You can view the recipe for the cobbler on her site Our Sweet Life

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Huckleberry Crisp
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

This fruit-cobbler-turned-fruit-crisp came out amazingly good!

Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
zest of 1 lemon
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Filling:
1 pound (4-5 medium stalks) rhubarb, trimmed and peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 cup huckleberries (use more strawberries or rhubarb if you don't have hucks)
1 cup sugar
1 T lemon juice
pinch salt

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350ºF. Put a nonreactive 9-inch square baking pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicon mat. Alternatively, you can use individual ramekins. These are great to serve at a dinner party.

Put the flour, brown sugar, oats, lemon zest, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl and sift the ingredients through your fingers to blend them, be on the lookout for lumps in the brown sugar. Mix in the nuts and then pour over the melted butter. Using a fork, stir the ingredients until they are thoroughly moistened. Spoon half the mixture into the pan and pat it down lightly to form a thick crust. Set the remainder aside for the topping.

For the filling:


Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water; set aside.
Put the strawberries,rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and, with a fork, pastry blender, or potato masher, crush the berries. Place the pan over medium heat and, stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to a full boil. Pour the dissolved cornstarch into the pan and, stirring with a whisk, bring everything back to a boil. Now add the huckleberries. Keep cooking and stirring until the fruit filling is thick and no longer cloudy, about 3 minutes. Pull the pan from the heat, and pour the filling in the prepared dish. Scatter the remaining crisp mix over the filling.

Slide the crisp into the oven and bake for 60 minutes for the large crisp, or about 35 for the individual ramekins, or until the topping is golden and the strawberry jam is bubbling up all around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool until only just warm or at room temperature. Serve with freshly whipped cream or your favorite ice cream.

Peppermint Cream Puffs! Hooray!

This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was a fun one.

I love cream puffs. Always have. Eclairs too, of course. Lucky for me, I visited an old friend over the weekend to explore her beautiful gardens in town and to dig up some of her mint. I came home with close to a square foot of mint, roots and all, which I promptly put in one of my whiskey barrel planters. There will be no flowers in that planter this year, if the mint decides to live! Fresh mint is one of my favorite herbs to have on hand. I live in Montana, and our growing season is short; those adorable window herb gardens that many of you have just don't make it through the winters here. I also came home with a bag of salad greens, a square foot of oregano (filling another whiskey barrel)and some radishes. What a wonderful gift on a Sunday morning.

So, the cream puff ring, although beautiful, wasn't practical for me to make this week. I converted them to puffs and packed them up to share today. One container will go to my coworkers and the other container will go to a board meeting I have to attend. I sit on the board for our region's Head Start school- what an important organization Head Start is! Our board meetings tend to be long and occur during prime lunch time. These should help us all get through the meeting as there's nothing like a sugar high to keep you going.

I followed this recipe really closely. The only changes I made were:
1. I left one yolk out
2. I beat the eggs together beforehand in a measuring cup
3. I allowed the paste to cool for a bit before adding the eggs
4. I slowly streamed the egg mixture in while the mixer was running
5. I used Agave Nectar to sweeten the chocolate glaze

They came out crisp and wonderful. Some prettier than others, of course, but that's the beauty of the puff!

I've been too busy frolicking in the sunshine to post lately. Finally, summer has arrived here in Montana. Just last week, we had a FREAK snow storm. Yes, that's right, snow. While you guys on the east coast were burning up in the heat, and the poor midwesterners were/are dealing with the terrible floods, we were dealing with snow. In June. What a winter it has been.

My husband and I picked up our permit to go Morel mushroom picking this week. I can't wait. Morel's are so delicious and they are going off like crazy right now. These tend to show up in areas that burned the year before and last year we dealt with a big forest fire nearby. So, it's off to the woods we go to forage. Hopefully, I'll take some photos of the pasta I plan on making before we devour it.

Thanks Dorie Greenspan, for another wonderful, homey, inspiring dessert. I have a feeling I'll be buying some extra love today with them! Thanks also to Caroline of A Consuming Passion- you can view the entire recipe on her site.

Ooh La La! French Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was chosen by Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook. Thank's Di!

Mmm mmm. These French Brownies were good. Admittedly, I didn't completely follow Dorie's recipe, but I think she'll understand. I elected to amp up mine by omitting the raisins and adding extra cinnamon, toasted hazelnuts and Nutella to my batter. They are truly delicous.

I don't drink coffee very often anymore, and when I do it has to be decaf and unsweetened, but back in my days as a barista, one of the latte flavors I liked best was hazelnut cinnamon. If you're a sweet latte drinker (a dying breed, which is a good thing really) you must try yours like this. Make sure to top your milk foam with cinnamon sprinkles as well. Oh, and tip your barista if they are nice and make you a good drink!

Some of you likened the original recipe with flambed raisins to Raisinettes. I LOVE Raisinettes (people only eat these at the movies, right?), but I didn't have the rum and I have a husband who is not a raisin fan. I don't like to bake anything that he won't eat because I end up making up for his abstinence by eating more and this is not the season to be fooling around with extra, extra calories. One serving of rich, hazelnut brownies are just enough.

I know I'll make this recipe again-it was so easy and produced a delicious brownie. After the "photo shoot" I left 3 out, then I wrapped the rest of these up and threw them in the freezer. They've joined cupcakes, flourless chocolate cake, and chocolate lava cakes. I like having a freezer full of this stuff as they are perfect mix ins for ice cream when you have that burning need on any given night for a treat. Plus, brownies defrost wonderfully. In fact, as an update, after seeing Sex and the City on Sunday, and proceeding to drink too much wine back at my house with my girl friends, these already came and went. Au Revoir French Brownies!!Thanks for being there waiting for us when we really needed you after too much wine on a work night.

So, go ahead and splurge. If you're like me and you have a big Costco bottle of Nutella or any other chocolate hazelnut spread sitting in your pantry, I recommend you try the recipe my way. The Nutella added a delicous boost in chocolate flavor as well as extra richness.


French Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
6 ounces good bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Scharffen Berger 60%)
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 Cup Nutella
2 Tablespoons Frangelico (optional)
3/4 Cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
powdered sugar for dusting


Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter and flour the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, Frangelico and Nutella, stirring until it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment. Alternatively, you may choose to melt the chocolate in the microwave on half power, stirring regularly.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the hazelnuts.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Halfway through the baking time, rotate the pan in the oven.

Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil. Dust with powdered sugar if you'd like.

Gooey Chocolate Cake

I just finished making these. I chose to make them in individual ramekins that were buttered and floured.I think next time, I'll butter and dust them with cocoa instead- I don't particularly like seeing the white dusting of flour against the dark chocolate cake when they are inverted and released from the ramekin. Of course, I found a solution to the evident flour- ice cream, warm huckleberry sauce and a dusting of powdered sugar. How yummy- so good in fact that before I had a chance to take out the camera, Paul had dug into it and finished it right up! I did manage to take a not so great photo, posted above, of the second version, that we ate with a warm pear/cinnamon caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, again.

These had a melted center, somewhat, but not like I expected. The chocolate stayed on top and didn't find its way to the center like I had imagined. They were really good, but not as molten as I thought they would be. I would say that you need to do exactly as Dorie says- cook these for 13 minutes only if you know your oven temp. is right on.

The great thing about this recipe is how easy it is- no Kitchenaid, no food processor-just a whisk, spoon, a couple of bowls and a few other things. This is a recipe you can make when you have very limited kitchen tools- these are important recipes to have and I wish I had known how to make this back in my college days. If you don't have a double boiler, it is really easy to improvise- just put a glass or metal bowl over the top of a small saucepan filled with about an inch of water. You don't want the bottom of the bowl to come into contact with the water.

I did make a couple of changes: I added a tsp. of espresso powder in with the chocolate while it melted. I also added 2 tsp. of vanilla extract. I also added about 2 tablespoons of a delicious Port that was given to me by a friend to only one of the cakes, and truthfully we've yet to eat that one, but I have a feeling it will be heavenly.

Gooey Chocolate Cakes
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan, Baking From My Home to Yours

My version of the recipe is:


1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 4 ounces coarsely chopped, 1 ounce very finely chopped (I used Chocolove, 70%)
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

1 teaspoon espresso powder
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
6 tablespoons vanilla sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract



Position your rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter and dust with cocoa 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, or 4 ramekins and place on a baking sheet.

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.

Using a double boiler, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the top and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water as soon as the chocolate mixture is melted and smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until they come together. Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir them gently into the eggs. Add the melted chocolate slowly- I added about a 1/3 at a time and folded it in ( I basically made a figure 8 with the whisk to incorporate the chocolate). Divide the batter evenly among your ramekins or muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the batter.

Bake the cakes for 13 minutes. While still on the baking sheet, move these to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. While these cool, gather your ice cream/whipping cream/creme anglaise/caramel/powdered sugar, etc.

If you have baked these in individual ramekins, now is a good time to grab your guests and allow them to invert their individual cakes themselves. I think its a nice gesture and makes everyone comfortable and excited about what they are about to eat next. Pick up the ramekin with one hand- it shouldn't be too hot now and grab a plate with the other. Place the plate on top of the ramekin and flip. When you flip the two over the ramekin will be on top, and with a gentle shake, the cake should come out easily.

If you've used a muffin tin, place a cutting board on top of the tin and invert the same way you would for the ramekins. You'll then be able to gently place each individual cake on the plate.

These are pretty dusted with powdered sugar, and served with cold ice cream. We tried them both with fresh huckleberry sauce and caramel and both were fantastic.

Tuesdays with Dorie

Well, I've done it- I've joined a blogging group called Tuesdays With Dorie. We're cooking our way through her wonderful book, Baking From My Home to Yours , one recipe at a time. I really like this idea because I know I will be inspired to try recipes that I wouldn't have tried before and how's that for expanding your horizons?

This weeks recipe is Gooey Chocolate Cakes from pages 261-262. My husband Paul is a huge chocolate fan, like most of us are and I know that these will be a hit on our new "Saturday Night Eat Whatever You Want Date". This really is his new thing, not mine, but it seems to be working (for him at least). Paul's very disciplined with his eating throughout the week- lately he's been talking a lot about his beloved grain, quinoa, and the virtues it extolls (quinoa really is amazing and delicious and if you've never tried it you must). So, he's decided that if he eats healthy all week, then on Saturday he can eat whatever he wants all day long and believe me he will eat whatever he feels like. Pizza from our town's newest pizzeria is usually included- its really just like New York pizza, and since he's a New Yorker, he just can't stay away. I really can't either. It's that good. Pizza is a perfect food in my book and even bad pizza is good pizza. Since moving to Northwest Montana years ago, I've really missed great food. We have okay food here, but people come here for the scenery, the quiet, the mountains, the lakes, the contemplation, the fishing, the skiing- they don't come here to eat. So, we're rejoicing in our new pizzeria. Its the little things, you know?

This weekend I'll be busy making my chocolate cakes and some amazing brown butter cookies to send to my mom for her birthday. I'm so excited its Friday. Now, back to the banking world....... my lunch break is over.