Without a doubt, this is the very best Tiramisù

I’ve ever eaten. Bar none.

It had been some years since I’d made Tiramisù, using an old recipe that I’d put together myself from about 3 different versions. Then I was watching America’s Test Kitchen last week and they made a rather simplified Tiramisù, and I was hooked. Had to try it. Caution: this recipe does have raw egg yolks in it, so if you’re interested in the version made without raw eggs, America’s Test Kitchen has that recipe too. A note: you do have to sign-in to a free ATK membership in order to view these recipes (so they can send you emails, most likely, which they do, but I like receiving most of them – except the two a week wanting me to subscribe to Cook’s Country – wish they would stop sending me that one – I’ve asked – no can do, I guess).

I suppose, from beginning to end, it took me about an hour to make it. Not too bad, I guess, although I thought it would take less than that. This recipe has a lot more mascarpone in it (1 1/2 pounds) than I’ve used before. But I sure learned exactly how to dip the savoiardi cookies – those are the Italian, dry ladyfingers used to make this dessert. Not the soft ones you can sometimes find at the grocery store.

That's how much coffee was left over

Even though I’m a fairly experienced home cook, and tackle almost anything, I’d never known HOW to get just the right amount of coffee into the cookies/the dessert. Too much and they fall apart into wet mush. Too little and the dessert is dry. You want a happy mixture of the cookies, coffee and mascarpone cream. That’s what I like about America’s Test Kitchen – they figure all this out for me so I don’t have to guess. They showed us exactly how to hold the cookie and how long to dip and turn it over in the coffee mixture. When I got done I had exactly one cookie left over and a little bit of coffee, so I dipped it in and bit into it. Exactly how it’s supposed to be – you only dip about 2 seconds, maybe 3 at the absolute most to get the coffee on the outside. When you cut (bite) into it, the center of the cookie is still dry. At least it was when I made the dessert. After it sits for 24 hours, the cookies had perfectly absorbed the flavors, but it wasn’t soggy with coffee, nor had it fallen apart. They still had enough “form” to use a spatula to cut and remove a nice serving portion.

The mascarpone batter was easy – eggs and sugar – some rum (rum was also added to the coffee dipping mixture too), the mascarpone and whipped cream. So, you dip the cookies in the coffee/rum mixture, put one layer in a 9×13 glass dish, slather on half of the mascarpone cream (picture at left shows spreading the first layer over the cookies), sprinkle with a bit of Dutch process cocoa, another layer of dipped cookies and the last half of the mascarpone and more cocoa. That’s it. Chill at least 6 hours, but 24 is preferable.  That was fine with me, so I got this dessert done a day ahead of our dinner party the other night. Just before serving I sprinkled the top with a bit of chopped semisweet chocolate shavings.

From this picture above (side view of the Pyrex dish) I can see that on the bottom layer I didn’t push and shove the tender soaked cookies tightly enough over on the right– they mentioned that on the ATK episode, about making sure the cookies are pressed snugly, to push a bit to fill in all the nooks and crannies. So I had a little dip there. Surely didn’t matter to the taste, though!

Results? By far the best tiramisu I’ve ever had. I would make not one change to this recipe. It will now be my go-to one for this coffee and chocolate dessert. The leftovers were sublime, even 48 hours later.
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A year ago: Zucchini Pancakes

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Would you believe that of all the delicious and different things I served at our dinner the other night, I think nearly everyone raved the most about the corn. Followed closely by the tiramisu. The corn was probably the easiest thing I made for the dinner. I couldn’t get enough of it, both that night and the 2 subsequent nights when we ate the leftovers.

It was some years ago that I read about an herb and spice rub I used on grilled corn on the cob. It is a North African combination. I’ve used it dozens and dozens of times since. But it’s kind of fussy – you have to bend down the leaves, remove the silk, then bring back up the leaves, tie a knot at the top, then grill them.

In this preparation, it’s actually the spices that were used on the Sizzling dry rubbed rib eye steaks. Knowing we like spice-rubbed corn anyway, I didn’t want to mix two different types, so I just made more of the mixture when I prepared it for the steak rub. The prep does include toasting the whole spices to the smoke point. Then those are ground up in a spice grinder (or a mortar and pestle) and added to some other ordinary things like brown sugar, chile powder, dried thyme, dry mustard and freshly grated nutmeg.

The corn – well, how simple can it be? I simmered the corn for about 5 minutes, removed them to a bowl. I let them sit just a couple of minutes so I could handle them. I had a cube of cold butter handy, so I rubbed each ear (cut in half) very lightly with the butter, then sprinkled the spice rub liberally on each. Put them back in the bowl and served them. It took about 4-5 minutes, I suppose, to do that, and it did have to be done at the last minute. The rest of the meal was all ready, so I didn’t mind taking the time. If you’re busy with other things, have someone else do it!

Providing you like plenty of spices, you are going to LOVE this corn. Just remember that once you combine a group of spices together, they will lose their potency in about a month. No, I don’t know why, but it’s a fact. So you can’t make this up in big quantity and keep it for any longer than that. I beg you, try this one.
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A year ago: Layered Greek Salad
Two years ago: French Hamburgers (actually it’s Julia Child’s recipe – having just seen the movie Julie & Julia the other night – oh, I luved the movie, want to see it again – anyway, this is so appropos – the recipe comes from her first volume, Mastering the Art of French Cooking but it called Boeuf Hache a la Lyonnaise . . .)

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For our dinner party the other night, my friend Cherrie brought this appetizer. I’d planned to make a stuffed Brie, but whole rounds of Brie the right size seemed to be elusive, so Cherrie offered to bring this red bell pepper and walnut dip she’d already made, right out of this month’s issue of Gourmet. The dip is very easy – you buy bottled red bell peppers, and combine them in a food processor with fresh bread crumbs, toasted walnuts, red wine vinegar, cumin, cayenne and olive oil. That’s it. You’re done. Cherrie served this with another recipe from the same issue – for garlic-oregano grilled pita bread. She adapted it just a little – she used lemon olive oil spread on the hot, grilled pita bread, then sprinkled that with dried oregano and a bit of Himalayan salt.

She left the remainder of the spread with us, and the remaining pita bread, so the next night I made her quick-method for the pita – I just heated them in the microwave, brushed them with a bit of blood orange olive oil, then sprinkled them with dried thyme. Any of those Mediterranean herbs would do fine, I think. This is a VERY tasty spread – EASY – and I’d make this myself next time I need this type of a dip. Everyone asked about it (most thought it was a type of hummus) and wanted the recipe.
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A year ago: Jayne’s Gastropub (a San Diego restaurant)
Two years ago: Chicken Bamako

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When I saw the photo in Cooking Light for this salad, I figured I’d have to make it sometime. It was perfect for our outdoor dinner party the other night. I could make it ahead (at least 24 or up to 48 hours even), it provided a bit of carbohydrate for the meal, it was tangy with fresh lemon juice from the fruit of our Meyer lemon trees, and last but not least, it had lots of fresh veggies in it. With only two tablespoons of oil in the entire dish.

I set up my little photo studio as I made it. As if you didn’t already know how to layer things. But here goes. First I started with my tall glass trifle dish. I’ve served a green salad in it before, but it’s just perfect for this layered salad. The recipe said it served 8 – we were having 6 – so with some of the vegetables I used slightly less. It would depend on the bowl you used, too.

First went in the dry bulgur wheat. Just poured it in there.

The dressing was mixed up – 3/4 cup of fresh lemon juice, the 2 T. of olive oil, some fresh garlic and salt. I poured it in and stirred it briefly to make sure all the bulgur was in contact with the dressing.

The layer of onions was next. The recipe called for red onions, but I didn’t have any. However, I did have some Washington sweet onions.

Then I chopped up about $6.00 worth of heirloom tomatoes. It made two cups of chopped tomatoes. Almost hated to use them for this since I wasn’t sure the superior flavor would shine through. But it’s what I had on hand.

I cut some fresh mint from our garden, added some fresh Italian parsley and some fresh dill. Chopped it up finely, mixed it together with my hands, and sprinkled that on top of the tomatoes.

Next went a generous layer of cucumbers. I used the hothouse type and left the dark-green skin intact. That was spread around a bit to fill in the outer edges.

Lastly, a mixture of red and yellow bell peppers was added. The top was sprinkled with some kosher salt and freshly grated black pepper.

Then I sealed it tight with plastic wrap and refrigerated it for 24 hours.

Just tell your guests to dip down deep, so they get some of the bulgur at the bottom. Once the first person dips in, the salad loses some of its form, but that’s okay. You need to put the bulgur on the bottom, because it needs to absorb all that lemon dressing.

What I love about this kind of salad is the tang from the lemon juice. I have a favorite Syrian salad I make every summer that has crushed up toasted pita bread in it. (Joanne – thanks again for that great recipe – she shared it at an office potluck many years back – and now lives in Switzerland ) I just adore that salad. This is reminiscent of it, except it has the bulgur as the carb. If you have extra room at the top of your bowl, just before serving, chop up some lettuces and pile that in. The dressing will spread around once you dish this up so the lettuce would have some tang. Or, toss the salad with a bit of lemony dressing, then scoop it on top. I’ll make this again – particularly because I can make it the day before.
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A year ago: Zucchini (everything you always wanted to know)
Two years ago: Baked Fennel

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For my dear hubby’s birthday dinner (celebrated a couple of weeks late) that we had with friends last weekend, I knew his first choice would be beef. Steaks, specifically. Good steaks. Make that really good steaks. Our favorites are rib eyes. We made the mistake two summers ago of buying USDA Prime steaks at our local independent market/butcher. We both thought we’d died and gone to heaven. Now we’re spoiled, and don’t want the regular, pedestrian steaks at all. Costco to the rescue.

Now, in case you don’t know about it, Costco now carries (at least in our part of the country) prime steaks. The story goes like this (according to our local newspaper Food Editor, Cathy Thomas), because of the recession, fewer people are going to steakhouses. Or if they are, they’re perhaps not ordering those fantastically thick high-ticket steaks for which they charge an arm and leg. So the beef distributors have had to find new avenues for the extra-tender beef. Enter Costco on the scene. Their prime rib eye steaks are about $8-11 apiece, packaged in fours. Generally Dave and I share ONE steak. For this dinner I prepared 4 steaks for 6 of us, assuming maybe the guys would like an extra portion. Actually, we had enough leftover to serve dinner to friends the next night.

Over the years I’ve learned to trust Hugh Carpenter. He’s one knowledgeable chef. And an innovative menu creator. In addition, he and his wife have authored several cookbooks. Either last year or the year before, when we celebrated Dave’s birthday with this same group of friends (we all bring out our very special – read expensive – red wines to share with one another), we had another one of his recipes: Rib eye Steaks with Amazing Glaze. That one is a real favorite of ours. I’ve made it many, many times, always to raves. But I didn’t want to serve the same thing, so I went to his book, Hot Barbecue (where the other Amazing Glaze rib eye recipe came from also), and chose this one.

Carpenter explained that although the recipe requires a few steps to prepare, it’s worth it. It requires that you have a fairly extensive spice cupboard. It also requires a bit of sitting time (for the steaks to absorb the spice flavors). And you have to make the red pepper sauce. That was the most amount of work in the total prep. And even that wasn’t all that difficult. Just took a bit of time sitting on the stovetop simmering away (to reduce the quantity). The sauce becomes a bed for the steak. The steaks were slathered with minced fresh garlic, then the spice mixture was patted on. They sat for 8 hours in the refrigerator so they’d absorb the flavor.

The spice mixture was fun to make (well, it was for me, anyway). First a group of whole spices (pictured left) were toasted in a dry skillet (allspice berries, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, coriander seeds and whole cloves). They required a bit of stirring (no burning allowed), but once the pan got up to a high heat, they began to smoke lightly. Immediately I turned off the flame and poured the spices out onto a plate to cool. Those were then whizzed up in my spice grinder (it’s a coffee grinder, but I dedicate it for spices). Other items were added to the mix: chile powder, dark brown sugar, dry thyme, dry mustard, salt and freshly grated nutmeg. That’s it.

The red pepper sauce is composed of bottled roasted red peppers, chicken stock, red wine, honey and some spicy Asian hot sauce. Be careful of the hot sauce – once it’s boiled down to a thicker consistency, that will heighten the spiciness (heat). Do not add salt.

Dave was more interested in this dinner menu than usual – because he really wanted the wine to pair well with the food. We brought out a very special bottle of wine. Those of you who know my husband already, will find it no surprise that he tells lots of stories. (He’s a gregarious kind of guy, can walk into just about any room, crowded or not, and make conversation with total strangers, and will tell stories about sailing, or his artificial legs, or a trip we’ve taken.)

A few months ago we were shopping at our number one upscale market (Bristol Farms) in Newport Beach. If we go there together (it’s a 30-minute drive from our house to Newport Beach), Dave will leave me to go through the aisles, while he spends most of the time in the wine department. The store has one wine cabinet that’s all locked up, but you can see the wines inside. And their price tags. (This story has made the rounds of all of our friends, Dave is so proud of himself!) As he glanced in the rows behind glass he spotted a 1990 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Anyone into wine knows that’s one really great French label. We rarely buy French wine. But as Dave examined the label, he knew – bingo – that’s the bottle we have at home. THEN he looked at the price tag. Of course, an upscale market would charge a premium for all their wines. But, gee whiz. Big but gee whiz. They are charging $850.00 for it. Wow. Yikes. Zippity-do-dah! He came – all but running to find me – to tell me about it. And THAT’s the wine we drank with dinner last Saturday. Somebody gave us a bottle of 1990 Lafite Rothschild nearly 20 years ago. We think the bottle was given to us by our friend Russ – the little scribble on the label says 7/93 Ru–? B’day. We think that means Russ gave it to Dave for his birthday in 1993. If so, Russ, we THANK YOU. Likely it was nowhere near that much money in 1993.

So how was it, you ask? Well, we decanted it and let it air for an hour, and poured it into our Reidel Bordeaux/Cabernet wine glasses. We did all the snobby wine things – swirling, sniffing, more swirling, looking through the glass to see the clarity, more swirling and sniffing. The bouquet was beyond wonderful. Had that slightly brown side of red color. It was sensational. Not worth $850 for sure, but we’re grateful for the bottle. We each had a small glass of it with our appetizers (a Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Spread on Garlic-Oregano Grilled Pita Bread, some Caramelized Onion on toasted baguette slices and some Brie with blackberries). I’ll be posting ALL of the recipes from this dinner in coming days.

Then I served a chilled Avocado Soup (like Guacamole in a glass) with a spoon, which we enjoyed before we sat down to dinner. We ate outside by candlelight to the low-setting sun. We opened a bottle of Jordan Cabernet, then a magnum of Canoe Ridge Cab.

Now, let’s get back to this fabulous meat . . . those spice-marinated rib eyes (pictured right, as they squeezed into a ceramic bowl to “marinate”) were put onto the hot grill, seared both sides, then put off to the side (not over direct heat, in a racked pan) to continue cooking until they reached about 123 degrees F (medium rare). Meanwhile, I had cooked some fresh corn on the cob and slathered the hot ear halves with a little bit of butter, then sprinkled them with the spice mix I used on the steak (I just made more of it from the beginning). The corn was a real highlight. I’ll be writing up a separate blog post about that. I also set out a Lebanese Layered Salad (which was ever so good). When the steaks were served I slathered a bit of the red pepper sauce on the piping hot plates, put the steak on top, then sprinkled it with fresh goat cheese chèvre and minced cilantro. Dinner was done. The rib eyes were fantastic. I don’t use that word all that often. They were SO good – the sauce and spice rub made it, though. I didn’t think I’d like the goat cheese, but it also was a nice foil to the beef. Yes, indeed, I’ll be making that recipe again. And maybe I’ll be making just the sauce by itself (Carpenter suggested you could use it in a variety of other ways) and freezing small portions so when we have a steak next time we can have more of that slather.

For dessert I wanted to make tiramisu, because it’s one of Dave’s favorites anyway. I had a new recipe (via America’s Test Kitchen). It was really, really good. I’ll post all the recipes in the next week. I apologize for this loooong recipe for the steak. It’s really not that hard. Believe me! And worth the time for sure.
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A year ago: Wellesley Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two years ago: Goat Cheese Chive Muffins (a favorite)

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One of my readers (June, from Nova Scotia) emailed me to tell me the video I’d uploaded was about golf, not about grocery lists. It took awhile for me to figure out I’d uploaded the wrong Jeanne Robertson video. SO, if you click below, and you want to enjoy the laugh about her grocery list saga, it should be loading the right one now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The posting about the Jeanne Robertson grocery list.

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A friend of ours was celebrating a birthday. Bob is not up to his usual snuff right now and his wife Irene is caregiving. And she’s certainly not up to doing a celebration of some kind. SO, I offered to bring a birthday dessert, and we invited a group of their friends to join in on a little pomp and circumstance to honor the birthday guy. I asked Irene what Bob likes best? Chocolate. Most definitely chocolate. No problem in my book.

Since I needed to serve a larger crowd than usual, I had to hunt for a recipe that would work for this occasion. Finally found these cocoa cupcakes that I’d clipped out of the April ‘08 issue of Food and Wine. It can serve 16. Great, because that’s about how many we needed. The recipe came from a bakery in San Francisco, called Miette (at the Ferry Building Marketplace).

These are quite simple – sift the dry ingredients, whip up the butter and sugar, add the eggs slowly, then alternately add the dry stuff (I used Penzey’s high fat dark cocoa) with some crème fraîche. Pour into muffin cups (foil liners preferred) and bake 15 minutes or so. Cool slightly and top with a dollop of additional crème fraîche. Very easy. I made them about 30 minutes before we drove to our friends’ home, so the cupcakes were still warm when I served them. The recipe indicates serving with crème fraîche, which I did, but Bob is a big fan of ice cream, so that went alongside as well. I just used less crème fraîche, that’s all. I think the ice cream was a distraction. I’d prefer this just as is – with the crème fraîche or perhaps some lightly whipped cream on top.

And the results, you ask? Oh yes, delicious. Really good chocolate flavor. Very tender crumb. I would make these again just because they’re so EASY. They have a little tang to them (from the semi-sour crème fraîche) which I liked. Do serve them warm – I think that was part of the attraction. Give them about 10 minutes to cool down enough to handle, remove the paper wrapper and dig in while they’re still soft.
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Actually, I’m very blessed to have a husband who LIKES grocery shopping. In fact, he will always do my shopping for me if I just tell him what I need. (For those of you who are new to my blog, my hubby’s parents used to own a gourmet grocery market in Ocean City, New Jersey, when he was growing up, so his interest in food started way back.) Anyway, we’re having a big dinner party here at our house tomorrow (more recipes will be coming up), so I created the grocery list a couple of days ago, and he happily went off to about 4 different stores to buy everything I needed. Yesterday morning I started working on some of the menu items – to get them done ahead of time – so I’m not so stressed tomorrow.

But, we always have a discussion about the list before he leaves. I’ve learned to be VERY specific. With brand names, ounce-sized cans or bottles, shapes, colors or labels, with basil or without, tubes. It’s taken some years to “train” him. Yes, it’s true. But I luv him and am very appreciative that he does this chore for me, week after week. (I’ve told you before, I have a wonderful husband – he even does all the dishes too.) But there are mistakes. Maybe not every week, but often enough. Some have been funny. Mostly he’s good about taking something back. Sometimes not very, especially if I haven’t been specific ENOUGH.

A couple of weeks ago I asked him to find some cans of shoe peg corn (for the Corn & Black Bean Salad we had at our friends’ home in Oregon). He couldn’t find it. Nor did he know what it was (I did explain about it before he left, and he phoned at least twice to ask more questions about it). Three stores didn’t have it. (I finally found it at an independent grocery store the following week – it is a little elusive – but now I have two cans on the pantry shelf.) Last week I made Blueberry Pumpkin Muffins, and discovered I had no canned pumpkin. Therefore canned pumpkin (2 cans) was on my grocery list. Without calling me, Dave made a management decision and bought the only thing he could find – Pumpkin Pie Mix. Oh, dear. I really hated to tell him I couldn’t use that.

He actually paid me a huge compliment when he said “honey, you’re such a whiz at baking, I knew you could make this work, since this is all I could find.” But when it comes to the chemistry of baking, I decided no, I couldn’t adapt it. Maybe I could have researched on the ‘net to find some kind of alterations to adapt a pumpkin pie (using pie mix vs.. canned pumpkin) but for muffins I didn’t want to take that chance. Besides, the spices were wrong in the pie mix. So, those had to go back. I phoned our local independent market; sure enough, they had it, thankfully. Dave happily went to pick it up for me. He paid me an even greater compliment this morning when he said he’s learned an enormous amount about food and cooking from having to do the shopping.

So if you watch the video, I mean no disparity against male grocery shoppers, or readers of grocery lists. Just some good humored jibing. I laughed out loud. Thanks to my friend Chris H, who sent me the link to the YouTube video.

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To tell you the honest truth, I’ve never been much of a plum fan. I’m not saying I don’t eat them (none so far this summer, actually). I do eat them, but not often. I don’t seek them out is what I’m really saying, but I know that’s a mistake. After reading the chapter on plums in Russ Parsons’ book, How to Pick a Peach, I’ll be on the lookout for some specific varieties (Greengage primarily, or Wickson). My parents had a red plum tree in our backyard. A very prolific plum tree, actually. And I can recall, as a mid-age young girl reaching up to the low-hanging branches to taste the first fruit of the season and being sorely disappointed because of the sour skin. Mostly my mother just stewed the fruit with a little sugar and water. I have no recollections of a plum pie. Or cake. Or anything else with plums, for that matter. Just stewed plums. Maybe that’s another reason I didn’t develop a fondness for them.

Even I have noticed lots of plum varieties – yellow plums, green plums, red plums, scarlet plums, purple plums, and almost black plums. But by and large, most plum varieties taste the same, despite the variations on skin color. Mostly it’s just a sweet and tart flavor. The Elephant Heart is an herbaceous type, and the Wickson contains a golden honey tang. The greengage is the sweetest.

Did you know that plum trees are promiscuous? Yup. They cross-pollinate with wild abandon, so Parsons says. Yet the early varieties were mostly developed by the great Luther Burbank. Even though we have countless schools here in California named after Luther Burbank, I knew very little about him until I read his brief story at Wikipedia. With no more than a 5th grade education, he was fascinated with nature, plants and flowers, and eventually moved from Massachusetts to California. Then he began, in earnest, to hybridize a variety of vegetables and fruit, most notably the plum. [Just as an aside, Burbank developed the Russet potato – it was originally called the Russet Burbank potato, on which McDonald’s relies for its famous french fries. He also developed the Shasta daisy, the Fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Flaming Gold nectarine, the Freestone peach, the white blackberry AND both the Santa Rosa plum and the Wickson plum. Burbank was not highly regarded in his time because he didn’t use accepted scientific practices – note-taking particularly – in his research – he merely wanted the results and didn’t care a whit about how he got there.] Burbank actually developed 113 new varieties of plums and prunes. Amazing. He died in 1926.

Since then, another agricultural scientist named Floyd Zaiger took up Burbank’s banner. He’s the guy who crossed the plum and apricot, to create the pluot. He also developed the Aprium, which has a more apricot-ness than the pluot, which is more plummy. There are several varieties of these – the Dapple Dandy, the Dinaosaur Egg, Flavor King and Flavor Supreme.

Growing: Most plums are grown in California.

Choosing: Find the more deeply colored, shiny and firm, but not hard. Don’t worry about any of the white powder on the skin – that’s normal, called a “natural bloom.”

Storing: If unripe, leave out at room temp for a day or two, then refrigerate. If you chill them before they’re ripe the quality suffers.

In the book Parsons has detailed recipes for a Spiced Plum Ice Cream and a Cornmeal Buckle with Plums.

A year ago: Summer Shrimp Salad (very refreshing dinner type salad)
Two years ago: Grandgirl’s Fresh Apple Cake (oh my, yes, delicious, a Paula Deen recipe I believe)

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My friend Norma needed a new supply of puddings (I make them for her by choice because she’s a dear friend, and not because she asks me). I hadn’t made chocolate pudding for her. Her only caveat was that, although she usually is a dark chocolate fan, she can’t handle it right now, so would I prepare the pudding with milk chocolate instead? Sure, I said. An aside here, I had to BUY milk chocolate, because I didn’t have even an ounce of it. I never, never, ever buy milk chocolate! No matter. I used all of what I bought in this recipe (5 ounces).

Sometimes the internet is just an amazing resource, isn’t it? I don’t know how I ever lived without it, and yet we’ve only HAD the internet for about 16 or so years, right? Positively astounding, to me, how much stuff is available now. And I only research a tiny segment of it. Mostly about food, history, books, travel, animals, cultural activities.

I finally chose a cornstarch-based recipe found on the epicurious.com website (from a Gourmet issue in February of 2007) that was ever-so easy to make. You combine cornstarch, a small amount of sugar, powdered cocoa and salt, then whisk in milk and cream. Once it comes to a boil, it’s simmered for a full two minutes, and you’re basically done, except for dropping in a few ounces of milk chocolate and a splash of vanilla extract, and stirring it gently. How easy is that?

Dark chocolate is my choc-of-choice, but even I thought this tasted really good. I did use Penzey’s high fat cocoa (not regular store-bought) and it has really good flavor, but you can use whatever you have on hand.

Even Dutch process would work fine (it’s milder). If you need a dessert in a hurry, and you have the ingredients on hand, this is a no-brainer. Don’t expect this to taste like pots de crème, which is decadently rich. This is a much lighter version, but with decidedly good chocolate taste. I’d make this again.
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A year ago: Dinner at Charlie Palmer’s (local restaurant)
Two years ago: Pineapple Upside Down French Toast (a great holiday dish, make ahead, good for holiday mornings)

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