Coffee souffle with a touch of Rum

Coffee Souffle

Two in a row, the dessert this week is very similar to the one I made last week in terms of preparation. This one is just as easy to do and is simply delightful. The coffee is a very nice pick-me-up. I have not figured out how to serve this besides scooping it out of the bowl and just serving it. The next time I try it I may do a little coffee syrup.

Recipe

• 4 eggs separated
• 4 oz granulated sugar plus 2 tbsp
• ½ pint heavy cream
• 2 tbsp coffee
• 2 tbsp rum

Method

I used a 2 pint soufflé dish so I did not need to tie a band of foil/greaseproof paper around my dish. If you have a smaller dish tie foil so that it stands about 2 inches higher than the rim of the dish.

Put two tablespoons of water into a little bowl add one sachet (two teaspoons) of instant coffee and stir to dissolve.

Put the egg yolks and 2oz of sugar into a heat proof bowl. Place it over a pan of boiling water that is off the stove. Start whisking.  Beat until the yellows are pale and frothy. The yolks will also be quite thick and almost doubled in volume. Stir in the coffee and rum, folding until its all incorporated.

Beat the egg whites until they are frothy. Continue beating the whites adding the (2oz) of sugar one tablespoon at a time until all incorporated. You should get a shiny meringue.

Whip the cream and as it starts thickening add the 2 tbsp of sugar. Beat until they form soft peaks and you have a shiny meringue. Fold this into the egg yolk mixture in three batches. First batch to lighten the egg yolk mixture you can be brisk with this addition. Then fold the next third of the meringue until completely incorporated and then the last third very gently.

Now fold in the egg whites gently. Pour into soufflé dish and freeze until ready to serve. Freeze for at least 4 hours before serving

When you are ready serve, take it out of the freezer and serve.

Lemon Souffle

Lemon Souffle

I made this for two reasons 1) I had an excess of lemons in my fridge and did not want them to go bad, 2) I wanted to make something light and summery for a brunch. One point to note that this is best served at home or if you are going to transport it make sure you take it in an icebox with a lot of ice packs. Once you get there pop it into the freezer.

This is a really simple souffle to make especially since there is absolutely no chance of collapse :-). The bowl I used was larger than I needed and so my souffle was not higher than the sides and I did not get the pretty souffley like edges. However it was a melt in your mouth dessert. I made a strawberry sauce to go along as I know some of my friends are not really lemon lovers. It did make a wonderful combination.

Recipe

• 2 Lemons
• 4 eggs separated
• 5 oz granulated sugar plus 2 tbsp
• ½ pint heavy cream

Strawberry Sauce

• 3 heaping tbsp strawberry preserves
• ½ tbsp. water

Method

I used a 2 pint soufflé dish so I did not need to tie a band of foil/greaseproof paper around my dish. If you have a smaller dish tie foil so that it stands about 2 inches higher than the rim of the dish.

Grate the rind of both lemons. Squeeze the juice of both the lemons and add to the rind. The juice I had from the lemons was a little more than a half cup (one of them was not very juicy).

Put the egg yolks and 2oz of sugar into a heat proof bowl. Place it over a pan of boiling water that is off the stove. Start whisking. At this point I should say that using an electric whisk is far easier. Beat until the yellows are pale and frothy. The yolks will also be quite thick and almost doubled in volume. Beat in the lemon juice. At this point the mixture is fairly liquid.

Beat the egg whites until they are frothy. Continue beating the whites adding the (3oz) of sugar one tablespoon at a time until all incorporated. You should get a shiny meringue. Do not overbeat or it will cause you to have dry whites.

Whip the cream and as it starts thickening add the 2 tbsp of sugar. Beat until they form soft peaks and you have a shiny meringue. Fold this into the egg yolk mixture in three batches. First batch to lighten the egg yolk mixture you can be brisk with this. Then fold the next third of the meringue until completely incorporated and then the last third very gently.

Now fold in the egg whites gently. Pour into soufflé dish and freeze until ready to server

For the strawberry sauce, put preservers and water in a pot and boil stirring until the preservers and water are incorporated.

When you are ready serve, take it out of the freezer decorate with mint and serve.

Caramel Cupcakes with Butterscotch Icing

Caramel Cupcakes with Butterscotch Icing

These are the most moist melt in your mouth caramel cupcakes. I made these for a friends birthday this weekend and they were very well received. The recipe was based off of Fine cooking caramel cupcakes. If you have cupcake lines you can use them. I have a silicone pan that I buttered very well. The cupcakes popped out very easily and did have a lovely golden brown color. I was not paying attention when I added the flour and added it all at once and then slowly poured the caramel in while the mixer was running. Everything did work out fine but it is always better to mix the dry and wet ingredients in stages which incorporating the batter better (Hmm this sounds like the tongue twister Betty Butter :-)).

I also reduced the amount of icing sugar because I thought the icing was a bit too sweet and preferred the stronger butterscotch flavor. You could top the cupcakes with anything that you want (nuts, butterscotch morsels etc). They also last a few days outside the refrigerator (if they last that long :-).

Recipe

Makes 30 mini-muffins

For the Caramel

• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar

For the Butterscotch

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup plus 2 tbsp heavy cream (more if you need more)
• 1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

For the Cupcakes

• ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt

Method

Caramel

Put the water in a small pot and set it to boil and let it continue to boil till you use it.

Put the sugar in a shallow saucepan over medium heat. Make sure your sugar is evenly spread over the pan. Once it starts melting swirl the pan gently and slowly to help the sugar melt. Once it gets to a slightly darker golden color take it off the heat.

Carefully pour the boiling water into the hot caramel. It will sputter. Put the pan back on the medium flame and stir with a wooden spoon until the caramel is fully dissolved. Pour this into a liquid measuring cup and make sure it comes up to a 1/3 cup. If you do not have enough, add just a little (less than a third of a cup) water to the same pan and boil (there is always caramel there that you can melt again). Add just enough of this liquid to the previously made caramel to bring it up to 1/3 cup. You can set this aside to cool completely.

Butterscotch icing

In a heavy saucepan melt the butter and sugar (over low heat) stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved. This may take a little while (2-3 minutes depending on how low your heat is set). Slowly add the cream while stirring. This will make the mixture sputter. Cook for about another 2 minutes until the mixture thickens and looks glossy. Take it off the heat and let it cool, stirring occasionally. After about 5 minutes add the sugar and vanilla and beat until the mixture is incorporated. If the frosting is too thick add a little more cream.

Cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350F. Sift the dry ingredients together. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating until they are fully incorporated. Make sure you scrape the sides of the mixer down to fully incorporate. Now add the dry ingredients in three batches alternating with the caramel. Mix gently until incorporated. Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcakes tins. Fill only about 2/3 of the cups. Put the cupcakes into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes until the tops are a very light brown. Take them out of the oven and let them cool on a rack for about 10 minutes. Take them out of their molds. Spoon the butterscotch icing on top of each muffin. Create a swirl with the back of your spoon. Decorate anyway you like. I used dragees.

Key Lime Cake Pops

Key Lime Pops

I had read a lot about cake pops and always wanted to try them. I came up with this combo after reading  a lot about cake pops on a number of blogs. My first try I did not freeze the cake balls and they did happily crumble into the chocolate. On freezing they retained their shape and were so much easier to roll in the chocolate. I will say if you have the chocolate dipping forks and tines then you can just spear them and pour the chocolate over. It’s so much easier than rolling in chocolate. I also used white chocolate over some of them but preferred the dark chocolate contrast. You can add more or less Key Lime juice depending on how strong a key lime flavor that you want. Hope you enjoy it.

Recipe

For the Cake

• Duncan Hines vanilla cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup key lime juice
• 1 tbsp buttermilk (or you can use milk)

For the icing

• 1/3 cup key lime juice
• zest of 1 lime
• ready cream cheese frosting

For the chocolate coating

• 8 oz chocolate chips

Method

Mix all cake ingredients listed in one go. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Test the cake with a toothpick to make sure it comes out with just a few crumbs. Cool completely.
Run cake through a food processor until crumbled or just use your hands to crumble. Make sure you have no chunks if you are using your hands.
Mix the  frosting withthe  zest and key lime juice. Add the frosting to the cake crumbles in about quarter cup measures until the mix holds together and mix thoroughly. I used up about a cup and 4 tablespoons.
Shape cake mixture into 1″ balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Freeze the cake balls for about 20 minutes.  Remove from freezer.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring gently until melted smooth.Take it off the heat. Using two forks gently roll the cake balls in the chocolate. Place back on the the cookie sheet. Once you have done all of them you can refrigerate until you are ready to serve. You could go a little crazy and pipe designs on them.

Coffee Cocoa Cake

Coffee Cocoa Cake

I made this recipe from a fine cooking cookbook for a pre-wedding soiree. It came out really moist. They called for freshly brewed coffee but since yours truly does not drink coffee the best I could do was Nescafe’s instant coffee. It was a little on the not so sweet side but a little more icing sugar would definitely help J. It would also help if you put baking strips around the pan as the center does rise quite a bit. I will be posting the photograph soon (I left my camera at my friend’s house). Hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients

• 10 tbsp soft unsalted butter
• 1 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs – room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 cups of freshly made coffee cooled (i used instant nescafe)

Method

Butter a 9 inch square pan or a 10 inch round pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper (or use a silicone pan.

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs one at a time mixing until just incorporated. Add vanilla and salt and stir.

Sift dry ingredients together and add to the batter. Pour in the coffee. Whisk until smooth.

Bake at 350 F for about 40 min until a toothpick tested comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack .

Dust with icing sugar and serve.

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