Dan’s sharing another of his culinary creations – so happy to be a benefactor!

I have just finished preparing this desert and I already can’t wait to eat it, even after numerous samplings from the dirty bowls.

I’m somewhat nostalgic about chocolate mousse. I have memories of eating this wonderful dessert at one of my parent’s favourite restaurants as a child. It was usually a special occasion that brought us to the restaurant and I think this may have added to my delight of the dessert, or it could just be one of the best desserts ever invented. I don’t know how the mousse of my memory was made but this is my take.

I usually make this once a year and since Rachel has been asking me about it lately, I thought I’d better get to it as it has been too long. This version uses simple ingredients and it is fairly easy to put together. There are more complicated methods that involve eggs, but I confess that I have yet to attempt them because I am happy with the way this one turns out.

This is a small dinner party size – it is more than enough for our family and one or two guests. As we happen to have a couple of friends coming for dinner tonight it works perfectly.

Cheater’s Chocolate Mousse

I use Callebaut chocolate as I think it is one of the best, feel free to substitute a different chocolate but remember that the quality of the chocolate you use can make or break the dessert.

4 cups whipping(heavy) cream plus 4 oz.

8 oz dark chocolate

8 oz milk chocolate

2 tablespoons Grand Marnier liqueur

3 tablespoons Kahlua liqueur (if you don’t like either of these substitute a different liqueur, Irish Cream works great, or omit the alcohol and replace with cream)

Prepare two pots, one for the milk chocolate and one for the dark. Add two ounces of the cream along with the liqueur of choice into each of the pans. I pair the Kahlua with the milk chocolate and the Grand Marnier with the dark.

Chop up the milk and dark chocolate separately.

Then add each to its own pot. Turn the heat on to medium low and stir occasionally to avoid burning the chocolate. Mostly anytime you melt chocolate you should use a double boiler but because of the cream and the liqueur you can get away with just the one pot – saving yourself some dirty dishes. Melt the chocolate until smooth, this should take about 4-5 mins.

Once they are melted remove from the heat and set aside.

With a stand or hand mixer whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks.

Once your whipped cream is ready divide evenly into two mixing bowls. Add a spatula full of the cream to each of the chocolate pots and mix until smooth. If you skip this step and pour the chocolate directly into the cream you may get little chunks of chocolate in your mousse.

Pour your dark chocolate sauce into one of the bowls of cream and gently fold in until fully incorporated. Don’t rush this part and start stirring or the mousse will lose some texture in the final product – my impatience has been a downfall on many occasions!

You should have a mixture that has no white or dark streaks and is nice and fluffy. Repeat with the other chocolate sauce.

Now for the presentation.

I use some “nice” IKEA goblets to layer the mousse into, I also have some ramekins for when I run out of glasses.  The glass sure helps with the look of things but this is purely optional. Do make sure when you put your mousse into its dish that you gently tap it on the bottom to let the mousse settle a bit.

(This batch filled seven of these goblets and three ramekins – plenty to share!)

Once you have all your mousse distributed try to find some place in your fridge to let them set for at least 4 hours. If you are in a hurry as I have been from time to time you can put them in the freezer for approximately an hour but you will end up with more of a frozen mousse.

Big siblings were out with Mommy and little brother was napping – of course this little girl took full advantage.

–4 hours later–

*On a side note after last night we still have 3 glasses and 2 ramekins  (hooray!)

Have you made mousse before? Have you tried it with eggs? I’m curious to know how my simplified version compares.

Happy weekend everyone!

For little goodies to share with some friends as an early Valentine’s Day treat we decided to make mini lemon loaves. Cupcakes are usually my go-to special occasion treats but as we are doing this sooner than last minute (for a rare change), I wanted something that would hold up a couple of days.

I’ve made this recipe once before and we loved it. I don’t know what has stopped me from making lemon pound cake before but the floodgates have been opened and we are hooked. I’ve tweaked the original recipe a little and we are very happy with the results.

The first time I made a double recipe and ended up with two loaves. This time for gifting purposes I decided to make mini loaves – I got eight mini loaves and five small cupcakes from the same double recipe.

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer with a paddle or in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.

Mix in the eggs and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula or spoon.

Measure out the milk and add to it the vanilla, lemon juice and lemon essential oil, if using.

Add these liquids to the mixing bowl and combine.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. Using a rasp, grate in the zest of two lemons – be careful not to grate in the white pith.

*If you don’t have a rasp, use a fine grater. We didn’t have a rasp for the longest time but it has been a great investment. They are about $20 which may seem a bit steep but we use ours almost daily and it has worked so much better than any other zesting or fine grating tool we have used before. We use this one.

Being careful not to over mix, add the dry mixture into your butter mixture. You’ll end up with a lovely thick batter.

To make these extra special I added about a teaspoon of raspberry jam to each loaf.

I used a large ice cream scoop, added one scoop to each mini pan, drizzled a little jam across the top, then finished them off with another scoop of batter. I’ve done the same with cupcakes and regular sized loaves and while the cakes are delicious without it, I love the extra tang the raspberry adds.

Bake until they are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Raspberry Swirl Lemon Loaf

(original recipe here)

2 1/2 cups white unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

zest of two lemons

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/3 cup milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

5 drops of pure lemon essential oil, optional

raspberry jam

Preheat over to 350°F. Prepare pans by spreading with butter or lining with paper liners.

In a large bowl or mixer, cream butter and sugar using paddle attachment or wooden spoon. Add eggs, one at a time beating well, scrape down bowl if needed. Measure milk, add vanilla, lemon juice and lemon oil, if using. Mix well.

In a smaller bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder. Grate in lemon zest. Stir to combine.

Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet mixture, do not over mix.

For large loaves: pour 1/4 of batter into each prepared loaf pan, drizzle 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam in each pan and swirl with a chopstick or fork. Spread remaining batter equally in pans. Bake for 45 – 55 minutes, or until golden brown.

For mini-loaves or cupcakes: Using an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measure, half fill each cup with batter, swirl 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of jam in each one and top with remaining batter. Bake for 25 – 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

The original recipe calls for a glaze after they come out of the oven. I used it the first time but not this time and didn’t find I missed it. I’m not really a glaze person – after all the sugar I’ve already added I get nervous about adding more. If you’d like to try it though, it does add a nice sheen and extra sweetness.

Glaze

1 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

Whisk these two together in a small bowl and set aside until the loaves are done.

When the loaves come out of the oven pierce the tops with a skewer and pour glaze over the top.

For gifting, we stamped parchment and wax paper (when we ran out of parchment) with a red heart stamp. We wrapped our mini-loaves, stamp side out, in the paper, tied them with red twine and added watercolour tags with kitchen twine (while the kids were cutting hearts, I cut gift tags).

Sweet little treats.

*We’ve been busy with Valentine’s projects all week – and we have more to come so be sure to check back! The kids are not giving me a break!*

We made full use of our local farmer’s market this past summer and fall. Our canning shelf and freezer are still full from the bounty. The last week that semi-local seasonal produce was available I nabbed up two more 20 pound boxes of apples. We were told they would keep for two months and they have done incredibly well on our cold basement floor. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed them and only started buying apples a few weeks ago.

It’s now been over three months and I’ll admit I was a little afraid to check in on them in case they were too gross to handle but actually, despite looking a little worse for wear, they still taste fantastic. The kids aren’t too thrilled with the wrinkles so I figure the remaining 8 pounds or so will go into baked apple desserts – I will never complain about baked apple desserts.

I based my version on a Cook’s Illustrated recipe and tweaked it to be a little healthier and more apple dense. The recipe is very simple, resulting in a dense, moist and delicious cake that received rave reviews from my family.

Here’s how I did it:

Peel, core and slice into 1/2 inch wedges, 3 pounds of apples.

See how they got, er,  lovely and brown…I didn’t splash them with lemon juice – and we all survived but lemon juice would have cut down on the browning.

Melt 1/4 cup of butter in a pan, shame on me I used non-stick. Tell me how bad it is for us, I need reminding to get cast-iron.

Add those apples and cook them on med-high for about 5 minutes – they shouldn’t be cooked through just softened.

Then crank the heat up to high, add 2/3 of a cup of brown sugar and a heaping tablespoon of cinnamon, stir it around for about a minute while the sugar dissolves and a nice syrup bubbles around them.

Remove from the heat and spoon into a buttered 11 x 15 inch Pyrex or similar baking dish. Spread evenly over the bottom and set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, cornmeal (if using) and salt. Set aside.

In a larger bowl, whisk sugars and eggs.

…Start thinking about eating apple cake and forget to take pictures…

Slowly pour in melted butter, then whisk in yogurt and vanilla. To these, mix in the flour mixture until just combined.

Pour this batter over the apples and spread evenly with a spatula or spoon.

Pop it into a 350° F pre-heated oven for 35 – 40 minutes until it is beautifully golden on top. The original recipe was an upside down cake but because I made my version extra big and knew it would last us a few days, I didn’t even try to flip it.

Piece of Cake Apple Cake

adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, Apple Upside-Down Cake

For the apples:

3 pounds apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/2 inch wedges (I used MacIntosh)

1/4 cup butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

splash of lemon juice

For the cake:

1 1/2 cup unbleached white flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon corn meal (optional)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

2/3 cup plain yogurt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt the butter in a pan or skillet over med-high heat. Add the apples and cook for 5-6 minutes. Don’t cook the apples completely just soften them. Increase heat to high and add brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir for one minute until sugar is dissolved and apples are coated. Remove from heat and pour into a buttered 11×15 baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. In a larger bowl, whisk sugars and eggs until thick and uniform. Slowly whisk in butter, then stir in yogurt and vanilla. Without over mixing, whisk in flour mixture until just combined. Pour batter into pan over apples and spread evenly.

Bake at 350° F for about 35-40 minutes until top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow it to cool for 20-30 minutes before slicing and enjoying!

And because I knew you would want to know, I also sampled it with vanilla ice cream.

I’m thoughtful of your needs that way.

It was delicious.

We come and go with cookies. I love baking them but as we don’t let the kids have many sweets they seem to stick around for a little too long. I am trying to loosen up a little and break them out during the mid-morning “Why do I have to do school?” lull. They help kids and they help mommies.

Oatmeal-raisin cookies are one of my favourites and rather to my surprise 4 out of 5 kiddos prefer them over the cranberry-chocolate version I make for my non-raisin-enjoying husband.

I give you fair warning that although I deceive myself into believing these are healthy (all those oats, right?), they have their fair share of buttery, sugary goodness. That’s right, butter – no margarine in this house. If you are a margarine person, well, all I can say is – break. free. Your heart may not thank you but everything else will (ahem, thighs included).

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp water

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups oats (I use 1 1/2 quick and 1 1/2 old fashioned)

1 1/2 cups raisins (or for the non-raisin-enjoyers dried cranberries and chocolate chips)

Using a stand mixer, hand mixer or wooden spoon, cream butter and sugar together. Pass the excited 4-year-old a bowl to catch his drool.

Once they are looking nice and fluffy, add the egg, water and vanilla. Give them a good mix around.

Disappoint this child by telling her the cookies aren’t ready.

Break good mommy rules and give her some cookie dough.

Toss in the soda, salt and flour. Mix to combine.

Add the oats, again mix to combine.

Add the mix-ins of your choice.

Using an ice-cream scoop or large spoon, plop them on to your baking sheet – not too close and press them down with a spoon or the palm of your hand.

Bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes. Be careful not to overcook them – the cracks will still look a little shiny.

Delicious!