Happy [Late] Birthday Mom!

For my mom's birthday, I wanted to do something different. For her dessert, she requested something that included either caramel, coffee, or fruit. I managed to get two out of three categories.

The dessert I chose to make, chocolate-caramel tart with drunken raspberries and vanilla creme fraiche, had really high ratings, but also was rated as pretty difficult to make. All in all, it had five components, each equally delicious:

Part 1: Chocolate chip crust- The crust for this tart was different from the usual tart crusts that I have made. It included egg yolks and crushed chocolate chips, so it turned out more like a thin, crispy cookie.

Part 2: Salty-caramel- Salty-caramel is my favorite type of caramel. There is something so perfect about the salty and sweet flavors coming together. The recipe provided a thick, yummy salty-yet-rich caramel layer.

Part 3: Chocolate ganache- The tart included a thick layer of chocolate ganache, which I made from bittersweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips. This was the last layer of the tart.

Part 4: Creme Fraiche- I made a modified creme fraiche topping for the tart (since actual creme fraiche takes at least 8-12 hours). With three types of cream and a little lemon, it turned out light and tangy.

Part 5: Drunken Raspberries-

I was lucky enough to find delicious, plump raspberries from the store. The recipe required me to make them "drunken," which basically means that they sit in alcohol for a few hours. However, I wasn't happy with just one kind of alcohol, so I made three versions: raspberries in amaretto, raspberries in pomegranate martini, and raspberries in triple sec orange. The berries tasted mildly of the differing flavors, but they definitely tasted drunken! I think my favorite was the amaretto!

With all of these parts, it came out DELICIOUS! It was by far the richest recipe I have ever made, but all of the effort was definitely worth it! If you are looking for a rich, decadent recipe, make this! Here it is! Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I know this is late, but I am finally getting to blogging about my Halloween goodies! As most of you know, I get really into Halloween, so I was pretty excited to make some Halloween desserts. However, I made pumpkin cupcakes a few weeks ago, so I wanted to do something different. I ended up making two desserts: witch finger cookies and apple cider cupcakes with salted caramel frosting.

1. Witch finger cookies

I finally got to try out my new witch finger cookie pan! I made a basic sugar cookie, but added some frozen strawberries into the batter. I got to use some of my new food coloring to make them green and purple. While the molds produced cookies that were actually shaped like witch fingers, I had quite a bit of trouble cooking them. Something about the shape of the molds caused them to cook unevenly, so I had to be really careful with the timing!

2. Apple cider cupcakes with salted caramel frosting

I really wanted to make cupcakes with a candy corn design, but I didn't want to do a regular white cake flavor, so I decided to go with an apple cider cupcake. For a fun twist on a caramel apple, I did a salted-caramel frosting. The cupcakes turned out well--the salty-sweet frosting was a nice combination with the sweet, dense cupcake--but did not taste as strongly of apple as I had hoped.

**Also, I found a pumpkin ale at World Market, which I was really excited about! It pretty much tasted like regular beer, but it was exciting anyway!

Enjoy!