Peppermint Trifle

By -

I am a sucker for chocolate and mint, so I give this a 9.5. Normal people would probably rate it less. Anyway, here is what I do:

 You make a chocolate cake and cut it into cubes, then layer it with peppermint chocolate pie filling and whipped cream. So good.

 Chocolate Cake
for 9x13 pan
¾ cup cocoa I use dutch processed
1 ½ cups boiling water
2 cups flour + 1 Tbs.
¼ + 1/8 tsp. baking powder I just do 1/2 tsp.
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 ¼ cups sugar I cut this down by about 2 Tbs.
¼ + 1/8 tsp. salt I just do 1/2 tsp.
1 ½ tsp. vanilla  
¾ cup butter (I do 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup olive oil)
3 eggs
Combine cocoa with boiling water, cool completely. Sift flour with baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In mixer, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light (about 5 minutes). Beat in flour mixture (in fourths) alternately with cocoa (in thirds), beginning and ending with flour. Do not overbeat. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes; until top springs back when gently pressed with fingertip.  I do mine in a glass 9x13 pan and lower the temp by 25 degrees. It takes about 30 minutes to bake.

 Peppermint Cream filling

 Chocolate Cream Pie Filling (I got this recipe from my Dad originally)
You need 1 saucepan and 2 bowls
In first bowl, 2 large eggs, 1/4 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa, 3 Tbs. cornstarch, 1/4 cup milk. Whip until smooth, it will smooth out even if looks bumpy
In saucepan, take 2 3/4 cups milk, 2/3 cup sugar (I have used a generous 1/4 and can’t tell the difference, just FYI), pinch salt.
In 3rd bowl, put in 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I use Callebaut intense bitter-sweet callets from Orson Gygi, and I often do 75% bittersweet 25% milk chocolate). 2 Tbs. unsalted butter. On the side, have 1 tsp. vanilla.
Over medium heat, bring mixture to a full boil. With a whisk, whisk 1/4 cup of hot mixture into egg/cocoa bowl mixture, and whisk that back into the milk mixture. Cook continuing to whisk rapidly until mixture thickens. Turn the heat off completely, put in the butter and the chocolate. From here, add vanilla and 1 tsp. pure peppermint extract. Put it through a strainer Cover and cool.















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sourdough, version 4, aka version Mel

By -
Image
This is my personal favorite.—it is a combination of the sourdough recipe from Nancy Beykirch with the Tartine method. It is sour but the texture is also great. Leaven: 1/2 cup sourdough starter 1/2 cup water 2/3 cups bread flour Combine ingredients and let sit 12 hours. Then, combine the leaven (mine was about 290 grams) 860 grams white flour 100 grams wheat flour 700 grams water 22 grams salt You mix this then let it sit for 40 minutes. Then, you put it in a big bowl and let it rise for 5 hours. For the first 2-3 hours, turn in every 30 minutes where you pull the dough to the opposite side, rotate the bowl by 4ths, do the same thing. Then, you put it on a floured surface. This dough is sticky, so you might need a good deal of flour. divide and shape into 2 loaves, then let sit 30 minutes. Then, kind of reshape them and put them in a pot. Let them rise for 3 hours. Then, score them. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then lid off the dutch oven for the final 20 minutes.
Read more

Grandma Goodsell's Whole Wheat Bread

By -
Image
  So, my Grandma Goodsell is the one who instilled a love of bread making in me. I owe a lot to her guidance when I was a kid. We finally tracked down her recipe after we thought it was lost all those years ago, and I made it yesterday. I give it a 9, but that’s probably a lot of nostalgia. Either way, it is a very, very solid bread recipe. I put my changes below in bold. Grandma Goodsell's Whole Wheat Bread Mix 2 ½ T yeast and 1 T sugar in 1 C water, and let set for 10 minutes. I used instant yeast, so I decreased this to 5 tsp. of yeast 3 C milk 2 C water ½ C honey ½ C shortening 2 T salt 2 T molasses 5 ½ C whole wheat flour 7 ½ C white flour I also added 2 heaping spoonfuls of wheat gluten Combine milk, honey, shortening, salt, and molasses in a saucepan and heat until shortening melts. Stir in 2 Cups cold water and combine with yeast mixture. Pour mixture into mixing bowl and add flours one cup at a time alternating between white and wheat (1 C white, 1 C wheat, 1 C white, ...
Read more

Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs

By -
Image
Oh, how I love me a pressure cooker that cuts down on dishes and produces the exact same results. This is good because it's pasta and meatballs. I would have to really be coerced to make it any other way again because this is just SO easy. My one complaint is that it was very rich in tomato flavor because it calls for twice as much sauce as when I make it the traditional way. I think I might increase the water and use less sauce next time. Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs 1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey I just did my own meatballs already premade 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or 2 cloves garlic, finely minced) I just did my own meatballs already premade Salt and pepper 16 ounces uncooked spaghetti noodles (see note) I think our spaghetti is almost 18 oz 1 teaspoon dried basil I used fresh 40 ounces jarred spaghetti/marinara sauce (see note) I did 2 Trader Joe's vodka sauces that are 25 oz. each 3 1/2 cups water Freshly grated Parmesan and ...
Read more