Caramel Apple Kugel

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When I set out last week to make a somewhat traditional Rosh Hashanah meal to enjoy with my semi-observant husband, I felt a bit of a knot in my belly. What if I get it wrong and ruin Rosh Hashanah? Dramatic, I know, but this is me. I have no Jewish heritage myself— at least not that I’m aware of— and I always worry that my effort might be disrespectful to someone else’s tradition. Les says this is silly, and has at times even suggested that in all my diligence, I might even be more Jewish than he is.

Still, I gave much thought to our meal for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and I settled on roasted chicken with a bevy of root vegetables, including carrots, red potatoes and parsnips with a simple pan dripping gravy. Delicious! And for dessert, kugel, made with noodles, sugar, eggs and various forms of dairy. I want to emphasize that in a kosher household, this dessert would not be served with chicken because Jewish dietary law prohibits meat and dairy together on the table. This rule is born from the commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy that you should not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk— which over time expanded to “no kind of meat with any kind of dairy, even if said meat doesn’t make milk.” Don’t blame me, I don’t make these rules.

Our meal was delicious and fully representative of autumn, especially with this kugel, with all the flavors of a sweet caramel apple from the county fair.

This smelled sooo good from the oven!

Apples are traditional at Rosh Hashanah, usually paired with honey and symbolic for sweet wishes in the new year. I had been thinking about apples and caramel together in a dessert after spotting a caramel apple display at the supermarket. Kugel is a dish perfected by the Ashkenazi (ASH-kuh-NAH-zee) Jews of Eastern Europe, and it is a blank canvas of sorts for any combination of sweet ingredients. It may seem strange the first time you make one; I mean, noodles in a dessert? But trust me, it’s delicious!

Here’s how my dish came together. Enjoy!

The caramel

Now, I may not be Jewish, but I come from a long line of improvisers, and my instinct told me that dulce de leche, a thick, rich caramel sauce, would be a reasonable stand-in for most of the sugar in the basic kugel recipe I had found, and for some portion of the milk as well. I blended the thick dulce de leche with cream cheese, cottage cheese, milk, eggs, sour cream and vanilla, and folded in the buttered egg noodles, hoping that some measure of Ashkenazi wisdom would emanate from the wooden spoon that we had rescued from Les’s mother’s condo after she passed. Surely the spoon had done this before.

Think of it as bread pudding, but with noodles instead of bread!

The apples

My doubts set in again about the apples because kugel is usually dotted with dried fruits such as raisins, prunes or apricots. Should I cook the apples first? Or dice them up and stir them into the custardy noodles, or would the moisture cause the whole thing to become a big mess? In the end, I decided to par-bake the noodle custard, top it with thin slices of apple and a sprinkling of brown sugar and cinnamon and then bake it again. It turned out to be just the right amount of apple, and the brown sugar-cinnamon topping emphasized the caramel flavors inside.

Adding the apple topping

This kugel was very well-received by my hubby, who had made his own version of kugel a few years back when we were clearing out the pantry for our kitchen remodel. We enjoyed this caramel apple version at Rosh Hashanah and again straight from the fridge later in the week, and I think we may even have a couple of slices left for our “break the fast” meal when Yom Kippur ends tonight.

Shana Tova!

Caramel Apple Kugel

  • Servings: 12
  • Difficulty: Average
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Jewish New Year calls for a celebratory dessert, and I chose apples and caramel to bring in some comforting fall flavors.


Ingredients

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
  • 1/2 cup (or more) dulce de leche
  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt)
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 12 oz. package extra wide egg noodles
  • 6 Tbsp. butter, room temperature (I used salted)
  • 1 large Honeycrisp apple, cored and cut into thin slices
  • 1 Tbsp. brown sugar, mixed with 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Notes: Dulce de leche is usually found in a can, in the same supermarket section as sweetened condensed milk, or possibly in the Hispanic section. If you cannot find this product, a thick, milk-based caramel ice cream topping would work fine.

Directions

  1. Add cream cheese, cottage cheese and dulce de leche to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Blend together on speed 2 or 3 for about two minutes, or until the mixture is evenly combined.
  2. Add brown sugar and sour cream, whisking on low speed until blended. Gradually pour the milk into the bowl while the mixer is running, to avoid splashing. Add the eggs, one at a time and then stir in vanilla.
  3. Meanwhile, cook the egg noodles until just tender, according to package instructions. Drain the noodles and toss with butter until fully melted.
  4. Pour the caramel mixture into the warm noodles and toss to combine. It will seem very liquid-y. Transfer this mixture to a buttered 9 x 13 glass baking dish and spread it out until even. Cover the dish and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
  5. Preheat oven to 350° F, with rack in center position.
  6. Uncover kugel and use the back of a spoon to press down any noodles that have emerged from the caramel custard mixture. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, arrange sliced apples evenly over the top and sprinkle the surface with the brown sugar-cinnamon mixture. Return to oven for 15 more minutes.
  7. Cool to room temperature before enjoying, and refrigerate leftovers. When chilled, the kugel can be cut easily into squares and served almost like brownies.

Just for grins

As desserts go, this one packs a substantial amount of protein with cream cheese, cottage cheese, eggs, sour cream and milk. It also doesn’t have as much sugar as you might expect, with only three tablespoons, plus the sugar in the dulce de leche. Les and I got into a lukewarm debate about the protein content of this dish, with him asserting that the ingredients are spread out across 12 portions, making each portion skimpy on protein. I disagreed, so I did the math to bolster my case and here’s the result:

INGREDIENTPROTEIN GRAMS
cream cheese, full-fat16
cottage cheese, 2%28
whole milk12
dulce de leche6
eggs18
sour cream, full-fat4
noodles(this number surprised me!) 40
butter2
Total grams protein126
divided by 12 servings10.5

Each square contains 10 1/2 grams of protein, significantly more than you can say for most desserts. A serving of vanilla ice cream, for example, typically contains 2 to 3 grams and a slice of chocolate cake is around 4 grams. I’m not claiming this to be a health food by any stretch of imagination. The fat and sugar content are high, and there are irrefutable downsides to that. I’m only suggesting that this could be considered something of a power dessert, if there is such a thing. 😉

Black Forest Cupcakes

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There’s a reason my dessert page is overrun with the chocolate-cherry flavor combo. The “reason” is my husband, Les, who loves this combination and regularly yearns for it on special occasions. This past weekend was his birthday, and I couldn’t resist adapting my decadent “Black Forest Cake” into individual cupcake treats. Needless to say, Les approved this decision.

With chocolate, cherries and bourbon, these cupcakes were a winner for my husband!

The adaptation was not quite as simple as switching pans and adjusting the bake time. My Black Forest cake is powered by sourdough and doesn’t have quite the structure needed for handheld cupcakes. The cake, after all, is syrup-soaked layers held together by mascarpone filling, and that wasn’t going to work for cupcakes. For this switch-up, I looked instead to the recipe I used for the Irish Coffee cupcakes I made for St. Patrick’s Day, with a few flavor swaps, of course. Irish cream had no place in these, so I exchanged it for bourbon (which Les never refuses) and I also replaced the cold coffee with milk. 

Getting my ducks in a row makes things go smoother.

Let’s get baking!

My trusted technique for cupcake batter involves first creaming the butter and sugar, mixing in one egg at a time, and then alternating the dry ingredients with the liquids to achieve an even, smooth batter. Easy enough, and these were ready for the oven. 

This technique works for me every time.

The cherry filling was also easy, with frozen dark sweet cherries cooked with sugar, corn syrup and a splash of juice from our cocktail cherries. I reduced the filling longer than usual because I didn’t want it to make the cupcakes soggy from the inside. The jury was still out on this, but I had purchased a can of cherry pie filling as a backup, hoping that I wouldn’t have to use it.

Don’t miss an opportunity to add flavor. I saved the liquid from our cocktail cherries for just such an occasion.

Even the icing was easy; just a half-recipe of my usual salted butter-powdered sugar-splash of booze buttercream. And given that I planned to only pipe it around the outer edges of my cupcakes, it turned out to be exactly the right amount. 

Next time I need a half-batch of buttercream, I’ll use my hand mixer.

Trouble with ganache

Why is it always the easiest part of a recipe that trips me up? Never mind, I know the answer to my own question. I’m far more likely to get lazy or take a shortcut on the part that seems like a no-brainer. And I pay for it every single time. By the way, did I mention that I was trying to make these glorious birthday cupcakes on the sly while Les worked a half-day? He wasn’t supposed to see these or even know that I was making them, and I was feeling the pressure with only 45 minutes remaining before he was due home. 

The ganache, which contains only two ingredients— in equal parts, I might add— became the problem. I think it was the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland who lamented,“the hurrier I go, the behinder I get,” and that certainly was the case for me, as I decided in a rush that I would not take five stupid seconds to cross the room and grab my digital scale for proper measurements. Nope, I eyeballed the ratio of dark chocolate wafers and hot heavy cream, and I missed the mark.  And then, in my rush to finish, I didn’t give the cream enough time to melt the wafers before I started stirring it. So now I was in a fix of my own making, which happens more than I care to admit. 

Three minutes and five seconds would have saved me a bunch of trouble here.

About this time, I panic-texted my high school bestie for a quick sanity check on how to best save the ganache. As expected, both options Christine suggested would take more time than I had, so I finished what I could— filling each cupcake with two or three boozy cherries and piping the buttercream onto the edges. The rest would have to wait, as I crammed the cupcakes and the half-assed ganache into the garage refrigerator, speed-washed the dishes and tried my best to “act normal” when Les walked in the door. 

I could at least get the cupcakes ready for the ganache!

A decision bigger than ganache

Though I had made some special plans for us that afternoon, which included a couples’ manicure and a cool visit to the Van Gogh Immersive Experience, half of my mind stayed behind in the kitchen, deciding how to pull this off without spoiling the surprise. This was not a milestone birthday for Les, but I really wanted to make the day extra special because A: I love him to pieces, and B: he had pulled off a stunning party for me one month earlier when I hit a zero-ender birthday. When you love someone, you want to do your best for them, right?

But here’s the thing about my husband— he’s about as easygoing as they come, the kind of guy who appreciates the heartfelt gesture far more than the outcome. In the end, I simply piped the ganache (which resembled milk chocolate pudding) into the well created by the buttercream, topped it with a cocktail cherry and a birthday candle while he changed into comfortable clothes. Does he look bothered?

All’s well that ends well. 🥰

Naturally, I told him about my ganache faux pas, and assured that the rest of the cupcakes would get the right ganache. Letting this go allowed me to dismiss my disappointment in myself and get back into the special moment of sharing these yummy cupcakes, which Les absolutely loved. Especially the second time!

What a difference careful attention makes!

Just for grins, here’s a side-by-side of the correct ganache with the first batch, and let my lesson be one for you, too. Grab the scale, wait the 10 minutes, take whatever time is needed to avoid unnecessary stress. And if the worst thing that happens is that you end up with an extra bowl of too-creamy, not-so-dark chocolate ganache, well, how is that ever a bad thing? 

Black Forest Cupcakes

  • Servings: A baker's dozen
  • Difficulty: Average
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This was a fun challenge, creating a cherry-filled chocolate cupcake with all the wow factor of my Black Forest cake, but in a single serving birthday treat for my husband.


Ingredients

  • 1 stick (8 Tbsp.) salted or unsalted butter, softened to near-room temperature
  • 3/4 cup organic cane sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature
  • 2 Tbsp. bourbon
  • 1 Tbsp. Cherry Heering liqueur (optional, or another of bourbon)
  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached cake flour (see tips)
  • 1/2 cup Double Dark Dutch cocoa (see tips)
  • 1/4 tsp. salt (increase to 1/2 if using unsalted butter)
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 heaping tablespoons dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used dark chips)
  • Cherry filling, buttercream and ganache, as noted below
  • 12 stemmed cocktail cherries (optional, for pretty presentation at serving)

Tips: Cake flour is very fine and lower protein than regular baking flour. Find it in specialty stores or online at King Arthur Baking. If you cannot find it, all-purpose flour is an acceptable substitute. Be sure to measure using the “fluff, sprinkle, level” method so that you don’t end up with too much flour and dense cupcakes.

The cocoa I used is very dark and intensely flavored. I purchase it online from King Arthur Baking. Hershey’s also makes a dark cocoa, which would be a good substitute.

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350° F, with rack in center position of oven. Line a 12-cup cupcake tin with doubled liner papers.
    2. 2.In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat softened butter until it’s light and creamy. Pour sugar in very gradually, continuing to beat until the sugar is fully incorporated. Stop the mixer a couple times to scrape down sides of the bowl.
  2. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add flour mixture to the batter, one-third at a time, alternating with the milk and ending with the dry mixture. Slowly stir in bourbon (and cherry liqueur, if using).
  3. Use a large cookie scoop to fill cupcake papers. They will be about 3/4 full. If necessary, line custard cups with papers for any excess batter.
  4. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 22 minutes, turning pan halfway through for even baking. Remove from oven to cool several minutes, and then transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.
  5. Use an apple corer or paring knife to carve out a small plug of cake from each cupcake (reserve them). Carefully spoon two or three cherries into each cupcake cavity, and then replace the reserved cake plugs.
  6. Load buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe buttercream only around the outer edge of each cupcake, leaving the center of each cupcake top naked (this is where the ganache will go). Refrigerate cupcakes for an hour or two to firm up buttercream.
  7. Spoon ganache into open top of cupcakes. Place a cocktail cherry on the cupcakes when you are ready to serve them.

Boozy Cherry Filling: If you want to save time, consider using a quality canned cherry pie filling in place of this scratch-made mixture.

Ingredients

  • 12 oz. frozen dark sweet cherries
  • 1/4 cup organic cane sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. water
  • 2 Tbsp. bourbon (or liquid from cocktail cherries)
  • 2 Tbsp. light corn syrup (prevents crystallization of sugar; sub maple syrup if you wish)

Directions

  1. Place cherries, sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved and cherries are completely softened. Simmer for several minutes to reduce the overall liquid in the pan. Remove from heat and stir in bourbon or cocktail cherry liquid.
  2. Cool completely and refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble the completed cupcakes.


Buttercream icing: This half batch was a little tricky in the stand mixer; alternatively, make the icing in a separate bowl with an electric hand mixer.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 stick (4 Tbsp.) salted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. heavy cream (if needed, to thin and smooth out icing)

Directions

  1. Add softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip butter on speed 3 or 4, until light and fluffy.
  2. Add confectioner’s sugar, one-half cup at a time, until fully blended. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl as needed.
  3. Whip in heavy cream if buttercream seems grainy or heavy. If desired, blend in a splash of bourbon.

Ganache: Take time to measure and/or weight the ganache ingredients, so that you get the optimal consistency and flavor. This will make more ganache than you need for the cupcakes, but I trust you’ll think of a way to use the extra. 😉

Ingredients

  • 4 oz. dark chocolate melting wafers
  • 1/2 cup (4 oz.) heavy cream, heated to steaming point but not boiling

Directions

  1. Place chocolate wafers in a deep measuring glass. Pour hot cream slowly over the wafers and set a timer for 10 minutes.
  2. Using a small whisk or spoon, gently stir ganache mixture from the center of the cup, gradually swirling more of the mixture as it melts together. It should stir up nice and smooth. If it doesn’t, place the measuring cup into a bowl of shallow hot water for a few minutes and whisk again.

PB&J S’mores

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From my first year of blogging on Comfort du Jour, I’ve celebrated National S’mores Day by putting a s’mores twist onto everything from cocktails to pizza to ice cream and then some. As the calendar inched toward Aug. 10th this year, it occurred to me that I’d never experimented the other way— putting a fun twist onto the s’mores themselves. Now I have!

Definitely ooey-gooey!

By replacing the graham crackers with a classic homemade cookie, and subbing out chocolate for another sweet and gooey filling, I’ve reimagined this childhood favorite with fun, familiar flavors. Now, this idea didn’t just fall together, as there were several things to consider for a successful outcome and I had to do a bit of testing to bring my vision to life. First, the cookie!

What kind of cookie works for s’mores?

Obviously, I needed a cookie that would be sturdy enough to squish the toasted marshmallow, and that meant that soft, crumbly cookies were out. It needed to be thin enough that you could stack two together with a marshmallow in between, for easy eating. Graham crackers are perfectly suited to the task but not especially flavorful.

Peanut butter cookies really appealed to me, but most recipes produce a soft, pillowy cookie and I’d need to adjust a few things for a thinner, more crisp cookie. After consulting with experts— OK, it was an internet search 🤭— one tip stood out as important, and that is to use a lesser amount of peanut butter in the dough. I could add peanut butter chips to make up the lost flavor. White sugar makes a crispier cookie, so I’d go halvsies with the brown sugar, and I could sub in a portion of whole wheat graham flour for more texture and structure that would be similar to a graham cracker. The cookie part was easy.

The chips added more peanut flavor!
I used 50/50 brown and white sugar.
50/50 white and graham flour.
The graham flour is rich with bran.

What could stand in for the gooey melted chocolate?

My initial intention was to melt a chocolate square onto my s’mores, but the kid in me couldn’t shake the idea of pb & j, the flavor combination that was the backbone of my childhood. I still get nostalgic for a simple, satisfying pb&j sandwich— my favorite being griddled into a melty, wonderful mess. I thought about the Ghirardelli chocolate squares with raspberry filling, but that didn’t bring enough“jelly” and the more I thought about it, the less I wanted chocolate at all. Why couldn’t I make a “thumbprint-style” peanut butter cookie with a jelly filling, one that would get a little bit melty again when the warm marshmallow hit it? And just like that, I was on my way to these s’mores!

The preserves had bits of real fruit.
I tested one cookie with sugar on the bottom.
Care to guess which cookie was best?
For two cookies, I added preserves mid-bake.

I had a time deciding what flavor jelly would be right, and it hinged on the texture of the spread.  See? Y’all had no idea how much pressure I put on myself to create these fun things! A true jelly would be too wet and ooze all over the oven, so I started looking at preserves with bits of actual fruit. This blend of four fruits was perfect, bringing berries and cherries into the mix. I set up an experiment with three cookies to see whether it was best to bake them with the preserves already in, or to create thumbprints halfway through baking, and whether it made sense to add a ring of extra peanut butter chips on top for a little more melting impact with the marshmallow. 

They were all delicious!
The sugared bottom was extra crispy.
This cookie was too thin, and the preserves wept through.
A very thorough taste test! 😋

In the end, the best cookies had sugar on the bottom for more crispness and the preserves baked into the cookie for the full baking time, which was 14 minutes. On their own, these cookies are delightful, and I couldn’t wait to turn them into s’mores!

If you don’t feel like doing the marshmallows, you’d probably enjoy these cookies as they are.

In case you’re wondering, yes, we are the crazy ones in the neighborhood, building a backyard fire in the Solo stove when evening temperatures are in the 80s. We are always up for adventure, especially when food is involved!

The best thing about this adventure is the man who shares it with me. 💕

We toasted large marshmallows to personal taste— I like mine set ablaze and charred on the outside and Les likes them lightly golden— and then we squished them between two of these peanut butter-and-jelly cookies, with the jelly side in, of course. And the verdict?

My dentist would like a word with me.

Well, for starters, the peanut butter cookies did not remain crispy. By the time we did our s’mores, they were soft and bendy, which worked out great for the photos of us tearing them apart. The “jelly” aspect was all but lost, as I didn’t really detect it in my sample bites. It was, for me, way too much sugar, and— darn it!— after all that overthinking, I missed the oozy element of melted chocolate. Not a total miss, but not what my imagination wanted it to be. The cookies themselves are great.

If you have kids or grandkids and love a fun, sugary experiment, I’d say give it a go, perhaps with a twist of your own. Would I make them again? Probably not, but mainly because I only think about s’mores a couple times a year and by the time National S’mores Day rolls around again, I will have concocted another wild idea. I’ll probably pick up some grahams and chocolate before the weekend is over to make real s’mores. Some things are classic for a reason. ✌🏻

PB&J S'mores

  • Servings: About 12
  • Difficulty: Average
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A fun experiment for any s'mores enthusiast! I replaced two of the classic components of this campfire treat with a pb&j. It was sweet enough to melt your teeth, and isn't that kind of the point?


Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter (8 Tbsp.), softened slightly
  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking soda, dissolved in a small amount of hot water
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat graham flour
  • 1/2 tsp. kosher salt crystals
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter chips (optional)
  • About 2 Tablespoons cane sugar (for sugaring the bottom of cookies)
  • About 1/4 cup thick fruit preserves
  • Large marshmallows, roasted for s’mores
  • Plenty of napkins

Directions

  1. Combine butter and peanut butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until evenly combined and smooth. Slowly add sugars while mixer runs, and beat until mixture is somewhat fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  2. Add egg and vanilla and beat again until fluffy. Drizzle in the dissolved soda and beat just until combined.
  3. Whisk flours and salt together in a small bowl and add to the cookie batter, about half at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
  4. Scatter peanut chips (if using) over the dough and use a spatula or wooden spoon to press them into the dough. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and cover the bowl. Refrigerate for at least one hour before proceeding to shape and bake the cookies.
  5. Preheat oven to 350° F, with oven racks in upper and lower positions. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and spoon preserves into a zip-top bag for easy piping into the cookies. Measure a few tablespoons of cane sugar into a small bowl for the bottoms of the cookies.
  6. Use a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to measure out the dough. Flatten the dough in the scoop and dip the flat side into the cane sugar before turning the dough out onto the parchment. Do not flatten the cookies. Use a cork or your thumb to create dimples approximately half the depth of the cookie balls and two-thirds across the cookie. Pipe 1/2 tsp. fruit preserves into each cookie. Place a ring of additional peanut butter chips around the preserve filling if you want to be fancy about it.
  7. Bake cookies for 14 minutes, rotating pans top to bottom if using both at once. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for a few minutes, and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.
  8. For s’mores, toast marshmallows and squeeze two cookies together around the marshmallow, with the preserves on the inside. The melted marshmallow will soften and melt the preserves for an oozy-gooey treat.

Irish Coffee Cupcakes ☘️

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Looking in the rearview mirror can be a good thing. It was only a few years ago that I had serious doubts about my abilities as a dessert baker; my strength has mainly been with savory recipes and sourdough breads. But I’ve been working hard to trust myself, and I’m enjoying the trend I see in my sweet treat baking— especially cupcakes! 

For St. Patrick’s Day, I had fun making a boozy cupcake with the flavors of Irish coffee. The treat is just for grown-ups, made with double dark cocoa, spiked with Jameson whiskey, and topped off with a swirly Bailey’s Irish Cream buttercream frosting. And did I mention that there’s also a Bailey’s-infused dark chocolate ganache tucked inside?

It’s like a little pot of chocolate gold!

I relied on a few successful previous cupcake experiences, such as the mint julep cupcakes that I’ve made twice now, for the template of adding alcohol to a batter, and also my s’mores cupcakes, for the ganache filling. And though things mostly went according to plan, there were a few bumpy spots in the road. Never a dull moment in the kitchen, and that’s one of the things I love!

Here’s what worked:

Mise en place!

First and foremost, I’ve learned the importance of getting my ducks in a row. Things go much more smoothly when I take the time to measure out and line up my ingredients. Here, you see that I’ve organized everything into the order I’ll need them. I took time to make fresh coffee for the batter, and I even measured out the Jameson and Bailey’s so that they were ready at the right time. I cannot describe how much this single practice has changed my baking game. If you struggle with getting things right in baking, maybe this will help you, too.

Being ready has changed everything for me!

The cupcake batter

As luck would have it, when I searched for a good chocolate cupcake recipe on my go-to, King Arthur Baking, one of the recipes that came up was  Irish Cream Cupcakes. This became my roadmap, at least for ingredient ratios, but I took issue with the instructions because Step 2 suggested combining all the ingredients into the mixing bowl at once! I’m no expert, but I am a creature of habit, so I followed the method that has served me well in the past. It started with my Irish butter and sugar, then the eggs, and finally the dry and liquid ingredients, alternated for even blending.

This method always seems to work well for me.

My jumbo cookie scoop is perfect for divvying out the batter into the cupcake liners. For some reason, my cupcakes always fill almost to the top, and this works fine, despite most recipes suggesting to fill them 2/3 full. The house smelled amazing as these baked for 22 minutes.

My cupcakes were very poofy!

The icing on the cupcake

Never would I have imagined that buttercream frosting would be so easy to make, but this one really is. I began with Irish butter, whipped until soft and somewhat fluffy, and blended with powdered sugar. The Irish butter was more dense than typical butter, so I poured in a couple splashes of heavy cream and I was back in business. Another measure of Bailey’s put a perfectly boozy finish to my frosting, which I spooned into a piping bag, ready to go for icing my cupcakes.

The Irish butter was very dense, but a little heavy cream brought my frosting back to the right consistency.

And here’s where things got a little dicey:

Boozy ganache filling

While the cupcakes were in the oven, I made a ganache to pipe into the middle of my cakes later, but ran into all kinds of trouble. I’ve made ganache a few times and found it surprisingly simple, but I’d never tried spiking it with Irish whiskey. I’ll spare you the disappointing details of all that went wrong; I trust you’ll understand when you see this quick list of my Google searches. 😅

1. “What’s the ratio for thicker ganache?”

2. “How much whiskey can you add to ganache?”

3. “Can you whip thick ganache to make it lighter?”

4. “Alton Brown method for fixing broken ganache”

5. “What can you do with grainy ganache?”

In other words, it was a failure that kept on failing until I gave up. In the end, though, I found success by starting over (thank goodness I had more chocolate) and keeping it simple, and I spiked my make-good batch with Bailey’s rather than whiskey. Still a great flavor, and the consistency was perfect. After it cooled to room temp, I transferred it to a small zip-top bag for easy piping later.

Second time was a charm for my ganache. And, we had some leftover!

Putting it all together

To hollow out the cooled cupcakes, I used my apple corer tool, but I suspect it would also be easy to cut a small circle or cone shape from the centers with a paring knife, to make room for piping in the ganache. It was tough to resist eating all those little cupcake plugs, but I knew I’d need them later to cover the ganache before icing the cupcakes. A piping bag with a star tip makes quick work of this, but there’s no reason at all that you couldn’t just use an offset spatula or even the back of a spoon to swirl some of this delicious buttercream onto the cupcakes.

You could skip the ganache filling and just top these with buttercream, if you’d like!

Irish Coffee Cupcakes

  • Servings: 12 cupcakes
  • Difficulty: Average
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You'll want to dance a jig when you taste these cupcakes, rich with decadent dark chocolate and a boozy kick from Irish whiskey and Bailey's Irish Cream.


Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp. salted Irish butter, softened (see notes)
  • 3/4 to 1 cup organic cane sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup strongly brewed coffee, cooled
  • 2 Tbsp. Jameson Irish whiskey
  • 2 Tbsp. Bailey’s Irish Cream
  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached cake flour (see notes)
  • 1/2 cup Double Dark Dutch cocoa
  • 1/4 tsp. salt (increase to 1/2 if using unsalted butter)
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 heaping tablespoons dark chocolate, finely chopped (optional, but why not?)

Notes: I used salted Irish butter and my cupcakes turned out terrific. If your butter is unsalted, double the salt called for in the recipe.

Unbleached cake flour is available on the King Arthur Baking website. It is a finer texture than all-purpose flour and yields a more delicate, refined crumb. If you cannot find it, all-purpose flour will work fine.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F, and place oven rack in the center position. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cupcake liners.
  2. Combine flour, cocoa, chopped chocolate, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate measuring cup, combine cooled coffee, Irish whiskey and Bailey’s and set aside.
  3. Using a stand or handheld mixer, beat butter until it is light and fluffy (this is tougher with Irish butter, I discovered). Gradually add sugar while mixer is running and continue beating until all sugar is incorporated. Add eggs, one at a time, beating to thoroughly blend.
  4. Alternate mixing in the flour and coffee ingredients, blending well after each and finishing with the flour. This usually works by dividing the dry ingredients into thirds and the wet ingredients by half. After the last addition of dry ingredients, beat on medium speed for about one minute to help bloom the cocoa.
  5. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Mine were more than 3/4 full and they turned out great. Check for doneness (by toothpick test) at 20 minutes, and bake a minute or two longer if needed. Cool cupcakes completely in the pan.
  6. If using ganache, hollow out a small plug of each cupcake’s center, reserving the plugs. Snip a small corner from the ganache zip-top bag and pipe in enough ganache to reach the top of the hole. Gently press part of a plug over the ganache. I cut each cupcake plug to half thickness so that they didn’t protrude too much, and this was a great opportunity to sample the cupcakes!
  7. Pipe on buttercream, taking care not to overdo it. For this recipe, I had just barely enough buttercream to finish my dozen cupcakes.

Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp. butter, softened
  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar (use your judgment for desired consistency)
  • A splash or two of heavy cream, if needed, for fluffy consistency
  • 3 Tbsp. Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur

Directions

  1. Use whip attachment on stand mixer to whip butter until soft and fluffy.
  2. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and continue to whip until it is fully incorporated. If frosting mixture is too dense, whip in a bit of cold heavy cream to adjust.
  3. With mixer running, stream in Bailey’s Irish Cream until blended. Add more powdered sugar as needed to adjust consistency again. Use frosting right away or if refrigerating, bring to room temperature before piping onto cupcakes.

Note: The ganache filling is an extra layer of decadence, and a fun surprise. If you are short on time or don’t want the extra indulgence, feel free to omit it and move right on to frosting the cupcakes.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream, heated to the point of steaming but not boiling
  • 3 Tbsp. Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur

Directions

  1. Place chocolate wafers into a small bowl with tapered sides, or a glass measuring cup. Gently pour hot cream over the chocolate, pressing wafers down to be fully submerged. Leave it alone for about 8 minutes.
  2. Use a spoon, silicone spatula or small whisk to stir the melted chocolate. Work slowly at first to limit splashing. Within about a minute, the ganache should be smooth and glossy. If any small bits of chocolate remain unmelted, place the bowl into a larger bowl of shallow hot water and then stir again.
  3. Stir in Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur and allow the mixture to cool. While it is still pourable, transfer it to a small zip-top bag for easy piping into the cupcake holes.

Old Fashioned Cupcakes

4 Comments

When I say these are old-fashioned cupcakes, I don’t mean old-fashioned like Grandma used to make. Unless Grandma was a whiskey-shooting wild child who liked taking her crazy ideas to the stand mixer so she could have her cake and drink it, too. In which case, yeah, they’re that kind of old fashioned. It’s the kind of grandma I’d want to be.

You might want to order another round.

You can bet your booty there’s bourbon in here— or, in this case, Gentleman Jack whiskey (I’ll explain this choice in a moment). And the frosting? Also boozy, with a generous splash of blood orange bitters and a shot of caramel flavor. Garnished with a candied orange wedge and a cocktail cherry, of course.

For best results, add the cherries just before serving.

I started thinking about these when I baked this year’s batch of mint julep cupcakes for Kentucky Derby, and I will admit that the result of these old fashioned cupcakes exceeds even what my taste buds imagined. They really do taste like the cocktail! The best thing about them is that, despite the complex flavor arrangement, they are surprisingly easy to make. 

What goes into an Old Fashioned cupcake?

For these grownup-only treats, I followed the formula template of my mint julep cupcakes, but with different flavor enhancers. Butter, brown and white sugars, eggs. And then the old fashioned flavors, in the form of orange zest, cocktail cherry syrup and (obviously) the whiskey. Alternate the addition of dry and wet ingredients, a bit at a time, to ensure even mixing; too much of either at once and you’ll end up overmixing the batter.

This smelled like a cocktail before they even hit the oven.

As an aside, do you see what my KitchenAid did with the zest? I guess it’s best to stir that in by hand at the end! Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners and bake, then cool for a bit before transferring them to a wire rack.

My cookie scoop made quick, easy work of dividing the batter.

Why whiskey rather than bourbon?

We’ve enjoyed many a cocktail with Gentleman Jack, and I got curious what kept it from being labeled as bourbon. It is, after all, 80% corn and aged in oak barrels, and obviously produced in the U.S., so it certainly qualifies to be called “bourbon,” but the folks at Jack Daniel’s like to point out that their whiskey is charcoal-mellowed, and they consider it to be superior in every way to bourbon.

I don’t necessarily agree, but Gentleman Jack is very easy on the palate, and lower proof (80) than most of the bourbons we usually drink, which makes it lovely with the sweetness of dessert. Boozy, but no harsh bite. Now, let’s talk about the caramel notes in this buttercream!

The icing on the (cup)cake

Buttercream is not as difficult as I once feared—at least, not the kind I make. The butter should be softened at room temperature for about half an hour, so that you can press a fork or finger into it and leave an indent without the butter losing its shape. I use salted butter to accent all the other flavors.

For an “old fashioned” vibe, I spiked the butter with dulce de leche to accentuate the warm caramel flavors of the whiskey. Whip those together with an electric mixer until it is soft and fluffy before adding the sugar. If you go too far with powdered sugar, you can smooth it out again with a few drops of cold heavy cream. You want it swirly, but stable.

Keep a spatula nearby for scraping down the bowl.

The finishing touch for my old fashioned cupcakes was a drizzle of Gentleman Jack and a spoonful of Stirring’s blood orange bitters. These are sold in a larger bottle than typical bitters, and they’re non-alcoholic, which makes them less intense. This is what really gives a “cocktail” flavor to the cupcakes, perhaps even more so than the star ingredient of whiskey. If you can only get regular, alcohol-based bitters, use half as much.

I confess, the buttercream is my favorite part! 😋

Decorating the cooled cupcakes is easy as well, and if you don’t have a piping bag with a star tip, don’t sweat it. Load up a zip-top bag and snip the corner. Or go old school and swirl a massive amount on with the back of a spoon. Just keep a stack of extra spoons on standby because, no matter how restrained you think you are, you’ll be licking them. Add the candied oranges and cherries when you’re ready to serve. Cheers!

Old Fashioned Cupcakes

  • Servings: One dozen
  • Difficulty: Average
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Whiskey, orange zest and cocktail cherries give these easy cupcakes a distinctive, 'old fashioned' flair, complete with orange bitters-accented buttercream and a cherry on top!


Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 pinches kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup Gentleman Jack Tennessee whiskey (or lower proof smooth bourbon)
  • 1 tsp. real vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp. Luxardo cocktail cherry syrup (see notes)
  • 1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
  • 1 Tbsp. finely grated orange zest
  • 1 recipe orange bitters buttercream (below)
  • 4 candied orange slices, quartered (I found these at Trader Joe’s)
  • 12 cocktail cherries, blotted on paper towel

Notes: The cocktail cherry syrup I used is very thick, like pancake syrup. If using thin syrup, reduce amount of whiskey or milk.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F, with oven rack in center position. Line 12-muffin tin with double cupcake papers.
  2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
  3. In a stand mixer, or a bowl with hand mixer, cream butter until softened. Add brown and white sugars gradually, beating continually. Stop to scrape down bowl twice. Add eggs, beating after each. Stream in whiskey and cocktail cherry syrup. Scrape down bowl.
  4. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat on low just until incorporated. Beat in half of the milk, then repeat with half of remaining flour, more milk, last of flour. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl, folding in the orange zest at the end.
  5. Divide batter into lined muffin cups. They will be roughly 3/4 full. Bake 18 to 22 minutes; cupcakes are finished when they pass the toothpick test.
  6. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened at room temperature
  • 2 Tbsp. dulce de leche
  • About 4 cups confectioner’s sugar (depending on desired consistency)
  • 3 tbsp. Gentleman Jack
  • 2 tsp. Stirrings blood orange bitters (or 1 tsp. regular orange bitters)
  • Heavy cream, if needed to thin icing to desired consistency

Look for dulce de leche in the canned milk aisle, or use a sticky caramel topping as a substitute. You could also omit this if you don’t mind giving up the caramel accent.

Directions

  1. Using the whip attachment of a stand mixer, or whip beaters of a handheld mixer, cream the butter and dulce de leche until soft and fluffy.
  2. Add half of the confectioner’s sugar and beat until incorporated, then stream in whiskey and orange bitters. Add remaining sugar a few spoonfuls at a time until you achieve desired consistency. If you overdo it, whip in a tablespoon or more heavy cream.
  3. Pipe or spoon buttercream onto cupcakes, and garnish them with the candied orange slices and cocktail cherries.

Caramel Apple Blondies

14 Comments

What is it about Autumn that everyone finds so appealing? It is easy to imagine that I’m among the majority when it comes to fall being my favorite season. Everyone I know seems to mention that it’s theirs also, so I did a little investigating to see if this is just confirmation bias or a birds-of-a-feather situation. Let’s see what the data says.

A survey reported by CBS says as many as 45% of Americans favor fall over the other three seasons combined. And another poll by Morning Consult—a business intelligence company that specializes in survey data— breaks it down into deeper demographics to reveal that Autumn is the clear favorite, especially among women, especially Gen Xers, and especially in the South. That’s me, on all three counts!

No wonder I get so excited about cooler temperatures, boots, sweaters and pumpkin spice. Indeed, this is my favorite time of year, and I’ve put a new spin on one of my own recipes to highlight one of the season’s best flavors, apple. And, in honor of all the state and county fairs that are happening this time of year, I thought it fitting to wrap a little caramel around the apple for even more nostalgia.

My caramel apple blondies are a deliciously sweet, caramel apple-y treat that’s perfect for a Halloween party, a gift for a favorite teacher or new neighbor, or just tucked into your grandkid’s lunch box.

It took great restraint not to cut into them straight from the oven!

What ingredients are in caramel apple blondies?

A blondie is essentially a cookie bar, with a dense, chewy texture and often includes some kind of fun mix-in, such as chocolate chips or nuts. Similar to a brownie, but without chocolate, a blondie is made from a dough that resembles the base of a chocolate chip cookie, with plenty of butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, flour and leavening, such as baking powder.

For this recipe, I’ve leveraged the same technique as in last year’s pumpkin chai blondies, using a concentrated paste of cooked down apples this time— otherwise known as apple butter— to give a distinct apple flavor without the high amount of moisture that would have been in fresh chopped apples. The caramel element is an easy grocery store item, the same stuff you pick up in the produce department for dipping apple slices. 

I had just made a small batch of apple butter, but store bought would be great. The caramel dip was easy peasy.

To keep these blondies a bit “healthy-ish,” I subbed in a half amount of whole wheat pastry flour. And in case you wonder why the melted butter is soooo dark in the pan in my ingredients photo, it’s because I tried a new (and very flavorful) trick when I made my browned butter.

Check out that very browned butter!

How to make browned butter even better

If you spend any time at all on social media or the internet, you may have seen this new trend of adding powdered milk to the butter as it browns. Given that it’s the milk solids that actually brown, it stands to reason that increasing the milk solids will amp up the flavor. And holy moly, it sure did! I used salted butter, by the way, though most baking recipes call for unsalted. Why? Because salt in desserts does the same thing as salt in savory dishes— it shoves the most important flavors to the forefront.

The powdered milk is a secret weapon for the most incredible browned butter. I’ll never do it any other way!

How do you make caramel apple blondies?

The rest of the recipe is very simple. Mix together the melted butter and brown sugar, then add the egg, apple butter and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, half at a time, mixing only until all the flour is incorporated. 

The blondie batter comes together really quickly.

Spread the batter evenly into a buttered, parchment-lined pan, then spoon and swirl a bit of warmed caramel dip over the top. Scatter a few tablespoons of Heath candy bits on top and bake until the blondies test done with a clean toothpick.

If you prefer, swap in chopped pecans for the Heath toffee candy bits.

Cool the blondies completely before cutting them, and if you really want to push them over the top, serve them with a scoop of my easy cinnamon ice cream. We enjoyed them this way, and I got so excited, I completely forgot to take a picture. But you can imagine, right? 😉

Caramel Apple Blondies

  • Servings: 12 or 16
  • Difficulty: Average
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Caramel and apples reminds me of the treats I used to look forward to at the county fair. These blondies are just one of many reasons I'm excited about fall.


Ingredients

  • 2 sticks salted butter
  • 2 Tbsp. nonfat dry milk powder
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 large egg (room temperature)
  • 1 cup apple butter (homemade or store bought)
  • 2 tsp. real vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (see notes for measure instructions)
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or sub in regular all-purpose flour if desired)
  • 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 3/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 cup caramel dip (find in the produce section, near the apples)
  • 1/4 cup Heath candy bits (optional, sub chopped pecans if desired)

Notes: Unsalted butter can be used, if that’s what you have on hand; double the kosher salt if you go this route.

When measuring flour, use the “fluff, sprinkle, level” method rather than scooping directly into the bag or container.

Directions

  1. Place the butter in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Stir frequently, and when melted butter begins to brown, add the dry milk powder. Stir constantly, as the browning will happen quickly at that point. Remove from heat as soon as the butter reaches a copper color. Transfer to a measuring cup to cool.
  2. Preheat oven to 350° F, with oven rack in center position. Prepare a 9 x 13″ baking pan with a buttered parchment liner, leaving flaps on the long sides for easy lifting of baked blondies.
  3. In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle), stir together browned butter and brown sugar until evenly blended. Add apple butter and egg. Beat until combined and somewhat fluffy.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours with cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Add half the flour mixture to the apple mixture, folding just until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour blend. The batter will be very thick and dense.
  5. Spread batter evenly over parchment. Warm the caramel dip slightly in the microwave for easier swirling. Pipe or spoon caramel dip over batter and swirl with a chopstick or spoon handle. Sprinkle on Heath candy bits.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes, or until blondies are set but not overly dry. Remember that they will continue to cook for a few minutes after removal. As with brownies, the type of pan may affect the outcome. For a glass pan, add a few extra minutes to the baking time.
  7. Cool for at least 30 minutes before using parchment flaps to lift blondies from the pan. Cut into squares for serving. Keep leftover blondies wrapped or in a sealed container at room temperature for up to three days.

Sweet Corn Ice Cream 2.0 (with a boozy blueberry ribbon)

18 Comments

It was only a matter of time before I would begin revisiting recipes that I’ve already shared here on Comfort du Jour. And it’s not because I’m out of ideas. Rather, it’s because I cannot leave well enough alone, and I am always fiddling with successful recipes— even my own. When I first gave you the scoop on this sweet corn ice cream with a blueberry whiskey ribbon (it was July 2020 if you missed it), I was stuck in a rut of making a custard base that required whipping egg yolks with sugar and then tempering them with hot milk and cooking until thick. Those days, however, are gone. More gone than National Ice Cream month (July) and more gone than the so-called dog days of summer (which ended last week).

My discovery of the sweetened condensed milk variety of ice cream has changed everything, and as most of the United States enters peak sweet corn harvest season, I can’t find any reason to postpone sharing my 2.0 experience with this delightful, unexpected flavor combination. That’s right, I’m not going to make you wait until next July (you’re welcome)!

Ice cream month is over, but this flavor is still worth celebrating!

Like my custard-based version, this ice cream gets its flavor from real corn, simmered in milk and then pulsed and strained to coax every bit of flavor from the plump kernels. But replacing the rich, eggy custard with a flip-top can of sweetened condensed milk is not only easier and quicker, it’s a better outcome, texture-wise. Why bother with custard when this turns out so good? The ice cream base gets layered (after freezing, of course) with a sweet and boozy fresh blueberry compote, and I am officially going on record to say this is my favorite summer flavor combination. Come along, let’s make some!

It’s easier than it looks!

What are the ingredients for sweet corn ice cream?

The ingredient list for this ice cream is almost too simple. My usual base formula is one can sweetened condensed milk, one cup whole milk and one cup heavy cream (keep it simple, sweetheart). But on the day I made this, I messed up. I had only a splash each of milk and heavy cream, so I made a quick pivot and subbed half and half for most of the dairy. The fat content ended up being about the same as my go-to, and guess what? This was not a dealbreaker. Sometimes you just have to go with what you’ve got. The rest of the ingredients are fresh sweet corn, cane sugar and the blueberry compote, which is also a short list: fresh berries, sugar, corn syrup and this blueberry-infused whiskey.

This is excellent for sipping, too!

My recommendation for readers outside of North Carolina, where this “Smashing Violet” whiskey is available in ABC stores, would be to seek out a distiller near you that might offer a similar whiskey with blueberry infusion. Or, if that is a no-go, choose a lower proof sweet-variety bourbon and supplement with pure blueberry juice. Or skip the booze altogether (if you must), and add pure blueberry juice and a squeeze of lemon for a bit of acidity.

Let me pause for a quick sec to call out what I didn’t add to this recipe. Did you notice? As much as I adore vanilla, and especially after I was recently gifted a gorgeous bottle of homemade vanilla extract from a sweet foodie friend (thank you, Dorothy!), I didn’t want anything competing with the flavor of the corn. Not even vanilla. So it is a rare but intentional omission for this batch of ice cream.

Do I need any special tools to make sweet corn ice cream?

There are a few things you’ll need for best results— first, an ice cream machine, which I highly recommend for anyone interested in making ice cream at home. Sure, there are a million “no churn” recipes on the internet, but to me, this is equal to trying to make toast without a toaster. It can be done, but why would you want to MacGyver it? The second item you’ll need is some kind of tool to process the corn after it simmers in the slightly sweetened milk. This might be an immersion blender, or perhaps a regular blender, but definitely one that you can “pulse” rather than just puree. Finally, have a stainless mesh strainer for separating the processed corn solids out of the milk mixture, and it should be large enough to hold about three cups of mixture. A smaller one will work if you’re willing to do it in batches. I don’t have that kind of patience. I just want to get to eating this ice cream!

The first scoop always tastes the best!

Tips for success

Use the sweetest, freshest corn you can find. Farmers’ market or homegrown is ideal; pre-husked and shrink-wrapped at the grocery store, not so much. I can’t say for sure how many ears you’ll need because corn varies in size. After cutting the kernels off the three large ears I used, I had roughly two and a half cups of corn, so let that be your guideline.

I especially like the yellow sweet corn for its beautiful color.

Also, don’t toss the cobs! Trim the ends and cut them into chunks that will fit in your pot. It can be difficult to cut through uncooked corn, so here’s another tip: Cut down about a half-inch into the cob, and then use your hands to snap the cob where you’ve scored it. No sense chopping off a finger.

Use a heavy-bottomed pot to prevent scorching while you simmer the corn in the half and half. Use a medium-low temperature at first, and then when you begin to see a few bubbles around the edges, turn it down to low. Do not let the mixture boil, as this will curdle the proteins and burn the sugars. This will simmer— or steep, really— for almost an hour. Cool it to room temp before blending.

Use an immersion blender right in the pot, or transfer in batches to a regular blender, and only pulse to chop up the tender kernels so that they release the flavor inside. Do not puree it, as this will leave you with a weird texture that will be impossible to strain. Don’t use a food processor unless you have plenty of time to clean up the mess it will make. You know what would be great here, and probably what my grandmother would have used? An old-school food mill. Oh, how I wish I had hers! 🥹

Process gently, don’t puree!

Don’t discard the solids after straining! Even though they’ve given up the ghost for this ice cream, they still have quite a bit of flavor themselves. Add half of them to a batch of corn muffins or pancakes (I love this recipe from King Arthur Baking, if you happen to also be a sourdough baker), and throw the rest into a chowder. Blend in the condensed milk and heavy cream to the corn-infused half and half and chill it at least several hours, preferably overnight.

Add the other base ingredients after the corn has infused into the half and half.

No fresh blueberries? No problem! I have made this ice cream several times with frozen blueberries— I’m especially fond of the “wild” ones— and it works absolutely fine.

For the most intense blueberry flavor in your compote, especially if you don’t have the blueberry whiskey, add some bottled blueberry juice to the fresh or frozen berries as they simmer with the sugar. Find it in the juice aisle, and verify the ingredient list to ensure that it is only blueberry juice. Don’t be misled by claims of “100%” juice, which might just mean that it has an apple or pear juice base with enough blueberry to color it. Also, the juice should not have added sugar (or if it does, reduce what you add to the compote).

On the subject of the compote, for goodness sake, don’t rush it. The berries need to be softened to the point of being mushy, and the liquid must evaporate so that the added sugar creates a syrup. Add a bit of light corn syrup to prevent the sugar from crystallizing when it cools. Cook this over medium-low heat until it is very bubbly all over. Add the whiskey and simmer again until it reaches the same stage. Then, turn it off and cool to room temp before transferring it to a bowl. Expect this to take at least 30 minutes from start to whiskey.

I made a double batch of the beautiful blueberry compote because I love it so much.

Be sure the ice cream bowl for your machine has been in the deep freeze for a minimum of 24 hours before churning. When it finishes in the churn cycle, consider adding a tablespoon or two of vodka during the final minute. This is not essential, but it improves the texture of the ice cream so that you can scoop it out straight from the freezer without waiting. If you choose to skip this, plan to remove the ice cream 10 to 15 minutes before serving time.

Would you like to guess how many times I tasted it, just to be sure? 🤭

Layering the ice cream with compote is as easy as it sounds, and I discourage any attempt to “swirl’ it during this stage, as you may end up with a muddy look when you scoop it. Trust the process. The swirl will happen like magic later when it’s ready to scoop and serve.

Finally— and this is so important— put this ice cream in the freezer and do your best to forget about it for a full day. You’ll be tempted to dig right in, especially if you have tasted things along the way as I always do. But homemade ice cream needs time to “ripen” in the deep freeze, and with the layer of sticky compote, scooping this one too soon would be nothing short of disaster. Go read a book, shampoo the carpets, binge-watch another bad HBO series. Do anything, but give this ice cream 24 hours to set up properly before you scoop and enjoy. You won’t be disappointed!

Best ice cream of the summer!

Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Blueberry Whiskey Ribbon

  • Servings: About 8
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
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This is my custard-free version of one of my favorite summer ice creams, using sweetened condensed milk for the silkiest, creamiest texture you can imagine. Take your time with this one; I promise it's worth the trouble and the wait!


Ingredients

  • 3 large ears ripe sweet corn, husked and cleaned
  • 1 1/2 cups half n half
  • 1/4 cup organic cane sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 Tbsp. vodka (optional, added during final minute of churning for improved texture)

Note: Use a heavy-bottomed pot for simmering the corn and cobs, to prevent scorching. Take care not to boil the milk mixture, and wait until after the corn is processed and strained to add the sweetened condensed milk and cream. You will need an immersion blender, regular blender or food mill to process the corn-milk mixture and a stainless mesh strainer to filter out the solids.

Directions

  1. Using a sharp knife, stand each ear of corn on end and cut off all the kernels. Cut the cobs into pieces that will fit in your cooking pot.
  2. Combine corn, half and half, sugar and salt in the pot over medium heat. Watch it closely, and reduce the heat to very low once it begins to barely bubble around the sides of the pot. Steep without allowing it to boil for almost one hour, until the kernels are very soft. Remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes.
  3. Use tongs to remove the spent corn cobs, allowing excess milk to drip into the pot. Pulse the mixture with an immersion blender to break up the softened kernels, but do not try to process smooth. There should be plenty of shredded bits of corn visible in the mixture.
  4. Strain through a mesh strainer into a clean pitcher bowl. Gently stir in sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream. Cover and refrigerate several hours to thoroughly chill before freezing.
  5. Make the blueberry compote while the ice cream base is chilling.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup fresh (or frozen) blueberries
  • scant 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. water
  • 1 Tbsp. corn syrup (to prevent crystallization)
  • 3 Tbsp. Broad Branch Distillery Smashing Violet blueberry-infused whiskey (see notes for substitute)

Note: If you cannot find this whiskey (or a similar local product), substitute with two tablespoons of a low-proof bourbon, and swap in pure blueberry juice for the water used for simmering the berries. If you prefer a no-alcohol recipe, omit the whiskey entirely and swap in double amount of blueberry juice for water, plus a squeeze of fresh lemon. You may need to slightly increase the cooking time of the compote to get a proper reduction.

Directions

  1. Combine berries, sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Stir frequently to ensure that the mixture doesn’t scorch. After sugar dissolves, stir in the corn syrup to prevent crystallization of the sugar when the mixture cools later.
  2. When the mixture is syrupy and reduced by about half, it should be bubbly all over even when stirred. Add the whiskey and allow it to boil again, but only for about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature before transferring to a bowl to be chilled in the fridge.

Note: Be sure your ice cream maker’s freezer bowl has been frozen for at least 24 hours for best results.

Directions


1. Gently stir the ice cream base just before churning to reincorporate any ingredients that may have settled. Pour into the ice cream machine and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. During the final minute of churning, add optional vodka.
2. When ice cream base has finished freezing, spread one-third of it into an insulated ice cream container. Carefully spoon on a zigzag of the blueberry compote, about a quarter cup worth. Do not attempt to swirl it into the ice cream as this will lead to a muddy appearance (the swirls happen naturally during scooping).
3. Repeat with another layer of ice cream and another zigzag of compote, and then finish with the remaining ice cream. Smooth the top, cover it and place it in the freezer for 24 hours before enjoying.

S’mores Cookie Bars

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It’s National S’mores Day, and I’ve been thinking about what makes this treat so special to deserve its own day of honor. The first written recipe for “s’mores” appeared in a Girl Scout handbook in 1927, when Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States— 16 presidents and almost 100 years ago. Amid a sea of other snack trends and fads that have come and gone (I’m lookin’ at you, Hostess pudding pies!), the s’more has stood the test of time. And no wonder! A melty morsel of milk chocolate and campfire-toasted gooey marshmallow, bookended by a sweet and simple whole grain cookie, what’s not to love? 

Like most of you, I’ve enjoyed s’mores since I was a kid in rural upstate New York. But our weather in the South is hot as hell in August, not particularly conducive to a campfire, and I’m sorry to say that the oven and microwave versions of s’mores just don’t cut it. There are appliances out there now for making s’mores indoors, like this one sold through Williams-Sonoma, but who has room for another gadget that only serves one purpose? 

Luckily, I’ve found many other ways to capture the essence of s’mores (along with all the happy feelings they invoke), twisting the ingredients of this summer classic into ice cream, brownies, cocktails and even dessert pizza! When I made s’mores cupcakes last year, I mused that perhaps I could have used up the leftover homemade marshmallow topping by making rice krispie treats, and I considered a s’mores version of those this year, except for one problem— my husband doesn’t like the krispie treats, and I would have been left to eat the entire batch! These s’mores cookie bars are my compromise, and I have no regrets.

I’d like s’more, please.

They are part s’more, part blondie, part cereal treat and 100% yummy!

What goes into s’mores cookie bars?

The base of my s’mores bars is essentially a blondie dough, with softened butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, baking powder and flour. But to emulate the s’mores more distinctly, I used whole wheat pastry flour and also added in honey for additional sweetness and some finely crushed graham crackers, which my hubby was happy to prepare for me. I used two of the little sleeves of Honey Maid “stackers,” which measured out to a little more than one cup of crumbs.

honey, whole wheat pastry flour and crushed graham crackers gave these cookie bars authentic s’mores flavor.

For the ooey-gooey goodness, I went with marshmallow creme, which holds its shape much better than actual marshmallows. When I made my s’mores pizza in 2020, I was disappointed at how much the mini marshmallows deteriorated after they cooled from the oven. Knowing that we would not devour this entire batch of cookie bars right away (though believe me, it was tempting!), I wanted a better, more stable option. Marshmallow creme, made with dried egg whites, is the way to go here, and I used almost an entire jar spread over two-thirds of the blondie dough. It may seem excessive, but isn’t that kind of the point with s’mores? 😏

Marshmallow creme held up far better than actual marshmallows would have. I used almost the whole jar!

You could, naturally, whip up a batch of seven-minute frosting in its place if you have the time, but I was getting impatient for my cookie bars. Real Hershey bars were layered over the marshmallow creme (because milk chocolate rules when it comes to s’mores), and then I mixed darker, semi-sweet chocolate chips and crispy Golden Grahams cereal into the remaining blondie dough, lending a cookie-meets-cereal bar vibe to my sticky, delicious treats.

I wanted the top of my cookie bars to be extra chocolatey and extra graham-y.

I baked the bars for about 35 minutes, and then let them cool a few hours before removing them from the pan. The result? 

Ooey-gooey perfection!

Deliciously sticky, utterly addictive and every bit as ooey-gooey as I wanted them to be, and they have kept on the counter nicely so we can enjoy them for several days. Plus, no campfire required. 😋

Tips for success

As with all baking recipes, it’s best to have all your ingredients lined up, measured and ready to go before you begin. Take your butter out of the fridge an hour ahead so that it isn’t rock solid, and let your egg come to room temperature. Use extra bowls if that’s what it takes to have everything ready for mixing as the recipe indicates. For years, I considered myself to be a mediocre baker, but I’ve come to learn that my failing was mostly in preparation. Get your ducks in a row, and watch your baking game improve!

Following the steps in order does make a difference. If you don’t cream together the butter and sugar before adding in the other ingredients, the texture of your cookie bars may be quite crumbly. When you mix in the flour, do so only long enough to fully incorporate it. Overmixing will lead to gluten development, and you don’t want that. Use the paddle attachment on your mixer, or use a firm spatula to press the ingredients together by hand.

When layering the marshmallow creme, try to keep it about an inch away from the edges of the pan so that it doesn’t stick and burn. Keep in mind that when you press the chocolate bars and cookie dough topping, the creme will smoosh and spread. Give it room to do so.

If possible, use a metal pan to bake these cookie bars. You can see in my photos that I used a ceramic baking dish (it’s all I have in this size), and these simply do not heat as quickly or evenly as a metal pan.

After baking, give these cookie bars plenty of time to cool before you attempt to lift out the parchment sling. The marshmallow and chocolate will be very hot, and thin enough to ooze out everywhere, making a mess and potentially burning your hands. They will still be delicious when cool, and if you wish, you can pop your cookie bar into the microwave for a few seconds to recapture the ooey-gooey stretch of the marshmallow.

S'mores Cookie Bars

  • Servings: 9 or 16, depending on how you cut
  • Difficulty: Average
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These are part s'mores, part blondie, part cereal bar and 100% ooey-gooey delicious!


Ingredients

  • 1 stick salted butter, softened
  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 3 Tbsp. honey
  • 1 egg, room temperature
  • 2 tsp. real vanilla extract
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (sub regular or white whole wheat, or use all a-p if desired)
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 pouches Honey Maid “stackers” graham crackers, crushed fine
  • 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 2/3 cup Golden Grahams cereal
  • Most of a 7 oz. jar marshmallow creme
  • 3 standard size Hershey milk chocolate bars

Note: For easy removal of cookie bars, layer ingredients over criss-crossed parchment laid inside a 9-inch square baking pan. Overlap the paper so that you can use it as “handles” for lifting the cookie bars out after they’ve cooled.
If possible, use a metal baking pan, as glass or ceramic (as I used) tends to heat more slowly, causing the bottom to be slightly underdone.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F, with oven rack in the center position. Prepare 9” square baking dish by lining with crossed pieces of parchment paper, overlapping the sides of the dish.
  2. In a stand mixer fitted with paddle blade, beat butter on medium high speed until fluffy. Add honey and then brown sugar a little at a time, beating until fluffy again. Add egg and vanilla, beating until evenly blended.
  3. Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. With mixer running, add flour by the spoonful until all is incorporated. Turn off mixer and scrape dough off beater. Add crushed graham crumbs and use a silicone spatula to press and blend them into the dough. Do not overmix.
  4. Transfer about 2/3 of the cookie dough to the parchment lined baking dish. Butter hands and press evenly over parchment. The dough will be very soft and sticky. Add the semi-sweet chips and cereal to the remaining dough, pressing firmly with the spatula to mix them in completely. Set aside for topping.
  5. Butter an offset spatula (or dip into hot water) and spread the marshmallow creme evenly over the cookie dough, keeping it about one inch away from the edges.
  6. Break the Hershey bars into four sections each and arrange them evenly over the marshmallow layer, gently pressing so that the marshmallow oozes up between the chocolate pieces.
  7. Use a scoop, spoon or your fingers to place dollops of the remaining cookie dough over the chocolate pieces, taking care to leave only small gaps for the marshmallow to bubble through.
  8. Bake 30 to 35 minutes (depending on your oven), until cookie batter is just barely baked through and the peekaboo marshmallow creme is lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for a few hours before lifting out the parchment and cutting into squares.

Mint Julep Cupcakes

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I have come to an important conclusion— that the only difference between me being a good baker or a bad one is my own level of commitment. How can anyone improve their skills without practice? Trial and error are an important part of the process, and I’ve seen plenty of that. Every once in a while, though, I land in the success column with both feet. Those are the good baking days!

These cupcakes are a beautiful addition to the Kentucky Derby table.

These cupcakes, which draw their inspiration from the Mint Julep, official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby, turned out so ridiculously good last year that my friend, Linda, practically demanded that I make them again this year. What makes these cupcakes so delicious— besides the obvious fact that, duh, they’re cupcakes— is that real Kentucky bourbon is added to both the cupcake batter and the icing. They are boozy, but not overly so. The sweet buttercream with accents of mint offsets any harshness that one might expect from the bourbon.

Bourbon in every bite!

Kentucky Derby is an occasion that we enjoy for the theme as much (or more) than the horse race itself. It’s a rare event that gives me an excuse to wear a fancy hat, and I will try again this year to get my husband to put on a bow tie (we’ll see). My table will be filled with plenty of fancy finger foods, because it’s helpful to have one hand free to hold a mint julep or one of my other fun cocktails. When it comes to the mint julep cupcake— well, it’s another opportunity for me to have my cake— and drink it, too!

Did I sample two of the cupcakes before the party started? Maybe. 😉

Let’s Get Cooking!

If there’s one bit of advice I would offer for successful baking— to myself as well as anyone else— it would be to plan ahead, measure everything out and line things up before starting a recipe. Having my ingredients at the proper temperature is important as well, both for easy mixing and having a reliable baking time. For these cupcakes, the butter and eggs should be near room temperature, and the flour should be measured following the fluff, sprinkle, level method. Measure out the bourbon, too, so that you aren’t trying to guess the amount straight from the bottle. I used my cocktail measuring cup, which worked perfectly.

The cupcakes are definitely more substantial than a box mix cupcake, which makes a great base for piling on the sweet, minty buttercream. The batter includes both cane and brown sugar, which emphasizes those warm, caramel-like notes in the bourbon. I followed a typical method of creaming together the butter and sugar, then adding eggs and bourbon (in place of vanilla), and finally alternating additions of the flour mixture and milk. They baked up beautifully, and I cooled them completely before icing them.

The aroma from my oven was wonderful!

This was my first time making buttercream, and I’m not sure if it was beginners luck or what, but it turned out so much better than I expected. I used salted butter rather than unsalted, because a touch of salt emphasizes whatever other flavors are around it, including sweet ones. I mixed in the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and drizzled in the bourbon and mint extract somewhere in between the sugar additions. A little bit of heavy cream helped me achieve the right consistency, so that the icing would still have enough structure to hold its shape when piped onto the cupcakes.

We had a little bit of extra icing when all was said and done, and that wasn’t a bad thing!

Silver foil liners, a pinch of green sanding sugar and fresh mint sprigs put the perfect finishing touches on these delightful Kentucky Derby treats.

Mint Julep Cupcakes

  • Servings: 1 dozen cupcakes
  • Difficulty: Average
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These pretty cupcakes have bourbon in both the batter and the minty buttercream icing, making them a perfect finish to any Kentucky Derby party.


For the cupcakes, begin by measuring the flour by the fluff, sprinkle, level method. If you dunk a scoop directly into the flour, your batter will be too dense. Butter, eggs and milk should be near room temperature for best results.

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 pinches kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup bottled-in-bond bourbon
  • 1/3 cup whole milk, room temperature

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F, with oven rack in center position. Line a standard cupcake tin with paper liners inside foil liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
  3. Using a stand mixer (with beater blade attachment) or electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until fully blended and somewhat fluffy.
  4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stream in bourbon and beat until fully blended.
  5. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, alternating with the milk. Beat after each addition, but only until blended.
  6. Divide batter among prepared cups; each cup will be approximately 3/4 full. Bake for about 18 minutes, until cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Cool in the cupcake pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the buttercream icing, you’ll want the butter softened to near room temperature. Make this while the cupcakes are baking, then refrigerate the icing in a piping bag until the cupcakes are completely cooled.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature
  • 4 to 4-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
  • 2 tbsp. Bottled-in-bond bourbon
  • 1 tsp. pure mint extract
  • Up to 1/4 cup heavy cream, as needed to loosen the frosting
    • Fresh mint leaves and green sanding sugar, for garnishing

Directions

  1. Using a stand mixer (fitted with whisk) or an electric hand mixer, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add confectioner’s sugar, one cup at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Drizzle in bourbon before the final addition of sugar.
  2. Beat in mint extract and enough heavy cream to loosen the icing to desired consistency. Transfer icing to a piping bag and refrigerate until shortly before you will be ready to serve the cupcakes. Pipe onto cupcakes with a flower tip. Sprinkle each with a pinch of green sanding sugar (if desired) and garnish each cupcake with a sprig of fresh mint.

Chocolate & Cherry Crepes

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I have mixed feelings about special occasions that fall in the middle of the workweek, and with Valentine’s Day on a Wednesday this year— not to mention in the same week as Super Bowl and Mardi Gras— I’m both frustrated and relieved that it won’t be as big a deal. 

I’m not one to go nuts over this “holiday,” which smacks of overdone commercialism and sky-high expectations for everything to be perfect. My husband and I usually stay home and either cook for each other or, as will likely be the case this year, keep it low key and simple. I don’t need roses, wine and chocolate to know that I’m loved.

But this year, the easiest time to make a lovely homemade meal for Valentine’s Day would be this Saturday; unfortunately, it’s getting crowded out at our house by the Super Bowl. I’m reminding myself that I don’t need grand gestures, but the truth is I’m disappointed. My husband will feel loved if the table is loaded with spicy queso dip, Buffalo wings and cold beer, but I will genuinely miss preparing an elegant, more “fancy” meal. 

If nothing else, I will find a way to throw a little romance onto the scene this weekend, probably in the form of dessert. And I know exactly what he craves— chocolate and cherries!

I can’t go wrong with this flavor combination!

For Valentine’s Day last year (which was a Tuesday, also not ideal), I re-created our 2020 sweetheart meal of crispy duck breast with cherry-pinot noir sauce, and Les was thrilled. For dessert, it was an encore performance of chocolate and cherry crepes. My iPhone camera did not capture good photos of the dish itself that first time— it was before I began blogging— but I believe you can see the bliss in my lover’s eye as he enjoyed his special dessert. 

Even with crappy lighting, it’s easy to see that this dessert made him happy!

These are homemade chocolate crêpes, created with double dark cocoa powder and rolled up with an almond-kissed, sweetened mascarpone filling, and then topped with a simple-to-make sweet cherry sauce. And though I’m still a novice when it comes to making crêpes (try not to laugh when you see my photos), I can confirm that after you roll them up and bury them in cherry sauce, nobody will notice if they aren’t perfect.

Making the batter and crepes ahead takes the pressure off whatever else you’re cooking for Valentine’s Day.

The best thing about these crêpes— besides the fact that the flavors are divine— is that you can make every part of them in advance and assemble them when you’re ready to sweep your lover off his or her feet. The crêpe batter actually benefits from some fridge time, so you can even make it the day before. One of these days, I’ll get the hang of cooking them pretty, but for now, the advice I’ll offer is to make extra batter (in case your first ones are duds) and cook them ahead of your occasion. The crepes can be layered with parchment or waxed paper and stored in a zip top bag in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble them with the filling and sauce.

I kept thinking my next crepe would be better, but nope. 😂

The mascarpone is super simple and the cherry sauce, which is conveniently made with frozen dark cherries, can be made ahead and warmed in time for dessert.

Make extra cherry sauce, because you’ll find yourself eating it straight from the pan!

The cherry sauce is so delicious, even if you don’t want to mess with the crêpes, you might find this a perfect topper for ice cream or a brownie or pound cake or anything else you and your Valentine enjoy. I flavored mine up with a splash of amaretto because I love the combination of cherry and almond, but you could skip this or swap in a splash of rum or brandy if you’d like. Assembly of the crêpes is a snap.

Next time, I’ll add a dollop of whipped cream on top!

Chocolate & Cherry Crêpes

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: Average
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The best thing about this dessert, besides the marvelous flavor combo, is that you can make every part of it ahead and simply assemble the crêpes at serving time.


The crêpe batter should be made ahead and left to rest in the refrigerator for several hours, up to a full day. Give it a gentle whisking just before cooking to reincorporate any ingredients that have settled to the bottom of the bowl.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp. double dark cocoa
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 Tbsp. cane sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp. melted butter
  • ½ tsp. vanilla
  • Additional butter, used for cooking the crêpes (about 1 tablespoon)

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender container and blend until completely smooth.
  2. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate at least an hour or up to one day.
  3. When ready to cook, heat a small pat of butter in a large, non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. When butter begins to brown slightly, ladle 1/4 cup of the crêpe batter into the center of the pan. Swirl the pan gently to spread the batter around into a shape as close to a circle as you can. Cook one minute, then gently turn the crêpe (a silicone spatula is useful here) to cook the other side.
  4. Stack the cooked crêpes between layers of parchment paper and store them in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble.

The mascarpone filling is lightly sweetened and kissed with a touch of vanilla and almond. This is a lovely complement to the dark chocolate crêpes and the sweet cherry topping. Make it ahead and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

Ingredients

  • 8 oz. mascarpone, at room temperature
  • 2 oz. cream cheese (full-fat recommended; this is approximately 1/4 of a standard block)
  • 3 Tbsp. powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. almond extract

Directions

  1. Use a sturdy spoon to blend the mascarpone and cream cheese together in a medium bowl.
  2. Add powdered sugar and extracts. Blend until fully combined and smooth. Refrigerate until ready to assemble the crêpes.

This dark cherry sauce is so easy to make, and provides most of the sweetness in this dessert. It’s delicious when served slightly warm over the crêpes.

Ingredients

  • 3 heaping cups frozen dark sweet cherries
  • 1/4 cup cane sugar
  • 3-inch stick whole cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1/4 cup cherry juice
  • 2 Tbsp. amaretto
  • 2 Tbsp. corn starch, mixed with 2 Tbsp. cold water (used to thicken sauce)

Directions

  1. Combine cherries, sugar, cinnamon stick, salt, lemon juice and cherry juice in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer until cherries are completely softened. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
  2. Bring cherry mixture back to a simmer and stir in amaretto. Remove cinnamon stick and blend corn starch slurry in to thicken. Let the mixture cool slightly before topping crêpes.
  3. Assemble crêpes: Lay a single crepe on a plate or piece of parchment. Add spoonfuls of the mascarpone mixture across the center. Roll up the crêpe and arrange on a dessert plate. Repeat with a second crêpe for each serving. Spoon the cherry sauce over and prepare to swoon.

One last note: Remember that store-bought frozen cherries are pitted mechanically, and every once in a while, the machines miss one. Inspect the cooked sauce thoroughly, just in case!