Chocolate "Caliente" Soufflés

I've always been a little leery of making a souffle. "Will it rise? Will it fall?" But I still wanted to try. I found several recipes that sparked my curiousity. The one that inspired this delightful dessert comes from Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Desserts 2. With a few changes here and there in the ingredients, I devised the perfect after-dinner treat for any week night meal. I hope you try making this, it's really tasty. Enjoy.

Chocolate Soufflés
(by Sandra Lee)

Chocolate "Caliente" Soufflés
(by Teresa, the changes I made are in red)

4 tablespoons butter
7 tablespoons sugar
5 ounces semisweet chocolate baking bar, cut up, Baker’s
I used Abuelitas Mexican chocolate, 1 ½ disks and only 1 tablespoon of sugar in the chocolate mixture. I also used 1-teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract and a pinch of cayenne powder.
2 tablespoons whipping cream
3 egg yolks
4 egg whites
Unsweetened cocoa powder, optional I used the cocoa powder but I also incorporated ¼ teaspoon cinnamon into the powder before dusting.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use 1 tablespoon of the butter to grease six 4-ounce ramekins and use 2 tablespoons of sugar to coat the inside of ramekins. I used four 6-ounce ramekins. Place ramekins on a baking sheet.

On top of a double boiler, combine the remaining 3 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, the chocolate and whipping cream. Place over boiling water in bottom of double boiler making sure bottom of top pan does not touch the water. Cook and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat allow to cool for a minute or two and stir in egg yolks; set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and beat until stiff, but not dry, peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture until no streaks remain. Spoon into ramekins, filling each three-fourths full. Bake in preheated oven for 14 to 16 minutes or just until set. Serve immediately. If desired, dust with cocoa powder.


You can see the airiness and lightness of the soufflé in every spoonfull. My only concern with this dish is that it really must be prepared right before serving, otherwise it deflates quickly. If anyone can tell me how to keep a soufflé from falling after taking it out of the oven, I sure would appreciate the tip.
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Smile!
Among life's mysteries is how a two-pound box of chocolate can make a person gain five pounds!? :)
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Go to the Mexican American Border Cooking blog for a delicious recipe on Piri Piri BBQ Chicken.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

We received the new Martha Stewart Cupcake Cookbook a few days ago and Lily and I sat there drooling over each delicious recipe. My daughter, despite her hectic schedule, decided we needed to make the Tiramisu cupcakes. On our trip to Dallas, we had eaten at the Cheesecake Factory where she had indulged in Tiramisu Cheesecake. So, she decided she wanted more of that same delicious flavor.

My beautiful daughter weighs a mere 90 pounds. While I thought, OMG if we make those cupcakes I'm going to gain another 10 pounds, I didn't mind her doing that. In my attempt to help her gain more experience in the kitchen, I told her if she wanted to make them to go right ahead. I would be standing close by in case she had any questions, or needed someone to taste test :).

The results were amazing. While she was a nervous wreck (she does this when making something from scratch), I was standing there grinning ear to ear...so proud of her.

We made a couple of small insignificant changes to Martha's recipe, but otherwise kept it pretty much as she wrote it. I mean come on now, I love vanilla bean, but I was not going to spend $16.00 for one pod. We used Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla instead.

We also did not have Marsala on hand, so we used Kahlua. If you get the opportunity to puchase this new Martha book, do so. Some of the varieties of cupcakes will make you dance with delight.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

1-¼ cups cake flour, sifted
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon course salt
¼ cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
4 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1-cup sugar

Coffee Marsala Syrup

Mascarpone Frosting

Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard size muffin pans with paper linters. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Heat milk and vanilla bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted. Let stand for 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a sieve into a bowl and discard vanilla bean pod.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk by hand until, sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, mix until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir ½ cup of batter into the milk mixture to thicken then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

Divide batter among lined cups, filling each three-quarter full. Bake until centers are completely set and edges are a light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Brush tops of cupcakes with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat until all syrup has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid for 30 minutes. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

Coffee-Marsala Syrup

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee or espresso
1-ounce Marsala
¼ cup sugar
Stir all ingredients together until sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

Mascarpone Frosting

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and powdered sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

This cupcake is so lush and tasty you really need to eat it with a spoon so that you don't miss any coffee-syrup soaked crumbs. AND the mascarpone frosting...OMG delicious. Way to go my darling girl.
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Tip of the Day:

Chocolate stain removal: Rinse stain with cold water. Rub in liquid detergent and let sit for 5 minutes. Soak for 10 minutes in cold water, rubbing every 3 to 5 minutes. Rinse thoroughly. All gone!

Where did those piggies go?

After I got through "bottling" my flavored salts, I quickly realized I was nowhere near done with my new obsession for organization.

I wanted to play around with some cupcake recipes I’ve been saving and started looking around for some new sprinkles I had recently purchased online. I’ll be darned if I could find them. Boy this was frustrating. I can understand if I can’t find the Halloween sprinkles I purchased last year, but these “piggy” sprinkles I just purchased online to make some piggy cupcakes for Lily?

BOLT OF LIGHTNING!! I didn’t have my cake, cupcake and cookie decorations in order. Of course I couldn’t find them, but it was my fault. So instead of making cupcakes, I set out to do some Search and Rescue of any and all sprinkles I had in the house.

When I got tired of going through the pantry, the cabinets, and the cupboards, my dining table was full of little bottles, big bottles, bags, baggies and an assortment of containers to hold my precious decorations.

Time to go back to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I needed more bottles and something to put them in.
I may not have as many as Bakerella does, but I must admit I have my fair share. I found all (? I think all) of my colored sugars.
I found some of my fancy sprinkles.
AND I even found some “rock-shaped” chocolate decorations I had purchased in Mystic, CT. when I went to visit my brother. Oh joy!
You can see I even keep mini-M & M’s for decorating sugar cookies. Lily and I buy the little tubes and then take time to separate them into the different colors. Just looking at these little gems made my heart do some flip-flops and cartwheels. The colors are so pretty. You know, just looking at all the decorations you keep on hand at a glance, really spurs the imagination.

Anyway, now that I found my piggy sprinkles, I can make my daughter her little piggy cupcakes. It doesn’t take much to put a smile on her face. I’m very fortunate that way. With my son Mikey, all it takes is giving him a new X-Men comic book.

Don’t have enough sprinkles and decorations you say? Go to the Cake Art Party Store online. I found this site while visiting Bakerella's blog. You know I absolutely love checking out her wonderful creations. Well, a while back she posted about where she buys most of her sprinkles (and other necessary baking items). It’s called the Cake Art Party Store. It’s located in Tucker, GA. Someday I will go there and pretend I’m at Disneyland and have the time of my life. You bakers out there know what I’m talking about.

But before you run out to the store for some new decorations to decorate a cake or cupcake or cookies you need to bake at a moments notice, or because that’s really what you want to do for yourself or for someone you love, check and see what you have on hand. Keeping it organized makes being a foodie a whole lot of fun. Enjoy the weekend everyone.

I wonder if I'll ever find my Halloween sprinkles???
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To put a smile on your face:
Know how to prevent sagging? Just eat till the wrinkles fill out. :p