Black Forest Bars

This is another recipe that came from our Cherry Picking Day! I could eat an entire bowl of this chocolate-cream cheese-whipped cream concoction. It was really hard not to. The roasted cherry topping is yummy too, I think it would be great on top of basically any dessert. The gluten free Oreo crust came out a little crunchier than I would have liked but after sitting in the fridge over night it had time to soak up some of the cherry juice and turned it super-awesome.

Black Forest Bars
(Recipe credit to Just Putzing Around the Kitchen)
2 cups cherries, pitted and halved
2 tablespoons sugar
10 gluten free Oreo cookies
3 tablespoons butter, melted
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup Nutella
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips + enough for sprinkling

1. Heat oven to 400. In a small bowl, toss cherries with sugar. Spread them over a baking sheet and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove cherries from the oven and set aside.

2. Place cookies in a food processor and pulse until they become crumbs then add melted butter. Pulse again a couple times until combined.

3. Place crust mixture into a baking pan lined with tin foil. Cook for 10 minutes (NOTE: This was too long or too hot for the gluten free oreos! Try 350 for 10 minutes or 400 for 7 minutes).

4. While cherries and crust are cooling, whip cream cheese in a stand up mixer until smooth. Transfer into large bowl.

5. (Clean out the mixing bowl!) Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into the cream cheese and mix until incorporated. (NOTE: there may be tiny chunks of cream cheese throughout. This is okay.)

6. Melt chocolate over a double boiler and let briefly cool. Add to cream cheese/whipped cream filling. Add Nutella and stir until uniform.

7. Spoon filling onto crust and then spoon cherries and juice on top. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Cherry and Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream

One of the recipes that came out of the Cherry Picking Day was this coconut ice cream with cherries and chocolate. It slightly helped shrink down the 8 3/4 lbs of cherries we have.

Inspiration to make ice cream came from my friend Deana, and what a delightful idea it was! First you have to clean and pit the cherries, which is a strangely cathartic process then get down to the actual ice cream making. I don’t have an ice cream maker or an attachment for my Kitchen Aid yet, so I got a bit old school and creative with it. It turned out very well, although time consuming. You have to stick around for about three or four hours before you can really enjoy it. That takes serious patience. It’s worth it, promise! It might be perfect for a rainy day activity / treat.

Cherry and Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream
2 cups whole cherries, pitted
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of half a lemon
2 cups heavy cream
1 3/4 cups cream of coconut
3/4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Dash of tart cherry juice, for color

1. Combine the ingredients for the ice cream and place over an ice bath to chill.

2. Place the cold mixture into a freezer safe shallow pan.

3. Chill for about 30 minutes in the freezer. As the edges start to freeze, stir the mixture rapidly with a spatula to break apart the freezing ice cream. Return to the freezer and repeat about 6 or 7 times until mixture is smooth and creamy. Add a dash of cherry juice if you’d like to give the ice cream a pink color.

4. Remove the ice cream from the pan and put into a covered freezer container until ready to serve.

Flourless Brownies

I crave chocolate… a lot. There are a lot of options for flourless confections in the area but few have hooked me. I stumbled upon this gluten free brownie recipe and it was the most delicious baked good I’ve had in a long time. They have a fudge-like quality that’s to die for. We ate a couple at home and I brought the rest to work. They disappeared quickly and received a lot of compliments. I can’t stop thinking about them and need to make them again. Like right this second.

Flourless Brownies
(Recipe credit to life made simple)
6 Tablespoon unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×9″ square pan with foil and lightly spray with cooking oil, set aside.

2. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter then then add the sugar. Once the sugar is mixed in well, add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth.

3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla extract.

4. Using a mesh sieve, sift the cocoa powder and cornstarch into the saucepan, then add the salt.

5. Stir together, then beat the batter for 1-2 minutes until it’s smooth and shiny.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 22-30 minutes or until the brownies are no longer jiggling in the center.

5. Be careful not to over-bake (gooey brownies are the best)! Remove the pan from oven and let cool in the pan for 45 minutes before removing and slicing.  

 

Chocolate Hazelnut Macaroon Torte

There was someone working in the grocery store yesterday giving out free cosmo shots. I’m not certain if it was the booze coursing through my veins but out of no where, dessert struck me! I quickly searched through the Smittenkitchen blog for inspiration. I’ve been following that blog for the past six years and it was in the gluten free section that I found… a Chocolate Hazelnut Macaroon Torte. All of those things in one luscious dessert? Yes. Please and thank you. The recipe took a good amount of time but it is very much worth it if you have a love of hazelnuts!

Chocolate Hazelnut Macaroon Torte
(Recipe credit to smittenkitchen)
Cooking oil spray
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 large egg whites
2 1/2 cups hazelnuts (about 12 ounces or 340 grams), toasted, then skinned as much as possible*
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon espresso granules
1 1/2 cups chilled heavy or whipping cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon Frangelico
A semi- or bittersweet chocolate bar for shaving

1. Spread raw hazelnuts on a cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for 10 minutes, tossing once throughout baking. Let cool and roll them around with a towel to remove as much of their skins as you can.
2. Change heat to 325°F and position oven racks in the top and lower levels of oven. Draw eight-inch circles onto four pieces of parchment paper. Place them face down onto two baking sheets, ensuring pencil-side is down so that it doesn’t touch the macaroon mixture. Spray each of the circles with cooking oil and wipe down with a paper towel so that there is a thin layer of oil on each.
3. Place hazelnuts into the food processor with 1 cup of sugar and salt. Blend until very finely ground (I didn’t blend quite as much as I would prefer for next time. This is an important step!) Set aside.
4. Beat egg whites in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Carefully drizzle in the vanilla extract and the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Beat until stiff peaks have formed, they will almost have a pearly sheen to them.

5. Fold hazelnut mixture into egg whites in thirds. Spread a quarter of the macaroon batter evenly within each circle, filling completely. Bake macaroon layers until golden and dry to the touch — 20-25 minutes. Cool macaroons on their sheets on a cooling rack.

6. While meringues cool, heat half of chocolate chips, water, and espresso in a small heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring until smooth. After all the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir in second half of chocolate until melted. Spread chocolate evenly over tops of meringue rounds, as long as they are cool enough. Cool until chocolate is set, this could take over an hour or you could place them in the refrigerator for a few minutes to help speed it along.

7. While chocolate is setting, beat heavy cream with sugar and Frangelico in standing mixer until it holds stiff peaks.

8. To assemble, peal macaroons off parchment paper and place first disc directly onto whatever serving plate you plan to use. Spread 1/3 cup of whipped cream onto each layer before placing the next. When you’ve reached the final layer, frost the top and side of torte with whipped cream. Using a vegetable peeler, scrape shavings off chocolate to top the cake.

His and Hers Pancakes + Homemade Whipped Cream

Jason and I were both craving pancakes this morning. He loves bananas and Nutella, I prefer strawberries and chocolate chips, so I made his with whole wheat batter and mine with gluten free batter. You can add any toppings to these batter recipes. I’ve used candied walnuts, pecans, blueberries, blackberries, and probably other things I’m not remembering now. Use whatever you prefer!  Each recipe below will make approximately 8 pancakes. I make the full recipe and save half for the next day.

Whole Wheat Pancake Batter
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Mix dry ingredients together.
2. Mix wet ingredients into the dry.
3. Heat nonstick frying pan and when hot, pour on portions of the pancake mix.
4. Before they start too cook too much, place the toppings onto the batter placed on the pan. Do not overcrowd each pancake with toppings. It’s important that when you flip them, there’s some space for the batter to coat the edges of the toppings.

Gluten Free Pancake Batter
1 cup gluten free all purpose flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1 tablespoon flax seed meal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup skim milk

Same instructions as the whole wheat pancakes.

Homemade Whipped Cream 
1/2 cup heaving whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Put all ingredients in the bowl of a stand up mixer.
2. Using whisk attachment, turn on high until cream begins to stiffen.
3. Pause the mixer, and use a spatula to mix the ingredients and make sure there isn’t sugar sticking to the bottom of the bowl.
4. Turn machine back on high and mix until peaks form.