Chocolate Souffle: The answer to dessert panic

When there’s no dessert in my house I panic. And then I do something ridiculous. That something doesn’t seem ridiculous when I’m in the throws of my dessert addiction, but it often ends in an obscenely colossal amount of dessert. Something, say, like a 4 layer chocolate cake with caramel frosting… just for argument’s sake.

I sometimes try to rationalize this away by pretending it’s a cake for someone else. This works from time to time, but sometimes that someone lives 1,000 miles away from me… and it’s clear that the cake... the entire cake... is mine. ALL mine.

And then there’s just me. Just me and the 4 layer chocolate cake with caramel frosting inside. And a fork.

The burden of eating an entire cake is a heavy one. And one that I am never capable of carrying… no matter how desperately I try. But have no fear! I have recently discovered a solution—individual make ahead chocolate soufflé!

The major beauty of the make-ahead individual chocolate soufflé is that it can, as you may have guessed, be made ahead! Then you can store your soufflé in the freezer and have the satisfaction of knowing that there is always dessert, without the burden of having to consume an entire cake. When you have your dessert panic, you just take one soufflé out of the freezer, stick it in the oven, and 15 minutes later, voila! An amazingly fabulous dessert!

A side effect of this delightful treat is that if you are a person who frequently finds yourself entertaining at the last minute, you can pull these soufflés out of the freezer and really wow your guests… they will think you are Betty Crocker reborn!

Make Ahead Chocolate Souffle

Ingredients
5 T butter (1 T melted, the rest cut into chunks)
1/3 c sugar + some extra for coating the dishes
1 1/3 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/8 t salt
½ t vanilla
1 T Grand Marnier
6 large egg yolks
8 large egg whites
¼ t cream of tartar
2 T confectioner’s sugar

Melt 1 T butter and using a pastry brush, coat the inside of 12-16 ramekins (depending on the size. I needed about 16 4-oz mason jars). Then coat the buttered ramekins with a little bit of sugar.

In a double-boiler melt the chocolate and the rest of the butter over simmering water. Turn off the heat and add in the salt, vanilla and Grand Marnier.

Whisk together the sugar and 2 T of water and bring to a boil, turn down the heat a little and simmer until the sugar dissolves.

In the bowl of a mixer, pour in your egg yolks. Turn the mixer on medium-low and slowly add the sugar water mixture. Turn the speed up a little bit and beat until the mixture triples in volume. This takes about 2-3 minutes.

Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture (or vice versa). Just get it all in a big bowl that’s not the mixing bowl.

Clean all the egg yolk mixture off the beaters and the bowl. You don’t want any yolk to come in contact with your egg whites in your next step, otherwise your whites won’t do whip up nicely, and the entire souffle depends on the nice fluffy egg whites.

Beat your egg whites until frothy then add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form.

Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. You really want to be sure these are nice and stiff because otherwise it won’t hold it’s shape / rise well when you bake it.

Take about ¼ of your egg white mixture and add it into the chocolate mixture. Stir it in really well to loosen it up.

Then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites until it’s just incorporated. Don’t stir too much or all your careful hard work will fall flat. Literally.

Fill each ramekin almost to the rim, cover and freeze at least 3 hours or up to 2 days (though to be honest they stay in my freezer much longer… they just don’t rise quite as well or look quite as pretty after that. They are still delicious, and that’s all I care about).

When it comes time to cook the soufflé, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and bake until it has risen, about 15 – 18 minutes. If you want to check to see if it’s done, use 2 spoons to pull apart the top and peek inside. If it’s still liquidy put it back for a bit.

Serve immediately before it all comes crashing down! Enjoy!

Thalia Learns to Cook: Disaster Dinner!!!!

Thalia learns to cook posts are recipes and examples of dishes I can now make! Taken from a variety of sources and changed according to my abilities, needs, and dislike of doing dishes.

The title of this post is a bit misleading, I fear. For this is not about my learning how to cook or emerging triumphant over previous mistakes. No, this is about a dish I make ALL THE TIME that went terribly terribly wrong due to my forgetting all my progress and reverting to old habits. Because of a jar of pasta sauce.

So, in my kitchen there is a fabulous rotating shelf thingy. (That's the technical term). On it, we keep various jars and other ingredients. It is often left open. Because the average temperature lately has been 183 degrees (fahrenheit), I was wearing a dress. The bottom of the dress caught a full glass jar and brought it down onto the top of my foot. Add to this the fact that I had worked out the day before, and you get slow, clumsy Thalia who cannot move her foot in time and therefore dropped something heavy on it. It was painful. It swelled up to golf ball lump sized proportion.

But! That's not all! I was in the middle of making a simple dish, pasta with kale, bacon, pine nuts, raisins and garlic. This is a great, simple dish that abides by all of the rules I have learned: cook things at their proper heat, prep all ingredients ahead of time, get everything out before you start, make sure you know what you're doing before you do it.

Unfortunately, I forgot most of those rules. I started the water for the pasta before chopping up the kale. I put the pine nuts into the toaster oven, turned the heat up, and promptly stopped paying attention, I did not cut up the garlic before turning on the heat. The result?

Undercooked pasta, undercooked kale, burnt pine nuts, not enough raisins, and general overall grumpiness. So! The moral of the story is: make sure if you are going to drop something heavy on your foot, thus distracting and injuring yourself, you either call for a pizza or make someone else cook dinner for you.

Don't make Thalia's mistakes recipe: Pasta with kale, bacon, garlic, pine nuts and raisins. (20 minutes cook time, as long as you don't drop something heavy on your foot right as you start).

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale, washed and chopped

2-3 strips bacon (I like the thick cut)

1/2 c pine nuts (you can LIGHTLY toast these in the oven if that's your style)

1/2 c raisins

2-3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

1 lb pasta, penne works best

1. Cut up the kale, bacon, and garlic.

2. Fill a pot with water and boil for the pasta, cooked according to directions.

3. Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook. Pre heat your pan. Don't add oil. When it's crispy, remove from pan.

4. Pour out any extra grease, you should have about 2tb left in your pan.

5. Add garlic, cook until fragrant.

6. Add kale, and spoon in a ladle or two of the boiling pasta water. Cover and cook until bright green, 3-5 minutes.

7. Turn off heat, add raisins and pine nuts. Once pasta is done, stir in greens etc.

8. Serve with parmesan and enjoy!

Grandma's Raspberry Pie

I have the most awesome grandmother. Ever. When I was 5 she taught me how to play poker (and beat my uncles), when I was 10 she hand-made costumes for my dogs, and when I was in college she taught me to bake. Unfortunately, I have a terrible poker face, but my love of desserts (and of dogs, but not necessarily in costumes) has endured!

Grandma's prize winning dog costumes. The milkmaid and the cow. Ignore the look of shame on the dogs faces. They didn't mean it.

The summer after my first year in college I split my time between Lexington, where I worked at a local ice cream parlor, and Louisville, where my career working with nonhuman primates began. Although this meant commuting back and forth once or twice a week, there was a silver lining – Grandma’s raspberry pie.

When I arrived in Louisville on Monday, Grandma would have a raspberry pie, made with raspberries picked fresh from her backyard. We would eat pie with every meal, steadily working our way through it until Thursday, when I would eat one last slice of pie before hitting the road back to Lexington. When I returned the following Monday, there was a brand new pie waiting for me. Bliss.

One visit Grandma showed me how to make this pie, and it has been a staple in my house ever since. One day, when I get a real job, I’ll plant raspberries and rhubarb in my back yard and my life will be complete.

Grandma's Raspberry Pie

Ingredients: 
1 1/4c flour
3 T powdered sugar
½ c butter
1 c sugar
3T + 2 t cornstarch
1 ½ c cold water
3T corn syrup
¼ c strawberry jello mix
1 quart fresh raspberries
1 t vanilla

In a food processor, combine the flour and powdered sugar. Add the butter until crumbly. (The food processor is a modernization of my grandmother’s method, but if you find yourself without one, you can use a pastry cutter, or even two knives, to cut the butter into the flour. This takes way more patience than I have).

Press the crust onto the bottom and sides of an ungreased deep dish 9 inch pan.

If you don’t have a deep dish pan, you could try a springform pan, or you can follow my lead and go for… I know, I’m becoming cliché… jars! I just did the bottoms because I was in a hurry. Feel free to be creative.

Also, if you don’t have a deep dish pan, you can do like my friend “Dennis”, who just made this recipe for her boyfriend’s birthday and put the bits that wouldn’t fit in the crust into ramekins. You know, for breakfast.

Way to make a beautiful tasty pie, Dennis!

Bake the crust at 350 for 15 – 25 minutes (depending on the size of your pan, of course), or until the edges are golden brown.

In the meantime, combine sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan.

Then stir in the water until smooth and add in the corn syrup, stir, and bring to a boil.

Once it starts to boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes until it thickens up.

Remove this from the heat and stir in the jello and vanilla until the jello is dissolved.

Cool this to room temperature, about half an hour. If you’re in a hurry, you can make an ice bath to cool it down – just put some ice / ice water in a bowl and set your pan inside the bowl.

A water bath is a great way to speed up the cooling down process!

Once the goo has cooled, add the raspberries in, stirring gently with a spatula to coat them.

Spoon this mixture into the crust, cover and refrigerate until set.

It’ll take about 3 hours to set up thoroughly, so in the meantime, see if you can get the dog up off the couch and go for a run... hmm... maybe not... she looks awfully comfortable there... ok, change of plan. Join the dog on the couch for a nap.

Try serving your pie with a little homemade vanilla ice cream (you don't even have to make it patriotic!), and enjoy!

The Strawberry Cake That Started It All...

Our eyes locked across my dad’s crowded birthday party. My little heart went pitter patter and I could have swooned…

This is the cake that started my love affair with desserts—a strawberry cake with strawberry icing, baked in a heart-shaped pan, the traditional birthday cake in my family for many years (at least until my dad went crazy and became a health nut… pff…).

This was THE cake in my life. THE dessert of dreams. THE cake to which my young self compared every confection I tasted… And now it can be yours…

Strawberry Cake

Ingredients: 
1 box yellow cake mix
1 3-oz box strawberry jello
1 10-12 oz pkg of frozen strawberries (or 2 pints of fresh strawberries)
½ c water
½ c oil
4 eggs
1 box (4 cups) powdered sugar (+ up to about a cup or so more, depending on how thick you want the icing)
1 stick melted butter

Preheat your oven to 350.

If you’re making this recipe with fresh strawberries, the recipe will be a little bit different than if you’re making it with frozen berries. If you’re using frozen berries, let them thaw over a strainer placed over a measuring cup.

Thaw until you get about 1 c of juice.

If you’re using fresh strawberries, hull about half a pint of them, then liquefy them in a blender. You want to have about a cup here too, so add strawberries as necessary until you get to a cup.

Now, combine cake mix, strawberry jello, strawberry juice / puree, water, oil, and eggs.

Mix thoroughly.

Prepare 3 – 8” round pans (or you can use a 9X13, or, if you’re going to a picnic like me, you could go with jars!) by spraying with cake release, or buttering/flouring them.

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes (depending on your pan size) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (or with a few crumbs).

If you’re doing a layer cake, or baking your cakes in jars, cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then slide a knife around the edge of the cake, place a cooling rack on top of the cake, and invert. Then take a second cooling rack and flip it again so the top of the cake is facing upward.

I cut my little jar cakes in half to simulate a layer cake, feel free to do whatever you want!

Let your cake cool to room temperature, and while it’s doing so, you can go ahead and make the frosting. To do this, mix the powdered sugar melted butter and strawberries, adding more powdered sugar until you get an icing of your desired consistency.

Ice the cake! Note, this icing is a little bit on the runny side, so you’ll want to thicken it up a lot or consider cutting back on the butter if you’re making a layer cake.

Hope you love it as much as I certainly have!

ProTips that Actually Work: Reviving Vegetables

Fancy things that you read about or see on TV shows that actually aren’t that hard to do. Or maybe are a bit hard to do, but totally worth it.

Where I learned about it: Mark Bittman? A men’s magazine cooking section? No idea.

I know among the posts about ice cream and chocolate chip cookies (delicious!) this may seem a strange posting, but I continue to be delighted that this actually works!

You know when you buy a leafy green, such as kale, and then you don't use it immeadiately, and thus it languishes in your refridgerator for a few days? Anyone? Hello?

Well, when that happens, you end up with limp greens. Terrible.


These actually aren't that bad, but are certainly limper than when I bought them. Notice the lack of pep. The slightly depressed curl. These leaves need intervention, STAT!

Happily, somewhere along the way I heard, or read (source confusion, ho!) that if you put some greens into a cold water bath for a while, they will pep right up. Something about the cells that have previously lost water now regaining that water through osmosis or something? I don't know, my Ph.D. is in psychology not biology.

Regardless, it works!

Just take a large bowl and fill it with cold water. Then, put in your limp greens.
I also put a few ice cubes on top to cool things down further and weigh down the greens.


It's amazing! After 10-15 minutes, your greens are all pepped up again! Happy about life! Ready to conquer your recipe! (Except for the disastrous dinner I actually used these greens for... but that's another post).

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

A couple days ago I had a conversation with a friend... let's call her Dennis. Dennis, bless her heart, is trying to learn how to cook. A few weeks ago she called me to ask how to bake a potato. Yes. You heard me right. Bake a potato.

Anyway, our most recent cooking conversation went something like this:

Dennis: good morning!
Me: good morning! (note: it was around 8:30 PM, but this is part of the Dennis ritual, just part of her charm)
Dennis: you would be so proud of me! I'm baking!
Me: Well done, Dennis! What are you baking?
Dennis: Cookies! Granted, I bought cookie dough and just placed it on the cookie sheet, but it counts for something!
Me: Yes! It's a good step in the right direction!
Dennis: But I need your help.
Me: Oh? (another note: I live about 1,000 miles away from Dennis, so was hoping she wasn't relying on me to call 911 in case of kitchen explosions or anything)
Dennis: How do I know when the cookies are done?
Me: They should be golden brown on top and not burned on the bottom.
Dennis: I just emailed you a picture. Are they finished?

Dennis' Cookies

Me: (fascinated) ... are you baking your cookies in a roasting pan?

Yes. She was indeed baking cookies in a roasting pan. Further, her boyfriend (who doesn't bake at all) also noticed the roasting pan but, unlike me, was too polite to suggest a cookie sheet.

At this point, a few minutes had transpired, so I told Dennis to get her cookies from the oven.

Dennis grumbled something about feeling like the protagonist of a children's novel -- "Dennis bakes a cookie" -- and I suggested that my favorite in the series would be "Dennis eats a sandwich". Never has anyone eaten a sandwich with such wonder and awe as Dennis. It's a thing to behold.

I told Dennis she might want to check on her next batch, and she revealed that she was only making one batch because "9 cookies is enough". What does that mean? Enough for what? The mind boggles.

I should mention here, Dennis is a very smart person. She's a neuroscientist, she does brain surgery for a living, and successfully coordinates and teaches thousands of students a year at a large university. So for all of us who have ever failed at baking the perfect cookie, have no fear, even the best and brightest among us have trouble.

I, like Dennis, have gone through my share of cookie-related struggles... mostly they involve trying to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. This endeavor involved baking dozens of recipes when I should have been doing other things, like writing my dissertation for example.

There are two secret ingredients that make this recipe so great (I should mention that this recipe was adapted slightly from Jacques Torres' recipe). The first is sea salt, because salty and sweet is a winning combination. The second is time -- letting the dough rest for 24 - 72 hours (ideally 36) before baking really results in the perfect combination of chewy and crunchy. The wait can be hard, but in the meantime, let them eat dough!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients: 

2 c minus 2 T cake flour

1 2/3 c bread flour

1 1/4 t baking soda

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 1/2 t sea salt (plus more for sprinkling over the cookies) 

2 1/2 sticks butter

1 1/4c brown sugar

1c + 2 T sugar

2 large eggs

2 t vanilla

3 1/2 c chocolate chips 

Sift the flours, baking soda, and baking powder into a bowl. Ad the salt and give it a shake or a stir to incorporate the salt with the other dry ingredients a little. Don't sift the salt though, it won't fit through the sifter. 

In the meantime, cream the butter and both sugars together until the mixture is very light. This takes about 3 minutes or so in my standing kitchenaid mixer, but it may take longer (more like 5 minutes) if you have a hand mixer or a less powerful mixer.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Add in the vanilla and mix a little more. 

Turn the speed down to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing just until they are combined. You don't want to mix it too much here, because otherwise you'll pump extra air into your batter and we're making cookies here, not souffle! 

Add in the chocolate chips and mix just a smidgen longer, until they're well incorporated throughout the dough. 

Ok. Now this is the hard part. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, put it in the fridge and walk away. 

Yes. Seriously. Walk away. Don't make your cookies now. Don't do it! You'll regret it, they won't be as delicious! 

As a consolation though, you should eat the dough off the mixer paddle. Delicious. But don't blame me if you get salmonella. 

You have to wait a long time -- 36 hours is best, but wait at least 24. You can see how well my self control holds out... I um... maybe eat some cookie dough along the way... 

Once the tortuous day and a half has passed take the dough out of the fridge and let it stand 10 minutes or so while you preheat your oven (to 350). This will make it a little easier to work with. 

Line your cookie sheet (or I suppose roasting pan, if you are so inclined) with parchment paper and use a cookie dough scoop (or an ice cream scoop works just as well) to plop mounds of dough onto the parchment paper. 

Now for secret ingredient #2 -- sea salt! Sprinkle just a little sea salt over the cookies. So delicious. 

Bake the cookies until they are golden brown but still soft, about 15 - 20 minutes. About half way through turn the cookie sheets around and switch racks so the front cookies are in the back and the top cookies are on the bottom.

Transfer your cookies to a cooling rack (or, if you, like Dennis, don't own one, a plate will work) until they're cool. 

This makes a lot of cookies, but I don't know exactly how many because I always eat a LOT of the dough in that limbo, wait for the dough to be maximally delicious, period. 

Enjoy!