In yesterday’s Halibut and Bacon post I mentioned a woman who had combined bacon with chocolate. I discovered her on a fellow foodie’s blog, Catherine’s “Chocolate and Sage.” Her name is Katrina Markoff, and she is the Owner and Founder of Vosges Haut-Chocolat. This video is a lecture she gave at the TASTE3 conference which was presented at the Robert Mondavi Winery in 
It was rolled out and filled with a pint of fresh blueberries. They were mixed with just the right amounts of sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. The dough was folded up and around, covering some berries, while leaving others exposed to be dotted with small pieces of butter. A light sprinkling of sugar rained down, and in the oven it went. After being baked golden, in a 33 cent pie tin, it was served with vanilla ice cream and my family. It was almost transferred to a pretty plate to be photographed, but that just didn’t seem right. Enjoy!
As I mentioned yesterday, today’s clip features my Mom making a light and delicious Key Lime Pie. I joked in the post that it’s an old family tradition to make pie before going to the hospital for surgery, well, to be honest it’s not really an old tradition, she just wanted to make pie. Besides it beats sitting around worrying about getting a new shoulder! This is a longer clip than I normally do, and I may eventually split the demo into 2 recipes; one for her flaky pie crust, and another for the filling and finished pie. But for now you get the complete Director's Cut.
What is the ultimate experience for a foodie? Making something that your other foodie friends can’t figure out how you did! They won’t be able to figure out how you “browned” the mini Mascarpone cheesecakes, without it melting into a puddle on the shortcake. I’ll explain further during the clip. This simple summer dessert is inspired by three of my favorite desserts…Crème Brulee, Cheesecake, and Strawberry Shortcake. It’s also the perfect excuse to go out and finally get one of those cool culinary blow-torches!
This short and simple clip may seem a bit strange. The thought of topping a warm, olive oil soaked Crustini with chocolate and sea salt does take an open mind to contemplate. The first time I came across this combo, I too was understandable skeptical, but one bite and I was convinced. It worked. Not only did it work, it rocked!
Legend has it that this dessert was the result of a major catering disaster. The dessert for this particular event was to be individual chocolate cakes, but someone took them out of the ovens to soon and the centers where not cooked enough and still liquefied. Well, there was no time to take them off the plates and cook them more, so the Chef simply had his wait staff introduce the dessert as Chocolate “Lava” Cake! Brilliant! Now, whether this is true or not, I don’t know for sure, but it totally sounds like something a Chef would do. If you have a better story email it to me and I’ll start using it.
Regardless of how it was born, it sure is good. I used very dark chocolate, but you can use semi-sweet or milk chocolate if you prefer. If you’ve watch my clips regularly you know I’m not big on measuring ingredients, BUT when you’re doing baked desserts you really do need to be accurate. So measure carefully. By the way, this was a view request and the photo he sent me (pictured above with the fruit) had no copyright info with it. I did use it in the clip and hopefully no one gets too upset. If you did happen to take this photo, and are upset I’m using it without permission, please email me and I will credit you. Enjoy!
This is a great seasonal twist on the restaurant classic, and also a really great reason to use a blow torch! We recently had a request for a pumpkin flan. While we love to satisfy our viewers every culinary whim, sometimes we just can’t do it. The problem with a pumpkin flan is that the starchy, slightly grainy texture of the pumpkin puree would ruin the smooth, silky mouth-feel which is what makes a flan, a flan. You would basically be left with a crust-less pumpkin pie.