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This pie was a favorite of Jims.  I’m not wild about chocolate anything and I dislike whipped cream.  The bananas were the only thing I liked.  All liked it just fine.  I served it with my cute rice crispy carrots.  The recipe is from Ina Garten’d TV show, but I imagine it is also in one of her many cookbooks.  I’m too lazy to look.  (Actually completely worn out.)  I started it on Thursday.  I was in quite a bit of pain that day, so I called Jim and used Jello chocolate pudding instead of making it.  Probably a mistake, but that is what I did.  

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

2 C graham cracker crumbs (10-12 crackers

1/4 C sugar

6 T unsalted butter, melted

For the Chocolate Filling:

3/4 C sugar

5 extra-large egg yolks

1/3 C cornstarch

1 t kosher slat

4 C whole milk, scalded

7 oz. bitter sweet chocolate, chopped

2 T unsalted butter, diced

1 T coffee liqueur

1 t Instant coffee powder 

For the decorations:

2 large bananas, sliced 

1 C cold heavy cream

1 T sugar

1 t pure vanilla extract

Milk chocolate, for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. for the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter in a bowl.  Press the mixture into an 11” false-bottom tart pan, making sure the sides and bottom of the crust are an even thickness.  Bake for 10 minutes and set aside to cool completely.  
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch and salt.  With the mixer on low, slowly add the scalded milk until the mixture is combined.  
4. Pour the mixture into a large saucepan and cook ver medium-low heat for abut 5 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until he mixture is very thick.  Off the heat , add the chocolate, butter, coffee liqueur and coffee powder and stir until the chocolate is melted.  
5. Pour the filling into the cooled tart pan and smooth the top.  Place plastic wrap directly on tip of the chocolate filling and chill for 6 hours.  (So this was to be done on Friday, when I was doing the casserole and the quiche.  (Facing the pudding, I called in the Jello.  I probably could have made it better with the liqueur and instant coffee.)
6. I arranged the banana slices on Saturday, recovered it with plastic wrap.  
7. When ready to serve, I had made the whipped cream in my shaker, so I squired it all over the top, and left a border of the bananas visible.  Jim helped me cut it up and serve. 

Dessert was also hassle.  The recipe comes from the Tennessean, 12-23-2020.  I have had a package of eatable gold for ages that I wanted to use on truffles.  The gold sheets once open are had to control as what we think of as still air, the sheet of gold though was a tornado.  You really do not need to let the chocolate set up overnight, just really until it cools down.  I had to let mine soften and then rolled into balls.  the recipe thank god did not make 128 truffles, but it made a lot.  I was able to get 10 with some visible gold on them, the rest I rolled in cocoa.  I am going to get small cupcake or candy paper cups and put them in a box for neighbors.  

Ingredients:

8 oz., 72% coco chocolate, chopped 

3/4 C plus 3 T heavy cream

Cocoa powder for dusting

Directions:

1. Warm the cream and melt the chocolate into it.  Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
2. Transfer to a 8 1/2” X 4 1/2 “ pan lined with parchment paper.  Smooth the top.  Chill until firm but pliable.
3. Cut into 1/2” cubes and roll in your hand to make round, then roll in the cocoa.  Place on a parchment lined tray.  
4. Store in an airtight container, refrigerate.

Truffles are easy to make.  You can add different flavorings.  Not that interested in chocolate.  

Tonight was another marathon cooking class.  We made chocolate pasta with a beef ragu and more cookies.  

For the Pasta:

Ingredients:

1 2/3 C all-purpose flour

1/4 C unsweetened cocoa

1 scant t cinnamon

1 scant t nutmeg

1/2 t sugar

1/4 t salt

3 large eggs, lightly beaten with a t of EVOO

Directions:

1. (My directions will vary from Chef’s as she does everything by hand.)
2. Place all dry ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Use the dough hook.
3. Dig a hole in the middle and pour in the egg mixture.  Using the dough hook and a spatula to incorporate the dry into the wet, knead the dough for about 10 minutes.  
4. Finish a little kneeling on the surface.  Flatten the dough and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rest for 30 minutes.  
5. Cut the dough into four pieces.  Work one piece at a time and keep the other pieces covered in plastic wrap.  
6. Flatten the dough into a rough rectangle, and roll through the pasta machine at the widest number.  Then fold the dough in the three layers and roll through again.  Continue passing the dough through the rollers changing the numbers from think to thinner one at a time.  
7. Flour the sheets toward the end to prevent the dough from sticking in the machine. 
8. Finally pull the dough through the fettuccini roller and place on a floured plate.
9. Bring 4 qts. of water to a boil with 3 T salt.  Drop in the pasta and cook for about 3 minutes until tender.  Scoop out pasta with a slotted spoon and add to the meat sauce.  

For the Sauce:

Ingredients:

2-3 T EVOO

1# ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 t cinnamon’1/2 t nutmeg

1 t red pepper flakes

1/3 C white wine

1/3 C red wine

1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

1-3 springs fresh oregano, leaves minced

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan.  Add the onions.  Cook until softened, about 4-5 minutes.  Add the garlic and spices.  Cook a minute more.  Add the meat and cook, breaking it apart, until browned.  Add both wines.  Let evaporate by half.  
2. Add the tomatoes and season with salt & pepper.  Bring to a simmer and cover.  Cook on medium-low heat (make sure meat is simmering slowly). 
3. Cook for about 1 hour.  Stir oregano into sauce and serve with chocolate pasta.

For the Cookies:

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter

5 T sugar

3 eggs

1 t vanilla

2 C flour + 2 T

4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

For the Icing:

2 T unsalted butter, very soft

1 1/4 C powdered sugar

1/4 t lemon extract

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar till smooth in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
2. Add eggs and vanilla extract.  Beat to combine.  
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and baking powder.  Add to butter-sugar-egg mixture.  Beat to combine until a dough forms.  
4. With the smallest ice cream scoop, scoop out small balls of dough and place on 2 sill pat lined baking sheets.
5. Bake for about 15 minutes until cookies are slightly colored golden-tan.  Use a spatula to gently move cookies from baking pan to a rack.
6. Make the icing:  In a medium mixing bowl, use a spoon to mash the butter flat.  Add the sugar.   Run tap water until it is very hot.  Drizzle a little hot water, about a tsp. and stir to combine, mixing quickly to incorporate ate the butter.  Add tiny splashes of water until you reach a consistency like honey.
7. When cookies are cool, dip them top-first into the icing, then stand them icing side up on a flat surface.  
8. You can store cookies in airtight tins once the icing has dried and set.  

The cookies are delicious.  This was a marathon, but time well spent.  Jim and I both loved the pasta dish.  He’d asked all day long, “You are putting beef on chocolate?”  Complete disbelief until he tasted it.  

 

Jim picked this class as it had beef and brownies. the one that appealed to me was the Valentine brunch, but too much food and I would be so exhausted that I would just go back to bed.  

The second thing we made were brownies.  They are a dark no cake brownie.  They are not sweet as I usually think of as brownies, and you can definitely taste the amaretto.  

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 C cocoa

1 t instant espresso

2 eggs

1 t Vanilla

1/2 t almond extract

2 T Amaretto

2/3 C sugar

1/4 C flour1 C walnut pieces 

Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan.  
3. Stir in the cocoa and espresso until smooth.  Remove from heat and place in a medium size bowl to cool.  
4. When cool, whisk in the eggs, one at a time.  
5. Stir in vanilla, almond extract, and Amaretto.
6. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt.  
7. Stir dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Stir until combined. 
8. Stir in the walnuts.
9. Pour batter into a 8” X 8” square pan that has been greased with a thin film of butter.
10. Bake for 40 minutes.  
11. Let brownies cool before cutting.  

She had a very interesting way of cutting the brownies.  Makes beautiful bite size pieces.  

1. Cut he brownies in half.
2. Cut each half in 1/3’s.
3. Turn perpendicular and do #1 & 2 again. 

I can see this as part of a dessert spread or an addition to a box of cookies.  Each one in a mini cupcake paper cup.  

Jim pronounced this the best cake ever.  I made it for NYE and NY day, but he tested it last night.  this comes from Ina Garten’s new book Comfort Food.  It is to serve 8, however as you can see by the slice from yesterday, we won’t make it to 8.

Ingredients:

15 T unsalted butter, plus extra to grease the pan

7 oz. bittersweet chocolate, broken

1 C sugar

4 X-large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 t instant coffee granolas

1/2 t kosher salt

1/4 C all-purpose flour, plus extra for the pan

Whipped cream for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour an 8” springform pan.
2. Place a large heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, making sure the water foes’t touch the bowl.  Put the butter and chocolate in the bowl, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate melts.  Take the bowl off the heat and set aside.  
3. First, whisk the sugar into the chocolate mixture, then whisk in the eggs, coffee, and salt, whisking until the mixture is combined and smooth.  Sprinkle on the flour and fold it in with a rubber spatula until it’s incorporated.  
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place it on a sheet pan.  Bake for 30-4- minutes, until the top puffs up and cracks and cake doesn’t wobble when you jiggle the pan.  (The baking time of this cake is sensitive to the pan size and no two 8” pans are exactly the same.  Start checking the cake after 25 minutes.)(This was good advice.  I could tell at 25 minutes that mine would be perfect at 30 minutes.)
5. The cake will deflate as it cools. run a small knife around the cake and remove the sides of the pan.  
6. cut the cake in wedges and serve warm or at room temperature with Sweetened Whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche.