• Salty Honey Panna Cotta with Crushed Raspberry Sauce

    March 9, 2020

    I’m baaaaaaack! It’s been a while, I know. Here’s the thing, I’ve been all over (mentally and physically), but really what happened was I went to England (!!!) to visit my sister Clare and then for some reason I needed several weeks to recover. I won’t go into all the details but we had the most wholesome time and I saw everything from the Tower of London to the (haunted) Viaduct Tavern. We did SO much walking, got our ears pierced (sorry Mom), and we saw SO many sights and quite frankly I’d like to move there thank you. But to be honest, I have been trying to write this same blog post for three weeks now, and I don’t know WHY its taken me so long to get it out because this was such a delicious and easy dessert to make.

    It all started when I was home and bored and flipping through my two (2) Alison Roman cookbooks because why not? It was a Saturday and I was looking for something to entertain me, I didn’t really want to go outside, after all. I came across this recipe and it sounded like the perfect combination of lazy and fancy, which is my entire Aesthetic™️. It’s made with several different types of dairy, including buttermilk, heavy cream, and sour cream, and topped with a bright and perfect raspberry smash, and all I’m saying is that people should expect this dessert at all my dinner parties for the rest of ever, thanks.

    If memory serves, this is one of the first Alison Roman recipes I’ve written about on Sweet D, I can’t believe it! She is a powerhouse of cooking things and I aspire to be as chic and clever as she is and basically what I’m getting at is that this might as well be an Alison Roman stan blog from now on. The most fun part about this recipe is that you can pour the custard into any containers you’d like really, which is why I used my collection of martini glasses and my brand new English tea cup, because who wouldn’t love to be served dessert from a tea cup, I ask you.

    Okay anyway, that’s enough of me ranting, here are 5 things to be happy about before we start cooking. Baking? Preparing? I don’t really know how to describe it for this particular dessert. Ah well, here we go!
    ONE. Taking a nice long walk on an unseasonably warm day.
    TWO. The sound of rain hitting the windows outside.
    THREE. Getting your hair blown out and feeling incredibly fancy for a day.
    FOUR. Being barefoot in your own house.
    FIVE. The feeling of being on vacation.

    Okay let’s go!

    Ingredients

    1 envelope (¼ ounces) unflavored gelatin
    ¼ cup water
    3 cups heavy cream, divided
    ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
    1 cup buttermilk
    1 cup sour cream
    2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
    Pinch of salt
    6 ounces fresh raspberries
    1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar


    Steps

    In a measuring cup, add the water and pour the envelope of gelatin over it. Allow to sit for 2 to 3 minutes so that it softens and hydrates.

    In a small pot, add the softened gelatin, ½ cup cream, and ½ cup honey. Heat over low heat, swirling until the gelatin is dissolved. Do NOT simmer, as it will denature the gelatin and prevent it from firming back up.

    Gently whisk the sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla, the remaining 2½ cups cream, and salt into a large bowl. Slowly whisk the warm gelatin mixture over the cream mixture, but make sure not to whisk so hard that air bubbles form. Divide the mixture among the glasses, it will be 6 to 10 glasses, depending on their size. Chill until set, 1 to 2 hours.

    In the meantime, add the raspberries to a bowl with the vinegar and 2 tablespoons of honey. Crush the raspberries with the back of a fork so that the juices are released, and stir to combine. To serve, top each panna cotta with the portion of the raspberries, and a drizzle of honey, if you’d like!

    YUM!!

    Want some more Sweet D? Look here, here, and here!

    Read More

  • Cinnamon Ice Cream

    February 4, 2020

    Soooo this all started because of a little show called Gourmet Makes. You know it? I hope so. If you don’t, it’s a Bon Appetit YouTube series where Claire Saffitz of the BA Test Kitchen reverse engineers different popular candies and snacks, to make them less processed and even tastier. Last week’s episode? Gourmet Ben and Jerry’s! She tried a series of flavors like pistachio, cherry garcia, and coffee chip, and by the end of the episode I wanted ice cream more than I’ve ever wanted it before. But, since it was almost 11:30 at night and all stores were closed, I had literally no choice but to order an ice cream machine on Amazon. I don’t make the rules, that’s reasonable, right?

    You know what’s so great about making ice cream? Once you have a good base recipe, you can play around with it any way you like, steeping the cream with different aromatics, swirling jams or chocolate into the mixture while it churns, you name it! I myself can’t wait for summer corn season, so I can make a blueberry jam swirl with a sweet corn base.

    But today’s recipe is inspired by a gelato that I used to eat (almost) every single day while studying abroad. The Gelateria was called Edoardo, and I would get the same two scoops in every cup- honey poppyseed, and cinnamon. When I tell you I still think about that cinnamon gelato at least once a day, I’m not lying. Now I know this is ice cream and not gelato and they are slightly different, the flavor is just as good. Real cinnamon is such a delicate, warming flavor, and when combined with a thick, vanilla custard, you will never want to eat another flavor. So naturally, instead of doing any Super Bowl related anything on Sunday, I made ice cream! And watched Chilling Adventures of Sabrina for the third time! A weekend well spent if you ask me.

    Anyway, before we get started, here are 5 things to be happy about today!
    ONE. Remembering a memory that had been foggy for so long.
    TWO. The Notes app on your phone holding all your random thoughts.
    THREE. Wearing your favorite outfit and feeling the confidence boost.
    FOUR. Remembering your reusable bag for a trip to the store.
    FIVE. Taking a risk that pays off.

    Let’s do this! Beware the brain freeze!

    Ingredients

    6 egg yolks
    2 cups heavy cream
    1 cup whole milk
    2/3 cup granulated sugar
    1 tsp ground cinnamon
    1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla bean, sliced in half)
    1/8 tsp fine sea salt

    Steps

    Add all the egg yolks to a medium bowl. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar until combined. In a saucepan, heat together the cream, milk, cinnamon sugar, salt, and vanilla bean paste (or split vanilla bean). Simmer this mixture until the sugar dissolves and remove from the heat.

    Whisking constantly, drizzle about a third of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolks, then transfer these tempered egg yolks to the saucepan with the rest of the cream. Return the pot to medium heat and cook slowly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Allow the cinnamon and vanilla to steep for 30 minutes at room temperature before straining.

    Cover the strained custard and chill for at least 4 hours, up to overnight.

    Churn the custard in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturers instructions. Once completed, it can be eaten immediately as soft serve, or store in the freezer for scoopable ice cream. Congratulations, you’ve made ice cream!! I’m gonna go eat some for dinner.

    xoxoxoxo

    Looking for more weekend projects? Look no further than here and here!

    Read More

  • Cherry Jam Coffee Cake

    January 21, 2020

    Does anyone else come home from work and shirk all other responsibilities to bake something instead? No? Just me? Okay cool, cool. Anyway, as you can guess, that’s exactly what I did last week when I came across some coffee cake inspiration. It all started when I saw a picture of some coffee cake on Instagram, and it had a beautiful layer of rhubarb laced through the middle. However, since it’s January and rhubarb is not exactly “in season”, I had to take another route. The base recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen and it can be found here, but I made a few tweaks and god it was so good. SO good in fact that I went back to my parents house this weekend and made another one within an hour of being home.

    The best part about this cake? Within an hour its prepped and in the oven, and it can be customized based on what you have on hand! The reason why mine had cherry jam? It was in the fridge and I didn’t feel like going to the store! The middle could have any other kind of jam, nutella, cooked fruit, or it could be served plain, it’s totally up to you. It’s also lovely with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, a drizzle of glaze, or with nuts mixed into the crumble. While it’s best eaten the day of, I can confidently tell you that I was eating it for three days as a “before dinner dessert”.

    Here are 5 things to be happy about before we get started!
    ONE. A spur of the moment trip.
    TWO. Little Women (2019).
    THREE. Eating dessert before dinner.
    FOUR. Coming in from the cold and getting under a warm blanket.
    FIVE. Sneaking your own candy into the movies.

    Let’s bake!

    Ingredients

    2 cups plus 2 tablespoons All Purpose Flour, divided
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    Dash of nutmeg
    ¾ teaspoon salt
    1¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
    1 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter, softened and divided
    2 eggs
    ½ cup whole milk
    1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
    1 cup cherry jam (or fruit of your choice!)

    How To:

    Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

    Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl down after each addition. In a liquid measuring cup, mix together the milk and vanilla.

    Turn the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the milk mixture alternately in batches, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined.

    Spread half the batter in the prepared cake pan. Spoon the jam over the cake batter, leaving a half inch border on all sides. Carefully drop the remaining batter over the jam layer in small spoonfuls, spreading evenly until the jam is fully covered.

    In a small bowl, mix the remaining ¼ cup of sugar, tablespoon of butter, and 2 tablespoons of sugar with your hands until crumbles form. Sprinkle the crumbles over the top of the cake. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes in the pan before removing. Best eaten warm with a cup of coffee because DUH, coffee cake!!!

    Looking for more quick desserts? Look here, here, and here!

    Read More