Baking « (y)our food choices™

Love these simple, sweet or savory treats! The Yorkshire Pudding is a savory, meaty little puff of crusty bread baked in deep tins and plenty of meat fat. Today, we bake popovers in butter or bacon drippings, flavor them with sugar and sweet spice or savory herbs and cheese. They’re served at any meal as the perfect “mop” for syrups or sauces. The only thing I can think of to complain about is just how darned easy it is to eat too many of them. Fortunately, they keep very well in a plastic bag stored in your refrigerator. Just pull them out as you need them, re-warm them in the oven/toaster oven and snack away. They’re easy to make as evidenced by the recipe that follows. If you have a favorite modification or pairing, please leave a comment. We’d love to know.

Cheers,

Steve & Jason

Popover Recipe:

2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter or bacon drippings or beef drippings

Preheat oven to 425. Divide fat into medium dozen-hole muffin pan. Place muffin in preheated oven to melt/heat fat while mixing the batter.

In a blender, add eggs, milk, flour, salt and sugar and blend until smooth. Pour batter into hot muffin pan dividing evenly. Batter will come to just a little half way up the sides of each muffin hole. Place the muffin pan back into oven and bake for 15 minutes. Check the popovers after 15 minutes and rotate pan. Cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until popovers are nicely browned but not dark. Pull the pan out of the oven and remove popovers. Serve hot.

Are you looking for a chocolate dessert for your next potluck party that will leave friends and family licking their lips and asking for more? This holiday season, try Boca Negra, literally it means ‘black mouth.’ I found the recipe in the cookbook Baking with Julia as I was looking for an unusual and impressive chocolate desert that I could take to Thanksgiving dinner. It took only minutes to throw together in a food processor and baked for only 30 minutes. The dessert is easy enough for the beginner baker, but it’s impressive enough to be on the menu of any four-star restaurant.

The dark chocolate, pudding-like cake is served with a white chocolate ganache. Both the cake and the ganache are spiked with bourbon, a perfect companion to any chocolate dessert. But if you’re opposed to whisky or alcohol you can omit it from both recipes, or replace the bourbon with a different liquor of your liking. A dark rum would be a great substitute.

So if you are running out of time to make that perfect dessert and have a stockpile of chocolate in the kitchen, don’t run to Wal-Mart and buy a pre-made cake. Try making this decadent and rich dessert instead. You’ll be able to tell that everyone is enjoying the cake by their dark mouths as they tell you how wonderful it is. Of course, if you don’t hear a word from them and you see their plates are licked clean, you’ll know you hit the mark.

Instead of reproducing the recipe, here’s a link to Boca Negra, compliments of Dorie Greenspan and Serious Eats!

Bon Appetit!