Chocolate-Orange Madeleines

From the kitchen ofOne Perfect Bite...I have a weakness for cakes or cookies that combine chocolate with a bit of orange. Having said that, it will come as no surprise to learn that one of my contributions to the bake sale I mentioned to you earlier in the week, would be a cookie that used them both. Many will argue that madeleines are small sponge cakes rather than cookies. Traditionally, they are baked in molds that have a shell-like depression which gives them their distinctive shape. The original versions of these petit cakes were made with a genoise cake batter that is somewhat lighter than a sponge but no less delicious. This version is heavier and has a more compact crumb that its classic cousin, but the flavor is so sublime that you will not miss the lightness. I found this recipe why scanning through the cookies on the Food52 website. The photo of the madeleines was arresting and caused me to give more than a cursory glance to the recipe. If the orange and chocolate combination had not stopped me, the recipe's minimal use of sugar was a clear sign that this cookie had to be tried. And try I did. And did. And did. I, obviously, really loved these cookies and recommend them to all of you who favor things that are not too sweet and border on sophistication in their simplicity. You will like these. Be sure not to over-bake them. I pulled mine from the oven at the 12 minute mark to assure they would retain some moisture and not be too dry. I have only one madeleine pan, so I made 12 of the cookies in the molds and used miniature muffin cups for the rest of the batter. I think these are best eaten the day that they are made but they keep reasonably well if they are frozen or stored in an air-tight container.  I hope you'll give this simple recipe a try. You won't be sorry. Here is how the chocolate-orange madeleines are made.

Chocolate-Orange Madeleines...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Food52

Ingredients:
1 stick of unsalted butter
3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
zest from 1/2 an orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons orange liqueur
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 ounces of good semisweet chocolate
pinch salt

Directions:
1) Position a rack in center of oven and preheat to 360 F degrees.
2) Place butter in bowl of an electric stand mixer and whip on high speed for 2 minutes.
3) Add sugar and orange zest, and keep mixing for another minute or so on high speed. Add eggs one by one. Add another one only after the previous one is well mixed. Add salt, vanilla and orange liqueur and mix for a little longer.
4) Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a separate bowl. On low speed, add flour mixture to wet ingredients in 3 batches, mixing just until incorporated. Over beating will make dough tough.
5) Cut chocolate into small pieces. Melt chocolate in the microwave for about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, or until it just starts to melt. Mix well to melt all pieces. Cool for few minutes and then incorporate into dough with a spatula.
6) Oil a Madeleine pan and sprinkle a bit of sugar in each indentation. Put a very full tablespoon of batter into each indentation to just fill it. The dough is very sticky, but try to flatten it a bit.
7) Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until cookies have risen (mostly in the middle) and springy. Let pan cool for 15 minutes and then turn cookies out onto a cooling rack, shell side up. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Yield: 18 cookies.







One Year Ago: Irish Celery and Apple Soup

















Two Years Ago Today: A Formula for Turkey Meatloaf
















Three Years Ago Today: Cranberry Cocktail















Four Years Ago Today: Andalusian Salad with Oranges, Olives and Avocados

Pumpkin Freezer Cake with Mascarpone Cheese and Orange Liqueur

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Several years ago, Christopher Kimball publicly confessed that his favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner was dessert. I've never viewed myself as a slavish follower, and like to think that my opinions are my own, but  when it comes to holiday meals, and desserts in particular, I think I'm channeling him. I love most of the old favorites associated with Thanksgiving, and, in any given year, a ridiculous number of them appear on my holiday table I do, however, try to expand our horizons, so each year I make an effort to come up with a new dessert to add to the collection. The results are not always successful. When I am good I am very, very good, but when I m bad I am horrid. Fortunately, I have a winner to share with you this year. My goal was to create a dessert that could be made several days ahead of time and plucked from the freezer for serving. Cheesecake came to mind, but I wanted to create a version that would be light enough to serve following a holiday meal. I think I was able to accomplish that with this recipe. The cake, which relies on pumpkin, mascarpone cheese and orange liqueur for flavor, is really easy to make, but it has to go through a freeze and thaw cycle before it can be served. Once you've mastered its timing you've mastered the cake. It can be made and frozen a week before you need it. If you thaw it at room temperature, the cake will become too soft to serve neatly and you'll have a hot, albeit delicious, mess on your hands. If you thaw it as suggested in the recipe below, you won't have any problems. I really think you'll like this cake. I made it as part of the early holiday dinner we shared with friends and it was really well received. The Silver Fox has requested it for our "real" Thanksgiving holiday and I'm delighted to oblige. Here's the recipe for your consideration.

Pumpkin Freezer Cake with Mascarpone Cheese and Orange Liqueur...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
3-1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons water
6 large egg yolks
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided use
1 quart whole milk, divided use
1 ( 15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 cups mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup orange liqueur
1 box cinnamon graham crackers

Directions:
1) Sprinkle gelatin over water in a small bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes.
2) Mix yolks, cornstarch, salt, 1-1/2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of milk and in a large bowl until ingredients are combined.
3) Heat remaining 3 cups of milk in a large saucepan large saucepan, just until it beginsto steam. Whisk 1 cup of hot milk into the yolk mixture. Pour mixture into milk in saucepan and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until boiling and thick, about 5 minutes. Whisk in pumpkin puree and cook for 1 minute. If gelatin has set, microwave it for about 30 seconds. Remove saucepan from heat and whisk in gelatin, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice. Add mascarpone and whisk until blended.
4) Place orange liqueur in a custard cup. Add reserved 1 tablespoon sugar and microwave at high power for 10 seconds, or until sugar is dissolved.
5) Crush 3 whole graham crackers into crumbs and set aside. Place one-third of remaining graham crackers in bottom of a 10 x 10-inch or an 11 x 7-inch baking dish. Lightly brush them with orange liqueur and top with one-third of pumpkin custard. Repeat layering of crackers, liqueur and custard two more times, ending with a top layer of custard. Sprinkle reserved crushed graham crackers on top of custard. Press plastic wrap directly on surface of cake and freeze overnight. Transfer cake to refrigerator about 6 hours before serving. When ready to proceed, remove cake from refrigerator and cut into squares. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour before serving. Yield: 12 servings.

Cook's Note: Cake can be made and frozen for up to 1 week before serving.

One Year Ago Today: Curried Butternut Squash

Two Years Ago Today: Farfalle with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Three Years Ago Today: Hungarian Mushroom Soup

The Salty Chichuahua

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I suspect it started when the children were young and birthdays were marked with separate celebrations for family, friends and school. We, somehow, have never put that aside and birthdays in our home are like Carnival, sans parade and fireworks. The Silver Fox will be celebrating a seventy "ish" birthday on Monday and the festivities begin today with a meal at his favorite restaurant. Tomorrow, we do brunch at home. In addition to smoked salmon pizza and sundry other treats that will be shared over time, the fiesta will begin with this lovely peach-hued creation, called a Salty Chihuahua. The drink is a cross between a salty dog and a margarita, and, in addition to being served in a glass with a salted rim, it contains tequilla, orange liqueur and pink grapefruit juice. I not fond of mixed drinks, but even I like this one. It really is delicious and, if you overlook the alcohol, the vitamins in the juice might actually convince you it's good for you. The best part of this drink is that it's easy to make and requires no special mixing equipment. I suspect most of you have already tried this, but I'm including a recipe for those who have not. The quantities in the recipe are for one drink. Here's how it is made.

The Salty Chihuahua...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Shine

Ingredients:
1 ounce tequilla
1/2 ounce orange liqueur
3/4 cup pink grapefruit juice
Coarse salt
Ice cubes
Grapefruit slice or mint for garnish

Directions:
Wet rim of glass with water and coat with coarse salt. Fill glass with ice cubes. Pour tequilla and orange liqueur over ice cubes. Top with 3/4 cup grapefruit juice and stir. Garnish with grapefruit or mint. Yield: 1 servings.







One Year Ago Today: Chicken Enchiladas Verdes














Two Years Ago Today: Ricotta Gnocchi








You might also enjoy these recipes:
Tequilla-Grapefruit Cocktails from Fine Cooking Magazine - The Mom Chef
Pink Grapefruit Smoothie - One Perfect Bite
Sparkling Citrus Punch - Sweet Life
Grapefruit Martini - Table Talk
Grapefruit Margaritas - Confections of a Foodie Bride
Hot Grapefruit Tea - Dinners and Dreams
Boozy Rouge Cocktail - 2 Frugal Foodies
Refreshing Grapefruit Sangria - Spryte's Place
Gin and Grapefruit Cocktail - Gourmet
Brian's Blue Grapefruit Martini - Cooking by the Book


This post is being linked to:
Pink Saturday, sponsored by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

Margarita Cheesecake

Photo courtesy of B.J. LaCasse, Fine Texas Cuisine

The Lure


The Finished Product

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite... They say third times a charm. There must be some truth to that, because it took me that long to get this cake right. I've made lots of cheesecakes over the years, but always keep coming back to my old favorite develop by Craig Claiborne for the New York Times. I thought for sure I'd found one to best it when I came across a recipe for a Margarita Cheesecake in Jon Bonnell's, Fine Texas Cuisine. While the directions were imprecise, I thought I could work my way through the omissions and still come up with a gorgeous cake. It didn't work that way. No pan size was given and I learned, to my chagrin, that a standard 9-inch springform pan wasn't large enough for the volume of batter the recipe produced. When the three hours it should have taken to bake the cake turned to four, I realized that that a convection oven was probably used to test the recipe. The biggest disappointment was the appearance of the cake. It bore no resemblance to the gorgeous photograph that lured me to the recipe in the first place. I realize that recipes used in restaurants don't always transpose to the home kitchen. This may have been one of those cases, but it is clear to me that the recipe was never tested in a home kitchen or these omissions would have been caught. The thing is, I didn't pay for the cookbook or three pounds of cream cheese to learn that this way. I groused a bit, actually I cussed a lot, but I was determined to make a Margarita Cheesecake. I did that by going back to ground zero. I added orange liqueur, tequila, lime juice and zest to Craig Claiborne's recipe and ended up with a fabulous cheesecake that's worthy of the fifth of May or Mother's Day. Here's the recipe that worked.

Margarita Cheesecake...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, inspired by Craig Claiborne

Ingredients:
1⁄2 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
2-1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2-1/2 tablespoons orange liqueur
2-1/2 tablespoons tequila
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3⁄4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs

Directions:
1) Move oven rack to lowest position in oven and preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 3-inch deep 8" round one-piece cake pan all the way up to and including its rim with butter.
2) Combine lime zest, lime juice, orange liqueur and tequilla in a small bowl. Set aside.
3) Place cream cheese into bowl of a standing mixer and beat on medium high, scraping sides and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula often, until completely smooth. Beat in vanilla and sugar well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, but do not overbeat. Stir in juice and liqueur mixture lemon zest and juice with a spatula or spoon.
4) Generously spray buttered cake pan with nonstick spray, then pour in batter. Place cake pan inside a larger 3-inch deep pan. Place it in oven and pour hot water into larger pan, about 1-1/2-inches deep. Bake until top of cake is rich golden brown and feels dry when touched, about 1-1/2 to 1-1/2 hours (cake will be soft inside and become firm when cooled and refrigerated).
5) Lift cake pan out of water and place it on a cake rack. Let cake cool in pan for 3 hours. Cover pan with plastic wrap. Place a flat plate on top, invert, and remove pan. Sprinkle bottom of cake with graham cracker crumbs. Gently place another flat plate on top of crumbs. Very carefully invert again (without squashing cake), leave plastic wrap in place, and refrigerate cake overnight. Very carefully remove plastic wrap. Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Cook's Note: This is a soft cheesecake and can be difficult to cleanly slice. I actually put the cake in the freezer for an hour before cutting to assure clean looking slices.

You might also enjoy these recipes:

Mini Black-Bottom Cheesecakes with Jam - The Food Addicts
Mocha Cheesecake - Evil Shenanigins
Mini Red Velvet Cheesescakes - Slashfoods