Tag Archives: party food

Pôts de Crème

This easy and elegant dessert is my go-to when we have people over for dinner. In fact, chances are if you’ve been over to our house for dinner, this is what I served you.

If I didn’t, please notify me immediately so that I can rectify the situation with an emergency dinner party.

I’ve never met a dessert before that was so delicious and so easy. Really, really easy. I know, everyone and their mother promotes recipes by saying ‘it’s really easy, guys!’ but this one–this one. This one is the real deal. You blend a couple things, and then chill the mixture. And that’s it. It’s one of the Pioneer Woman’s more brilliant recipes, and I bring it to you in step-by-step form today.

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract (or Kahlua, Baileys, Amarula, cognac, etc.)

1 pinch of salt

8 oz strong, hot coffee

First, my friends, let your eggs get to room temperature on the counter. If you forget to take them out ahead of time, run them under some tepid/warm water for a few minutes and they’ll warm right up.

Now grab your trusty blender and put in the chocolate chips and the eggs.

I chose to use a gross dirty old blender from Big Jake’s basement.

I should clarify for my hygiene-conscious friends: the glass receptacle is spanking clean. The gross and dirty part is the base, and that’s only because I don’t want to get close enough to clean it. But it chuggalugs along, and that’s all that I ask of it for now–we’ll talk about blender beauty pageants in future years.

Looks delish, eh?

Add the salt (a “healthy pinch”) . . .

And the flavoring. You can use vanilla extract, but you can also amp it up with a fun liqueur. Kahlua or Baileys are obvious choices.

I chose to use a bottle of Amarula from Aunt Laura. It was out of this world.

And there it all is! One big happy dessert-to-be.

Blend!

After things seem pretty homogeneous, and while it’s blending, pour the coffee into the blender in a slow, steady stream. I reiterate that it must be very, very hot. In fact, bring the coffee to a boil in your microwave just before adding it in–this has great bearing on the final texture of the dessert.

You can prepare a gourmet pot of espresso expressly for this purpose . . . or you can use instant coffee. I used a packet of Starbucks via mixed with some off-brand instant coffee to add strength.

Now say ‘espresso expressly’ ten times fast. If you can do it perfectly, you will receive a cool little prize from me.

The ‘cool little prize’ is my eternal admiration of your agile tongue. And aren’t the intangible prizes the most valuable ones? I mean, ultimately? Doesn’t the promise of my approval make you want to try your best?

What? You could care less about my approval? But I’m an older sister! Everyone must work to please me!

Wow, that tangent is headed for some kind of frenzied crisis, so let’s return to the chocolate that brought us here today. After about a minute of blending, you will have a creamy, chocolaty mess. Blend for an extra minute just to make sure everything has gotten married and become One Flesh. We don’t want granules of chocolate chips floating around trying to be independent.

Pour the mix into serving glasses.

Just leave plenty of room for the whipped cream that you’ll be heaping on them before serving.

It can be fun to use glasses of assorted shapes.

It adds a little whimsy to the whole sordid affair.

Now chill them in the fridge for 3-4 hours.

Right before serving, whip some heavy cream and pile it on. I whipped a little more Amarula into my cream the last time I made these, and it was fantastic.

You can fold in pieces of fruit, and top it off with chocolate shavings or little curls of orange peel if you’re feeling fancy.

I’m feeling fancy. Let’s pile on the chopped up chocolate!

Beautiful, eh?

Let’s take a bite.

So rich . . . so decadent . . . like silk on the tongue.

And just for fun, let’s add some chopped up canned mandarin oranges.

Don’t even get me started on the idea of adding heaps of fresh berries when the summer returns. *swooning* Fruit and chocolate were meant to be together.

I can’t seem to stop photographing these little beauties. And envisioning variations–such as stirring minced cranberries into the chocolate before chilling, to add a note of tartness. Or sprinkling some peanuts and macadamias on top right before serving–along the whipped cream. The whipped cream is one thing I’m not compromising on; it adds a necessary balance to the richness of the chocolate.

Make this dessert for your next dinner party! You can throw it together the night before, and it’s guaranteed to please everyone. Or you can always just make it for yourself. One batch should provide one fortunate individual with a dessert for every single night of the week. Now that’s an idea . . .

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Sugar Crunch Mini Pumpkin Muffins

I couldn’t tempt you all with the picture of the incredible mini pumpkin muffins my friend Cassia made for her wine-tasting party and then not share the recipe. It would have been cruel and unusual. “Cassia,” I whined, “can I pretty please have that recipe for my blog, pretty please, because if I don’t share it people might get reeeallly angry, and I don’t want a blogmob on my hands! I’m frightened and scared and the only solution is for me to haaaaaave that reeeecipe!” It turns out I didn’t have to whine at all. Within hours, she had emailed me the recipe with all her instructions.

I popped over to Target to purchase a mini muffin tin. It will have been money well spent . . . even if I only ever make these once.

Which is not going to happen.

I’m considering making them once per day for the rest of my life. Except that I also want to be able to fit into my jeans, which are the perfect dark wash. I don’t think I could find another pair like them. I’ll let you know my decision after 24 hours of careful thought.

Cassia found the recipe on this website and proceeded to modify it by absconding with the nuts and then sprinkling sugar all over them before baking. I firmly believe that the sugar topping is 100% necessary. The little crunch it produces is faint-inducingly good. Cassia didn’t make the frosting, and neither did I, but I’ll include the recipe just in case you want to give it a whirligig.

Ingredients

(makes 72 mini muffins)

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups sugar

2/3 cups water

2 cups pumpkin purée

4 eggs

3 ½ cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

Chopped walnuts, optional

2/3 c Cinnamon sugar mix

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Mix all of the ingredients together except for the cinnamon sugar and walnuts–first the dry ingredients:

And then the wet ingredients:

You won’t have to run your mixer for very long before it’s perfectly combined into a swirly orange fall festival that’s just begging to be dipped into immediately with a finger or two.

Fears of salmonella have never been able to keep me down.

Now let’s grease the mini muffin tin–I sprayed mine down with some baking spray. It feels so wrong, but also so right. Spoon the batter in. If you fill the little cups to the top, it will produce a larger mini muffin. I chose to make a variety. Or rather, my careless spooning produced a variety. But I say yes to diversity!

Sprinkle on some of the cinnamon sugar. With my first batch, I went pretty light on them:

But with the second batch, I really laid it on.

I like laying it on. I used about 2/3 tsp of cinnamon sugar per muffin in this second batch, but you must do what you feel is right.

If you’re a nutty kind of person, sprinkle the chopped walnuts on the top of each muffin, along with the cinnamon sugar.

The nuts by themselves are also vreeeerry good.

Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, or until the top springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.  For some reason, my muffins took more like 30 min. If you make regular-sized muffins, they will need to bake longer.  And lastly, if you choose to go the loaf pans route, you’ll need to bake it for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Let the muffins cool for 5 in the pan–or not. I popped them out immediately because I wanted to get the next batch started (yes, I only have 1 tin). They should pop out easily, but if not, you can always run a knife around the edges to loosen them. Let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Take a chomp while you’re at it. It’s called ‘quality control.’

Then try not to scream as you realize that the pile of muffins keep growing . . . and growing . . . and growing. They’re cloning themselves. It’s the only explanation.

Cream cheese frosting:

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Mix all the ingredients until smooth. When the muffins have cooled down, either make a hole in the bottom of them and pipe some into the hole, or cut them in half and spread frosting on the halves. Or spread frosting on top! You can also choose to spread the frosting all over your face. And hands. Just so you have an excuse to lick it off.

I also experimented with adding ginger salt to the tops. Definitely good. When I make these next, I’ll do all the different toppings so that I can offer a variety to my guests. Because when 72 little sugar-laden muffins are set loose in a household of 2, guests are an absolute necessity.

Tomorrow, the PW weekend series, part 1: the Lodge. For those of you who are getting antsy, please continue to look at this picture and take deep breaths:

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