God I love aliteration, don't you? But enough about my great title. Let's talk about the dessert!
The hands down best dinner party desserts are the ones you can make a day in advance. That way you don't need to use your oven for your dessert while you're also trying to use it to make your dinner. And it won't screw up your timeline, or require any effort while you're having post dinner conversation with your guests.
I've found that, generally, custards and cremes and things of that nature are pretty great dinner party desserts. Not only can they be made in advance, they actually demand that you make them in advance so that they have enough time to set.
The type of dessert I'm talking about here is the kind offered in fancy shmancy restaurants. So you're thinking, "uh oh! must be complicated!" right? Wrong! Panna cotta is surprisingly simple. And, as it turns out, so is pot de creme!
This recipe will help you put together adorable and delicious Bailey's Pot de Creme. Not your normal chocolate pot de creme, which means you won't compete with fancy restaurants where your dinner guests may have experienced pot de creme. Great plan, right? And the active time on this is only about 30 minutes. The dessert must be made with at least 4 hours of fridge time, but can be made with 24 hours of fridge time. So easy. So delicious. Giant win for you!
Ingredients: (This is to serve 8. I cut it in half)
1.5 cups of heavy cream
1/4 cup Bailey's liquer
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
8 egg yolks
Pinch of Salt
1. Mix together the heavy cream and the whole milk in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat and let stand.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt.
3. Whisk in the warm cream/milk mixture.
4. Mix in the Bailey's.
5. Strain the mixture into a 4 cup measuring cup.
6. Pour into pots de creme or small ramekins.
7. Place ramekins in a deep baking dish. Fill baking dish with hot water, up to a 1/2 inch below the rim of the ramekins. Cover the baking dish with foil. I recommend doing all of this on the stove top over your oven, because moving the baking dish is kind of scary!
8. Place the hot water bath in the oven. Bake at 325 for approximately 25 to 30 minutes, until the center of the pot de creme is just set.
9. Let the dishes cool on a wire rack. Once cool, cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.
And its that easy! How could this dessert not be delicious? It's almost entirely fat, sugar, and alcohol!
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Monday, October 26, 2009
A Witch's Brew
Happy Halloween!
I went to a Halloween party, and was assigned to bring the alcoholic beverages. Bummer! How do you make themed drinks that can keep up with the kids who got assigned dessert? Dessert is always the best for matching a theme.
Anyways, I perused the Internet, and decided to make two things. The first were jello shots, which I thought I could spruce up with gummy worms, awesome presentation, and bright colors. Here's the recipe I (pretended to?) used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tainted-Fruit-Shots/Detail.aspx
I made two batches. The first used strawberry flavored jello. I accidentally got my measurements wrong, and ended up with 1 3/4 cups of vodka and 1/4 cup of cold water, rather then the 1 1/4 cups vodka and the 3/4 water the recipe actually called for.
I put the mix into individual 3oz cups. I would have preferred black cups, but had to settle with what they had at Target, which were green. I placed them in the fridge for about an hour, then put the gummy worms in, so that the mix had solidified enough that the worms wouldn't just sink to the bottom.
The second batch, with the green jello, had the "correct" measurements. This batch never really solidified like the red batch did. It was great for taking them as shooters, but not so great for making rotten fruit. The jello wasn't really solid enough to transport outside of a cup. I ended up eating the rotten fruit myself! Gee. Such torture.
The way to make the rotten fruit is to slice an orange, and then sink the slices of rind into the slightly solidified jello. I'd use an 8x8 square pan, or something similar. When the jello is set (normally about 4 hours) you can cut the rinds out and then shape each one to look more like a slice. My picture gives you an idea of what they'd look like. Do-able, adorable. But a lot more work than the gummy worm shots.
I spruced up the presentation on my wormy shots by putting down a layer of "dirt" made of a mix of brown sugar and coffee, and then putting plastic spiders and additional gummy worms all over. This probably would have looked super cool if I'd used all green, rather than the mix of red and green.
I went to a Halloween party, and was assigned to bring the alcoholic beverages. Bummer! How do you make themed drinks that can keep up with the kids who got assigned dessert? Dessert is always the best for matching a theme.
Anyways, I perused the Internet, and decided to make two things. The first were jello shots, which I thought I could spruce up with gummy worms, awesome presentation, and bright colors. Here's the recipe I (pretended to?) used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tainted-Fruit-Shots/Detail.aspx
I made two batches. The first used strawberry flavored jello. I accidentally got my measurements wrong, and ended up with 1 3/4 cups of vodka and 1/4 cup of cold water, rather then the 1 1/4 cups vodka and the 3/4 water the recipe actually called for.
I put the mix into individual 3oz cups. I would have preferred black cups, but had to settle with what they had at Target, which were green. I placed them in the fridge for about an hour, then put the gummy worms in, so that the mix had solidified enough that the worms wouldn't just sink to the bottom.
The second batch, with the green jello, had the "correct" measurements. This batch never really solidified like the red batch did. It was great for taking them as shooters, but not so great for making rotten fruit. The jello wasn't really solid enough to transport outside of a cup. I ended up eating the rotten fruit myself! Gee. Such torture.
The way to make the rotten fruit is to slice an orange, and then sink the slices of rind into the slightly solidified jello. I'd use an 8x8 square pan, or something similar. When the jello is set (normally about 4 hours) you can cut the rinds out and then shape each one to look more like a slice. My picture gives you an idea of what they'd look like. Do-able, adorable. But a lot more work than the gummy worm shots.
I spruced up the presentation on my wormy shots by putting down a layer of "dirt" made of a mix of brown sugar and coffee, and then putting plastic spiders and additional gummy worms all over. This probably would have looked super cool if I'd used all green, rather than the mix of red and green.Every party needs some sort of punch. You can't survive on jello shots alone. I took some inspiration from the following recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/candy-corn-cordials-recipe/index.htmland then entirely changed everything around. I made the candy corn infused vodka, which didn't really taste like candy corn, but had an AWESOME bright orange color. I think if I did it again, I'd infuse the vodka overnight, rather than three hours, and just let the candy corn dissolve entirely into the vodka. When I served it, I used a handle of the vodka, a liter of sprite, a liter of 7-up, and half a bottle of orange liquer. It was a lot of punch. I had intended on using the lemon juice, but forgot to grab it in the rush to get out of my house. These things happen.
To make the punch more spooky, I also made "zombie hand" ice cubes, to float in the punch and keep it cool. Just take latex gloves, wash the outside throughly, then flip them inside out, and fill with water. Hang them in the freezer for 24 hours. When you want to use them, run them under hot water for a few seconds to loosen the latex, then peel it off. Watch out, because the fingers are delicate and will break, but that just makes the hands more creepy! 
The final trick for making a totally awesome witch's brew is dry ice. Create a sort of double boiler. I used a big silver basin, but it would have been cooler with a cauldron. Make some type of platform in the cauldron (I used a big pot), and then put water (any temp, but the hotter the water the more smoke you'll get) into the bottom. Add a few pieces of dry ice, and TA-DAAAAA! You've got a smokey witch's brew! You really don't need much dry ice to keep it smoking all night. 1lb, maybe 2, will probably be more than enough.
Other items worthy of a shout out at this party (add your recipes, please!):
The final trick for making a totally awesome witch's brew is dry ice. Create a sort of double boiler. I used a big silver basin, but it would have been cooler with a cauldron. Make some type of platform in the cauldron (I used a big pot), and then put water (any temp, but the hotter the water the more smoke you'll get) into the bottom. Add a few pieces of dry ice, and TA-DAAAAA! You've got a smokey witch's brew! You really don't need much dry ice to keep it smoking all night. 1lb, maybe 2, will probably be more than enough.Other items worthy of a shout out at this party (add your recipes, please!):
Katie's rotten deviled eggs
Lisa's finger cookies:
Floren's adorable chocolate pumpkin cake:
Rachel's AWESOME graveyard cake (she made those toppers herself!):
I don't have a picture of it, but Dean's pork tenderloin was delish and perfectly moist. Overall, everyone did a great job of working within the theme to come up with a great spread! Please post your recipes, and if you've got pics of your own dishes, let me know and I'll post them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
