Cherry-Chocolate Chewies

My love for meringues has been well documented:

Meringue Ghosts
Raspberry Pavlovas
Strawberry Colada Pavlovas
Peppermint Bark Meringues

But why not add one more variation to the list?

With a higher moisture-content, thanks to the bounty of tart, dried cherries running throughout, these two-bite treats have a purely chewy, marshmallow-y texture, without the exterior crunch of my usual meringues.

Even better the day after baking, these little chewies will last up to a week, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Cherry-Chocolate Chewies
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
2 large egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup finely chopped dark chocolate (I used Chocolove Strong Dark 70%)

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the sugar and the dried cherries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse for 20-second intervals until the sugar is evenly freckled with flecks of cherries.

Set aside.

Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer and beat until the egg whites are thick, foamy, and just able to hold a very soft peak.

With the mixer on low, add the sugar mixture one tablespoon at a time. Slowly add the vanilla and the chopped chocolate.

Transfer the mixture to a piping bag, and pipe out small "kisses" onto the prepared baking sheets. The kisses can be fairly close together, as the mixture should not spread much while baking.

Bake one sheet at a time at 300 degrees F. for 20 minutes, giving the sheet a 180-degree rotation halfway through. Allow cookies to cool for at least 5 minutes before using a spatula to transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Store in a zip-top bag or other airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

Makes about 30 little chewies.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Goat-Cheese-Stuffed Cherries

As I mentioned in the last post, I received a pretty stellar assortment of summer fruit tools as part of OXO's Blogger Outreach Program. Now I am not required to blog about all (or any) of the tools I receive, but when something makes my life easier and more fruitful (bad pun intended), I want to share.

Last time, I sang the praises of OXO's large fruit scoop, mango splitter, and pineapple slicer, but there was one more tool I simply had to get my hands on before we said adieu to summer: the cherry pitter.

I am a huge fan of fresh cherries, but eating them around my two-year-old can be a bit of a pain. She always wants what Mommy is eating, and giving her a big bowl of cherries with the pits intact is as good as scheduling myself a Heimlich-maneuver practice session. In the past I'd bite around the pit and hand her bits of the flesh as I'd go, or I'd forget about buying cherries in the first place.

Fortunately for me, the cherry pitter has changed all that. Now Oia and I can share a bowl of cherries, our fingers taking on deep shades of crimson, as we watch Dora the Explorer and prepare to take on the world.

This recipe is inspired by my love of the union of dark chocolate, cherries, and goat cheese, and by the easy-to-use OXO cherry pitter. I mean, after you put holes in a whole mess of cherries, it's only right to fill them with something yummy, don't you think?

This recipe can be made in whatever quantity desired, exact measurements not necessary.

The mascarpone adds creaminess, smooths out the texture of the filling, and slightly softens the flavor of the goat cheese. Though often compared to cream cheese, mascarpone tends to have a creamier mouthfeel, and a subtler (less tart) flavor, and a slight, inherent sweetness not found in commercial cream cheese. You could substitute cream cheese for the mascarpone if necessary, but you would probably want to add a little sugar to cut the tartness.

Goat-Cheese-Stuffed Cherries
Fresh, sweet cherries (such as Bing)
Equal parts fresh goat cheese (chevre) and mascarpone cheese, both at room temperature
Very dark chocolate (I used Endangered Species 88% cocoa), for finely chopping or grating

Wash the cherries and pat dry before pitting. Pit the cherries with the stem-sides up.

Beat together the cheeses until smooth and fluffy--the mixture will be somewhat firm but airier and very well combined.

Transfer the cheese mixture into a small piping bag, snip off a small opening at the end, and pipe a small amount of the mixture into the bottom of each cherry. The cherries will sit upside down (stem-side down), with the puffs of filling peeking out from the bottoms (now the tops).

Sprinkle the chocolate over the tops of the stuffed cherries and transfer to a platter to serve or to an airtight container to chill until ready to serve.

The stuffed cherries make an excellent sweet hors d'oeuvre for a cocktail party or a perfect tiny bite to serve with coffee at the end of a large meal. Minus the chocolate, they were also a pretty major hit with my two-year-old, who now can't stop asking for more stuffed cherries--yea! They'll keep well, stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Harvest Slaw with Fustini's White Balsamic

The Setting: Chilly weather and Cheerio-covered floors.

The Soundtrack: Nashville.

On the Stovetop: Cranberry Bliss Bars.

The Scenario: My favorite fall lunch.

A while back I wrote about my day trip to Holland, MI, and my purchase of delicious white balsamic vinegar from Fustini's Oils and Vinegars.

I promised I'd share some of my favorite uses for this underrated pantry staple, and it's finally time to deliver.

This crunchy, hearty salad is less of a recipe and more of a serving suggestion, as nothing need be measured or precise.

I call it Harvest Slaw because it's full of autumnal flavors like crisp pears, toasted pecans, and sweet dried cherries.

Usually these compatriots adorn a bed of something more delicate like baby spinach or spring mix. The bright hue of those greens provides a beautiful visual contrast that, let's face it, would have made for much more stunning photographs. But I have recently become an advocate of packaged slaw mix as a salad base.

Despite its wallflower coloration, cabbage (the primary component of slaw mix) is surprisingly full of micronutrients. In addition to being healthy, it tends to be much cheaper and much more shelf stable than the prettier pre-packaged greens--which means I can buy a couple bags of slaw mix just to have on hand, and they're much less likely to turn to slime in the fridge before I reach for them.

Here, their sturdy, crunchy texture and nondescript flavor provide a refreshingly easy-to-eat palette for a big bowl of crisp, creamy, warm, cool, tangy, and sweet.

Simlpy pour some slaw mix into a bowl.

Splash with white balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with freshly grated black pepper.

Add a chopped pear (I usually use the Comice variety).

Top with a crumbling of creamy blue cheese, and finish with some freshly toasted, chopped pecans and dried cherries (I like to add the cherries to the pan when I toast the pecans so they both bring a little warmth to the salad and help bring out the flavor of the cheese).

And if, like Hoosband, you can't call it a meal unless there's meat, feel free to add a little ham.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Tennessee Whiskey Tipsy Cake

The Setting: A mostly overcast Monday.

The Soundtrack: Oia's symphonic playtime.

Steaming up the Oven: Well, I should be cooking, but I can't stop eating Girl Scout Cookies. Darn my philanthropic nature.

The Scenario: Dessert number three from Music City in the Midwest: Cherry Chocolate Chip Tipsy Cake, featuring Tennessee's finest!

Depending on who you talk to in the South, "tipsy cake" could refer to one of two things. One version, supposedly popular in the coastal South as early as the 1700s (though my research on this is inconclusive at best), is like an English trifle, composed of sherry-soaked cubes of cake, custard, and berry jam. Also called a tipsy parson, it was known for making ministers get a little sloshy at Sunday luncheons.

While that does sound delicious, in my neck of the woods, a trifle was called a trifle, and a tipsy cake was more like a pound cake, soaked in Tennessee whiskey.

Now I am not a whiskey connoisseur. I'd like to be--my fictional badass alter-ego most certainly is--but, what can I say? I'd rather shoot tequila...or skeet.

This is all to say that I'm not one to get involved in a Dickel-v-Daniel's debate.

And Lynchburg and Cascade Hollow are virtually equidistant from Nashville, so I can't play the geography card.

However, when I told people in France I was from Tennessee, people with whom I could communicate very little because the only French I know comes from Lady Marmalade, their faces lit up suddenly and dramatically as they exclaimed, "Jack Daniel's!"

So there you go.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Tipsy Cake
In developing this recipe, I made one plain tipsy cake to start. It was delicious, but the cherries and chocolate elicit their own essences from the whiskey, which I think works really well in this cake.

1 stick (1/2 cup) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8-10 pieces
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup sweetened dried cherries, chopped

~for the whiskey syrup~
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 T water
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a Pyrex loaf pan and line the bottom with a strip of parchment long enough to hang over the short sides of the pan, forming "handles."

With an electric mixer beat the sugar and the butter together for 1 minute on low and then on med-high for 3 minutes or just until light and fluffy.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl or cup, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Set aside.

In another small bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

With the mixer on low, slowly stream the egg mixture into the butter mixture. Increase speed to med-high and beat two minutes. With mixer on low, add flour mixture and beat just to combine. Fold in cherries and chocolate chips. Transfer mixture to prepared pan and bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan, then run a knife along the edges to loosen before using the parchment "handles" to lift the cake out. Leave the parchment in place on the cake and return the cake to the pan.

Make the glaze: Place the butter, water, and sugar in a small saucepan over med-high heat and bring just to a boil. Remove from heat and carefully add the whiskey. Return to med-low heat and cook 5 minutes.

Poke the cake all over with a skewer. Pour the syrup over the top of the cake and into the holes. If syrup pools around the edges, carefully pour the excess syrup back into the saucepan and then pour it back over the holes and any dry areas.

Repeat until there is little-to-no excess syrup. Cool completely, cover with foil, and allow to set at least two hours before cutting.






Guest Feedback:
Average Score on a scale of 0-5, 0 being "Never again. Need to set my mouth on fire to extinguish the memory" and 5 being "Woohoo! When can I eat that again?" 4.75
Comments: "Hubby loved it."

This recipe was featured in a post called Music City in the Midwest for Foodbuzz.com's 24x24 event, for which 24 food bloggers from around the world are selected to host dinner parties within the same 24 hours and blog about them.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Bing Cherry Buckle

The Setting: A February Saturday night.

The Soundtrack: The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Steaming up the Oven: Bing Cherry Buckle.

The Scenario: Sometimes a cold winter night demands something sweet, warm, and comforting. Tonight I'm lucky to have three such things: Oia, Hoosband, and one of the easiest desserts you'll ever make.

I've written before about buckles (Peach Cobbuckle, Aug. 16, 2011), and if you happened to read that post before today, I sincerely apologize, as I just discovered a major omission (cake should contain some sugar, don't you think?). It's all fixed now though, so please pursue that recipe (and this one) with confidence.

One of my all-time favorite desserts, buckles are what I grew up calling cobblers and what some people call dump cakes (although that name tends to refer more specifically to the ones made with cake mix and canned fruit because all the ingredients are literally dumped right into the pan), but the main thing you'll be calling it is good.

The purple-red cherries make this a beautiful dessert to conclude a Valentine's Day dinner, and the ease with which it can be thrown together will leave you plenty of time for primping and perfecting your romantic rendezvous.

Bing Cherry Buckle
1 lb frozen, pitted Bing cherries
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
dash ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp plus a pinch kosher salt, divided
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk (skim is fine)

In a medium-sized bowl toss together frozen cherries, 2/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, both extracts, and a pinch salt. Stir thoroughly to distribute ingredients and wet the sugar as much as possible. Cover with plastic wrap and let thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes (the cherries will still be mostly frozen).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place butter in a 9"x13" baking pan and set the pan in the oven until the butter is melted (about 5 minutes).

In another bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and remaining 2/3 cup sugar. Add milk, stirring just enough to wet all the dry ingredients.

Pour flour mixture over melted butter without mixing. Give cherry mixture a final stir and distribute evenly over flour mixture without mixing (the batter will rise up to the top as it bakes). Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or till light golden, bubbly, and not too jiggly in the center (will take a little longer in a glass or Pyrex pan than in a metal pan). Serve immediately with Chantilly Cream or your favorite vanilla ice cream.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.