Original Food Dude

The art of cooking. The science of food.

Category: Desserts

Pumpkin Tres Leches

 

Let’s make this one go viral folks, pumpkin tres leches is one of the best things to ever grace my kitchen counter.

Inspiration

Tres Leches is one of my all-time favorite desserts.   I love the taste, the texture, and I love the Al Pastor tacos and Naranja Jarritos that precede it.  Throw in your favorite Novella and you have yourself an authentic Mexican Restaurant experience.  It is made by baking a sponge cake then soaking it is a mixture of cream, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk, how can you go wrong with that.

In fact, when I did my oral presentation of my dissertation in graduate school I brought a tres leches can for the examiners to eat while I presented to them.  Easiest questions I’ve ever had..

Whole cardamon ready to be roasted and ground.

In the US we love our Mexican food.  Its been years now since salsa has become the top condiment in the US replacing ketchup.  Good call people.   I particularly love Mexican food, in almost all of its variations.  I say almost all because I still struggle with Mole, it made me really sick once and I still haven’t forgiven it.

My love for Mexican food (at the expense of my waistline) comes from a lot of things in my life but primarily it comes from my high school days in South Texas.  I lived about an hour and a half north of the Mexican border during school and would go to a bunk house on the ranch in the summer that was maybe 30 minutes north of the border.  We had all the Mexican food you could want.

One of my favorite things was a Tex-Mex dish they call carne guisada.  It is basically the Mexican flavored version of beef stew, but with fresh tortillas and a guacamole salad, it is amazing.  It literally means cooked meat.  But with the cumin, chilis, and garlic it turns in to a magic meal.

My adventures in Mexican food didn’t end with South Texas.  I then served a two-year mission in the desert of Southern California, speaking only Spanish.  During that two years, I gained a great appreciation for the Latin cultures.  I got to know and love people from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, and El Salvador.  I got to try different foods from chicharrones to lengua, menudo to mole, and completos to empanadas.

Out of all of my experience came a truly deep respect and love for the flavors that Mexican and many other Latin foods provide to us.  Honestly, what would I eat for my quick meal if it wasn’t for tacos, and my boys sure love their quesadillas (but who doesn’t)?

 

Que Pasa Calabasa…

My dad’s favorite Spanish phrase is “¿Que pasa calabasa? Nada nada límonada”.  It means “What’s up pumpkin? Nothing nothing lemonade.”  Makes no sense in English but seems super funny in Spanish.

If you look at the squash group of plants, pumpkins included, they are a New World crop.  There weren’t squash in Europe until the Americas were settled.

Pumpkin is what makes fall so amazing.  It spices up our Thanksgivings, makes amazing cookies, bread, soups, vinegar, and even creme brulee (coming I promise).  Apparently, there is even a Great Pumpkin that does some awesome things according to Linus.

 

Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch...

 

How to..

Start with a diet Dr. Pepper.  That is the first step to any meal that takes some work in preparation.  After all, you are only as good as your motivation.

Ok, now seriously.  Start by preheating your oven to 325º F.

Cream eggs and sugar together in a mixer.  This step is super important because you are creating a sponge cake that will be “open” to absorb the three milks of tres leches.  The creaming incorporates air into your batter creating a fluffier texture.  A word of caution though, over creaming can cause separation so there is a happy medium.  A few minutes in a mixer is great.

Mix flour, spices, and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Add the pumpkin, vanilla to the sugar mix.  Beat together.

In small doses add the dry ingredients (flour, etc.) to the wet (eggs, etc.).  Mix it in just until combined.

Place your batter in a 9×9  pregreased pan.

Bake for 30 min.  Or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.

While it’s baking combine the cream, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk.  Whisk together.

Cool cake until it’s easily touchable, then pierce it with a  fork.  That’s it take out all your frustration on that cake.

Pour the milk mixture over the cake and cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight if possible.

Serve however you like, but I like whipped cream and cinnamon on top.

If you want to celebrate the fall in a novel way throw this amazing pumpkin tres leches in your list of fall dishes.  Your family will thank you for it.

Pumpkin Tres Leches

Yum yum, pumpkin, fall, drooollll...

Ingredients

  • 2 2/3 cup flour
  • 3 tsp spice mix 2 parts cinnamon, 1 part cardamon, 1 part allspice, 1 part nutmeg
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 4 whole eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

 

 

Torta Caprese (Chocolate Almond Cake)

Torta caprese – chocolate, almonds, rum, vanilla… are you drooling yet?

 

 

I’ll wipe the drool off my keyboard and keep typing.

How it all began

My wife is a huge fan of desserts, I secretly am too.  Probably not a secret.  A few years ago a close friend was dating a girl who had a lot of allergies.  She and my wife became close friends really quickly, so we had them over for dinner.  One of her worst allergies was gluten.  So I was tasked with a gluten-free dessert that was delicious.  Honestly, that is not always an easy task.

 

I decided on a flourless chocolate cake.  Using almond flour as a replacement for the substance of flour and flavoring with some of my own vanilla (rum-based).  Then I found out that this cake had a name.  It is called Torta Caprese.  It comes from the Isle of Capri in  Italy and is an almond and chocolate cake that typically is flavored with some kind of liqueur.

The Story Continues…

So back to the friend and his girlfriend.  They broke up, and my wife told him ” Don’t bring any more girls around until you are gonna marry them because I’m tired of becoming friends with girls that I won’t get to see again.”  Or so we thought.

 

About six months later we saw her at church in our little community (she lived like 30 min away).  She had married our new neighbor’s son and now comes up and sees my wife all the time.  They are still really close friends.  I like to think it’s because of the Torta Caprese.

 

Maybe if you make it for a new friend you can develop a lifelong friendship, that’s what good food does.

Sciency Stuff

So here is the nerd section, if you are looking to get your chocolate fix quick skip on to the recipe, otherwise, fasten your seat belt I’m about to hit you with some science.

 

In traditional cakes (bread, biscuits, etc.) wheat flour serves one main purpose.  That is to create a structure that will incorporate air and allow the cake to feel fluffier and not so dense.  This is usually accomplished using some sort of leavening agent (yeast, baking soda, baking powder, or even steam sometimes).  The byproduct of the leavening agents is typically carbon dioxide, which is released as a gas into the glutenous structure.  The structure catches the carbon dioxide in small pockets that are surrounded by the gluten proteins that have been interlinked in the batter preparation.  That structure and carbon dioxide is what makes cake fluffy.  Other ingredients can and are added to mess with the structure and reaction.  Moral of the story is gluten (wheat flour) and baking powder make cakes not feel like a brick.

 

There-in lies the problem with flourless cakes.  How can you have a light cake without flour?  In comes the savior in this circumstance, egg whites.  You see the egg whites in and of themselves would do very little to lighten your gluten-free chocolate rock, but when we cheat and incorporate air into them they serve the same purpose as the gluten  & gas duo does in the traditional cake.  Egg white proteins (mainly ovalbumin) when beaten begin to interlink and create pockets where air from the constant beating becomes trapped.  The more you beat the stronger the linkings and the fuller the pockets (up to a point you can ultimately break the entire structure)that’s why you can have soft peaks, firm peaks and even shiny peaks with egg whites.

 

When this protein and air composition is incorporated into a flourless cake it lightens the entire cake by increasing the air to cake ratio in a serving.  The reason we fold beaten egg whites in is simply to protect the structure and not collapse it before we can enjoy it.

 

There you go, nerd stuff done, now on to the post.

 

This cake creates a beautiful crust with a sublimely moist center.  It is definitely a favorite in my household.  Every crumb is cleaned up every time.

 

Recipe

4.5 from 2 votes
Print

Torta Caprese

A moist and decadent chocolate cake that satisfies every sweet tooth, even the gluten free ones.

Course Dessert
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 8
Author dangenho@gmail.com

Ingredients

  • 2.25 cup Almond Flour
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • 1.25 cup Dark Chocolate Chips
  • 10 tbsp Butter
  • 4 Eggs Divided
  • 1 tbsp Vanilla (Real Stuff Only)
  • 2 tbsp Cinnamon (Optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 

  2. In a double boiler, melt butter and chocolate together.   Remove from heat and cool, then stir in vanilla.

  3. In a separate bowl mix sugar and almond flour together, if you are adding cinnamon mix it in with sugar mix. 

  4. Separate the eggs beat the yolks until smooth and stir them into the chocolate mixture.

  5. Beat the whites until soft peaks form. 

  6. Mix in sugar and almond with chocolate.  Will stay kind of gritty looking because of the almond flour.

  7. Fold in the egg whites, gently. 

  8. Bake for 30 min or until you can stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean. 

  9. Serve with fresh whipped cream and fruit, or just dust with powdered sugar. 

Recipe Notes

I use my own vanilla.  I produce it with rum as the alcohol base and use only Tahitian beans.   I hand scrape my vanilla beans for a truly artisan experience and an unmatched flavor profile.  I'll post some more info about it soon. 

 

 

Flipping Incredible Cannoli Tart

Ok ok ok, I know that is a huge claim but I promise this cannoli tart will live up to the Napoleon Dynamite-ish title, after all it was filmed in the town I live in so I guess I should talk like him.

The best thing about this is how simple it is, it would be great for a simple treat to make with your kids.  But let’s be honest with each other though, you’ll make this cannoli tart and hide them from your kids, I know what’s up.

For those of you that have never had a cannoli … life begins now.  Those little devils are delicious.  Too delicious.

About Cannoli

Typical cannoli are made by filling a tubular shell with a riccota cheese mixture.  Its tube shape is where the name comes from, cannolo is the singular form of cannoli meaning “little tube” (so saying cannolis is wrong but I still do it).  The shell is a pastry made with white wine as the moisture to create a unique flavor and texture when fried.

Ghirardelli you are my friend

Cannoli are a traditional Sicilian desert and came to the Americas with Sicilian immigrants.   I can never talk about Sicilians without thinking of the Princess Bride, hahaha classic Vizzini.

Historically cannoli were made by nuns in the convents that would sell them around Carnivale (Mardi Gras).

Cannoli Tart

So why change a classic?  For two reasons:  because I can, and because I also love almond flour tarts, I mean who doesn’t (unless you have nut allergies, in which case sorry ’bout this post).  Also a cannoli tart just sounds so awesome, right?

Button to buy Braun food processor

Click here to get a great food processor, I use this one that my super awesome fantastic wonderful wife bought me for Christmas and it is worth every cent, we love it.

In order to make this recipe you need riccota, now if you are  in for a little more work you could make your own riccota from whey.  You can also buy riccota from the store, I won’t judge.  Either way is delicious.

Recipe

Serves: My Wife (she asked for this for her birthday but doesn’t want to share)

Prep Time: 10 min ; Cook Time: 10 min

Ingredients

  • Tart Shell
    • 2 cups almond flour
    • 2 tbsp butter
    • 3 tbsp white wine
    • 3 tbsp sugar
    • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • Filling
    • 1 3/4 cup riccota cheese
    • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
    • 1 tsp vanilla
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
    • Chocolate Chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Tart Shell

First of all pulse the almond flour a few times in a food processor to ensure it is smooth.   Next add other ingredients and blend until the almond flour sticks together.

Sticking together

Then press the almond flour dough in to pregreased mini tart pans.

Be sure and fill them well.

If you don’t have a mini tart pan use a muffin pan or click the image to get one.

Button to buy mini tart pan

Bake these in the oven for about 10 min, or until golden brown.  You want to make sure they are done enough to stick together so if you oven runs hot, lower the temp and bake a little longer.

Filling

Add the riccota, vanilla, and powdered sugar to the food processor with a mixing blade (you can mix by hand or with a Kitchen Aid).

That is tahitian rum vanilla, I will show you how to make it some day

So here is the trick, do not, I repeat do not use preground cinnamon and nutmeg in this.  I will be posting a post as to why, but the short answer is they just aren’t near as good.  Get some real cinnamon sticks and whole nutmeg and grate them with a micro plane.  I’m serious, put down the powdered stuff.

Next add the cinnamon and nutmeg (grate it in).  Should smell amazing, like some exotic spa in Tahiti.

We love cinnamon

Blend all this until smooth then add the chocolate chunks.  I break up Ghirardelli 86% dark chocolate bar because I’m intense like that.

Cinnamon, chocolate, and nutmeg how can you go wrong?

Next blend in the chocolate chunks.  Then throw the filling in the freezer for a bit while the shells are cooling so it firms up.

Shiny and scrumptous

Finally fill each shell with as much filling as you can fit.  Then take that micro plane and grate a little chocolate on top for a nice presentation.

This cannoli tart is a great treat any time of the year.  They are simple and delicious, always a winning combination.  Peace out Napoleon.

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