Entries tagged with “Lavender” from Sketchy's Kitchen
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
I thought about this for a while and asked some friends what type of cheesecake they would like. I offered up two options. Chocolate passion fruit or honey lemon lavender.
I checked Whole Foods and they actually had passion fruit. It was the first time in two years I have found actual passion fruit in Richmond. Usually you can only find a juice blend. The actual fruit is much tarter then the juice - which is cut with apple juice. This worked very nicely with the bittersweet chocolate. To alter the texture of the cheesecake, I used half cream cheese and half marscarpone cheese. The cheesecake was quite dense and solid. It cut very well, and held its shape. The crust stayed dry and had a really good texture. Three quarters of the cheesecake was distributed to neighbors. I Think I gave too much away.
Since the cheesecake came together so easily, I decided to make a second one. This time I made a honey lavender lemon cheesecake. I decided to experiment with this one. I made a lemon shortbread crust. This was one of the easiest crusts I have ever made. I made a little on the thick side, and I think that was a good idea. Once cooked, the crust had a wonderful lemon taste, with the dry crumb of a shortbread cookie. I used some lemon curd I had sitting in the ice box, mixed it with a small amount of the cheesecake mixture to prevent a bad memory from reoccurring. I once made a cheesecake with a lemon curd swirl - when I unmolded it, all the swirls separated and it fell apart. Cooked cheesecake and liquid lemon curd. Adding some of the batter lets the lemon curd fully incorporate/cook with the rest of the cheesecake, while still keeping the swirl look.
This cheesecake held its shape quite well, but was 100% creamier then the chocolate one. It even won over the neighbor who said that lavender would taste like cleaner. She loved it. I think it is the best cheesecake I have ever made. My wife even liked it, and she usually doesn't like cheesecake.
Unfortunately, I forgot take any pictures of the finished product
I thought about this for a while and asked some friends what type of cheesecake they would like. I offered up two options. Chocolate passion fruit or honey lemon lavender.
I checked Whole Foods and they actually had passion fruit. It was the first time in two years I have found actual passion fruit in Richmond. Usually you can only find a juice blend. The actual fruit is much tarter then the juice - which is cut with apple juice. This worked very nicely with the bittersweet chocolate. To alter the texture of the cheesecake, I used half cream cheese and half marscarpone cheese. The cheesecake was quite dense and solid. It cut very well, and held its shape. The crust stayed dry and had a really good texture. Three quarters of the cheesecake was distributed to neighbors. I Think I gave too much away.
Since the cheesecake came together so easily, I decided to make a second one. This time I made a honey lavender lemon cheesecake. I decided to experiment with this one. I made a lemon shortbread crust. This was one of the easiest crusts I have ever made. I made a little on the thick side, and I think that was a good idea. Once cooked, the crust had a wonderful lemon taste, with the dry crumb of a shortbread cookie. I used some lemon curd I had sitting in the ice box, mixed it with a small amount of the cheesecake mixture to prevent a bad memory from reoccurring. I once made a cheesecake with a lemon curd swirl - when I unmolded it, all the swirls separated and it fell apart. Cooked cheesecake and liquid lemon curd. Adding some of the batter lets the lemon curd fully incorporate/cook with the rest of the cheesecake, while still keeping the swirl look.
This cheesecake held its shape quite well, but was 100% creamier then the chocolate one. It even won over the neighbor who said that lavender would taste like cleaner. She loved it. I think it is the best cheesecake I have ever made. My wife even liked it, and she usually doesn't like cheesecake.Unfortunately, I forgot take any pictures of the finished product
The lavender is flowering, so I need an excuse to use some. I decided on marshmallows, honey-lavander-lemon marshmallows. Most people are amazed that I make marshmallows, but they are not that hard. I often find myself rattling off the recipe at request, so I've decided to post it up for you. The recipe makes basic marshmallows, but it is easy to add ingredients to drastically alter the flavor. I will give credit to the great Alton Brown for coming up with the base recipe.DISCLAIMER: You NEED a stand mixer!
Basic Marshmallow Recipe:
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 oz gelatin *
1 cup ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Take 1/2 cup of the water and add to the gelatin in the bowl of the stand mixer.
Add the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and the remaining 1/2 water to a pot, heat on medium, covered, for 4 minutes. Remove lid and attack your candy thermometer. You want the sugar to reach 240 degrees. Do not mix the sugar with a spoon, it can create crystals. When it reaches 240 degrees, remove from heat and remove the thermometer.
Attach the whisk attachment to your stand mixer, on low speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture. When all the mixture is in the bowl, turn the mixer on high and whip for 13 minutes. NOTE: hot gelatin is the most foul thing you will ever smell in your kitchen. I've done it with sheet gelatin and powdered, both smell foul.
While the sugar is whipped, prepare your pan. Take a 13 x 9 pan. I've used glass and metal. If you can find a straight edged metal pan (I got mine from sur la table) you will get better edges. I've not had problems turning marshmallows out of either pan. Back to the pan preparation. Mix the powdered sugar and corn starch. Spray the pan with non stick spray, then dust the pan with the corn starch mixture. Make sure to get the coating on the sides of the pan. Collect the extra powder and save for later use.
As the gelatin and sugar mix in the bowl, the temperature goes down, and the gelatin begins to set. At minute 13, stop the mixer and add the vanilla extract. Turn the mixer to low speed until the vanilla is incorporated, and raise the speed back to high. Whip for 2 more minutes. Now your marshmallows are ready to be formed. I'm only going to cover the rustic look here, if you want to read about the piped marshmallows, I will refer you back to the Good Eats listing.
From here on out, non stick spray is your friend. Marshmallows are the stickiest things I have ever worked with, but they are afraid of the non stick spray, so it's your friend :D Spray a spatula with non stick and turn the sticky mess into your prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly around the pan. If your spatula begins to stick, clean it and re-spray it. An even layer will make for attractive cut marshmallows. Once in the pan, dust the top of the marshmallows with the cornstarch mixture and let them sit uncovered for a minimum of 5 hours, I let mine sit overnight.
When you are ready to cut them, flip the brick out of the pan onto half of the remaining cornstarch mixture. Pizza cutters are your friend at this point. Dust both sides of the pizza cutter with corn starch and begin to cut a grid into the marshmallows. Once you have them cut, pull strips apart and dredge in the cornstarch. Every side needs to be covered, so I do strips at a time, then I separate the individual marshmallows and dredge the remaining sides. These will keep for 3 weeks in a ziplock.
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 oz gelatin *
1 cup ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Take 1/2 cup of the water and add to the gelatin in the bowl of the stand mixer.
Add the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and the remaining 1/2 water to a pot, heat on medium, covered, for 4 minutes. Remove lid and attack your candy thermometer. You want the sugar to reach 240 degrees. Do not mix the sugar with a spoon, it can create crystals. When it reaches 240 degrees, remove from heat and remove the thermometer.
Attach the whisk attachment to your stand mixer, on low speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture. When all the mixture is in the bowl, turn the mixer on high and whip for 13 minutes. NOTE: hot gelatin is the most foul thing you will ever smell in your kitchen. I've done it with sheet gelatin and powdered, both smell foul. While the sugar is whipped, prepare your pan. Take a 13 x 9 pan. I've used glass and metal. If you can find a straight edged metal pan (I got mine from sur la table) you will get better edges. I've not had problems turning marshmallows out of either pan. Back to the pan preparation. Mix the powdered sugar and corn starch. Spray the pan with non stick spray, then dust the pan with the corn starch mixture. Make sure to get the coating on the sides of the pan. Collect the extra powder and save for later use.
As the gelatin and sugar mix in the bowl, the temperature goes down, and the gelatin begins to set. At minute 13, stop the mixer and add the vanilla extract. Turn the mixer to low speed until the vanilla is incorporated, and raise the speed back to high. Whip for 2 more minutes. Now your marshmallows are ready to be formed. I'm only going to cover the rustic look here, if you want to read about the piped marshmallows, I will refer you back to the Good Eats listing. From here on out, non stick spray is your friend. Marshmallows are the stickiest things I have ever worked with, but they are afraid of the non stick spray, so it's your friend :D Spray a spatula with non stick and turn the sticky mess into your prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly around the pan. If your spatula begins to stick, clean it and re-spray it. An even layer will make for attractive cut marshmallows. Once in the pan, dust the top of the marshmallows with the cornstarch mixture and let them sit uncovered for a minimum of 5 hours, I let mine sit overnight.
When you are ready to cut them, flip the brick out of the pan onto half of the remaining cornstarch mixture. Pizza cutters are your friend at this point. Dust both sides of the pizza cutter with corn starch and begin to cut a grid into the marshmallows. Once you have them cut, pull strips apart and dredge in the cornstarch. Every side needs to be covered, so I do strips at a time, then I separate the individual marshmallows and dredge the remaining sides. These will keep for 3 weeks in a ziplock.
Now that we have that out of the way, how can I make flavored marshmallows, like the honey lavender lemon ones, or peach? There are two ways to add flavor to marshmallows. First is to use extracts. At the thirteenth minute, when you add the vanilla, you can add other flavors. To make the lavender ones I added 1/2 tsp of lavender extract, 1/2 tsp of lemon extract, about 20 fresh ground lavender blossoms, and 1/2 tsp of finely minced lemon rind. You could also add other flavors here. Orange extract works exceptionally well, as does spearmint, cinnamon, etc.
The second way to flavor marshmallows is to substitute ingredients. For the honey lavender, I subbed out 1/2 cup of sugar for 1/2 cup of fresh honey from lavender fields (near our house). When I made the peach marshmallows I subbed out all the water for fresh peach juice. I took 5 peaches and attacked them with an immersion blender ( I cut them up first). I strained the larger parts out and ended up with 1 cup of liquid. Half of that went in the gelatin, the other half went in the pot with the sugar. The peach was quite interesting. Half of the juice was cooked in the sugar, while the other half was flash cooked when it came in contact with the sugar syrup. The peach flavor was surprisingly strong, and did not have a cooked peach flavor.
*Gelatin use. I used powdered gelatin for the peach recipe (and all previous batches). I used sheet gelatin for the lavender marshmallows. The powdered gelatin was much more fluffy and light then the sheet gelatin. The texture of the sheet gelatin is not bad, just more dense and chewy. Both batches were light and fluffy, but the powdered was fluffier. Based on the cost, I'd stick to powdered. 3 packs of powdered gelatin is 3/4 oz, 15 sheets is also 3/4 oz.
With Thanksgiving a little under two months away, I need to
start prepping. I have menu's to formulate and vodka to steep! I'm a big fan of Limoncello. I've make a batch or two a year. It's quite easy to make, cheaper then buying
it off the shelf, and good for gifts. There
are many recipes out there. Many call
for two bottles of alcohol. I think that thins out the lemon flavor too much.
It has 4 ingredients. This is the recipe I use. Go to Target and get a large glass jar with a rubber-gasket sealed top.
1 Liter vodka - I look for the 100 proof
15 lemons
3 1/2 cups of water
2 ½ cups of sugar
It's quite simple to do - wash and zest your lemons. I really hate the little ring zesters, they tend to dig in too deep, and waste so much of the rind. A regular vegetable peeler will do a fine job removing the top layer of the lemon. Don't dig down too deep - you don't want any of the white pith, the pith will turn the flavor to the bitter side.If you see some, scrape it off with a paring knife.
Take all the lemon zest and place it in a jar. Add the vodka and seal the jar.Keep this at room temperature in a cool and shady place.Shake the jar lightly every day.When you are at your halfway point (3 to 4 weeks) make a 'simple syrup' with the remaining ingredients.When it has cooled to room temperature, add the syrup to the mixture and return it to it's resting place.
A few days before you want to serve the limoncello, strain the mixture through cheesecloth once or twice. The lemon peels will be close to white in color. Transfer the limoncello to a serving container (old vodka bottles work well).You need something that will freeze without breaking.Freeze the mixture for a few days, it will not solidify, but thicken and pale in color.Serve it right from the freezer in cordial glasses.
If you want to give away the limoncello as gifts, look for small glass bottles that can be corked or have sealed lids. Pier One has some, and so does Bed Bath and Beyond. Just remember to wash them first.
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Last year I made my dad some honey-lavender biscotti. I've been trying to come up with other cooking uses for all the lavender in my back yard. Lavender goes very well with lemons, I think I will drop a few sprigs into the seeping lemons. It will also give me an excuse to harvest and dry the flowers. When the limoncello is halfway done, you can sample the flavor. It will blend more with age, but the halfway point is a good place to adjust flavors. If it needs more lemon, toss in some fresh zest, more sugar, add more syrup, etc.
I've tried using orange zest, the flavor is there, but it is too mellow. One of the great things about the lemons is the punch. The flavors are very strong. I suspect limes, or possibly grapefruit would infuse well, but the oranges just didn't do it for me.
It has 4 ingredients. This is the recipe I use. Go to Target and get a large glass jar with a rubber-gasket sealed top.
1 Liter vodka - I look for the 100 proof
15 lemons
3 1/2 cups of water
2 ½ cups of sugar
It's quite simple to do - wash and zest your lemons. I really hate the little ring zesters, they tend to dig in too deep, and waste so much of the rind. A regular vegetable peeler will do a fine job removing the top layer of the lemon. Don't dig down too deep - you don't want any of the white pith, the pith will turn the flavor to the bitter side.If you see some, scrape it off with a paring knife.
Take all the lemon zest and place it in a jar. Add the vodka and seal the jar.Keep this at room temperature in a cool and shady place.Shake the jar lightly every day.When you are at your halfway point (3 to 4 weeks) make a 'simple syrup' with the remaining ingredients.When it has cooled to room temperature, add the syrup to the mixture and return it to it's resting place.
A few days before you want to serve the limoncello, strain the mixture through cheesecloth once or twice. The lemon peels will be close to white in color. Transfer the limoncello to a serving container (old vodka bottles work well).You need something that will freeze without breaking.Freeze the mixture for a few days, it will not solidify, but thicken and pale in color.Serve it right from the freezer in cordial glasses.
If you want to give away the limoncello as gifts, look for small glass bottles that can be corked or have sealed lids. Pier One has some, and so does Bed Bath and Beyond. Just remember to wash them first.
--------------
Last year I made my dad some honey-lavender biscotti. I've been trying to come up with other cooking uses for all the lavender in my back yard. Lavender goes very well with lemons, I think I will drop a few sprigs into the seeping lemons. It will also give me an excuse to harvest and dry the flowers. When the limoncello is halfway done, you can sample the flavor. It will blend more with age, but the halfway point is a good place to adjust flavors. If it needs more lemon, toss in some fresh zest, more sugar, add more syrup, etc.
I've tried using orange zest, the flavor is there, but it is too mellow. One of the great things about the lemons is the punch. The flavors are very strong. I suspect limes, or possibly grapefruit would infuse well, but the oranges just didn't do it for me.
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