Kale, Quinoa & cheese casserole!

Tags

casserole, cheese, clean eating, dinner, Fall, food, gluten free, healthy treat, idea, kale, quinoa, savory, side dish, yum

So is this a “clean” recipe you might ask?  Somewhat.  Too much cheese can be a bit heavy but I think the other ingredients make up for it and what’s a little cheese between friends?!  The other ingredients are kale and quinoa, plus some eggs and I even added Greek yogurt….so there’s lots of protein and the kale is healthy right?  I’m totally justifying.  What the hell?  Let’s eat some cheese! Lots and lots!!!!  Cheesy goodness.  Whew! That’s out of my system.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c quinoa
• 1 bunch kale
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 eggs
•  1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• salt/pepper
• panko

Cook the quinoa, I get mine in the bulk section so I always soak in cold water for about 10 mins and rinse until the water runs clear.  Then add 2 1/2 cups water to the quinoa, bring to a boil, cover & simmer until the water is absorbed. While it’s cooking, cut the kale into bite sized pieces and either stir fry or saute until wilted.

In a bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, yogurt, spices, salt/pepper and the chopped garlic.  Mix in the quinoa, the kale and the cheese.  Pour into a greased 13 x 9 baking dish and sprinkle panko or bread crumbs on top.  Bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes.  Like all recipes you can adjust the amounts of anything including the spices to your taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And done!

Date Walnut Dacquoise

Tags

baking, caramel marscapone, creamy, dacquoise, dates, dessert, food, gluten free, layer cake, sweet, toasted walnuts, yum

I’ve been wanting to make this cake for awhile and decided I would make it for the Aspiring Bakers #18 Layers of Love challenge hosted by Sam over at Sweet Samsations.  She has such an inspiring blog with wonderful recipes and gorgeous pictures of said recipes!   The challenge is for a layer cake that must have at least three layers.  Cake is not my favorite dessert, I do enjoy it every so often but I haven’t baked one in a long time.  What to do?  I want to join the challenge but I don’t want to bake a traditional flour cake with overly sweet frosting.  Hmmmmm……

I recently found a Williams Sonoma cake book at a thrift store.  I can’t remember which recipe caught my eye, but all of them were classic recipes and I needed a good cake book to add to my collection. This is where the original idea for this dacquoise came from.  What is dacquoise?  It is usually almond or hazelnut meringue “cake” layered traditionally with buttercream or whipped cream.  This recipe called for toasted walnuts!  Why not?  I also didn’t want to use buttercream because again, I don’t really like it.  I can usually taste too much of the butter.

Then I remembered the caramel marscapone frosting I made for the Pierre Hermes Apricot Lime Financier Cake.  That was not too sweet, had a little burnt sugar taste and would go well with toasted walnuts.  As I was making it the thought of dates went through my head, their sweetness, the deep subtle flavor they would add,  why not?

The Recipe adapted from the Williams Sonoma Cakes, Cupcakes & Cheesecakes book.

• 75 g plus 60 g walnuts, lightly toasted
• 180 g sugar
• 1 Tb cornstarch
• 3 large egg whites (room tempurature)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• about 1/4 cup chopped dates (I didn’t measure sorry)
• Caramel marscapone frosting (find the Pierre Hermes recipe here)

Toast the walnuts in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes, and put 75 g in a food processor with 60 g of the sugar and the cornstarch. Process to a fine grind.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Draw three 8 inch circles onto the parchment in pencil. One 8 inch circle on one sheet and two on the other.  Make sure to turn the parchment over so the circles are visible but so you won’t get pencil transfered onto your meringue.  Preheat the oven to 250.  Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixer and mix on med until soft peak form.  Add in the remaining 120 g of sugar and continue beating until stiff, glossy peaks form.  Gently fold in the nut mixture. Divide the mixture onto the three circles. (you can pipe the circles if you want). Bake for 1 hour 20 mins until crisp and golden. Let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, remove from parchment and then let cool on racks.

Meanwhile I made the caramel marscapone frosting.  This cake has to sit in the refrigerator overnight to let the meringues soften and my cake plate is too large to fit in the refrigerator with everything else in there.  I decided to cover a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and transfer the cake to the fancy plate in the morning.  Bad idea, the cake stuck to the foil….because I put some frosting on the foil to anchor the meringue.

Frost the first meringue and sprinkle with the chopped dates. There’s no correct amount to use, whatever your taste likes.  I thought the amount I used was perfect, it added an unrecogniseable flavor that was not overpowering or oversweet.

Dates!

Put the next meringue layer over this and frost, sprinkle this layer with some chopped, toasted walnuts.

Add the final meringue and frost the top and sides.  Press chopped walnuts on the sides of the cake and decorate with walnut halves on the top.  Cover and refrigeratove overnight.  Bring to room tempurature before serving.

The taste and texture are wonderful. It has a smooth creamyness with just a little crunch.  The carmel marscapone frosting has a slight bitter edge which is offset nicely by the sweetness of the dates and the toasted walnut flavor tops it off perfectly.

The foil not only made the cake stick to it, it also ripped and stuck to the piece I cut. I hope this qualifies as a layer cake!  If I find the time and, more importantly, the inspiration, I will try a completely different, more traditional layer cake and submit that as well.

What’s up Wasabi?!

Tags

candied grapefruit, dessert, food, ganache, gluten free, lime, macarons, Pierre hermes, sweet, wasabi, white chocolate, yum

I’ve been dreaming (fantasizing?) about the Pierre Hermes wasabi macarons.  You know a funny thing?  All my obsession with Pierre Hermes and I’ve never even tasted his pastries?!  It’s all on reputation…in fact, it’s all on the Ispahan flavor combination.  He makes a rather well-known macaron called the Ispahan which uses rosewater, lychee and rasperries.  You can see my attempt to re-create them here.   When I heard he had a macaron with wasabi my tastebuds almost jumped out of my head!  I had to find the recipe and try them.  Well I found it (1) on Zen Can Cook. Of course it calls for something exotic, Yuzu juice, what is that anyway?

Yuzu

I am going to submit these to Aspiring Bakers #17 March Macaron Madness (March 2012). I can’t wait to see other submissions!Another variety of citrus?  I must find it.  Well that is easier said than done. I went to a local gigantic Asian market and…nothing, no one knew what I was talking about.  Hmmm.  there is another bigger Asian market in downtown Seattle but I wasn’t going to go there today.  The recipe said you could substitute lime.  That’s what I substituted in the last Hermes recipe I made! That time it called for Buddha Hand citrus.  What’s with all the exotic citrus that can be substituted by a lowly lime?!   On to the recipe, oh and fair warning it takes at least two days unless you have candied grapefruit on hand.

I try not to make a full recipe unless I know I like something and I’ve found with some of these recipes that have been converted from commercial scale that they make too much.  So this is a half recipe that follows and I used my own favorite macaron recipe instead of making the Italian merengue that the Hermes recipe called for.  I’ve never made them that way and it just seems overly complicated.

Candied grapefruit

• 1 grapefruit
• 1/2 liter of water
• 235 g of sugar
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1/2 star anise
• 5 peppercorns (it called for Sarawak, I used Tellicherry, I’m sure any black peppercorn would work)
• Oh and 2 Tb of lemon juice which I, of course, forgot.

You will need the peel of the grapefruit sliced into about 1 inch wide pieces including some of the fruit.  Usually you only use the peel.  Put in a saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain, rinse in cold water,  cover with water, bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes,  repeat 2 more times.  If you taste the peel along the way it will go from unbearably bitter to much milder.

When you’re done with that part put the 1/2 liter of water, the sugar and the spice (oh and lemon juice, don’t forget that!) in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Once it’s boiling add the peels and low simmer with the lid propped open for 1 & 1/2 hours. You will know they’re done when they look translucent. Let them sit in the syrup overnight.  In the morning take them out of the syrup and let them dry on a wire rack.  I used the syrup on pancakes with yogurt, quite yum!

To use in the macaron, slice the peels into small chunks.

They look like little jewels.

If you have any leftover you can store them in the syrup for about 3 weeks, or cover them in sugar and they keep for about 3 days, or dip in chocolate and eat!Now we make macarons.  Use whatever recipe you usually use.  Bravetart has a great recipe and lots of tips on how to make them come out right.  For this macaron you need to grind up some pistachios and sprinkle on top of the macarons before baking.

Pierre Hermes uses titanium oxide to make his macarons white! Very strange, if you look it up on Wikipedia it’s used for many things including sunscreen and making the white lines on tennis courts. Not sure if I want that in my food and I didn’t have any of it anyway. I decided not to add any food coloring and leave these natural.   Now for the wasabi part!  Again, I didn’t make a full recipe only half and it was more than enough for the amount of macarons I made, probably about 60 finished (2 pieces per macaron).  I can’t really count them since we didn’t track how many we ate along the way!  Ugg, if I’m honest, we probably ate about 20.

White Chocolate, Wasabi, Lime Ganache

• 187 g white chocolate
• 150 g heavy cream
• 20-25 g lime juice
• 10 g wasabi (I was hoping for fresh but couldn’t find it. I’ve heard the stuff you get in tubes isn’t even real wasabi but who knows!)

Make the ganache by melting the white chocolate over a simmering pan of water (bain marie), heat the cream in a pan to a near simmer, warm the lime juice in the microwave. Once the white chocolate is melted add in half the cream and stir well, then add in the other half and the lime juice, stir some more. Add in the wasabi and make sure it’s really well combined.  Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge to cool.

My macaron shells did not turn out as well as other times, I think I may have overmixed just a bit.  You learn each time.   Now it’s time to assemble the macarons!  I put a layer of the ganache and about 4 chunks of the candied grapefruit between two of the macarons and tasted….what a strange, exotic, almost exciting combination!  You are hit with the wasabi first but it’s not enough to burn or anything, then comes the citrus and the chewy crisp of the macaron!  Jason says he likes these the best of all I’ve made.  I liked these but my favorite is still the rosewater lychee.

I think I will try one more wasabi flavored dessert….chocolate, wasabi, ginger cake!   We’ll see.

A bitter-sweet trip to Paris

Tags

dessert, food, gluten free, Ispahan, Lychee, macaron, Paris, Pierre Herme, rose water, sweet

My sister lived in Paris not so long ago. 2001 to be exact. We (me, my ex and his daughter) went to visit her and we arrived on 9/10. The next morning she burst into the room as we slept, jet lagged and yelled something about terrorists attacking New York. She had been walking past a bar and saw a plane go into one of the twin towers. She thought it was a movie until she kept seeing it on the tv screens of restaurant, after bar, after restaurant and realized it was real. It was such a strange trip. Wonderful to see her, wonderful to be in Paris and surreal to see the images of 9/11 from such distance and from a foreign point of view. I don’t think I’ve ever truly grapsed what went on at home, what those initial nationwide feelings were. We got the European view. We went to a vigil in France where people were sad and supportive of America. Things changed later. If you live in the US you probably remember the attempt to use “Freedom Fries” instead of “French Fries”. I don’t think the US will ever be the same as it was before that day.

But this story has a sweet side too. Paris was where I discovered Macarons!  Not macaroons the equally delicious coconut cookie. There’s a bakery by my mothers that makes those amazing coconut macaroons, someday I will have to try to figure out what their secret is. But today is not that day.

Parisian Macarons

I’m sure you may have noticed them at a bakery near you lately? There seems to be an awareness of them recently. If you have not tried one you really must. They are crisp and yet chewy, sweet and filled with a creamy center usually. An exotic, elegant Oreo if you will.  I adore them. I also had forgotten about them since that trip. Until I saw a book while browsing my local Half Priced Books.  There in front of me was a glorious reminder of all the great things about that strange trip…..walking around Paris at night, looking at all the old beautiful buildings and yes, always on the look out for dog poop. You really will see it all over the sidewalks and many unfortunates step in it as they are looking around, be always on guard! The food is really good there too. I had some memorable meals in that city with my sister.  The book that brought it all back.

You can make these at home?!!?!

 I never considered that I could make these myself! Of course you can.  One warning, the book overcomplicates it.  There’s so much talk of aged egg whites (?!?), letting the macarons sit before you put them in the oven, and on and on. I fell for all this     nonsense and had a wonderful experience making them and then a disaster!

Luckily for me I came upon a blog in my travels that debunked all the myths. After all, she said you are making a cookie, I’m paraphrasing slightly here.  Her site is called BraveTart and I suggest if you have any interest in making Macarons you go there and read her 10 myths and her 10 commandments of macaron-making.

I’ve also recently come across lots of posts about pastries in Paris and one particular name keeps coming up as a genius of dessert! Pierre Herme and the dessert that caught my imagination is called Ispahan.  Ispahan is the name of a Damascus Rose with a beautiful fragrance.   The dessert is a combination of Rose, Lychee and Rasperries and from what I can tell the combination is used in a macaron.

Now I’m half Greek so rose scented sweets are nothing new to me. It’s a familiar flavor along with mastica, cloves, all spice etc.  Lychees are another flavor I adore, they are similar in flavor to roses in a way so I get the combination and rasperries?  Who doesn’t like rasperries?  My only thought is that the rasperry might overpower the rest of the flavors.  I also found a blogger who has attempted her own version of this macaron….The Pleasure Monger  she is macaron obsessed and has some very creative cominations.  In this one she uses a lychee marscapone filling and a tea infused jelly!  Well that got me to thinking.

Now I know one day I MUST get an actual Pierre Herme Ispahan but until that day comes I will make a riff as mucisian say on that theme.  Here’s what I came up with……….. Greeks eat alot of Turkish food and yet they claim to despise the Turks, their old nemesis.  They drink Turkish coffee, they eat Turkish delight, which they call Loukoumi.  Turkish delight is rose flavored gel basically, very sweet and very good.  My riff started with imagining a very thin layer of this.

Super thin Turkish delight

 To make this you will need rose water. Most ethnic type stores will have it, usually if they carry middle eastern products.

• 1/2 c powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 Tb cornstarch
• 1 c water
• 1/4 c suga
• r2 Tb rose water

 Combine all the ingredients except the rose water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to med low and cook for about an hour, whisking often.  Add the rose water in the last 10 mins and stir well. Remove from heat and immediately pour onto a silicone baking sheet or well greased parchment paper.  You might be able to used greased plastic wrap but I’m afraid it might melt. Let it sit at room tempurature until it cools down. It will be sticky.  If you were going to just make it into Turkish delight you would make much more and put it in a pan, it would be about 1 inch thick and then you would slice it and roll it in powdered sugar. Some people add nuts such as pistachios to it, I prefer it plain.

 Macarons (I’m using BraveTarts basic recipe here, it works very well. Go to the link above and read before you make them)

• 4 oz almond flour
• 8 oz powdered sugar
• 5 oz egg whites
• 2 1/2 oz sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 300. Combine the almond flour with the powdered sugar in a food processor and blend very well.  Whip the egg whites with the regular sugar in a mixer until you get stiff whites.  It takes about 9 minutes at med-high speed. When they are stiff add the salt & vanilla and whisk again for about a minute to combine really well.  Fold in the almond/sugar mixture all at once until it reaches a lava like stage. This is the hardest part because you can overmix. You will be putting the batter into a piping bag and piping circles onto your baking sheet so you don’t want it to be too runny.  Please read her post for tips. Bake on a parchment covered sheet for 18-20 minutes.  If the macaron comes off the sheet easily and doesn’t stick they are done. Let them cool. Brilliant!

crunchy, chewy goodness

The filling was where I had problems and will have to try again….isn’t that too bad?  I tried basing it off The Pleasure Monger’s recipe.

•  1/2 package of cream cheese

• 2 Tb sour cream

• splash of milk

• 1/2 cup white chocolate

• 2 Tb butter

• 1/4-1/2 c lychee juice

Melt the white chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Combine the cream cheese, sour cream and milk until it’s smooth. I blasted it in the microwave for a few seconds.  Add it to the white chocolate mixture and start to add in the lychee juice, tasting it until it’s the flavor is strong.  Her recipe calls for pureed lychees but I didn’t find any fresh or canned locally and didn’t want to go all over. I thought the juice would work but the mixture was too runny.  I tried thickening it with tapioca starch but it should have been thicker.  Next time………. Oh and they were a big hit at my office!

Lychee rose

Poached Pear souffle a la Tartlette

Tags

baking, creamy, dessert, food, gluten free, pear, souffle, sweet, yum

I found a wonderful blog http://www.tarteletteblog.com She has the most delicio looking desserts on there, plus some good, what I call “regular” food recipes too.  Anyway, I was intrigued by one called a Poached Pear Almond fallen Souffle Cake I believe.  Since it’s fall and there are pears everywhere, I had to try it.  Here is the recipe and then my results.

Poached Pear And Almond Fallen Souffle Cakes:

Makes 6

She did not remove the center, seeds etc so I didn’t either.
For the poached pears:
6 mini d’Anjou pears, peeled (I used 4 d”Anjou and 2 Bartlett)
1/2 cup  sugar
2-3 cloves
2-3 cardamom pods (I used about /21 tsp ground cardamom)
1 stick cinnamon
5-6 allspice berries
1-2 star anise
1/2 lemon
4 cups (1 liter) water

For the cakes:
3 tablespoons (40gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (190ml) heavy cream
1 cup ground almonds

1/4 cup (40gr) sorghum flour (I used 1/4 cup all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder

Prepare the pears:
Place the pears, spices, lemon and water in tall saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower the heat and let them simmerfor 15-20 minutes or until the pears are just soft (poke with a toothpick to check).
Remove from the water using a slotted spoon and allow to cool on paper towel or baking rack.

Prepare the cakes:
Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the middle.
Slightly butter or spray 6 ramekins and place them on a baking sheet. Set aside.
In the bowl if an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffly (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one a time and beat well in between each addition. Reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla, heavy cream, almonds, flour and baking powder and beat until incorporated. Fill each ramekins about 1/3 full with the batter and place a poached pear in the center.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Just out of the oven

I had no ramekins so I had to rush out and get these.

The pears smelled heavenly as they were poaching and I was so excited to finish this.  I wonder if there are any uses for the leftover poaching liquid cause it seemed such a shame to throw it away. It smelled drinkable!  I might try reducing it to a syrup and pouring it over these before serving.  I made the batter, added it to the ramekin, popped a pear in each one and into the oven they went.

So the verdict:  They taste wonderful, the insides seemed a little undercooked but the tops were too brown to allow more cooking.  The texture reminded me of a type of halvah they make in Greece which is more like a cake than the paste that the Persians make.  A bit grainy which might mean I need to process the almonds longer.  I think next time (and there will be a next time) I will change the almond and flour mix to have more flour.  I didn’t end up making a syrup because we couldn’t wait to try them. Jason would have eaten them all in one sitting if I didn’t restrain him!

Don't they look sinfully good?

Pavlova by any other name

Tags

chocolate, creamy, dessert, food, gluten free, idea, Merengue, pavlova, sweet, yum

I recently came across an amazing baking blog.  Mostly cakes to be specific. You can find the link below and if you have any interest in cakes I highly suggest you go now…I’ll wait….see you in a few days!  http://sweetapolita.com/  There are so many amazing cakes to try and recreate and I don’t even like cake that much!  But this one  here  was too much. I couldn’t wait.  Especially when some friends invited us to dinner and asked me to bring the dessert.  Me, bring a dessert?  I think I can manage that. 

Pavlova!

 

 As usual I did make some changes so I will write the recipe as I did it and if you want the original, go to the link above.  One thing I was forced to change was the use of marscapone cheese. I couldn’t find it in my local store and really didn’t want to drive all over the place searching for it.  I can substitute of course. I used cream cheese mixed with some sour cream and heavy cream. (I’ll write it in the ingredients, never fear.)  

So Christmas… it was quiet, drama free and filled with stuff I like.  We didn’t go down to LA to be with my family for once.  I thought I would be more sad but it turned out well.  We spent Christmas Eve eating with some friends, turkey, stuffing etc and a to die for Upside Down Pineapple cake that I’m gonna have to remember to get the recipe for.  But the actual day was spent watching Marlon Brando “On the Waterfront”,  a Chinese Movie that was great, I’ll think of the name in a minute.  I made a fantastic chicken/vegetable with dumplings soup that I’m worried I’ll never be able to recreate.  I have to start writing the impromptu things down. Oh yes, the Chinese movie was called “The Stool Pigeon” and I give it two thumbs up.  Totally story driven, set in modern Hong Kong and just what you want in a movie…unless you can’t stand violence cause all Chinese movies seem to have some violence these days.  The Koreans are the Kings of violence though. Great bloody movies with interesting stories!  But you might ask, how can I like violence when I love dessert so much?  As if the two can’t go together?  It’s some strange thing in my DNA that enjoys the sweet with the brutal.

 

Stool Pigeon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this cake isn’t even really a classic cake. There is no flour so if you have friends with gluten allergies this is perfect!  It’s layers of merengue, cream and chocolate.  Oh by the way, I halved the original recipe, next time I will do the full thing.

  On to the merengue:

 

6 egg whites (at room temperature)

1 1/4 cups superfine sugar aka casters’ sugar

a pinch of salt

 

You must beat the egg whites with the salt until the eggs get foamy, add the sugar slowly and beat until the mixture is glossy and stiff.  This is a hard stage to judge, at least for me it was. I was very paranoid because I know it needs to be stiff peaks (but how stiff!?!) and I also know you can over beat and end up on the other side, somehow….I don’t know what this other side looks like and I don’t want to find out!  Here is a picture of where I stopped.  I think next time I will dare to go a bit further.

 

 

Is this glossy or stiff? Enough?!?

  

 

Meanwhile, the oven should be heated to 250 degrees.  Place parchment paper on 2 cookie sheets and make 6 inch circles on the parchment.  You don’t want the the pencil marks to actually touch the merengue so turn the paper over.  Scoop out the merengue onto the sheets and spread inside the circles, it should be about 1 inch or more thick.  I made three circles out of it.  Her recipe said to cook for 2 1/2 hours?!?!!  I did not do it.  I cooked for 1 hours 20 minutes and then left them in the oven with the temp off and the door open to let them cool on their own.

 

circles of fluff!

 

 Now you can make the creamy filling/topping. I used 1/2 package of cream cheese mixed with 2 Tb sour cream and 1/8 cup of heavy cream.  Mix together well and you will have a good substitute for marscapone, or use real marscapone…it’s all up to you.  In a separate bowl I creamed 1/2 cup (plus a dash or two more) of heavy cream with 1 1/2 Tb sugar and about 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla paste (which I recently purchased and like alot, its more liquid than paste and has vanilla seeds in it)  Beat together until the cream is thick, fold in the cheese mixture.

 

 

 

Now we can work on the chocolate ganache.  I feel so elegant when I say ganache.  I always put an accent on it.  A snobby accent.  Say it… Ganache. If you say it too many times it sounds strange though.   Put 9 ounces of chocolate in a bowl. I used a combination of chips and a big chunk I bought. If you use a big chunk, make sure you shave it into small meltable size chunks.  In a saucepan, bring 1 cup heavy cream just to a boil.  If you watch the top of the cream you will see funny things happen and you’ll be able to tell when it’s about to boil.  Don’t let it completely come to a boil or it will boil over the top of the pan quickly. Danger.  Danger of being burnt by hot cream.  Not what you want to happen during a desert making experience.  Pour the cream immediately into the bowl with chocolate and whisk until combined.   If you have time wait for it to cool, if you don’t have much time, put it in the fridge to cool.  You want it to be a bit thick and stay on the cream where you put it. 

 

You can see the cream in the pan, ready to boil!

 

Now it’s time to construct your layers.  I put some ganache on the plate so the merengue wouldn’t slide around as I had to take it in the car to my friends house.  Layer merengue, cream and chocolate.  I also put it in the fridge during dinner to make sure it set as my merengue layers looked a little lopsided. 

 

 

  

This dessert is so amazing that it needs it’s own name.  A name that embodies the crunchy, creamy, chocolatey, melt in your mouthness that is this dessert.  Maybe “Born under a Bad Sign” or “Bad Moon Rising”?  For some reason I feel like a blues song fits this dessert. Or!  I’ve got it!  Brutally Sweet!!!  I am open to suggestions….

 

It didn't last long after this.

 

Now I have a German Chocolate cake to make for a birthday and then……diet!