Adapted from a recipe in Mollie Katzen's The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.
This is a naturally sweet dessert or brunch dish. Use the best ingredients you can muster: this is all about the taste of the ricotta, the cherries, and the subtle hints of orange, vanilla and rose. We made this for brunch on New Year's day, served with chocolate hazelnut torte after eggs with sherried mushrooms*, cheese and fresh bread. A good way to start any day or year!
16 oz. (2 cups) fresh ricotta cheese
~2 cups (or more, or less) pitted, halved fresh cherries
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp rosewater
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp orange zest (about 1/4 an orange, or less)
chopped, toasted almonds for garnish
Put the ricotta in a mixing bowl and whip for about 5 minutes with an electric mixer. I used a stand mixer, so I'm not sure how long this would take by hand. The idea is to get the cheese light and fluffy, although there will still be some curds. Add the honey slowly, and beat until incorporated. Do the same with the rosewater and vanilla. Fold in the cherries and orange zest. We used a little too much zest, and you couldn't smell the rosewater very much - play with these proportions as you like.
The original recipe recommends refrigerating the mousse for a few hours before serving, but we impatiently ate it right up and it was delicious. Sprinkle the chopped toasted almonds as a garnish at the last minute, so they don't get soggy.
*Sherried mushrooms: post to follow.
Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts
02 January 2008
05 November 2007
Pumpkin Pumpkin Pie
This pie uses fresh pumpkin, not canned. The recipe here is just for the filling, and fills about two standard pies or 1 1/2 extra-large ones. For the crust I used a ball of pastry dough that had been in the freezer for about three months; when I find the recipe for it I'll post it here too (it's quite good!). This would probably be great with the crust recipe Heather posted for her zucchini quiche, too.
Filling:
2 sugar pie pumpkins
1/2c heavy cream
1 1/2c milk
~3/4c brown sugar
4-5 eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger (fresh would be incredible)
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
(the spices are to taste - use what you like, as much as you like, add what you like, subtract what you don't)
Cut the pumpkins in half and scoop out the seeds and strings, and save the seeds if you want to roast them or dry them for planting. Oil the cut edges and place them on a baking sheet. Roast at 350*F for about 45-50 minutes, or until the flesh pierces easily w/ a fork. Wait for them to cool to just warm, then scoop out the flesh and discard the skins. I added the milk to the pulp and blended in small batches to get a puree (large batches just jam up the blender, the milk helps some with this). At this point I had a little under 4 cups of pumpkin puree - nearly enough for 2 pies, but I chose to make one large pie (the dish is 10 or 11 inches) and another dish of just pumpkin custard (no crust). Then you're ready to add the other ingredients (I used 5 eggs), mix up, pour into a pre-baked pie shell, and bake at 425*F for 20 minutes, then 375*F for another 20-30 minutes. Mine needed nearly 60 minutes of baking overall. It might be a good idea to cover the crust with foil for the second half, as mine got a little almost-burnt.
The results:
This is an excellent pie. The texture is smooth but more interesting than pie made from canned pumpkin, and it tastes more complex without being too squash-y. This amount of sugar was sort of my upper limit - it was a little sweeter than it needed to be, but not too sweet. I'd like to see how this turns out with honey used instead of brown sugar.
Question for crust pre-bakers:
Does anyone have a good method of keeping their pie crust flat while pre-baking? I've tried using parchment paper weighted with beans, rice, etc, and this always results in greasy, buttery crust bottom. Ideas?
Filling:
2 sugar pie pumpkins
1/2c heavy cream
1 1/2c milk
~3/4c brown sugar
4-5 eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger (fresh would be incredible)
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
(the spices are to taste - use what you like, as much as you like, add what you like, subtract what you don't)
Cut the pumpkins in half and scoop out the seeds and strings, and save the seeds if you want to roast them or dry them for planting. Oil the cut edges and place them on a baking sheet. Roast at 350*F for about 45-50 minutes, or until the flesh pierces easily w/ a fork. Wait for them to cool to just warm, then scoop out the flesh and discard the skins. I added the milk to the pulp and blended in small batches to get a puree (large batches just jam up the blender, the milk helps some with this). At this point I had a little under 4 cups of pumpkin puree - nearly enough for 2 pies, but I chose to make one large pie (the dish is 10 or 11 inches) and another dish of just pumpkin custard (no crust). Then you're ready to add the other ingredients (I used 5 eggs), mix up, pour into a pre-baked pie shell, and bake at 425*F for 20 minutes, then 375*F for another 20-30 minutes. Mine needed nearly 60 minutes of baking overall. It might be a good idea to cover the crust with foil for the second half, as mine got a little almost-burnt.
The results:
This is an excellent pie. The texture is smooth but more interesting than pie made from canned pumpkin, and it tastes more complex without being too squash-y. This amount of sugar was sort of my upper limit - it was a little sweeter than it needed to be, but not too sweet. I'd like to see how this turns out with honey used instead of brown sugar.
Question for crust pre-bakers:
Does anyone have a good method of keeping their pie crust flat while pre-baking? I've tried using parchment paper weighted with beans, rice, etc, and this always results in greasy, buttery crust bottom. Ideas?
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