White Cardamom and Lavender Milk Jam

Real life does not look like this. Okay, fine. Maybe your life looks like that, and if so, major kudos to you. You belong perpetually in a magazine, or on a 24/7 instagram feed. But me? My daily life is messy and oftentimes full of droning dullness and unprettiness that no one else but me would want to see. There is plenty of ugly light in my house, lots of hand-me-down furniture from ikea, carpet stains from who-knows-where, not-really-very-charming 1970's house fixtures. I live through many totally not-instagrammable, not-facebook-share-worthy times, usually involving sitting in front of a computer, staring at numbers and code, or standing in the perpetually, interminably long line at the post office, or getting annoyed by the hammering noises coming from the construction next door, or taking out the trash. And, on top of all this, while I do wear hipster glasses, it's because I'm a nerd and need major vision correction so that I'm not walking around blind and crashing into things, okay?

I'm moving houses soon, to my new job, and when I've been telling people lately that I need to furnish my new place, they ask me, "Oh, what's your decorating style?" I keep getting taken aback by this question, since I don't find myself identifying with "modern" or "French country" or "beachhouse", etc. None of those are me, because really, at this point, how about it would just be nice to *not* look like I'm still living like a grad student. Like, I'm looking forward to the day when my couch no longer has a "slip-cover" of an old sheet over it, when my kitchen faucet is no longer held together by packing tape, and when my handed-down-from-previous-grad-student $15 ikea coffee table no longer has a majorly uneven surface from when I accidentally spilled a bunch of liquid on the fiberboard and it warped like crazy so now you can't put anything on it anymore....

Because I'm a food/travel photographer and that inevitably translates to being, at some level, a lifestyle photographer, it's actually become sort of a perplexing ethical question for me about what I shoot. So much of the work I have to do for clients--or for that matter, on this blog--really glorifies some idealised, stylized life. To some extent, that's fine. Beauty involves some editing (after all, what is a photographer's eye but an editor), but at what point does it become too much of a lie, and no longer true to the artist?

All this rant is to say that I have been struggling for a long time to figure out what should appear on this blog moving forward. I don't have that complete answer yet, but I do know that I don't want to miss out on recording moments that I want to remember just because they don't meet some sort of predetermined, magazine-worthy stereotypic standard of pretty. It's a blog, for goodness sakes. Let's not get all bent up about mismatched plates from different eras or god-awful, water-warped ikea coffee tables, shall we. Let's focus instead on capturing some of the truth of life, and hope that that truth leads us, in the end, to beauty.

One of my favorite events throughout grad school was when my friends and I would have pot-luck teas, usually for all of the girls in the lab (because go, ladies in science!). Everyone would bring a dish, and I would usually raid my prop closet for teacups and wooden serving boards as my contribution because I'd be too busy during the school year to bake anything, and we'd sit down for a long morning of wonderful food and laughter and company. This tea was from a few months ago, when I actually had enough wherewithal to make a white cardamom & lavender milk jam to contribute (also, I brought a precious jar of raspberry jam that my friend's Russian grandmother makes every summer, and that she smuggles out of Russia for me :)). The milk jam, all caramel-y smooth but robustly spiced from the cardamom and lavender, worked deliciously on blinis and rice pudding, but especially--and unexpectedly!--the milk jam went perfectly with these butternut squash custards that my friend Clara brought. I love it when potlucks so serendipitously bring together food that are good on their own but even better together! Such is the true beauty of the thing!

Read on for recipe....

Passionfruit and Espresso Tosca Cake

I've always maintained that the best desserts I make are ones that are designed with a specific person in mind. There's something about crafting the perfect personal dessert, targeted and fine-tuned to one person's unique palate... it's a challenge in how well I know someone, how well I've figured out their tastes and likes and dislikes and favorites (that sometimes they don't even know they had), and when I get it right, it's better than any general, all-purpose dessert that I make, no matter how high the bar is to begin with. In a sense, this is my ultimate definition of the practice of baking with love.

(This is also why I realized a long time ago that I couldn't ever do cooking contests. Cooking for myself is just never as rewarding--and never tastes as good!--as cooking for someone else.)

This cake was for a friend of mine who has this unique talent in making sense of the world in the most lucid manner, no matter how convoluted the situation. Her advice has helped me through many major scrapes in the past few years, and after nearly eight years of knowing her, I *finally* got her to reveal her birthday this year, so I had quite a few birthdays and years to make up for! This surprise cake had to be nothing short of perfection.

One of my favorite things about how this passionfruit and espresso Tosca cake turned out is that the cake boasts this quiet and understated drama. It's a natural layer cake without all of the boisterous pomp and circumstance of a traditional, tall cake-and-frosting-and-cake-and-frosting layer cake: the nutty and slightly crunchy topping of the toasted almonds melts into the salty-sweet, espresso-tinged caramel, which soaks into the top of the underlying, fluffy but moist genoise cake base, which itself bursts with the tart, tropical boldness of passionfruit. It might seem like a lot going on at once, but the beauty of the cake is the simplicity with which all of these complex flavors find a balance together in the continuous layers of the dessert. Somehow, they just all make sense together here, which I thought was particularly befitting of my friend.

Her response to the cake:

"Best. birthday. cake. ever."

Mission accomplished.

(Special shout-out to Emma of Poires au Chocolat for posting about Tosca cakes.)



Read on for recipe...

Saffron and Blood Orange Caramel Macarons, with blood orange sorbet

It's been many, many years since I've celebrated Lunar New Year properly  ...until now! Hi from Asia! *commence emphatic waving*

Last time I was here for the new year festivities was decades ago (omg, 'decades' makes me sound so old), when I was five. My only memory from that visit was my grandfather taking me outside on the street in front of our relatives' large apartment building at night and lighting up sparkler fireworks to play with. How they shimmered in the dark, specks of light dancing off the ends of the wands! After that, we never really celebrated Chinese New Year's in the US: there just isn't the same hubbub of excitement and fun brewing around you that makes it feel like a holiday. And, given that the lunar new year never falls during school breaks, I didn't have the opportunity to freely leave and visit again until now. (Yes, one of the wonderful advantages of dissertating, and shhh, don't tell my advisors.)

In preparation for the new year celebration, I whipped up my own version of a few new year's desserts before leaving on my trip. It's traditional to have oranges during the Chinese New Year--for luck--and to wear red--an 'auspicious' color. Lo and behold, what did I stumble upon at the market a few days before leaving: blood oranges! The perfect combination of red and orange, in a delicious fruit. :)

With the blood oranges, I made a blood orange sorbet, that turned out the most gorgeous orange-red color (rivaling the vibrant purples of the last sorbet that I made). Oh, and not to mention that it tastes deliciously orange-y. :) I also whipped up a batch of saffron and blood orange caramel macarons, which I thought were very fitting for celebrating New Year's, with the red and gold of the saffron and caramel, the nuts that traditionally represent blessings for long life, and, of course, the blood oranges. (Recipe inspired by this wonderful little macaron book.)

[click on photo above for a larger image]

I'm hoping that all of this orange and red really brings good luck to everyone for the Year of the Dragon! The last few days of the Year of the Rabbit were quite unlucky for me. On my second day here, this happened when I fell down a pile of unsecured bricks. I freaked out. Luckily, the repairman here managed to fix it because none of the internal glass elements were broken--you don't know how incredibly relieved I am. Anyways, I have been told that since I clearly used up all of my bad luck and misfortune right before the end of the old year, I should be having an auspicious new year! :)

Happy New Year, everyone!


Read on for recipes....

Salt Roasted Pears with Cajeta

A few days before each new year rolls around, I always get the urge to do a retrospective review of the year, but when I finally sit down to the task, I always find that I'd much rather just leave the past year to the past and look forward to what's coming next. This 'onward' sentiment was particularly strong this time around with regards to the passing of 2011. For me, this past year has felt a lot like the middle section in any trilogy--not as much excitement or change as the previous year and just a lot of set-up waiting for more action in the next year. After 2010, which saw crazy changes and drama, 2011 in comparison was much less exciting: just a lot of chugging along and trying to figure out what "normal" life should be.

...not that I've managed to hit upon "normality" yet! (and not sure I ever want to!) But, I am very much looking forward to leaving 2011 and all of its stalled uncertainty and unanswered questions and stagnancy behind and having much, much more excitement and progress in 2012.

Don't get me wrong though--2011 wasn't uninteresting and dull! In fact, I got to meet a lot of wonderful new people and see plenty of new places, so I guess I really shouldn't be complaining. :) (2011 recap at the end of this post.)

To round out the year and kick off the new one, I turned to this simple but wonderful recipe that I've had bookmarked since this time last year: salt-roasted pears. I'd heard of salt-baked fish or even salt-crusted potatoes before, so when my good friend told me about baking pears in salt, I was immediately intrigued. I don't entirely understand the science of salt-baking, but these pears turn out amazingly: soft and juicy and supple in the centers with an ever-so-slight salty tinge on the skins to balance out the sweetness inside.

[click on photo below for a larger image]

 

Then, instead of the recommended caramel sauce to accompany the pears, I turned to a slightly more adventurous option: cajeta, which is a dulce de leche-type sauce made with goat's milk. The thick cajeta enrobes these pears beautifully when it's poured on warmed, and the sweet, just barely cinnamon-y caramel is perfect against the lingering flakes of salt on the pears. I love it when desserts are super simple, uncomplicated, a wee bit out of the ordinary, but oh-so-good. ...Hopefully what 2012 will turn out to be as well!

Here's wishing you all a fantastic new year!

P.S.  Starting off the 2012 excitement, I'll be headed to Portland, Oregon for a few days in January and would very much appreciate any recommendations you might have! Favorite Portland sights? Restaurants I *must* try? Please leave me a comment below!

--Addendum--

In 2011, I...

experienced life in snow climates for the first time on a trip to the East Coast, with old and new friends.

made a "heart attack in a pie" ... at least twice.

became obsessed with glitter.

was recognized by Saveur.

went to Edinburgh, Scotland and Manchester, England and, on the same trip,...

stopped by BlogHer Food in Atlanta for some quick food-bloggery fun.

had to bid farewell to friends moving away and welcome home friends moving back.

redecorated several parts of my house.

saw the sun rise over Half Dome.

picked olallieberries and blackberries and strawberries.

ate a meal of a lifetime.

got hooked on Doctor Who.

photographed for some exciting folks.

wrote ~5000 tweets.

instagrammed 300+ photos.

finally vacationed in Hawai'i!

spent Thanksgiving in L.A. with my best friend, cooking up a storm.

spent an inordinate amount of time playing Monopoly Deal (and losing).

per tradition, had Korean fried chicken to celebrate Hanukkah.

Read on for recipes....

Strawberry and Rosemary-Caramel Buckwheat Tart

My friends seem to be getting a wee bit spoiled.

Case in point: last weekend was a combined birthday bash for Richard and some of the folks in his family who have birthdays in May and June.  My line of thought on this party was "Oh, perfect! I'll make cupcakes of some sort to bring, which will be nice because I haven't made cupcakes in quite a while."  Perfectly reasonable, no?  So, I asked Richard what kind of cupcakes he would like for his birthday.  This is what he says to me:

"No, I don't want cupcakes.  I want a tart."

Wait wait wait--back up--come again?!  Now, you all must understand something about Richard.  He's not a food enthusiast like I am.  Not in the slightest.  This is the guy who, when I met him years ago, would have been perfectly content eating the same turkey-cheese-iceberg lettuce-mustard sandwich for lunch every single day for years on end.  People who meet us nowadays are constantly scratching their heads about how we're together, since Richard feels as dispassionate about food as I feel passionate about it.  Over the years, I've managed to train him well on certain things--for instance, he now has a fine appreciation for well-made tapioca tea or fresh, finely-rolled, raw-fish-incorporated sushi.  But he often still snubs his nose at my culinary... er... creations.  So, imagine my incredible surprise upon discovering that I'd actually trained and spoiled him far more than I had even thought, Mr. "I Want a Tart and not Cupcakes for my Birthday."

So once his choice of desserts was settled, I set about working on designing a tart worthy of a closeted dessert connoisseur's birthday.  And there's possibly no food item Richard loves more than strawberries.  I've never seen anyone inhale the same vast amounts of the fruit like he does.  Hence, I knew it had to be a strawberry tart.  Because there would be so much strawberry-age involved, I wanted to darken up the rest of the flavors more and to develop a robust earthiness to the layers underneath the sweet summery berries, so I went for a strawberry, rosemary-caramel, and buckwheat tart.

The tart has a base of buckwheat pastry--slightly nutty and sweet from the buckwheat but with a darker tang than with a regular, white flour crust.  The pastry is coated with a light layer of rosemary caramel that is just salty enough to cancel out the sweetness, and the rosemary offers a hint of brightness and uniqueness to the strawberries on top.  (The rosemary isn't overpowering at all.)  The strawberries sit on a bed of simple vanilla pastry cream and are brushed with a generous amount of freshly-reduced strawberry syrup, basically packing double the amount of strawberry flavor into a single fruit layer.  With patience, you can slice the strawberries and arrange them around the tart, or, go for the rustic look by plopping entire tiny whole strawberries on top.

Richard's a man of few words (yet another big difference between us, since I'm prone to blathering on and on and on), but given that he pretty much polished off the entirety of the two tarts that I made on his own, I'd say that this was a fair success.  Next year, though, he's getting cupcakes....


Read on for recipe....

Pumpkin Pie with Caramel Brandy Hard Sauce

The perfect antidote for working so hard that you honestly don't know what day it is anymore and the sun rises and sets without you even noticing?  Old friends and good food.

Two of my wonderful linguist friends from college came to dig me out of my hole visit me yesterday, and we spent the day laughing and catching up and cooking amazing food and walking around the deserted campus in the brisk cold--and, for me, basically learning how to have fun again.  It was nothing but absolutely divine.

For lunch, we whipped up a vegan feast, gossiping, giggling, and reminiscing with each other while cooking away in the kitchen:

fresh dragonfruit

arugula, pomegranate, toasted walnut, and candied ginger salad with lemon-tangerine vinaigrette 

roasted acorn squash with sage, meyer lemon zest, cherry wood-aged balsamic vinegar

sauteed kale with onions and fresh cranberries

mint and licorice tea

Danish chocolate wafers and coconut-cinnamon sorbet

After living on almost nothing but frozen pasta'n'cheese, peas'n'carrots, and strawberry lemonade from Chez Trader Joe's for the past few weeks of paper-writing and finals, this meal was exactly what I needed: fresh, in-season, minimally and beautifully prepared greens and reds and oranges and whites, with a side of lovely conversation, familiar company, smiles, and laughter.  Food for the soul, indeed.

In the evening, after one of my friends had to leave, my other friend and I were commiserating about both having sadly missed out on pumpkin pie this year for Thanksgiving when it hit us: we clearly needed to right this wrong and make pumpkin pie.  And so we did, and I have to say, this pumpkin pie with caramel brandy hard sauce is probably my favorite pumpkin pie I've made to date.  The crust is super flakey, brushed at the last moment in the oven with heavy cream and sprinkled with turbinado sugar to give it extra gloss and crunch.  The filling is the perfect custardy consistency, packed with spices and not overly sweet at all.  But what really, really makes the entire pie is the caramel brandy hard sauce very generously drizzled on top.  Caramel on its own is good, but caramel with brandy?  We were eating the stuff straight out of the pot before it even hit the pie.

So if you feel overworked this holiday season, here's my prescription for you: old friends, raucous laughter, a fresh, hearty meal, and caramel brandy hard sauce (really, the pie is optional).  That combination will cure a lot.


Read on for recipe...

Cognac-Caramel, Pecan, and Pear Pudding Cake, oh--and Parties.

A few weeks ago, I finally met--in person, in real life!--my adopt-a-blogger mentor, Kristen, of Dine and Dish.  And I have to say, that, in meeting Kristen, I think I've met one of the nicest and sweetest people on the face of this earth.  Seriously.

Kristen was here in the Bay Area as part of the massive convergence of food bloggers for the San Francisco BlogHer Food 2010 conference.  (I kept having a mental image of that scene in Little House on the Prairie where locusts descend upon the homestead--not that I'm comparing food bloggers to locusts!  It was just that descent in droves that it reminded me of.)  She took pity on the fact that I am a poor grad student who couldn't afford the time or money to go to the conference and managed to invite me to the parties that were going on concurrently instead, so that I could still participate in the hectic and amazing atmosphere of food-bloggery!  (also, helloooo, parties.)

In short, it was all so. much. fun.  Surprisingly so, I barely *ate* anything at either of the two parties I went to--instead, I was busy talking to and learning about and meeting all of these new people who are just as obsessed with food as I am.  I started blogging before I followed or read any food blogs (consequently, I still don't know very many of you out there), so it was really eye-opening to see how many blogs and how many types of blogs there are.  I don't think it's productive to list everyone I talked to or met here (since most of you probably don't remember me. -.-), but let me just say that, judging from the sample that I did meet, food bloggers are a wonderful breed and, like Kristen, some of the nicest and most hilarious people I've ever known.

Case in point: (L to R) Me, Kristen (Dine and Dish), and Kathy (Panini Happy)

Then, at one the parties, the most crazy and ridiculous thing happened.  I say "crazy" and "ridiculous" because this stuff never happens to me.  As I was standing around, chatting with some of my fellow Bay Area food bloggers, Irvin (aka: Mr. JackHonky) nudged me and exclaimed, "Isn't that your business card they're holding?!" Then in my extreme confusion, I heard my blog name called out from the front of the room.  Then, I was walking up to the front, people were telling me my name had been drawn for something, ushering me over towards the front door.  (Heck, for all I could have known, I was being kicked out of the party!)  Anyways, it turned out that I was walking out the door that night with a brand new, cobalt-blue, gawh-geous Le Creuset set.  Now, I call this crazy and ridiculous because (1) my once-impoverished graduate student kitchen now has cookware! Yay!, and (2) I never win anything!  I think the last thing I've ever won was a stuffed dog on Valentine's Day in fifth grade (yes, I remember that moment vividly as well).  I credit Kristen, though--the girl has amazing luck!  She walked flew home with a brand new Kitchenaid mixer, so I think she somehow managed to rub some of her luck off on me.  :-)

Anyways, so here I am, with cookware that actually properly conducts and retains heat (hallelujah!), amongst which are these adorable mini cocottes that I'd been lusting after every time I walked into Sur la Table.  And for some reason, I knew that the first thing I wanted to make in them had to involve mini forelle pears.  Yeah, don't ask me why--my mind just works in mysterious, obsessive ways like that.  So here it is, the maiden voyage of these awesome little bakers: cognac-caramel, pecan, and pear pudding cakes.

Eating these pudding cakes, I seriously felt as if, in the infamous words of Paula Deen, I was gonna be arrested.  Allow me to demonstrate by listing some of the ingredients packed into this little cake:

cognac, caramel, cinnamon, brown butter, toasted pecans, brown sugar, spice-poached pears

Need I honestly say more?!  These warm-from-the-oven cakes start with an incredibly aromatic, nutty, and textured cake on top, thanks to the toasted and ground pecans, and progresses through the vanilla-spiced fruity center of a poached pear, down through a layer of dense, moist, and incredibly earthy and rustic brown butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon pudding cake, and finally hits the bottom with a thin layer of aromatically boozy, dark, and perfectly salty-sweet caramel sauce soaking its way from the bottom of the cake upwards.  I took great pains to lick every last bit of the mini cocotte and my spoon at the end of this breakfast dessert.

Before I go and dig in to another one of these cakes (someone--please stop me! come eat them so that I won't!), I want to thank the hosts of the two wonderful food blogger parties I went to.  Thank you to Jane, Helene, Stefania, and Kristen (for La Petite Soiree), and thank you to Jaden, Elise, and Ree (for the BlogHer Food closing party)!  You gals sure to know how to throw parties.  :-)  And lastly (but definitely not least), a huge thank you and shout-out to the best adopt-a-blogger mentor, like, ever-- Kristen, whom I am so glad I could finally meet in person!  *waves 'hi' from across the country*  Wish you were here to share these caramel pear pudding cakes with me!


Read on for recipe....

Ooey Gooey Caramel Apple Blackout Cake, and Happy Blorgthday! and a Giveaway!

This is it, folks! It's desserts for breakfast's one year blorgthday! (blog-iversary?) Woohoo! Even though the blog itself has been live for longer than one year, I posted my first recipe around this time one year ago, which marked the beginning of this wild food-blogging adventure that I've been on.  As you may know, I'm a huge believer in celebrating birthdays in a big way, and so that's exactly what I'm gonna do for the blog, starting with exciting news, a delicious cake, and a fun giveaway in this post!

So first off, the exciting news: desserts for breakfast is now www.dessertsforbreakfast.com!  That's right--the ".blogspot.com" training wheels have now come off, so please make sure to update your bookmarks.  Your feed should transition automatically, but please double check and let me know if you experience any problems.  (And if you aren't subscribed, well--why aren't you?! --> subscribe at the top of that right hand sidebar.)

Now, onto dessert.  Birthdays, of course, necessitate cakes, and I really wanted to pay homage to my first recipe post ever: vegan chocolate pumpkin cupcakes.  I've also been itching to use the bushels of apples that have been populating every corner of every farmers' market, and so here it is--my way of saying "happy birthday" to this blog: ooey gooey caramel apple blackout cake.  (and yes, it's vegan, too!--I've included both vegan and non-vegan options in the recipe.)

Now, originally this cake was to be named the "caramel apple whole wheat chocolate cake," but the moment I turned the cake out of its pan and saw the caramel juices run down its sides and soak into the deep, dark, rich chocolate cake underneath, I knew that the only way to describe this cake was "ooey gooey."  And let me tell you, even though it might not look like the prettiest cake ever, what it lacks in good looks, it makes up for in incredible yum.  The chocolate cake is dense and textured from the whole wheat, and it's perfect for soaking up all of the juices and caramel sauce from the apples on top.  The caramel itself has a generous sprinkling of coarse sea salt in it, and it makes the dark cake underneath the perfect sweetness for devouring and never getting tired of.  (yes, it's quite dangerous for just that reason.)  Digging your fork into this cake is like eating ultra-moist and robust chocolate pudding with baked apples and just enough cinnamon spice inside.  And did I mention it might actually be, um, (somewhat) good for you?  After all, it has fruit and whole wheat in it!  *smiles innocently*

Lastly, for my blog's blorgthday, I wanted to do something to thank all of you wonderful readers and new foodie friends out there who have helped make this year amazing.  Before I started this blog, I was being torn apart at the seams in two directions.  On one side, I had my studies, which I absolutely love, but at the same time, I felt this incredible need and hunger coming from inside to express my creativity through food and photography (though not food photography--that came later).  Without a proper and regular outlet for my food and artistic interests, I was just constantly unhappy and unfocused and questioning what the right path for me was.  After all, every artist needs an audience, no?

So I am so, so incredibly thankful for this community that you all have provided me in my small corner of the world wide internets.  It's been wonderful to have a space I can come to and be able to actually share my creations and passions.  Food photography, even, has allowed me to blend both of my artistic interests into one.  I've had so much fun "meeting" all of you virtually (and in person for some!), and finding like-minded, food- and sugar- and art-obsessed people has been such a godsend.

All that said, here's a little giveaway that I put together to celebrate the blorgthday!  One of my favorite quotes that I try to live by comes from my academic great-great?-grandfather (that would be my advisor's advisor's advisor's advisor): "Life consists of the little things: the important matter is to see them largely."  This lesson is so perfect and applicable when it comes to food, so I've put together a small collection of a few of my favorite little things that make me happy to pass on to you!

I am giving away to one awesomely lucky winner three things:

1. a set of 4 mini latte bowls from anthropologie {because they're so adorable, and I love to use them for, like, everything!)
2. a 12" stainless steel balloon whisk from Sur la Table {because I'm known around these parts as the whipping queen--I insist on whipping all creams and most meringues by hand because it builds the bubbles properly and because it, you know, builds character. :-P There's also something about the rhythmic clack-clacking from whisking that is just so therapeutic for me.}
3. a set of 6 custom 4x6" prints--of your choice!--from the desserts for breakfast archives {because if I can't send you actual desserts, this will be the next best thing!}

The giveaway is now closed. Thanks for participating, and please check back soon for the announcement of the winner!  To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment with your name, a way for me to get in touch with you (anonymous entries will be disqualified), and the answer to this question:

What is one little thing in your daily life that makes you happy?

I'll also give you an extra entry in the drawing if you tweet about this post, but in your tweet, you must mention me (@shihbakes) and include a link to this giveaway (http://bit.ly/dfbbirthday1) so that I can track all of your entries!  You have until 23:59 PST, Sunday, October 3, 2010 to enter. I'll pick the winner at random that night and make the announcement in next week's post, so be sure to check back then!  This contest is open everywhere except where prohibited, but please note that I am not responsible for any import duties or taxes beyond shipping that may be charged by your country if you are overseas.  This giveaway is in no way affiliated or sponsored by anthropologie or Sur la Table.


So, thank you all so, so much for your loyal readership and friendship!  And, this is definitely *not* the end to all of the excitement--I have plenty of things planned for October and the coming months, so here's looking forward to another year of sugar highs and nom-licious desserts!


Read on for recipe....

the Raspberry Rhapsody, and a Summer-to-Autumn Menu

I hereby officially declare that this summer was "the Summer of the Raspberry."  After starting the summer off with a string of raspberry delights and then putting the blog on a bit of a raspberry diet, I just couldn't resist ending the summer returning to this wonderful berry and finishing with a big raspberry bang.

So when a good friend came over for dinner, I presented her with a trio of late-summer raspberry desserts, or something that I like to call the Raspberry Rhapsody.  Or, alternatively, what another friend perhaps more appropriately named it: "Everything Stephanie can think of to do with raspberries."  Yeah.  That one pretty much sums it up!  But first, before we get to the Raspberry Rhapsody, I have to tell you what the menu for dinner was, because I feel like you'll then fully savor the curation of this meal in its entirely, wrapping up with the trio of raspberry desserts.  The whole theme of the night was celebrating the summer-to-autumn transition, perhaps one of my favorite times of the year when the markets are bursting forth with the most succulent late-summer and crisp early-autumn produce.

Summer to Autumn Menu

Tomato crostini

heirloom tomato, garlic, oil-packed anchovies atop toasted sweet baguette

Caramelized onion corn soup

rosemary, cave-aged hand-made raw milk blue cheese, 
caramelized onion jam, fresh local yellow corn

Prosciutto-wrapped roasted potato salad

roasted baby purple, red, and yellow potatoes wrapped in crispy prosciutto 
atop wild arugula with honey mustard balsamic vinaigrette

Fig and carrot pitsa

black mission figs, colored carrots, feta, mozzarella, leek, and green onion

"Raspberry Rhapsody"

Fresh raspberries in paradise green tea jelly

Lemon-rose scented pavlova with raspberry-caramel, 
lemon mascarpone cream, and rosy raspberries

Espresso dark chocolate pots de creme with raspberries and raspberry coulis

Okay, got that?  Now, to dessert.  The Raspberry Rhapsody was an exploration of the amazing versatility of the wonderful raspberry, with its sweet tartness encapsulating the range of tastes from sharp to soft more so than perhaps any other berry.  I really wanted to play on the balance that you can use the raspberry to achieve in desserts.

The fresh raspberries in paradise green tea jelly offers the unadulterated raspberry experience.  It's simply raspberries at the peak of their late summer season (they peak twice, so I hear, once at the beginning of the summer and once at the end) suspended in delicately light green tea jelly.  I used Lupicia's paradise green tea, which I absolutely love in desserts because it's this wonderfully fragrant blend of green tea, rose, safflower, marigold, and cornflowers without being perfume-y at all.  The subtle flavors of the tea were the perfect accompaniment to the raspberries magically floating in the jelly.

Then we have the antithesis of the light jelly dessert: espresso dark chocolate pots de creme with raspberries and raspberry coulis.  While the jelly was supposed to be delicate and airy and reminiscent of light summer breezes, these pots de creme were meant to be a forecast of the dark, broody, and let's-huddle-up-under-a-mass-of-blankets-beside-the-fire-and-drink-hot-chocolate days that are ahead of us.  The incredibly rich and bitter 80% dark chocolate and espresso custard--with raspberries baked inside!--is set off by the tartness of fresh raspberry coulis.  And trust me, if you want something terrifically sinful, this. is. it.

Finally, to round off the trio was the perfect balance between creamy and rich and light and airy: a lemon and rose-scented pavlova with raspberry caramel, lemon mascarpone cream, and fresh rosy raspberries.

Oh, its name is a mouthful, for sure, but you won't be able to get enough mouthfuls of the actual dessert!  (trust me, I could barely keep my hands off this one long enough to photograph it!)

(see?)  The hints of lemon and rose flavors are quite subtle in this one, but it really allows the raspberries to shine through in the sweetened raspberry caramel and unperturbed fresh raspberries layered between the crunchy meringue and lusciously thick mascarpone whipped cream.  It doesn't matter how many words I use in the attempt to describe this dessert.  All I need is one: NOM.

Anyways, this is been quite the epically long post, but before I end (and get to the recipes, darn it!), I hope you'll humor me for a tiny bit longer, because I wanted to share how incredibly perfect this dessert was, in a completely nerdy way.  You see, the definitions of rhapsody in the Oxford English Dictionary are as follows (a tad edited in length by me):

rhapsody, n.

1. An epic poem, or a part of one, of a suitable length for recitation at one time.
2. The joining together of miscellaneous unconnected literary pieces, esp. poems
3. An enthusiastic of ecstatic expression of feeling; an instance of this.
4. A free musical composition, usually emotional or exuberant in character and in one extended movement

Now, as you will notice, my Raspberry Rhapsody was quite (1) epically raspberry; (2) a joining together of several raspberry desserts; and (3) an enthusiastic expression of an exuberant love for raspberries.  To top it all off, the friend I had over for dinner studies poetry and music (making her the perfect audience for a rhapsodic dessert), so when I finally looked up the etymology for rhapsody (something that, as a linguist, I'm quite prone to do), I couldn't help but smile to know that I'd put together not only a tribute to the Summer of the Raspberry but also a completely aptly named one!  Ah, now both the linguist and the dessert lover in me can rest in peace in raspberry heaven.


Read on for recipe....