Saffron Strawberry Peach & Vanilla Panna Cotta

I had a friend over recently for dinner who travels every year to Spain, so being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to attempt my hand at a Spanish-inspired menu: seafood paella (with chicken chorizo, shrimp, salmon, and tobiko), pan-blackened shishito peppers with smoked salt and shaved Iberico cheese (shishito because I couldn't find padron peppers at the market), and a vanilla panna cotta with saffron-infused strawberry peach sauce. Okay, so to be fair, it wasn't a traditionally Spanish meal, but the inspirations were fun to play around with! I particularly like this saffron-infused strawberry sauce. Strawberries on their own in a sauce tend to be a bit cloying and one-dimensional to me, so the saffron lends an interesting mellow exoticism. It's like that ingredient that you can't really pick out but the dessert would be otherwise empty without. I love those sorts of subtle hints. ;)

Panna cotta is one of those desserts that I just plain refuse to order at restaurants, because they're so easy and delicious to make at home! I like mine with a half-milk/half-cream mix, so that the texture is lighter and doesn't feel reminiscent of sunscreen the way that full-cream panna cottas do. But really, the name makes them sound fancier than they are! It's just milk jello, really!

Life has been cray cray busy lately, so it's nice to have this blog to escape to every once in a while without the pressures of being a regular blogger. Thank you all to those of you who still have me in your blog, email, instagram feeds. I think of you all often, and wonder what magic you're cooking up in your kitchens!


Read on for recipe....

Strawberry, Guava, Campari Ice Pop-tails

If, like me, you discover yourself at that point of the summer when deadlines are heaping upon you at a mad rate because it's almost the end of summer and everything that you planned to get done (which was too much and too ambitious to begin with) in June when summer first started and everything that's gotten piled on since (beacuse it's hard to say "No" when there are seemingly open-ended months with long daylight hours),... make these strawberry, guava, and Campari ice pop-tails, and take a deep breath. In that order, please.

Seriously, the making process (aside from the freezing) takes all about 5 minutes, and you will thank me because the payoff is worth way more than 5 minutes.... which is more than I can say about the other tasks on my to-do list! Anyways, these are inspired by a good friend and collaborator of mine who was the first one to introduce me to Campari and the first one to show me strawberry guavas picked off a real life tree. Of course, strawberry guavas aren't easily available outside of SoCal, so here I've subbed in a combo of fresh summertime strawberries and guava juice. The great thing about guava juice is that it's often sweet enough where you won't need to add any extra sugar to this ice pop. Even so, it's sweet and summery and lightly exotic--not your childhood's strawberry popsicle!

Grab a ice pop, and ganbatte to all of us.

Read on for recipe....

Strawberry gin and tonic cake

I made these little tea-gin-cakes a few weeks ago and had this post queued up for the longest time to hit "publish"... except for the one small sticking point that I've been at a complete loss of words about what to say in the post.

Sometimes, I wish it were acceptable practice in blogging to just post pretty pictures for your enjoyment. Mostly, I just find myself currently tapped out of worthy words. Everything even remotely eloquent (and plenty that's not) has been going into the thesis-writing process, and I find that almost nothing is left at the end of the day when I have a little time to think about other things, like cake.

Let's see... but what can I tell you about these little cakelettes? I discovered the incredible fragrance of gin only recently. I don't really drink much--most of my liquor cabinet is used for baking purposes--, and so up until a few months ago, I'd only ever written gin off as another clear-colored liquor that, like vodka, must be flavorless. Was I ever wrong! Between its almost-floral fragrance and the woodsy kick of juniper, I'm now quite fascinated by the unique flavor combinations of this liquor. So naturally, I had to put it into cake form, making a play on the classic gin and tonic combination: tonic and lime cakes with gin-soaked strawberries.

For desserts like this, I like to look for the tiniest strawberries available at the market. These are usually the ones that turn out deep red, with very little white on the inside, and their sweetness plays perfectly with the spiciness of the gin. The cakes are a variation on a simple pound cake theme, except with a bit of bitterness from the tonic water and a hit of brightness from the lime zest. The bitterness in the cake is offset by eating it with mounds of boozy, sweetened, juicy strawberries.... the perfect excuse for combining afternoon tea time with gin-and-tonic-o'clock.

Read on for recipe....

Strawberry Passionfruit Tart

This weekend was packed with so many birthdays and trying to squeeze in developing, baking, and eating two birthday desserts between birthday dinners and work and friends visiting from afar and gearing up for the imminent sated launch! -- Clearly everyone and their mothers are born in May, so if you're a May baby: Happy Birthday!

Anyways, though I didn't manage to get very many photos of this dessert, I have to say that this strawberry passionfruit tart is one of my favorite developments recently. Richard, the spoiled bf who knows to request tarts and not cupcakes for his birthdays, is a mad-lover of strawberries, so for years now, I've tried my hand at various ways to incorporate strawberries into his birthday desserts: strawberry cheesecake ice cream, strawberry rosemary tarts, actual strawberry cheesecake, strawberry cream puffs. But then I realized that he really wants just one thing: the strawberries--cut the whole 'dessert' crap. So this year, I attempted to make the most unadulterated strawberry dessert I could, with straight-up strawberries (and just strawberries!) filling a meyer lemon-scented crust and brushed with tart passionfruit jelly, since passionfruit is one of Richard's other fruit obsessions. And success! basically, a dessert vehicle for delivering strawberries to the mouth. :)

For this tart, make sure to look for small, ultra-sweet strawberries. Since the strawberries are the main focus of this dessert, it's paramount that they are delicious specimens. The bigger ones this time of year don't pack nearly as much flavor. Small strawberries are also easier to fit into the tart shell, and if they're small enough, you can (if, like me, you're short on time) skip the step of hulling the inner white of the strawberries out.

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win a copy of sated magazine when it comes out, if you haven't already! Pre-orders should be starting sometime in the next week or so, so stay tuned!

Read on for recipe....

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....

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Pink Pie and Giveaway

I am so excited about today's post because desserts for breakfast is teaming up with CSN stores (purveyors of coffee tables, cookware, and oh-so-much-more) for an amazing cause: breast cancer awareness.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and, as I've mentioned on this blog before, it's a cause that's very near to me because close family members and friends of mine have had to fight and survive breast cancer.  So please.  Be aware.  Get tested.  Spread the word.

In commemoration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, CSN stores and cookware.com have kindly agreed to give away to one awesomely lucky winner an Emile Henry "Bake for the Cause" 9-inch pink pie plate (Emile Henry donates 10% of the sale of each pie dish to breast cancer research!).  I myself am a huge (read: HUGE) fan of the Emile Henry pie plates (I own four of them!), so I'm uber-excited for one of you to receive one, too, and especially a pink, breast-cancer-research-benefiting one.  To sweeten the pot pie even further, my breast-cancer-surviving relative and I will together donate $50.00 to the American Cancer Society for breast cancer research in the winner's name!

Now, once you have the pie plate, you can make this pink pie I whipped up for the occasion, inspired by a mash-up of my favorite pie (lemon meringue) and one of my favorite pink drinks (strawberry lemonade--trust me, I'm addicted to the stuff): strawberry lemonade meringue pie.  Inside the pie is a mix of the classic, tart lemon curd filling and a sweeter strawberry-lemon curd filling, made from the super sweet late season strawberries that are still floating about the farmers' markets right now.  The combination of lemon and strawberry lends a particularly fun twist to the classic lemon meringue pie.  (And, of course, don't forget the massive amounts of cloud-like meringue on top--my favorite part of this pie!)

This 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 your favorite pie?

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/dfbCSN1) so that I can track all of your entries!  You have until 23:59 PST, Sunday, October 17th, 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 in the U.S. and Canada only. (My apologies, international readers.) The pie plate portion of this giveaway is brought to you by the CSN stores and cookware.com.

Good luck on the giveaway, and remember to spread the word about Breast Cancer Awareness!


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Midweek Macarons: Strawberry + Red Wine + Mascarpone Cream

Sometimes, in the middle of a crazy week, you just need a little bit of a pick-me-up. Something small and sweet. So why not strawberry, red wine, and mascarpone cream macarons, a grown-up adaptation of strawberries'n'cream, with strawberry macaron shells spritzed with a bit of full-bodied, peppery wine, fluffy and tangy whipped mascarpone cream, and the optional wine gelee as the surprise candy center? Yes, I think that might do the trick.

What are your mid-week (or weekend) pick-me-ups?


[Edit: a Twitter friend (@zizikalandjai) named these "red tiny kisses." I like that. :-))


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Mango Lassi and Strawberry-Honey Yogurt Popsicles

All summer, we've been kicking back here on the West Coast in our mild 70-degree weather, watching blithely as the rest of the country roasts in some of the hottest heat waves ever to hit the States.  Until now, of course--right after school starts!  (Thanks, Mother Nature.)  Suddenly, we've had soaring temperatures for days on end, where by 11pm at night, it's still 90 degrees Fahrenheit out.  Can you say "ice me, please"???

Thankfully, I went on that popsicle-making craze a while ago, and our freezer has been stocked full of all assortment of flavors of popsicles, including these mango-lassi ice pops.  I mean, do I really need to convince you of the wonderfulness that is blended, super-sweet fresh mango, thick, creamy yogurt, and a dash of spicy ground cardamom?  In icicle form?  I thought not.  Then, there's the lovely variation on the mango lassi popsicles: strawberry-honey yogurt ice pops, which swaps out the mango and cardamom for sweet, end-of-season strawberries from your favorite grower and a mild flower honey.  *Lick.*  I also highly recommend layering the flavors--they go excellently together, especially for those indecisive people like me!  (Or, like my friend-- when we had her over for an Indian dinner night, she alternated between a mango lassi popsicle in one hand and my roommate's yummy homemade naan in the other! hey, girl knows the definition of a balanced diet, apparently.  :-))

Anyways, as long as I have these popsicles in my freezer, I say, bring it on! to the heat.  (Okay, not really--I do like the mild cold better.  I *am* a Bay Area native, after all.)  Plus, it allows us to have lovely nighttime, roof-top, Christmas lights-and-candle-lit picnic parties at my house whilst blasting bad "nostalgic" nineties pop tunes and Joni Mitchell, so we're hoping for at least a few more Indian summer nights in the coming months for more midnight jollity--and popsicles!

Brace yourselves--more popsicles coming later this week!


Read on for recipe...

Ambrosia Mojito Popsicles + Pomegranate Hibiscus Strawberry Popsicles

My house has been officially hit by the popsicle craze.  I kid you not.  As I type, there are five different flavors/types of popsicles sitting snugly in my freezer.  I just don't know how to stop.  Even though we've had one of the mildest (read: not hot) summers on record here whilst the rest of the country is broiling in summer heat, I've been addicted to popsicles.  Then, when I remembered how ridiculously easy and simple they are to make, I've basically wanted to put all of my foods into frozen-on-a-stick form.  Thankfully, I haven't yet gotten to the savory foods, but I think my trusty roommate may put her foot down before I reach that level of pop-driven insanity.

Today I have for you two types of those five flavors of popsicles currently inhabiting my freezer: ambrosia mojito popsicles and pomegranate hibiscus strawberry popsicles.  Both of these are basically the purest incarnation of the popsicle form: fruit or fruit juice blended with a tiny bit of sugar and water.  So simple and yet so refreshingly good.  And none of that ice cream-making, egg yolk churning fuss--just freeze and forget!  (My kind of dessert/meal when I'm terribly busy with non-food stuff, as has been the case for the past few weeks.)

You know that it's melon season when you can't escape a grocery store or farmers' market without catching a strong whiff of the sickly sweet juices from all the melons that are piling up.  More so than in past years, I've been noticing this season an upswing in all of the different types of melons in the markets--it's as if the heirloom craze in tomatoes has caught on in melons!  For instance, as I was stumbling about the local farmers' market searching for cantaloupes for this popsicle, I came across ambrosia, which the seller informed me are just like cantaloupe in their orange flesh and spider-webby rinds but are actually slightly sweeter.  Hence, ambrosia mojito popsicles!  (though if you can't find ambrosia, cantaloupes should do just fine.)

I really liked how these popsicles turned out, with layers of pure ambrosia puree and lime and mint juice.  I didn't add anything to the ambrosia flesh at all, choosing instead to let the unchanged flavor of the fruit shine through.  For sweetness, the middle lime and mint layer provides all of the sugar you might need in a dessert, and it's so satisfying to lick both layers at once, getting the balance of fruity flavors, tart lime, and minty sweetness.

The pomegranate, hibiscus, and strawberry popsicles came about when the lovely people at POM Wonderful sent me a case of pomegranate juice to play around with!  (the grad student in me was very excited about free food. ;-P)  Of course, given my current ice-pop state of mind (can Alicia Keys please write a song about that for me?), the first thing I had to do was freeze pomegranate juice.

As a contrast to the ambrosia mojito popsicles, I really wanted to emphasize the darkness of the pomegranate juice in these pops, so they are spiked with earthy and robust hibiscus juice, made from dried hibiscus blossoms, giving them an even richer and darker flavor.  Then, buried inside are small pieces of fresh strawberries, just to give the popsicle a bit of textural surprise and to take full advantage of the fast-disappearing summer berries.  Don't you just love how these popsicles are this luscious deep red?  I can assure you that they taste as juicy as they look!

Anyways, this has been sort of a long post, so I think I'll stop here and go see if I can't make a dent in those popsicles sitting in my fridge...  (So I can make more, duh. ;-P)

--
[full disclosure: POM Wonderful did send me a case of POM juice for free, but I wouldn't post about it here unless I actually love the stuff, which I totally do. In fact, their teas make up most of my study brain food.  I guzzle the stuff whenever I have papers to write (which, given my profession, is basically all the time), and all of my glassware at home is old POM tea glasses from when their teas first came out and came in these awesome reusable glasses.

Make sure to check out some of my other pomegranate recipes!]


Read on for recipes...

Thyme for Watermelon + Strawberries

If there's anything that is quintessentially "summer" for me, it's watermelon.  Once I have my first watermelon, I know that summer is finally here.  (Similarly, the disappearance of watermelons from the markets marks the end of summer for me, too--but that's sad and months away, so why worry about it now? ;-))

My family used to end all of our summer dinners with a big bowl of chopped watermelon, ice cold from the refrigerator.  Usually we would eat it plain, but sometimes, as a treat for me, my mom would give me a bowlful of Chinese sour plum powder in which to dip my watermelon chunks, and I absolutely loved that!  Though Chinese sour plums are a bit of an acquired taste for most, I just loved the juxtaposition between sweet and sour and salty between the mouth-puckering powder and the juicy watermelon.  So, as I started cooking, I started looking for the sweet and savory interplay that I loved from the watermelon + sour plums in other forms, of which one of my favorite is the watermelon, strawberry, and thyme salad with balsamic vinegar and ricotta salata.

Alright, so before everyone thinks I've gone bonkers to mix strawberries and watermelon into a savory dish, let me try to first convince you that I'm not crazy.  After all, salty+sweet has always been a great combo in savory dishes (and especially Asian ones): case in point, sweet and salty pork, or sweet walnut prawns, or the beloved orange-flavored chicken.  I even believe that the whole current let's-put-bacon-on-our-desserts craze is merely a manifestation of our desire to have a full flavor profile ranging from the sweet to the savory in one bite.  And this salad, if I might say so myself, delivers just that.  Between the fragrant earthiness of the fresh thyme leaves, the sour-sweetness of the balsamic vinegar, and the salty creaminess of the ricotta salata shavings, the traditionally saved-for-dessert strawberries and watermelon really come into their own, with everything else helping to bring out the sweet juiciness of the fruit itself.

This dish is also an insanely easy one to make and a perfect appetizer salad for a summer BBQ or picnic.  The longer the watermelon and strawberry chunks marinate in their light dressing of balsamic vinegar and thyme, the more the flavors really meld and combine, so preparing this the morning of a party or BBQ and then sticking it in the refrigerator until service really helps to make this dish even better.  All you have to do at the last minute is top the salad with some fresh shavings of ricotta salata, and voila! an easy yet super-unexpected way to start your meal.

Of course, this is a dessert blog, so I couldn't very well leave you without a way to end your meal, too, right?  To take a cue from my family's post-dinner watermelon-eating, nothing is better than watermelon except ice cold watermelon.  So, it's sort of no wonder that, ever since making watermelon sorbetto last summer, I've loved the idea of watermelon in ice form.  I also really liked the pairing of fresh thyme with watermelon and strawberries in savory form, so I translated it into a dessert: watermelon and strawberry granita with thyme-infused whipped cream.

Granita is one of my favorite things to make around the beginning of summer, which coincides (quite unfortunately), at my school, with finals week.  Since I'm stuck indoors furiously writing final papers when the weather is just starting to hit 80 degrees with no clouds outside, I always hanker for a bit of summer indoors as well.  Enter the granita, the perfect dessert to make when you're stuck inside, because, though it's ridiculously easy to make, you do have to baby-sit it for about six hours at a time, stopping every thirty minutes to scrape up the ice crystals forming around the edges of the pan until you reach a lighter-than-air and ultra-fluffy ice.  (Thirty minutes being about my attention span anyways, so it works out to have forced breaks from work to stir--and sneak tastes of--the in-progress granita.)

As much time as it takes to make granita, this one is well worth it.  The strawberries and watermelon make a refreshingly delicious ice--especially to eat on those hot summer nights sitting outside on the porch, and the hint of rosewater that I mixed in adds a slight and sweet mysterious aroma to the whole thing.  The thyme whipped cream on top makes the whole thing turn out like a sophisticated, grown-up version of my favorite orange creamsicles, with the herbal creaminess melting lusciously into a spoonful of flaky ice.  Try also freezing the cream right on top of the granita, which makes for an excellently creamy and cold summer treat.

So, with this watermelon, I now officially declare summer here!


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Farmer's Market Obsessions: savory tarts and fresh strawberries

Today's post is going to be short and sweet.  And savory.  I hope you don't mind.  Because, it sort of looks like this outside right now, and I want to be sitting under that tree:

Yes, after more rainy days than we've gotten in the past few years (though, we needed it!), it's finally been consistently sunny and gorgeous for the last week or so--while, ironically, I've been longingly gazing out the window and being stuck inside for work.  When the weather is this good (think not-to-hot days and mild, jacket-less nights), I start hankering after more and more spring and summer fruits and vegetables and constantly finding every opportunity and free minute to hang out at farmers' markets.  Hence, today I bring you my ideal farmers' market meal: a caramelized onion, goat cheese, and heirloom tomato buckwheat thyme quiche/tart finished off with a lemon curd cream and strawberry pavlova.  Oh spring/summer, how I adore thee.

I call this tart a tart/quiche, because it's really a tart but with a layer of egg on top to hold everything together.  There's a healthy handful of fresh thyme baked into the buckwheat crust, which makes a super-flavorful base for the tart/quiche (quirt? tarche? tuiche?).  Then, there's a thick layer of caramelized red and sweet yellow onions sitting on the bottom, topped off with a lighter layer of creamy egg, thick yogurt, and goat cheese.  I also love these mini heirloom tomatoes on the tart, which impart tiny little bursts of fresh and juicy flavor to the deep and dark onions sitting underneath.  Pair with a spicy arugula salad for extra om nom nom.

For dessert: lemon curd cream pavlova with fresh organic strawberries.  Though I've learned that pavlova is probably one of the hardest desserts to make look pretty on film, I've also learned that it is one of the best, lightest desserts for the springtime.  Those Australians/New Zealanders (or whoever invented it first) were geniuses.

 Though the highlight of this dessert was supposed to be the sweet and tiny organic strawberries lightly macerated in vanilla sugar and lemon juice, I have to say--and everyone who had this dessert agreed-- that the lemon curd cream stole the show.  I'm going to the record for this: if you haven't had lemon curd cream, you haven't lived at all. And I will swear by that.  The concept is super simple, just tart lemon curd folded into sweet whipped cream, but sometimes, the simplest things are just the best.  I literally ate it by the spoonful out of the bowl, and I didn't have a spoon large enough.  Top the crunchy-outside, soft-inside pavlova meringue with the lemon curd cream and fresh strawberries, and you have a gorgeous-springtime-weather-worthy dessert.

Okay, I'm off to find some excuse to enjoy more of this gorgeous weather!  Too bad there's no more of this lemon curd cream sitting in the fridge....


Read on for recipes...

Salted Black Cocoa Brownies, and the Eyjafjallajokull parfait

Oh, the power of persuasion.  I am so touched by everyone's incredible enthusiasm over the giveaway (BTW-- have you entered yet???)  Even though I haven't had the time to personally respond to all of your comments yet, I have been reading them all with great excitement!  I asked you all what you would do with black cocoa powder, and I've been loving the responses.  Man, you guys are creative--I mean, mole sauce with black cocoa?  Who would of thought of that!

An incredible number of you commented that you would make black cocoa brownies, and the more I read about black cocoa brownies, the more I started to really crave them.  Yes, the power of mob persuasion and mass suggestion at work.  So, the logical course of action was of course to whip up a batch of my own black cocoa brownies, just so you all know that it can be done.  And the results?  Fantastic.

Super chocolate-ty, super dense--nice and robust and dark.  Mm... this is what a brownie should be.  And, I am of the camp who believes that chocolate is greatly enhanced by a touch of salt, so the version I made here is salted black cocoa brownies.  I buttered the pan with salted butter (rubbing in a little bit of extra salt, just for good measure) and then topped the brownie batter with liberal sprinklings of coarse sea salt before baking.  The end result was a brownie that is so incredibly dangerous to have around the house, because it's so dark-chocolate-ty and yet not too sweet at all, hence you can just keep popping them into your mouth before you realize that you've devoured them all.  *looks about innocently*  I did manage to stay away from one pan of brownies (by wrapping them up in layers of saran wrap) long enough to take them into class today--at which point one person told me that she hesitated to even call these brownies because "brownie" did not seem worthy enough a name.  :-)

Of course, being me, I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I present to you another use of these salted black cocoa brownies, if you manage to stop eating them long enough to make it to this point: the Eyjafjallajokull parfait.  Yes, you will ask--why in the world am I naming these parfaits after Iceland's recently-infamous volcano?  Well!  First of all, these parfaits are made with plain Icelandic skyr, which are the perfect base of smooth, creamy, thick, and tart goodness.  Then, layered underneath and on top are alternatively the season's first strawberries, macerated in lemon juice and vanilla sugar, and chopped up cubes of salted black cocoa brownies.  For some reason, the skyr made me think of Iceland, and then the strawberries and black cocoa brownies made me think of lava and volcanic rock, respectively, sitting on top of a rich mountain of skyr, and thus was borne the name "the Eyjafjallajokull parfait."  Or, if you don't want to try pronouncing that, you can just call it the "Strawberry, black brownie, and skyr parfait."

Oh man, did these make the perfect afternoon snack yesterday or what.  The bites of dark chocolate and chewy brownie were balanced out really well by the lightness of the strawberries and the creaminess of the skyr.  Mmmm... I should have made them in larger mugs.  :-P

Anyways, thank you guys all again for your wonderfully sweet and thoughtful and awesomely fun to read comments in the last post!  Here are a few answers to a couple of recurring questions, just so I don't forget to address them later:

1.  I made the chocolate trees on the cake out of dark chocolate couverture, mixing in black cocoa powder to make the color darker (which, by the way, is another great use of black cocoa powder, as base for dark food colorings).  Then, I piped the melted chocolate onto silpats/parchment paper in the shape of trees and let dry completely.  You can also do this with tempered chocolate, and it will probably be even sturdier, but chocolate couverture is a good quick-and-dirty cheat. :-)

2.  Yes! the walk through the forest totally reminded me of the video game Myst.  Actually, the original title for "Descent" was "Descent into Mystverse."  I am a geek, just like the rest of you.

3.  Someone mentioned self-saucing pudding cake.  I am *so* intrigued by this.  Can anyone point me in the direction of a recipe?

4.  For those of you who have asked if you can buy prints: I just showed my collection so I haven't had any time to think about prints beyond the limited edition ones of the collection.  I will look into this further (maybe via imagekind) and get back to everyone!  If you are interested in the limited edition prints from the entire collection, in their original intended sizes, please contact me individually at s "at" shihbakes "dot" com.

[P.S.  How awesome is the word macerated, by the way?]


Read on for recipe...