Now, with less swears and more chocolate

In January, I came to the realization that somehow, this blog had not featured chocolate in over nine months. Admittedly, I am more of a fruit person, but I love good chocolate and did not intentionally give it the silent treatment. My bad.

I've been sitting on this post for a while, for reasons of sheer vanity. I couldn't get a decent shot of the sorbet before it started to melt on me. I meant to re-shoot it, but it disappeared before I had the chance- as is standard practice around here when it comes to things that taste good.

But, I'm also trying to turn over a new leaf with The Pie Lady. Some of the goals I've set include using the term 'fuck' less frequently, post weekly, and to stop ignoring chocolate. So I will bravely set my ego aside and assure you that while it looks a little melty, this sorbet is fucking amazing (I've already said it once. fuck it.)

I have met my monthly chocolate quota.
PS to those interested- this stuff is rich and indulgent, but not that bad for you.
And trust me on this one- You will think you are eating chocolate ice cream.



Dark Chocolate Sorbet

I like to serve mine with big sprigs of mint, because chocolate-mint is one of those flavor combos that makes my toes curl.

3 T corn syrup
2 1/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar

7 oz bittersweet chocolate (good quality), finely chopped
2 1/2 oz coco powder (dutch process)
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla
2 T brandy

Combine the chopped chocolate, salt, and coco in a large bowl.
Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a pot and bring to a full boil.

Slowly pour 1/3 of the hot sugar syrup into the bowl of chocolate and whisk thoroughly. Continue adding the syrup and whisking in 2 more additions. The mixture may seize up when you first add the syrup, but it will come together.
Stir in the vanilla and brandy. Strain the base through a fine sieve and chill until completely cold. The base will thicken slightly.
Once base is completely cold, churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions.

Grapefruit Campari Sorbet

As you can probably tell my the blinding girlishness of my blog, I unapologetically love pink.

The thing is, I in no way fit the personality profile of a stereotypical pink-lover.
My ipod and cellphone are not bedazzled with swarovski crystals.
I stopped wearing tiaras after grammar school.
If for some reason I am wearing a skirt, I can assure you that I will provide no opportunity for accidental peeping at my lady parts.
See? I'm totally 'one of the guys'.

But yeah. I admit that pink sort of puts me in my happy place. As does this pink grapefruit sorbet. I look forward to making it all year. Right about now, when the gargantuan Florida grapefruit are available is the best time to make it, but the Texas rio stars are also quite good. The Campari is key. While it may taste as bitter and evil as Slayer lyrics by itself- the oompf a little splash of it in citrus cocktails will deliver makes it a worthy investment. Plus you'll look totally suave with it sitting on your bar.



Do yourself a favor and candy the zest of the grapefruit before juicing them. Not only is it less wasteful in trying economic times like these, but it makes a tasty garnish as well.



This sorbet always does well at the restaurant. It's rare when a sorbet will outsell anything with chocolate in it, but this one will.
I love to imagine some alpha male on a first date accidentally ordering it.
While he is desperately hoping to appear manly- thus increasing the odds of mating, this pretty pink dessert on a doily sits before him.
It probably never happens, but I can always fantasize.



Grapefruit Campari Sorbet

5 1/2 cups freshly squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice (usually takes about 8 medium grapefruit)
1 quart grapefruit simple syrup*
6 oz. champagne, prosecco, or cremant (anything bubbly)
1 oz campari

Combine and churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions

*Grapefruit simple syrup:
1 quart water
4 cups sugar
grated zest of 2 ruby red grapefruit

Rub the zest into the sugar with your hands until the mixture resembles wet sand. Combine with the water and bring to a full boil. Remove from heat and strain. Chill overnight or in an ice bath.

Too stuffed for pie

Pear Riesling Sorbet

Happy Thanksgiving!!
I love Thanksgiving, it's my favorite holiday. Trevor and I have a tradition of keeping it a "just the two of us" event. Big family Christmas parties are just around the corner, so it's nice to relax and have a nice dinner for two- and then survive off the leftovers for the week and a half to follow.

Just because it's a small party, doesn't mean it's not a raging party. I bust out the nice dishes, set the table all Martha-like, light candles...the works. We just happen to celebrate in jammy pants, and I may have forgotten to put on a bra.

Trevor has set himself up with a living room-prep station, and is obediently snipping green beans on the couch, watching From Russia with Love. I'm taking a cocktail break from the kitchen...
oh yeah, and were both being thankful.

One thing we never really go wild about on this holiday, is dessert. Usually an assortment of shortbread cookies, depending on what dough I have in the freezer, and a glass of prosecco is all the dessert necessary after the Turkey Feed.


This year, however, I did have my fanciest of pants on. I had some yellowy golden pears, splotchy with little brown spots on the counter. They were primed and ready to be cooked down a wee bit, and pureed to become pear sorbet. A healthy amount of Riesling plays nicely with the pear, and a shot of cointreau adds a cozy, orangey warmth. Totally refreshing after a big meal. Rather than the tradish prosecco, I found a sexy pink cremant. She truly is a dirty girl, and will be glorious with the sorbet.


Pear Riesling Sorbet

simple syrup (refrigerate the leftovers for cocktails)
2 cups water
2 cups sugar

combine, bring to a boil. set aside to cool.

Pear puree (adjust sorbet recipe to how many cups your puree yields)

very ripe pears
lemon juice
water

peel and core pears. cut into chunks and place in a sauce pan. Add a few tablespoons of water and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook, covered, over medium low heat, stirring occasionally. Once pears are beginning to liquefy, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Puree in a blender (in batches if needed), Strain through a sieve into a large measuring pitcher


Sorbet base:

2 cups pear puree
1 cup simple syrup
3 or 4 oz. of decent quality Riesling (add more or less to your taste)
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T cointreau

Stir together, then refrigerate until completely cold. Churn in an ice cream maker.

Flavors of a Suburban Childhood

Creamsicle Semifreddo

I've been a bit of a lazy blogger lately. I have been a very busy social networker though. In the past week or so, I have joined both twitter and foodbuzz. I think I have the whole twitter thing figured out. It's both kind of neat and pointless at the same time. I like being able to send immediate non-food related messages to fellow bloggers, but to be perfectly honest, I'm running low on witty repartee....

Why in god's name would anyone care what I'm eating for breakfast?
(Heritage Farms Flax Plus multigrain cereal. Keeps the digestive system on the regs...see what I mean?)

Foodbuzz still kind of confuses the hell out of me. The wine country blog I featured on my profile was accidentally posted twice and I can't figure out how to make one of them go away. And how do you get that nifty graphic to display on your blog? I'll get the hang of it eventually, as I usually do with these computer-related activities. I'm still kind of amazed that I keep a blog in the first place. I was born during the Carter administration, which means that growing up, Atari Pong was considered the penultimate in technological advances and mankind was just inches away from self-aware robots and hovercrafts. I realize that software techs in their forties are laughing their asses off at me, but yeah- when it comes to this interweb thingymajig, I'm on a bit of a slow learning curve.

Speaking of my youth- my dessert menu is experiencing a childhood kick lately. The fruit pies are always a big seller, mainly for their simplicity and the fact that it's hard to find a good slice o' pie in the city these days- but fruit pies, delicious and awesome as they are, are typically a favored by the "Jag" crowd.

It's time for a shout out to the young'uns- and to some of my favorite flavors as a kid. Memories of watching the Mariners lose at the now demolished Kingdome with my dad and eating chocolate malts became a malted chocolate mousse cake served with caramelized rice krispies. Mom taking us to McDonalds for an orange-vanilla swirl cone (which they don't sell anymore. Buttholes.) after going to the swimming pool has been translated to a creamsicle semifreddo.

Orange and vanilla has always been one of my favorite combos. It's right up there with burgers and beer. The semifreddo (which is basically just a frozen mousse- no ice cream maker required) has just a smidgen of an ingredient that I generally abhor: white chocolate. But when cut heartily with lots of cointreau and orange zest, you can barely tell it's there. It's minuscule- a whisper really, to help play up the vanilla bean and provide a really nice texture. White chocolate haters will most likely still enjoy this dessert.

On to the recipe:
Creamsicle Semifreddo

Mousse Base (can be made a day or two in advance):
1 3/4 cups whole milk
zest of 1 orange
2 T sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
1 T fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tsp cointreau*
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

combine the milk, zest, and vanilla bean in a sauce pot. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let steep to 2 hours.

whisk the yolks and salt together. bring the infused milk back to a simmer and temper it into the yolks. return mixture to pot and cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula over low heat until mixture thickens slightly. Strain though a sieve into a container and chill. Once cooled, stir in the vanilla extract, orange juice, and cointreau.
semifreddo:
mousse base
12 oz white chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp sugar
2 T fresh squeezed orange juice
1 T cointreau

line a loaf pan with plastic wrap.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk the cream, orange juice, sugar, and cointreau until very soft peaks form. set aside.
melt the white chocolate over a double boiler until no lumps remain. stir in the mousse base until smooth. fold in the whipped cream in 3 additions. continue folding gently until well combined. pour mousse into the prepped loaf pan and freeze over night. invert onto a frozen sheet pan and cut into 12 slices.

Banana Ice Cream for Beautiful Bones

I ate this whole cup after the photo shoot.
It was 9:30 am.

I am addicted to this ice cream. It's the type of thing that is so good, it makes you want to cry.
Lately I have been fussing around with a roasted banana ice cream for a brownie sundae that will be making it's debut on my menu next week (with hot fudge, rum soaked golden raisins, and salted walnuts.... a single tear of joy rolls down my cheek). There are a plethora of banana ice cream recipes out there, but I couldn't find a single one that appealed to me. That's OK, nothing pumps me up like a good challenge. I wont go into the various different methods I fiddled with, for they will bore you. All you should care about is the final victory (which was my fourth attempt for those who are counting....and for those who are counting- get a fucking life.), which may be my finest ice cream achievement to date.... Please note that I say that a lot.

This recipe is also high in calcium, which makes it a prudent entry for Susan's blog event, beautiful bones- once again, I am submitting ice cream for a blog event. I promise you all more creativity in the future....

No I don't. I love ice cream and relish any chance I can get to eat too much of it.
But seriously, osteoporosis is something we should all try to avoid- especially us ladies, so our beloved Food Blogga is a champ for coming up with this event to promote awareness. There will be all kinds of bone strengthening recipes posted around the first of the month, so be sure to check out her blog for the round up.


start with ripe, yet not mushy naners



macerate with rum and lemon juice


Roast the bananas
...this is probably the ugliest picture ever to be seen on this blog
*hanging my head in shame*

Roasted Banana Ice Cream (recipe can be scaled down. I like to make a shitload)

Roasted Bananas:
6 ripe bananas
2 T Meyers dark rum
1 tsp lemon juice
1 T sugar

Peel and slice the bananas. Toss with the remaining ingredients and let macerate for 20 minutes. Turn on the broiler and lay the bananas out onto a silpat lined sheet pan (or spray a piece of parchment paper with pam) Roast until they begin to caramelize- about 5-10 minutes.

Ice cream base:
3 cups whole milk
6 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
roasted bananas (see recipe above)

18 egg yolks
1 tsp salt

1 1/2 oz. Meyer's dark rum

Scrape the roasted bananas into a pot. add the sugar, milk, and cream. Bring mixture to a boil, then remove from heat, cover, and let infuse for 2 hours.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the bananas and transfer to a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth, then whisk together with the egg yolks and salt.

Bring infused dairy to a boil and slowly temper the hot liquid into the yolks. Return to the pot and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly with a heat proof spatula, until thickened (custard should be about 165 degrees). Strain custard into a container and chill. Once completely cold, stir in the rum and churn in a ice cream machine.


Next on The Pie Lady:
Food with colors!



A PS for my Mother: I only swore ONCE in this post.

Pie #5- Little Mango Pies with Brown Sugar-Grand Marnier Ice Cream

It's been waaay too long since I royal foodie jousted. I just have to say this- don't hate me- but the term "foodie" kind of grates on my nerves. I don't blame people who use the word. It's whoever came up with it who'd ass I'd like to kick. I know I'll probably receive hate-mail for that, but it's my blog and I can say whatever I want.

You know what I love though? I LOVE Jenn, the Leftover Queen (who is recently married to the leftover King, Roberto- they are such a gorgeous couple. Their kids will be so hot) and her forum, where the monthly royal foodie joust occurs.

Last month's winning entry, submitted by the hilarious and fowl Michelle at Thursday night smackdown will be hard to follow. But she picked some pretty awesome ingredients for us to work with this month: Mango, Cardamom, and Brown Sugar- as well as the instructions "I want to see your mad pastry skillz".

Here ya go Michelle. I have submitted a very pie lady entry:

Little Mango Pies with Brown Sugar-Grand Marnier Ice Cream

The hands-down best part of this dessert was the ice cream. I must try it with chocolate cake some time. Making new discoveries for my dessert menu is one of the main reasons why I participate with these events. I'm thinking a scoop of this atop a warm flour less chocolate cake would be pretty orgasmic. Don't you?

Pie Dough:

1 cup pastry flour
4 oz cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 T vodka
2 T ice water

In a food processor, pulse up the butter with the flour and salt until butter is the size of peas. Add the water and vodka and pulse briefly until flour is moistened. Dump contents out onto a work surface and frisage into a disc. Chill overnight, or for at least 3 hours.
Roll chilled dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut into 6 4 inch circles (I used a cookie cutter). Chill dough circles until ready to use.

Mango Filling:
2 ripe mangoes
1 T fresh lime juice
3 T sugar
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp cornstarch

Cube up the mangoes and toss with the remaining ingredients.



don't forget to gnaw on your mango pit. And don't forget to floss afterwards

Assembly/Baking:
Ease the dough circles into small muffin tins (no need for pan spray- there is enough butter in the dough for it to release on it's own). Divide mango filling amongst the dough-lined compartments. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 and continue baking for 35 minutes.

Ice Cream:

2 cups whole milk
1 quart heavy cream
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
12 egg yolks
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 oz grand marnier

Whisk together the yolks and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
In a large pot, combine the brown sugar with the milk and cream. Heat slowly, stirring occasionally to dissolve the brown sugar. Once sugar is dissolved, turn heat up and bring to a boil. Slowly temper into the yolks. Return mixture to the pot and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula, until mixture thickens. Strain into a container and place in an ice bath to chill. Once cold, stir in the grand marnier and churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.

SHF #42- Asian Invasion!

Coconut-Jasmine Ice Cream

It's Sugar High Friday time again....yaaaaay! These days, it seems to be the only blog event I can get my shit together for. This month's host, Amrita at La Petite Boulangette chose the theme "Asian Invasion".
This had to be providence; just hours before I read the announcement, I happened to be at World Spice and picked up some pearl jasmine. It was begging to be used for this.

Pearl Jasmine, which is mostly used for tea, can also be used for infusions. Pairing it with another Thai ingredient- coconut, seemed like a damn fine idea to me.


Southeast Asian persuasion: pearl jasmine and coconut

I had thought of doing a panna cotta or a creme brulee, but it the end, ice cream was what I (husband's constant bitching about how I never make him homemade ice cream anymore had nothing to do with it. I swear.) really wanted. Coconut milk served as a replacement for most of the whole milk, I also used some unsweetened flaked coconut in the infusion to help pronounce the flavor. Jasmine can be a very assertive ingredient, and I didn't want it to over power everything.



Final verdict? OH.MY.SWEET.LORD. Sooooo good. The two flavors were balanced together in perfect ying-yang harmony. Not included in this post are the lime sugar cookies I made to go with them, but they are certainly worth mentioning.

You want to know what else is worth mentioning? The Dali Lama is in town! This very day, he is literally blocks from my home at the Key Arena. He's been here all weekend- how kick ass is that?

Coconut-Jasmine Ice Cream

1 can coconut milk
1/4 cup whole milk
4 cups heavy cream
3 T pearl jasmine
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
12 egg yolks
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Combine both milks, cream, sugar, and coconut flakes in a pot. Bring to a boil, then add the jasmine. Remove pot from heat, cover, and let steep for 1 hour. Whisk together the eggs and salt in a large bowl. Return the infused dairy to a boil, then slowly temper it into the eggs, about 1 cup at a time. Return mixture to low heat and stir constantly with a heatproof spatula until it thickens (make sure you are scraping the bottom of the pot with the spatula). Immediately remove from heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer. Place custard over an ice water bath. Once custard is very cold, churn in an ice cream maker following manufacturer's instructions.

The October Royal Foodie Joust!

My entry: White chocolate-lavender ice cream with merlot poached pears
Every month, Jenn, the lovely leftover queen hosts a Royal Food Joust over on the leftover queen forums. Whoever wins the challenge from the previous month, gets to pick the three ingredients for the next challenge. Everyone comes up with a dish including all three of these ingredients. Congrats to Meghan, who won lasts month's challenge of chipotle, buttermilk, and zucchini with her zucchini stuffed chicken breasts with buttermilk chipotle sauce. She chose white chocolate, lavender, and pears for this month's joust. Head on over to the forums to see every one's scrumptious entries and vote for your favorite!

At first, I had a hard time coming up with what I wanted to do with this. I was eager to participate because I really don't like white chocolate. Coming up with a dessert showcasing it, that I would actually eat is just the type of challenge I'm up for. I knew this could be done- when one handles the White chocolate delicately and pairs it with the right flavors, it can be pretty delicious. Lavender was a merciful addition on Meghan's behalf. It is one of those things that just belongs with white chocolate. It cuts the sweetness and adds a deeper, more complex flavor to it. Had she not included it in the ingredients, I would have thrown it in there anyway. It was the pears that were stumping me. They are a great choice this time of year, but with white chocolate? Hmmmmm......

After some head scratching, I decided on a mildly flavored white chocolate lavender ice cream served with a side of spicy merlot poached pears. I am pleased to announce that the pears work beautifully with the ice cream. The contrast of the strong flavored, peppery pears against the creamy and cooling ice cream is a winner. Great picks Meghan!

White Chocolate Lavender Ice cream- makes about 4 cups

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp culinary lavender buds, crushed slightly
5 oz. white chocolate
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
pinch sea salt

Bring the cream, milk, and lavender to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, chop up the white chocolate and place in a small bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together the sugar, salt, and egg yolks. Once 30 minutes is up, bring the lavender infused dairy back to a boil. Ladle about 6 oz. of the hot dairy over the chopped white chocolate. Pour about 6 more oz. over the eggs, whisking them constantly. Pour the now tempered eggs into the pot with the rest of the dairy, and cook over med-low heat, stirring constantly wit a heat tempered spatula. Make sure the spatula never leaves the bottom of the pot, or the eggs will curdle. Once the custard base is thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, strain it into a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Stir the white chocolate-cream mixture until mostly smooth. Pour mixture into the custard and stir to combine. Nest the custard in a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and water. Once the custard is completely cold, churn it in an ice cream maker following the manufacturer's instructions.

Poached Pears

2 cups decent merlot. (nothing too expensive, but you want it to be something you'd be willing to drink on it's own)
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 fresh bay leaf
3 peppercorns
1/4 of cinnamon stick, crushed
1/4 of a vanilla bean, split and scraped

2 bartlett pears, ripe but still firm

Peel and cut the pears into quarters. Place them in acidulated water while you combine the rest of the ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a full boil, then drop in the pears and turn off the heat. Use a tea towel or smaller pot lid to submerge the pears in the liquid, or they will not poach correctly. Let sit until the pears are tender to a paring knife. Transfer pears and liquid to a shallow pan and refrigerate.

To serve

Put 4 plates in the freezer. Drain pears on paper towels while reducing the poaching liquid until syrupy.
Drizzle the reduced liquid on the frozen plates. Place a big scoop of the ice cream over the liquid and fan out pear slices around it. Garnish with lavender buds (though I didn't have much! My plant is suffering in the cold!)

Huckleberry Ice Cream

What you see is one of the many reasons why I love my home. I was born and raised in the Seattle area and the Pacific Northwest is part of who I am. Fresh seafood, wild mushrooms, bad weather, coffee, Jimi Hendrix....I love it all and I doubt I'll ever move. Huckleberries (also known as bilberries), in particular hold a special place in my heart. These little guys are kind of hard to find. "Loved by bears and humans alike", they grow in the mountains around Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. It used to be that one could only find them in the most random places... gas stations in the middle of eastern Washington would have a man selling them from the back of his truck. Thanks to the growing popularity of neighborhood farmer's markets and local mushroom purveyors, I can get fifteen to twenty pounds of them dropped off at the restaurant per week- all cleaned and ready to go. They freeze beautifully, so if you can ever get your hands on them, buy a lot. Then, place them in a single layer on a sheet pan and put them in the freezer. When they're frozen, pack them up into heavy duty ziplock bags, and you've got huckleberries ready to go at any time of the year. They thaw in an instant and are great tossed into a coffeecake batter, baked in a bundle of puff dough, sprinkled over oatmeal, or my absolute favorite: huckleberry ice cream.

Nothing could be easier than putting this luscious treat together. If you are comfortable with making vanilla ice cream, this will be a breeze. The huckleberries are combined with just a pinch of sugar, cooked down into a chunky sauce, then cooled and combined with an ice cream custard base. The finished product is a creamy mauve colored delight. The berries look like blueberries, but really don't taste like them. They are somehow both tangier and sweeter at the same time. I like to serve this dessert as simply as possible. Just an oatmeal crisp cookie plunged into the ice cream, and a few little nibbles on the plate such as candied orange peel and glazed pecans.

Huckleberry Compote

1 1/2 cups huckleberries, fresh or frozen
3 Tbl. sugar
3 oz. water
1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Combine the first three ingredients in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Whisk the sauce a few times during the cooking process to break up the berries slightly. Stir in the lemon juice. Cool the compote completely before combining with the ice cream custard.


Vanilla Ice Cream base

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
6 egg yolks
pinch salt
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 of a vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Set aside. Split the vanilla pod down the middle and scrape the seeds with the tip of a paring knife into a saucepan. Drop the whole pod into the pan and add the milk and cream. Bring the mixture to a full boil, then temper in about 1/3 of the hot liquid into the yolks. Whisk well, then pour the hot cream/yolk mixture back into the pan. Return to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a heat resistant spatula. Be sure the spatula is continuously touching the bottom of the pan, or the eggs Will scramble. The ice cream base is finished once the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon or it registers at 170 degrees on a thermometer. Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve, then allow to cool in an ice bath. It's best to refrigerate the base overnight if you can. If you're not using the vanilla bean, the extract can be stirred in at this point.

Once both your ice cream base and huckleberry compote are cold, combine them and churn in an ice cream maker following the manufacturers instructions.

A Summer Delight: Thistle honey semifreddo

I stumbled upon a recipe for honey semifreddo a year or two ago while flipping through Nigella Lawson's "Forvever Summer." At that time, I was running the wholesale bakery. Scones, pies (of course), cinnamon rolls, scones, some layer cakes, and more scones were all I was ever making at work. As one might guess, I was going out of my mind with boredom. Thankfully, in March of this year, I shifted gears and am now making dessert for a local urban bistro. The job is perfect for both my tastes and attitude toward food. When planning out my dessert menu, I knew I would have to start playing with that semifreddo of Nigella's.

The first place I would have to start would be finding a great, full bodied honey. I wanted something dark with an intense, yet not too smokey honey flavor. At the same time, it needed to be a honey that wouldn't break the bank and was easy to get my hands on. Tahuya River Honey is my favorite honey in this area, but I've only ever seen it at farmer's markets and the price is just a little high. Each loaf pan of the semifreddo calls for almost 8 oz. of honey- practically a whole jar.

I happened to be having lunch near Pike Place Market with my mom one day, when she mentioned that she needed some dried chukar cherries for her manhattans. I tagged along and stopped by the Snoqualmie Valley honey stand. http://www.honeyexpress.com/ Somehow, I had forgotten about these guys. They hold a regular stand at Pike Place, so it's easy to get. (They will also ship!) Requirement #1 met. Three pound jars of all varieties of their honey is only $15.00. Requirement #2 met. So I started tasting some of them. Firweed was delicious as it always is, but I was looking for something slightly less smokey. Buckwheat honey was also great, but a little too sharp. Thistle honey was exactly what I was looking for. Dark, intense, and complex. We have found a winner!

Ready for it's close up...topped with black raspberries, tayberries, blueberries, and pine nut praline.
Photo courtesy of the Seattle P-I

Next, it was time to start adjusting Nigella's recipe to suit the vision in my head. Her's is a little eggier than what I had wanted and the final product is coated with a thick layer of more honey and toasted pine nuts. My version is slightly creamier, and is served with crunchy pine nut praline. Local berries and a tiny drizzle of honey (thinned out with a little Moscato d'asti) is all this dessert needed for it's finishing touches. Most important: It's totally delicious. I will go back to this dessert annually. It was a hit both with customers and reviewers, and it was easy to keep up on it's prep. Above all, just 4 ingredients is all you need to create this luscious, creamy, and cooling summer dessert.

Thistle honey semifreddo (serves about 12)

7 1/2 oz. thistle honey (or your favorite full-flavored honey)
4 egg yolks
1/2 of a vanilla bean (seeds only)
3 cups heavy cream

line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and set aside. Prepare a double boiler: Fill a sauce pot with about 1" of water and bring to a low simmer. Have ready a bowl that will fit over the pot. The bowl should not be too deep, nor the water level too high.

In the bowl you have ready, combine the honey, vanilla seeds, and egg yolks. Place the bowl over the simmering water and whisk constantly for about five minutes. The mixture will have thickened quite a bit, and will have become pale in color. Remove bowl from bouble boiler and set on the counter to cool to room temperature.

Once the honey mixture has cooled, whip the heavy cream to soft peak. Gently fold the whipped cream into the honey in three additions. Pour the mousse into the prepared loafpan and freeze overnight.

To serve: put a sheet pan in the freezer for a few mintues. When the pan is good and cold, remove it and flip it upside down on your counter. Now you have a nice cold surface in which to slice the semifreddo. Invert the loafpan onto the cold sheet and gently seperate the plastic wrap from the loaf. Slice into 1 " slices and serve immediatley on chilled plates. OR- Place each slice onto a chilled sheetpan, wrap in plastic, and freeze until ready to serve.