Archive for Desserts & Baking
Irish Love Whiskey-Infused Chocolate Truffles
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Is there a better way to say “Happy Valentine’s Day” than with rich and elegant chocolate truffles? Add in some Irish whiskey and you have devilish Irish love.
The first chocolate truffle was created by Antoine Dufour in Chambery, France in 1895. Named after the lumpy truffle fungi (mushroom) that they often resemble, these chocolate delights have attained the same height of sophistication as their pricier mushroom relatives. In The Devil’s Kitchen, we make our chocolate truffles in the decadently rich Swiss manner – with real chocolate, real cream, and real butter – for a melt-in-your-mouth treat.
We also add in some peaty Jameson Irish whiskey to infuse Irish love into our truffles. You can substitute another alcohol to add love from another nationality. Rum for Jamaican love. Kahlua for Mexican love. Kirsch for some Swiss alpine love. Whatever you add to your chocolate truffles, they’re sure to be a big hit on Valentine’s Day … or any other day.
Ingredients (40 truffles)
8 oz (220g) high-quality dark chocolate
½ cup whipping cream
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp Jameson Irish whiskey (or other nation’s favourite alcohol)
2-3 tbsp cocoa powder
1. Finely chop the chocolate and place in a medium bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the cream and butter over low heat. Carefully heat until the butter has melted and the cream starts bubbling prior to boiling.
3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and gently stir until the chocolate has melted. Add the whiskey and combine well.
4. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or more. Can be left in refrigerator overnight.
5. Use a small spoon to scoop out small amounts of the stiff chocolate mixture.
6. Rolling the scoop of chocolate between your palms, form the chocolate into a rough ball or slightly oblong shape. The warmth of your hands should slighly melt the outer layer, which helps the cocoa powder stick to the truffle.
7. Roll the chocolate ball in the cocoa powder to give it a light coating.
8. Place the chocolate truffles on a tray or plate, and put in the refrigerator to cool for 1 hour.
The truffles can be kept in a covered container (in a cool place or the refrigerator) for a few days. Best to hand them over to your Valentine as fresh as possible, for optimal taste sensation.
Rustic Yogurt Apple Cake
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The crumbly, golden topping. The apple slices peeking through. The rustic, far from snobby cake. Just the look of this apple cake tells you it’s going to be tasty.
And once you take that first bite, you get a fantastic mingling of flavours that confirms that this cake is devilishly tasty. There’s the deep tang of the yogurt and the light bite of lemon, playing a perfect foil to the sweet crumble topping and the toothsome apples.
Yes! This rustic yogurt apple cake is tempting and delicious. It’s also devilishly easy to make.
Ingredients (8” or 21cm round cake)
Cake
2 medium apples, peeled & cored
2-3 tsp lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)
1 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
3 tsp grated lemon rind (1 lemon)
2 eggs
¾ cup natural cane sugar
½ cup melted butter
½ cup plain yogurt
Crumble Topping
¼ cup natural cane sugar
¼ cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
¼ cup walnut pieces
2 tbsp flour
Make Cake Batter
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F (180c).
2. Cut the apples into thin wedges and toss in a medium bowl with the lemon juice. Toss until well coated.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and grated lemon rind.
4. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for 4-5 minutes.
5. Beat in the melted butter and yogurt.
6. Gently mix the liquid mixture into the flour mixture. Stir in 2/3 of the apple slices.
7. Spoon the batter into a buttered and floured 8” (21cm) round cake pan.
8. Arrange the remaining apple slices on top of the batter.
Make Topping & Bake
9. In a processor, pulse the sugar, butter, walnut pieces, and flour until the mixture just starts to clump together.
10. Spread the topping over the cake batter.
11. Bake for 60-75 minutes – until a skewer pushes into the cake comes out clean and the top is a wonderful golden colour.
12. Cool the cake for at least ½ hour in the pan before removing.
Swiss And Delicious Brunsli – Our Favourite Christmas Cookie
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Ask any of the kitchen devils In The Devil’s Kitchen which cookie most means “Christmas” to us, and the answer is Brunsli. Having grown up in the Swiss Alps, I can’t imagine a Christmas without some of these delicious dark brown, nutty, Kirschy cookies on hand. After the other kitchen devil first had a taste of these very Swiss cookies on a trip to Switzerland, she declared that Brunsli are a required winter treat.
With a rich nutty taste, laced with Kirsch, and deepened by cocoa, these Brunsli cookies are a must try. And, since they are so gosh-darned easy to make, there is no reason to miss out on this devilish taste sensation.
BTW, there is no flour in these cookies, so they are great for anyone on a gluten-free diet. Not so great if you’re allergic to nuts.
Time note: After cutting out the cookies, they have to dry overnight.
Ingredients (25 cookies)
6 oz (170g) almonds (about 1 cup whole almonds)
¾ cup white sugar
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
1 egg white
1 tbsp Kirsch (also called Kirschwasser)
Granular white sugar for rolling dough
1. In a food processor, pulse the almonds until coarsely ground.
2. Add the sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pulse to combine.
3. With the processor running, add the egg white and Kirsch through the feed tube. Process until well mixed and mixture starts to clump together.
4. Form the dough into a rough ball and set on a counter that’s been generously dusted with granular sugar.
5. Dust the top of the dough with sugar as you roll or pat it out to ½” (12mm) thick.
6. Cut out cookies with cookie cutter. When cutter starts to stick too much, rinse it in hot water.
7. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking tray and leave them to dry overnight.
8. Pre-heat oven to 350F (180c).
9. Bake Brunsli for 12-13 minutes.
10. Allow them to cool for 1-2 minutes on baking tray, before transferring them to cooling rack.
Mini Gingerbread Houses
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Inspired by the folktale of Hansel and Gretel, gingerbread houses have long been a popular tradition at Christmas. The tradition began in Germany shortly after the Brothers Grimm published their collection of German fairy tales in the 1800s. German bakeries started offering gingerbread houses with icing snow on the roof and elaborate decorations.
It’s great fun to create elaborate gingerbread houses and decorate them with a large assortment of colourful candies (in fact, the city of Bergen, Norway hosts a yearly gingerbread city), but In The Devil’s Kitchen, we also like to make these cute mini gingerbread houses. This way, everyone in the family can pursue their own artistic ideas.
We use a gingerbread recipe that has been passed down through the generations of our family. It makes a gingerbread that stays moist and chewy much longer. After Christmas you can enjoy eating these gingerbread houses without breaking any teeth.
Note: The dough has to rest for at least 4 hours between making and baking, so allow for this and make the dough early.
Click here to download and print house pieces template.
Ingredients (10 houses)
Gingerbread
1 cup butter, chilled
1 cup natural cane sugar
1 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp nutmeg
Assembly & Decoration
3 cups royal icing (very stiff batch)
Assorted colourful candies
Make Gingerbread
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter.
2. Cream the sugar into the butter.
3. Add the molasses, eggs, and vanilla. With an electric mixer, beat for 2-3 minutes – until the mixture resembles porridge.
4. In another large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix the flour mix into the wet ingredients, adding a little at a time.
5. The dough should be pliable, but stiff enough to form into a ball. If needed, work some more flour into the dough. Form into a ball, wrap, and place in refrigerator for 4 hours.
6. Pre-heat oven to 350F (180c).
7. On a well-floured counter, roll the dough out to ¼” (5mm) thick.
8. Using the included paper templates (click here to download the template, print it out, and cut out the shapes) cut the house pieces from the gingerbread. Note: You need one base and two of each of the other parts per house. Hint: Dust your knife with flour when the dough begins to stick to it.
9. Use a thin spatula to gently transfer the gingerbread shapes to a floured baking tray.
10. Bake the gingerbread for 8 minutes.
11. Let the shapes cool on the baking tray for 8-10 minutes. Then, using a thin spatula, gently transfer the gingerbread house parts to a cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least 1-2 hours.
Assemble & Decorate Houses
12. When the gingerbread pieces have fully cooled and hardened, mix up a batch of stiff royal icing (stiffer than usual for piping). Use a piping bag and small round nozzle to apply icing to the edges of pieces – to use as a glue.
13. Assemble the two sides, front, and back on a base, using icing as glue at all joints. Allow to set for 10 minutes.
14. Apply icing to the top edge of the front, back, and sides.
15. Gently press the one roof piece onto one side, carefully pressing on the roof piece directly over the edges below (not in the middle of the roof piece). Then, pipe icing along the roof peak. Attach the other roof piece and allow to set 15-20 minutes.
16. Use a rubber spatula to gently spread icing on the roof. Spread it up to ¼” (5mm) thick.
17. Use a piping bag and small round nozzle to pipe a door and windows on each gingerbread house.
18. Using small blobs of icing as glue, attach colourful candies to your gingerbread houses.
Swiss Spitzbuben Cookies
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My favourite bakery in my hometown in Klosters, Switzerland has these jewel-like cookies on sale year-round. However, to me, Spitzbuben cookies have always been a Christmas cookie – maybe because they look like Christmas ornaments and have a snowy dusting of icing sugar.
For the prettiest results, use a red jam or preserve – such as strawberry, raspberry, or cassis. And, when possible, get a jam or preserve without chunks of fruit in it – so you get a smooth, jewel-like finish.
BTW, in Klosters, we always called these Spitzbübli. And, a Spitzbub is a rascally little devil of a kid. Maybe that’s why we like these In The Devil’s Kitchen.
Ingredients (12 3” or 8cm cookies)
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
¼ tsp salt
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg white
3 cups flour
6-7 tbsp jam or preserves
2-3 tbsp icing sugar for decoration
1. The butter should be at room temperature in a warm room, so it is soft. With an electric mixer, beat it until whipped.
2. Mix in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Then, mix in the icing sugar ¼ cup at a time. Add the egg white and beat until well combined.
3. Add the flour ½ cup at a time and mix in well.
4. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it, and place in refrigerator for 1 hour.
5. Pre-heat oven to 400F (205c).
6. Roll the dough out to less than ¼” (5mm) thick.
7. Use a cookie cutter to cut out your favourite shapes.
8. Use a small circular cutter to cut a window in half of the cookies.
9. Place the cookies on a buttered and greased cookie tray.
10. Bake for 6-8 minutes – just until the surface is dry and slightly crinkly.
11. Gently remove the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
12. Spread the windowless cookies with the jam or preserve.
13. Place the cookies with windows on top to sandwich the jam. Then, use a sifter to dust the Spitzbuben cookies with icing sugar.
Canuck Christmas Butter Tarts
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The years I spent in Canada, Christmas always meant there would be lots and lots of butter tarts. These little icons of Canadian baking are sweet and delicious, with a soft filling and a crisp and crumbly pastry shell.
Butter tarts date back to pioneer Canadian cooking and are one of only a few recipes that are thought to be truly original Canadian recipes. So, put on your toque (for non-Canucks, that’s a knitted wool cap – the epitome of Canadian fashion) and tuck into some Canuck butter tarts.
Ingredients (6 tarts)
Tart Shell
1 ¼ cups flour
1 tbsp white sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2-4 tbsp cold water
Butter Tart Filling
3 tbsp butter, at room temperature
½ cup natural cane sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp whipping cream
¼ cup raisins or chopped walnuts (or ½ and ½)
Make Shells
1. In a food processor, blend the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter pieces and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. With processor running, pour water in through feed tube until dough starts to clump together. You should be able to pinch some between your fingers and it will hold together.
3. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap or foil, and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
4. On a floured counter, roll out the chilled dough to a thickness of ¼” (5mm) or slightly less.
5. Cut out 4 – 4 ½” (10-11cm) rounds of dough.
7. Place in the cups of a buttered and floured standard muffin tin. Form the sides with your fingers.
8. Chill the tray in the refrigerator for ½ hour.
Make Filling & Bake
9. Pre-heat oven to 375F (190c).
10. In a medium bowl, blend the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, until well combined.
11. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Then, mix in the cream.
12. Add raisins or nuts to the tart shells in the muffin tin.
13. Spoon in the filling.
14. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The filling will be puffed up and the surface browned and set. The pastry shells will be lightly browned around the edges.
15. Let cool to room temperature. The surface will sink as they cool. Run a narrow spatula around the edge and gently ease the butter tarts out of the muffin cups.
These Canuck Christmas butter tarts are devilishly tasty served at room temperature (which gives you the full flavour sensation) but can be kept for a few days in the refrigerator.
Sugar Cookie Snowflakes
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Sugar cookies have always been a fantastic canvas for making decorative Christmas cookies. These colourful snowflakes, with their bright background colour and a lacy white design, make for fancy little Christmas bites. Bake up a batch and place these sugar cookie snowflakes out when Christmas company comes calling.
Ingredients (80-90 1½” or 40mm cookies)
½ cup butter, at room temperature
¾ cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 ¾ cups flour
½ tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
3 cups royal icing
1. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 4-5 minutes, until well combined.
2. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix for 2-3 minutes with the electric mixer – until smooth.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add it to the butter mixture and mix well.
4. Sprinkle some flour on your counter and lightly knead the dough for 20-30 seconds.
5. Form the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic or foil, and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour – to stiffen the dough.
6. Preheat oven to 375F (190c).
7. Sprinkle flour on your counter and roll the dough out to ¼” (5mm) thick.
8. Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies. A star or flower shape makes good snowflakes (the cutter pictured here is a small cherry blossom cutter), but you can also make them on round cookies.
9. Place the cookies on a buttered and floured baking sheet.
10. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes – until the edges are just starting to slightly colour.
11. Let the sugar cookies cool for 1-2 minutes on the sheet and then transfer them to a cooling rack. Let cool completely.
12. Using a piping bag and a small round nozzle, pipe a border of royal icing around the edge of the cookie. Use the stiffer royal icing and colour it to match the flood colour. Allow the border to set for 1-2 hours.
13. After the border has set, use a thinner royal icing of the same colour to flood the top of the cookies. Spoon some of the icing on top of each cookie and let it spread.
14. Use the back of the spoon to spread the icing. Gently push the icing to flood as far as possible across the border icing, to give a smooth finish. Allow the surface to set for 30-60 minutes.
14. After the flood icing’s surface has set, use the piping bag and a small round nozzle to pipe snowflake designs with white icing on top of the flood icing.
Wait until the icing has hardened well before packing these cookies in a cookie tin.
Irish Whiskey Bread Pudding With Whiskey Sauce
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Finish off a meal with this bread pudding and you’ll have sweet dreams for sure. Whiskey in the pudding, whiskey in the sauce. And, In The Devil’s Kitchen, not just any Irish whiskey will do – for that delightfully devilish dance of Irish flavour, it must be a peaty Jameson Irish whiskey.
Ingredients (4 ramekins)
Bread Pudding
4 ¾” (19mm) slices of bread, cut into ¾” (19mm) cubes
2 eggs
2 cups whipping cream
½ cup milk
1 cup natural cane sugar
¼ cup Jameson Irish whiskey
2 tsp vanilla essence
Whiskey Sauce
¼ cup butter
½ cup natural cane sugar
1 egg yolk
½ cup Jameson Irish whiskey
Make Bread Pudding
1. Divide the bread cubes amongst 4 buttered 8oz ramekins.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Then, whisk in the cream, milk, sugar, whiskey, and vanilla. Spoon the mixture over the bread cubes until the liquid level reaches ¼” (5mm) from the top of the ramekin.
3. Cover, place in the refrigerator and let sit for at least 1 hour, so the bread can soak up the liquid. Cover and refrigerator leftover custard liquid.
4. Preheat the oven to 350F (180c).
5. Before placing the ramekins in the oven, spoon remaining custard liquid over the bread and bring the level up to ¼” (5mm) from the top of the ramekin again.
6. Bake puddings for 35-40 minutes, until custard surface is set, bread lightly browned, and the puddings are starting to pull away from the ramekin edges.
Make Whiskey Sauce
7. While the puddings are baking, start the sauce. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the sugar and egg yolk. Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved.
8. Whisk in ½ of the whiskey. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5-8 minutes – until the sauce slightly thickens.
9. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the rest of the whiskey. Whisk until smooth.
For the best taste experience, let each diner spoon their own hot bread pudding out of the ramekins, onto a plate, and pour the warm whiskey sauce over it. Devilishly delicious.
Chewy Kahlua Molasses Brownies
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These Kahlua molasses brownies are very chewy with a deep flavour. A light dusting of icing sugar wonderfully accents these dark and devilish goodies. If you’re not as devilish as we are In The Devil’s Kitchen, you can use strong coffee in place of Kahlua.
Ingredients (9” x 9” cake pan – 16 brownies)
3 tbsp butter
¾ cup natural cane sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
1 tbsp Kahlua (or strong coffee)
1 ½ tsp vanilla essence
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2-3 tbsp icing sugar (for dusting)
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180c).
2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Remove from heat and mix in the sugar and molasses.
3. Add the egg, Kahlua, and vanilla. Beat it until well combined.
4. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in the saucepan.
5. Spread the brownies batter evenly in a buttered and floured 9” x 9” (23cm x 23cm) cake pan.
6. Bake for 23-25 minutes, until the brownies have pulled slightly away from the sides of the cake tin and a toothpick inserted in the brownies comes out clean.
7. Dust the top of the brownies with icing sugar and leave to cool before cutting into separate brownies.
Chunky Fruit And Nut Oatmeal Cookies
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These oatmeal cookies are so chock full of rolled oats, dried fruit, and nuts that us kitchen devils are tempted to label them as health food. But, the devilish deliciousness of these chunky oatmeal cookies goes way beyond healthy. They could become an unhealthy obsession.
For the dried fruit, try any combination of dried fruits. In this example, we’ve used dried pineapple, cranberries, and currants, but you could also use dried apple, apricots, figs, dates, mango, or other fruit. Just be sure to use 2-3 different types of dried fruits – for the fruit taste explosions as you chomp into each different fruit.
Ingredients (35-40 cookies)
½ cup butter, chilled
¾ cup natural cane sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla essence
½ cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup assorted dried fruit, chopped into ¼” (5mm) pieces
½ cup walnut pieces (¼” or 5mm)
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180c).
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter.
3. Cream the sugar into the butter.
4. Add the egg and vanilla. With an electric mixer, mix for 2 minutes.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter/sugar mix and mix in well.
6. Add the oats, dried fruit, and walnuts. Combine well, until all of the oats, fruit, and nuts are coated with batter.
7. Place spoonfuls of batter on a buttered and floured baking sheet, about 1½” – 2” (4-5cm) apart. Flatten to about ½” (12mm) thick with the back of fork or your hand.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until edges are lightly browned.
9. Let the oatmeal cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 5-6 minutes. Then gently (very gently, as they can be quite fragile) transfer to a cooling rack.
