Tag: recipe

Recently in Minty’s kitchen

This recipe for dairy-free pumpkin pie is indeed just as delicious if not more so than the traditional condensed-milk version.  (Although I left out the ginger.  I just don’t like it in pumpkin pie.  It was reasonably spicy/savory even without it.)  I bought pre-made crusts and the fact that they came in a box of two is just too tempting– I’m going to be making another.

This flourless chocolate cake was as delicious as ever.  I got my chocolate from Trader Joe’s (I think it was 73% cacao or some similarly odd number.)  It has a really rich, almost fruity flavor which was not what I was expecting but it’s very good in the cake.  Based on previous experience, this cake will be okay with a wide variety of types of chocolate– even with completely unsweetened baker’s chocolate like the recipe says not to use.  It just depends on how dark you like your chocolatey things.  The unsweetened-chocolate one that I made, without anything to serve it with, still just seemed about “extra-dark chocolate bar” level to me.  There’s plenty of sugar in the recipe.

I made Oreo truffles (one package of crushed Oreos–just the cookies, not the frosting– mixed with 8 oz of cream cheese, rolled into balls, dipped in chocolate).  I have two notes based on this and past experiences with them:

The chocolate I had from the cake is too different from the Oreos and too distracting to be a good coating for the truffles.  I think I should have bought some cheap semi-sweet chocolate or something.  Or maybe even white chocolate.

Off-brand chocolate sandwich cookies are not as good.  They don’t have as rich of a chocolate flavor and it’s just disappointing.

I just had a wonderful (food-related) idea and I want to share it with you all.

Do you like pumpkin pie?  I really love pumpkin pie.  But it takes a lot of work to make. 

I just discovered, though, that if you put pumpking-pie spices on a baked sweet potato, it tastes just as good and takes very little effort.  Here’s how it goes:

  • Obtain a sweet potato/yam/whatever they call them where you are.  They’re pretty cheap at my grocery store.  Like $1-$2 per pound. 
  • Wash it.  It probably has a little dirt on it.
  • Poke it with a fork a few times, just enough to put holes in the skin.
  • Put it in the microwave on high for about 5 minutes, or until it’s soft all the way through.
  • Make a shallow cut down it the long way, and peel the skin back a bit, so that you can work on the inside.
  • Break up the inside a little with a fork.
  • Add some plenty of sugar (I like brown sugar), and a light sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
  • Stir it in.  The sweet potato should be moist enough and hot enough that the sugar will just dissolve into sweet syrupy goodness.
  • WAIT until it cools down some or you’ll burn your tongue.

That’s four ingredients, one dirty dish, one dirty utensil, and maybe ten minutes total for sweet orange deliciousness.

Notes:

If you don’t have a microwave, the cooking will take a lot longer (more like an hour, at 400 degrees F.)  You can make it take less time and still be yummy by slicing the sweet potato up, putting melted butter on it, and stirring it around occasionally.  A naked sweet potato slice (I’ve learned from experience) goes all withered and sad-looking when you bake it, and doesn’t have as nice a texture, but is still edible.

Real yams are giant and not related to sweet potatoes at all. 

A completely plain baked sweet potato is still pretty delicious, and would make a three-step recipe (wash, poke, bake) for those of you who have trouble with long recipes.

Nutrition-wise, sweet potatoes have a decent amount of Vitamin C and a perfectly ridiculous amount of Vitamin A.