Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Great date, even better Dessert!

Not too long ago I spent a few hours vineyard hoping while on a date, and after buying a few bottles of wine we headed back to his house to cook dinner and enjoy our day's purchases. I offered to make dessert, and so I was happy that my new copy of Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours had arrived so quickly from Amazon!

I have to toot their horn because I had ordered enough books to qualify for the free super saver shipping, which is said to take 3 to 5 days, and since I had ordered last Wednesday evening, I figured it would be into this week before I received the books. They arrived Friday! The shipping Gods must have known that I needed some great dessert ideas :)

So I turned to Dorie for something that I could bake one night and would still be perfect by the follow evening. Lots of things would still be good, but I wanted something great! After all, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! So I went with Dorie's Split Level Pudding, which is vanilla pudding layered on top of chocolate ganache that is lying in wait at the bottom of the dish. Obviously pudding needs time to set, so I decided it would work well as a make ahead dessert.

I wanted something more, and Dorie recommends her World Peace Cookies as a great accompaniment to the pudding, so I decided to go with those to finish off my dessert.

The pudding turned out great, although I made a mess while making it. My food processor always seems to overflow regardless of how much liquid I put in, so I always end up with whatever I'm making leaking out the bottom. Oh well, what can you do! It tasted yummy before and after it set, so I was more than happy! And so was my date!

The cookies also have to chill, so I made the dough the night before, molded it into a log and then sliced and baked them the morning before I left for my day of sipping some local Virginia wines. The batter tasted great, which always assures a great product. They baked up perfectly and were also a hit! I took pictures of the extra pudding while testing it out with my mom and dad, but I only have pics of the raw cookies, because I didn't want to photograph my cookies on just my third date with this guy! I didn't need him thinking I was some crazy foodie (even though I am!)!

Not very attractive, and I don't need to say what it looks like! 


The baked up version doesn't look all that different since this is meant to be a crumbly cookie


Yum Yum Yum Pudding! 


If you want to try these out I recommend you buy Dorie Greenspans book Baking: From My Home to Yours. Trust me, it is well worth the low price! 


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2 comments:

Jen said...

Kate-- those puddings sound (and look) delicious.

Zach and I have been talking about going to the Virginia wine country for forever and haven't actually gotten around to it... hopefully we will soon though.

Anonymous said...

Every recipe I've seen from Dorie's book looks fabulous and this is no exception. Now I really want the book! That looks great!