Mother's Day 2012

This year for Mother’s Day, I had to do something special.  Since we were hosting a small party of about 20 people, I wanted to create some light or miniature desserts so that everyone could try more than one item.  

Pictured above are Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.  I dipped the strawberries in chocolate and once the chocolate hardened, I drizzled white chocolate on top.  They are incredibly quick and easy to do (it only takes about half an hour to an hour to cover 30+ strawberries), but one of the most important steps is to make sure the strawberries are washed and dried completely.  If the strawberries are wet, the moisture will cause the chocolate to freeze up and you’ll end up wasting your whole bowl of melted chocolate.   

I also wanted to create something with fresh fruit and custard for a light, refreshing dessert.  One of my favorite things about baking is how creative you can be.  Once you master the basics, you can always create new combinations.  For the dessert pictured above, I used mini silicone baking cups and brushed them with melted chocolate to make bittersweet chocolate cups.  Then I filled the cups with rich, vanilla bean custard and topped them with fresh blueberries and strawberries and a couple dollops of fresh whipped cream. 

Another dessert that I made was a Strawberry Cream Roll, which is a vanilla sponge cake rolled with fresh strawberries and vanilla bean whipped cream.  This dessert is perfect since the cake, strawberries, and whipped cream are all incredibly light.  

Besides the items pictured, I also made Lemon Bars and some Mini Fleur de Sel Cupcakes (Dark Chocolate Cake, filled with Fleur de Sel Caramel, and topped with Fleur de Sel Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream). 

Buttermilk Yellow Cupcakes

These buttermilk yellow cupcakes are the perfect base for a variety of frostings and fillings.  Vanilla bean seeds or zest from a lemon or orange can be added to the butter-sugar mixture to give these cupcakes an additional hint of flavor.  These cupcakes are amazing with complex flavor variations, such as my Blueberry Earl Grey Cupcakes: Buttermilk Yellow Cupcakes filled with Blueberry Preserves and topped with Earl Grey Swiss Meringue Buttercream. 

Crème Brûlée

Crème brûlée is incredibly easy to prepare and makes an elegant dessert.  It’s the perfect dessert on warm days and tastes great served with fresh berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  The custard takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and is baked in a hot water bath.  It can be made up to a few days ahead and the sugar topping should be torched just before serving.   

Mini Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

These bite-sized Mini Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes are refreshing and light; perfect for dessert on a warm day.  When you bite into the mini cupcake, you immediately taste sweet strawberries from the preserves; then the subtle citrus flavor of lemon shines through from the cupcake. 

Mini Lemon Cupcakes

These mini lemon cupcakes are one of my favorite cupcake recipes.  The lemon flavor is refreshing, but not overpowering, and the cake is light and moist.  These cupcakes are perfect filled with Lemon Curd and topped with Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream in my Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, or filled with Vanilla Bean Strawberry Preserves and topped with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream in my Mini Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes. 

Vanilla Bean Strawberry Preserves

These strawberry preserves are made by cooking the strawberries until the fruit’s natural pectin thickens the mixture.  I make these preserves in small enough batches so that it gets eaten before I have to can them using glass jars.  This is perfect accompaniment to your breakfast toast, bagel, or English muffin, or you can use these preserves in my Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream or to fill cupcakes, such as my Mini Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups strawberries, stems removed and cut into quarters
• 1½ cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• ½ vanilla bean, split and scraped

Combine the strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, and vanilla bean seeds into a medium sized saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved and the strawberries start releasing their juice. 

Bring to a boil (mixture will become frothy and double, or even triple, in volume) and boil for 10-12 minutes.  The strawberries will start to break down and become somewhat translucent and the syrup should be slightly thick. 

Let mixture cool to room temperature uncovered (about 30 minutes to an hour).  The mixture will thicken up even more as it cools.  Store the preserves in an airtight container in your refrigerator. 

Boston Cream Cupcakes

In my twist of the classic Boston Cream Pie, I filled light Two Egg Yellow Chiffon Cupcakes with creamy Vanilla Bean Custard and piped Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream on top. 

Ingredients:

• 24 Two Egg Yellow Chiffon Cupcakes, cooled
• 1 recipe Vanilla Bean Custard, refrigerated until set
• 1 recipe Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Take a small paring knife and core the each cupcake, leaving ¼ inch of cake on the bottom and about ½ an inch of cake on the sides. 

Fill the center of each cupcake with vanilla custard.  I found that using a small spoon and simply spooning in the custard works perfectly. 

Using a spatula, add the chocolate swiss meringue buttercream to a piping bag set with a large star tip.  Pipe the frosting on the cupcakes, starting at the edge and moving in a smooth, circular motion as you bring the tip above the center of each cupcake. 

Vanilla Bean Custard

This creamy, vanilla bean custard makes a nice filling in layer cakes or my Boston Cream Cupcakes. 

The custard is simple to make and thickens up nicely to support the weight of a cake layer.  It can also be eaten by itself or piped into chocolate cups for individual desserts.  

Vanilla Bean Infused Simple Syrup

Having vanilla infused simple syrup handy is a nice way to sweeten your everyday drinks, such as tea and iced coffee.  This recipe is very easy to make and can be stored in an airtight container up to a couple weeks.  

Ingredients:

• 1 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped
• 1 cup water
• 1½ cups sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Bring the water, sugar, and vanilla bean seeds to a boil in a saucepan.  Let boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.  Let syrup cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container.

Vanilla Beans: How to Split and Scrape

Using fresh vanilla beans can drastically improve the flavor of your dessert, especially in creamy desserts such as crème brûlée and my vanilla bean custard.  When a recipe calls for a vanilla bean, it usually utilizes only the vanilla bean seeds, so you will have to split the vanilla bean pod and scrape the middle to get the seeds out.  You can purchase vanilla beans from online retailers, cooking stores (such as Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma, and Dean & Deluca) or well stocked grocery stores.  

The Process:

1. Split the Bean: Take a sharp paring knife and poke a hole through the vanilla bean so the bean lies flat when you hold the knife horizontally (see picture above).  Hold the vanilla bean in place on the side facing the dull part of your knife.   Using short, sawing motions pull the paring knife across the entire vanilla bean so that it splits into two even halves.  
2. Scrape the seeds: Hold the dull side of your paring knife firmly against the middle of the vanilla bean half and scrape across the entire bean.  If your vanilla bean half folds over at the edges, you may need to repeat this motion with the dull side of the tip of the paring knife to get the seeds underneath each fold.  Repeat with the other half.  

Note: 
Using fresh vanilla bean pods makes the splitting and scraping process much easier.  Your vanilla bean pod should be pliable and slightly sticky.  When the vanilla bean is old and dry, it will crack when you try to split it and the vanilla bean seeds will get all over the place.  When the vanilla bean is fresh, the pod is flexible and fairly easy to split and the seeds are moist enough to stick together when scraped.

Suggestion:
Vanilla Sugar - Since most recipes do not utilize the vanilla bean pod after the seeds have been scraped, I like to add the pods to an airtight container of granulated sugar.  The longer the sugar and vanilla bean pods sit together, the more the sugar gains the aroma and flavor of vanilla.  You can then use this vanilla sugar in dessert recipes or to sweeten drinks.  

Vanilla Bean Meringue

If you have some extra egg whites lying around, a good way to use them is in this vanilla bean meringue.  Light, fluffy, sweet meringue makes a nice contrast to rich or tart fillings in pies and tarts, such as the filling in my Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart. 

Pear Pie

Instead of making your basic apple pie, why not try something new like this pear pie?

In this pie, the delicate flavor of Bosc pears is enhanced with vanilla and covered with a crisp cinnamon streusel topping.