All Natural Sweet Tart

You've heard of strawberries and cream. Raspberries and cream. Even blueberries and cream. But what about cranberries and cream? Probably not. But why not? Cranberries in their raw and natural state are loaded with tart, tangy flavor and antioxidants. Why would we want to avoid those?

I decided that mincing my fresh cranberries in the food processor would get them to the perfect edible consistency of a topping, say, for ice cream or a salad, or the base, say, for some cream. I had ran out of ice cram and actually did have some whipping cream, so I decided that cranberries and cream it would be.

First though, I zested and juiced one lemon into my minced cranberries, along with a heaping tablespoon of sugar. The sugar elicited the natural juices of the berries and added some much needed sweetness to the tartness of the berries. This made it a great dessert: juicy, sweet and tart. Maybe a little too much so. It needed that cream still to temper the sweet and the tangy. So I whipped the cream with a little sugar, salt and vanilla extract and layered it a little in bowls with the cranberries. It was like a little free-form sweet-tart parfait.

I found the taste to be just what I look for in a satisfying dessert – light; not too sweet, with a balanced, deep flavor. This packed all of those things, as well as a little punch. It's not like I sweeted away all the tart just because it's dessert. I'll call it the tangy and very necessary punch of the antioxidants.

Tapicocoa

The last time I summarized my recipes, I noticed the “desserts” section was a little thin. I wouldn't say that was intentional, but maybe subconscious, since most of my dessert techniques are pretty lacking. Especially compared to Julia who can bake from scratch, create and modify baking recipes to become amazing, make and dip truffles, write calligraphy in chocolate, make meringues and custards and even fresh marshmallows. Plus she makes the absolute best, most perfect chocolate chip cookies in the world. As attested by just about everyone who has ever tried one (or ten) of them. All these skills, and many more even, really dwarf the things I can do, so I often don't really bother. Who would?

Well that creates a little problem when I want to treat her to something sweet, something chocolate or something rich and creamy. But I can do a few things still – like melt chocolate in a double boiler and follow directions on a package – and I'm a conceptualizer at heart, so it was not a problem recently when I endeavored to make Julia a dessert that would impress even her.

So what can I make from a package? Brownies? Blah, too rich, too much fat, just too much. Chocolate pudding? Blah, too boring. Tapioca pudding! Now there's our winner! One of our personal favorite puddings can be easily made from a package (the one I found was Kraft brand), and super easily at that. It essentially involved boiling the tapioca mixture with low fat milk, a beaten egg, some sugar and vanilla and then letting it set. It's cool (pun intended) – the dry granules from the package actually become gelatinous and tapioca-like not during the boil but during the cool down.

But this tapioca pudding, albeit tasty and easy, was not a creation. It was simply a preparation. But who has ever had chocolate tapioca pudding? Now that would be a creation!

So I started simmering some water and set up a glass bowl on top of the simmering pot to create a standard double boiler. I took some milk chocolate chips and some dark chocolate chips and placed a mixture of the two into the double boiler along with half a cup of low fat milk. Then I stirred the chocolate until it was melted and kept adding milk a little bit at a time until it was the consistency of a thick liquid, perhaps like the consistency of butter milk or heavy cream (for reference).

Once my chocolate was melted and ready, I removed my tapioca from the fridge and carefully folded the chocolate into the pudding. This was not an exact science. I added in chocolate until the tapioca pudding was sufficiently chocolate-colored and yet still of the same tapioca pudding consistency. To be honest, I used most of the chocolate, which can NOT be a bad thing.

What we got was a deliciously rich-tasting, creamy chocolate tapioca pudding (read: awesome). Not something either of us had had before or heard of before, and it served the purpose of a wonderfully-pleasing dessert. So I guess in the face of adversity, this was a victory for me. Maybe I'll try dessert endeavors more often from now on. Or I'll just leave it to the pro.

Marzipan Joy!

There are a few things that make almost everybody happy. Paid time off. Puppies. Massages. Skipping a few (wink wink). And chocolate! Who doesn't love chocolate? Well it's okay if you don't, but it seems like ever since someone decided that dark chocolate and nuts are good for you, it's even OKAY to love chocolate!

Finding chocolate that is enjoyable, affordable and still “healthy” is often the difficult part with chocolate. I mean, lobster is even healthy, but it's not like we can afford to eat it all the time! Back to chocolate. Mass-produced chocolate like Hershey's and even nicer varieties are often waxy, lack great taste, plus are often loaded with more fat and sugar to make up for less real chocolate. On the other end of the spectrum, there is luxury chocolate like truffles from Godiva. Wonderfully rich and tasty, but also wonderfully expensive and not so healthy either. Dark chocolate has just enough sugar to make it enjoyable, but the antioxidants and even fiber are what has people buzzing about chocolate. But with nice chocolates, truffles and ganaches, there's often enough butter and cream to pretty much negate the chocolate benefit. I enjoy a handful of dark chocolate chips and almonds as a healthy and delicious snack or dessert sometimes.

But why not one-up it? Make a little more indulgent version of this snack that’s almost as healthy as straight dark chocolate and almonds but has the class and delight of Godiva and the ease and price of Hershey’s. Make your own marzipan – in just a couple minutes! I’m not talking about spray-painting little molded fruits for three hours. I am talking about making balls of canned marzipan and rolling them in some melted dark chocolate on the stove. Let them harden for a few minutes in the fridge on a plate or in mini cupcake wrappers like you see store-bought chocolates in. Believe me – they will look, and more importantly, taste, like a fancy marzipan truffle. Julia did the dipping of these quite artfully, but adequate dipping will not be that hard to get the hang of. And it will take you 5 minutes! They have a great, soft texture when just cooled, where the chocolate is hardened but not brittle. It literally is like biting into a soft, little puff of beautiful chocolate-almond joy!

If you are not familiar with the canned marzipan, it is exactly what it sounds like – amazing right? And the only ingredients in the can are almonds and sugar, so while it is a little sweeter than the classic snack, the fat still only comes from the natural fat of the almonds and cocoa. You can find the Love ‘N Bake can of marzipan in grocery, craft and specialty food stores and can make these beautiful (see picture) delights for a special little dessert.

There is no way that I’ll forget about these treats, and I’ll most likely be begging for them or making them (less prettily) myself quite frequently in the future. And you should too! It’s chocolate! It’s meant to make you happy, right?