decadent desserts Archives - Proud Italian Cook

Holy Panini!!

February 9, 2009 by Marie 65 Comments

There’s something about warm rich dark chocolate and fresh strawberries, melted between a buttery pound cake that’s been pressed in a panini grill. Can you say wonderful!

I can’t believe I never tried this special treat before!

A while back I received this award winning chocolate as a gift from my son, who after reading this article in Food and Wine magazine, quickly ordered some.

Amedei was founded in 1990 by Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri who just happen to be brother and sister, they work together in Tuscany using artisan skills, along with the finest cacao, in producing this award winning chocolate.

According to the Food and Wine article,

“The most famous Venezuelan cacao of all comes from Chuao. The trees of Chuao are shielded by mountains from all but the warm Caribbean breezes; the soil is naturally irrigated by three cascading rivers. Doutre-Roussel calls the region “one of the jewels of the earth.” Besides the microclimate, Chuao has centuries-old traditions of harvesting and preparing cacao. First it’s fermented to develop the compounds that will later blossom into rich aromatics, then it’s laid out on the parvis in front of the village church to dry slowly in the sun. Because the farmers worked together as a cooperative, Chuao is one of the only places where a chocolate maker could buy, at one stroke, 9 to 10 tons of uniformly excellent cacao. Until recently, that chocolate maker was Valrhona. Today every last kilo of cacao from Chuao goes to Amedei.”

Needless to say I was excited to try this! My son’s instructions were, ” Mom, make sure you taste this on a clean palette, you don’t want to try this after having onions or garlic, or anything else that would effect the true taste!” That’s exactly what I did, I snapped a piece off, and I was in chocolate heaven! Not bitter at all to me, in fact I found it slightly creamy and so rich in flavor, a most memorable chocolate experience! Thanks Tony!

I couldn’t wait to try this chocolate melted, warm and gooey so I decided to melt some between pound cake and use my panini grill. I just bought a good quality pound cake, because after all the chocolate is the star here, and some fresh strawberries.

I brushed my heated grill slightly with unsalted butter, laid the chocolate bar on one side of the slice of pound cake, along with thinly cut strawberry slices.

Gently bring the top down on your grill, you don’t want to smash this at all, it only takes a couple of minutes to melt. Gently remove it and let it set a minute.

Look at that dark glossy color! Believe me, it tasted as good as it looks!!

Now you don’t have to have Amedei chocolate to make this, you can use any favorite chocolate of your choice, of course a smear of Nutella would always do! Brioche, Challah, or even Ciabatta bread in place of the pound cake would be equally good as well.

Any way you make it, I’m sure you’ll adore this decadent dessert, wouldn’t this be great for your special Valentine?

Buon Appetito!!

CHEESECAKE POPS! ( Daring Bakers)

April 27, 2008 by Marie 54 Comments

This happened to be a very timely challenge for me, because yesterday my daughter and I hosted a personal shower for my neice. I thought “what a great idea, I’ll make these for the shower!” Considering I had a bunch of other things to cook and bake for the shower, this might not have been such a good idea! Doing something new and unfamiliar, then dipping and decorating them, and of course taking pictures! Well you know what I mean!!

Thursday night I baked the cheesecake which by the way, took me 65 min. to bake. My oven is only 2 years old and very accurate, so I set the timer for the 35 to 45 min. that the recipe called for, but it just didn’t set. Other than that, I had no problems at all!

Here is the perfectly set and cooled cheesecake!

This months challenge of these DECADENT Cheesecake Pops, was hosted by two ladies, Elle, of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah, at Taste and Tell. Go over to their blogs to check out the whole recipe. I have to admit these little pops were quite a hit at the shower, I got alot of “Ooooh’s” and “Ahhhh’s” A big thanks to them both!

As far as the melting of the chocolate, I did mine in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, it turned out nice and glossy and stuck to the frozen cheesecake balls perfectly.

I decided to decorate the lolipop stick with pipe cleaners, they were super easy to bend around, and I liked the color it added. Great for a Girlie shower!!

I got a little carried away with what I decorated them with. Here is what I used:

Mini chocolate chips

Sprinkles

Coconut

Chopped pecans

Crushed Oreo cookies

Plain chocolate

Crushed Skors toffee bar

Crushed Biscotti ( of course I had to get something Italian in there!)

These one bite wonders are perfect for any party, trust me, they’re worth it!!

Please check out some of the other Daring Bakers amazing Cheesecake Pops here.

54 Comments Filed Under: Desserts, Party Foods Tagged: cheesecake pops, daring bakers, decadent desserts, party food, shower desserts

LIMONCELLO TIRAMISU !

February 12, 2008 by Marie 36 Comments

I know many of you are Chocoholics out there, and rightly so, but if you want something equally as decadent and a little different than the norm, try this sinfully delicious Limoncello Tiramisu!! This is definitely for very special occasions, when you want to Wow your certain someone, friends or family with a special dessert. The one I made was meant to be shared by two, because of its size. But you can certainly make smaller, individual ones. The main characters consist of pound cake that is drenched in Limoncello, a homemade lemon curd, all layered with Mascarpone and whipped cream!! Need I say more??

In a pan place the juice and zest of 3 lemons seeds and all, you’re going to strain it. 1 Tbl. short of a whole stick of butter, 6oz. of sugar, and 3 whole eggs. Whisk everything on med low just till bubbles start to show. Strain with a fine mesh strainer.

Next, take your pound cake and cut it to fit the size of your glass, I used a biscuit cutter.

Now take your bottle of Limoncello, and drench your pound cake pieces, you could use either a homemade, or a good quality store bought one. Just use a basic pound cake recipe if you make it, you want to be sure to taste the Limoncello.

Make sure it’s soaked!!

Finally, start whipping up a small carton of heavy cream, when you have stiff peaks, add a small container of room temperature Mascarpone, beat together just till incorporated.

Assemble it by layering all the components together in a pretty glass, and topping it off with some lemon peel.

Words cannot describe how amazing this is!

Note** You can also layer this in a glass 9×12 pan, or a glass loaf pan instead of individual portions.

It’s also beautiful placed into a trifle bowl, you’ll will definitely hear lots of ooohs and aaahs when you bring it out of the frig. It makes for a great presentation and what’s really nice is that you can make it the night before.

Just be sure to double everything if you’re using the trifle bowl. A good store bought pound cake is fine, I used 2 for this, slice it into 3rd’s lengthwise, cut strips to go around the edge of the bowl, and bigger pieces to layer up the middle.