Dessert recipes with olive and nut oils
George’s Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Ganache
This was my favorite cake when I was a child. It’s very economical as it requires no eggs—no doubt the reason I liked it, as when cooking did require eggs, it was my four-year old task to go down to the cellar and rescue them from the isinglass crock, from which I had to pull them out with terror-inducing thwock.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Grease and line with waxed paper a 9” X 9” square baking pan.
Sift together
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Mix in another bowl and add to the dry ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour milk (milk with 1 tsp white vinegar added)
¼ cup olive oil (mild tasting)
2 tsp vanilla
Mix until well blended. Batter is quite thin. Pour into pan and bake 30 minutes.
You can double this recipe and use two round pans. Serve with Hazelnut Ganache.
Hazelnut Ganache
This is easy to make. The one important thing about chocolate is not to let water, not even one drop, get anywhere near it, or it will seize and you will have to start all over again, as it’s very difficult to rescue seized chocolate.
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate. Callebaut chocolate is available in Cooper’s bulk food section at reasonable prices. Don’t use milk chocolate, it doesn’t work the same way because of the milk solids.
¼ cup whipping cream
¼ cup butter
¼ cup Crescendo Hazelnut Oil
Put everything in a saucepan over low heat and stir while the chocolate melts. Remove from heat and beat.
When the ganache cools, it will harden, so let it cool just to the point where it’s spreadable, and use it as frosting on the cake. If it does get hard, you can reheat it, or if you’re very clever, warm it in the micro for just long enough to soften. The nice thing about ganache is that any leftovers can be shaped into little balls as truffles, rolled in cocoa powder and stored in the fridge for a readymade chocolate fix.
Ice cream with fig and pistachio
This is the easiest recipe you’ll ever find.
Buy or make French vanilla ice cream, gelato, or frozen yogurt.
Put some in a dish.
On one side, drizzle over the top of the ice cream 2 tsp Crescendo pistachio oil. Over the other side, drizzle 2 tsp Crescendo fig balsamic vinegar.
You will not believe how good this is until you try it.
Hazelnut chocolate ice-cream
2 ¼ cups whole milk
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp Crescendo hazelnut oil
2 oz. shaved chocolate, preferably bittersweet Callebaut
Scald over medium heat 2 cups of the milk, cream and sugar together.
Mix remaining ¼ cup milk and the cornstarch in a small bowl. Add a little of the hot milk mixture to the cornstarch, then put all the cornstarch mixture into the saucepan with the hot milk and cream. Cook and stir all the time, until the cornstarch is incorporated and the mixture begins to thicken.
Beat the egg yolk and add a little of the hot milk mixture, then return the yolk to the larger milk pot and cook for 3 minutes, stirring continuously. Remove from heat. Add vanilla.
Cool in the fridge, overnight if possible. Add hazelnut oil. Process in an ice-cream maker, or put into a container and freeze and stir alternately four-five times, breaking up all the ice crystals with a fork every half hour. At the end of the mixing and freezing process, add the chocolate and stir well.
Serve with fig balsamic, chocolate ganache heated until creamy, or Star Forest Raspberry Balsamic.
