Special sweets to usher in the New Year

For The Union-Tribune

If you’re a New Year’s homebody, it doesn’t mean you can’t create something special in the way of a meal or appetizers at home with family and friends, whether it’s New Year’s Eve or perhaps New Year’s Day.

Karen Krasne, who has owned Extraordinary Desserts for more than 30 years and is known for her extravagant, flower-petaled creations, has provided us with a few special dessert recipes to share that can be all shimmery and champagne-ready or a tad more down to earth, depending on whether you want to keep things simple or zhuzh ’emup.

Let’s start simple and work our way up. Actually, this Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie may be simple to make, but it’s downright luxurious, thanks to the ingredients. The cookies are thick and chewy, with each bite filled with a bit of walnut crunch, a bit of tartness from dried cherries and the ineffable pleasure of a burst of rich chocolate. Be sure to soak the cherries in hot water to plump them up. Do get that bag of bread flour to add to the all-purpose flour. You may never go back to using plain all-purpose flour again to make cookies: Bread flour has more gluten than AP and that makes cookies chewier.

What else do you have in these cookies? Both granulated and brown sugar for depth of flavor. Good quality vanilla — and the best chocolate you can afford, hopefully Valrhona. Make it 55% to 60% chocolate for a deeper flavor and skip the chips. Buy bars and coarsely chop them for fun streaks of sumptuous chocolate flavor.

Pay close attention to the recipe. You’ll see that timing is everything — from mixing the butter and sugars, then whisking the eggs with the vanilla and gradually adding to the butter and sugar mixture, to little by little adding the flours, and then folding in the cherries, walnuts and chocolate. Then, give the dough a rest by refrigerating it for a couple of hours or overnight before baking.

When you’re ready to bake, measure out about 1/3 cup of dough each to get three dozen cookies. You can then bake — or make the dough ahead of time, measure out the cookies, shape into discs and freeze.

Onward now to what may be the most divine bread pudding you’ve ever enjoyed — Caramelized Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding. Bread pudding for New Year’s, you say? Oh, yes. Not only is this decadent on its own — perfect for New Year’s Day with a cup of hot steaming coffee — but add a couple of fancy decorative steps and your guests will ooh and ahh when you serve it up. And, said Krasne, it’s so easy.

“It’s the easiest thing for anyone to make,” she said. “You don’t need a machine; you need a whisk. You can’t screw it up. You can’t burn it. There’s nothing you can do wrong. You get the croissants from some baker and make sure they’re nice and stale.”

The biggest challenge, which is not a challenge at all, is to make the crème brûlée that holds the dish together. It’s just a matter of heating heavy cream, whole milk and vanilla; then whisking egg yolks with sugar; and bringing them together by very gradually stirring the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk, strain, cool — and you have crème brûlée.

Then you prep to bake. Butter an oval porcelain dish — or whatever largish dish you have. Krasne used an 8-by-8-inch porcelain dish for the one I sampled. Cut up about eight stale croissants (they absorb the liquid better without falling apart) and, again, coarsely chopped bittersweet Valrhona chocolate. Now, you’re just going to layer it, starting with the crème brûlée, followed by the croissant pieces and chocolate. Add more crème brûlée, then croissant pieces and top with the last of the crème brûlée. Now you’re ready to bake. Want to riff on it a bit? How about adding pieces of brownies, as Krasne does.

“And then it’s gooey,” said Krasne, “although it’s gooey anyway. And if it’s cheesecake brownies in there …” She sighed.

Be sure to finish the dish with a good sprinkling of powdered sugar. If that’s not enough, make some chocolate ganache and pipe it onto the bread pudding. Still not enough? Go wild and make chocolate shards to place on top of the piped ganache.

We come to the showstopper — Krasne’s extravagant Lemon Berry Pavlova. You can make individual ones or, as Krasne did, one large — 8-inch-square — pavlova. There are several steps, but none are difficult. You’ll make a French meringue, which is simple but, Krasne emphasized, when beating the egg whites in a stand mixer, be sure to start at a low speed and move on to medium speed once the eggs are foamy. Then be patient and let them stiffen in their own time. Don’t increase the speed to high.

Add the meringue to an 8-inch-square baking pan, like one you’d make brownies in. Make sure you first line it with buttered parchment paper. Smooth the meringue up the sides so that, once baked, it will hold the lemon curd.

The curd is so good, you should make batches for toast or to top ice cream. It’s just lemon juice, sugar, lemon zest, eggs and butter. The juice, sugar, lemon zest and eggs are whisked in a mixing bowl over simmering water until thick. Then you remove from the heat and whisk in butter. Strain and then cool.

The last bit of “cooking” is making a raspberry coulis, which is just frozen raspberries, sugar and water that’s pureed and strained.

Putting it all together starts with piping the curd into the meringue shell, which you’ve removed from the parchment paper and set on a platter or cake stand. Then you arrange fresh berries on top. Drizzle strained raspberry jam over the berries and sift powdered sugar over the whole dish. Serve on white plates with whipped cream or ice cream and the raspberry coulis. Feeling fancy? Sprinkle with edible flower petals and edible gold leaf.

 

 

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS

3 1/2 cups dried tart and sweet cherries chopped in half

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups cold unsalted butter cut into 1/4-inch cubes

2 3/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups walnuts, chopped

3 1/4 cups 55% to 60% chocolate, coarsely chopped

 

DIRECTIONS

1: Soak the dried cherries in hot water for 30 minutes to plump them, and then strain.

2: Sift the flours and baking soda together into a bowl.

3: Place the butter in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until the butter is soft, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. After 3 to 5 minutes of mixing, add the sugars and beat until the mixture is fluffy.

4: Whisk the eggs with vanilla and add little by little to the mixture. Stop the mixer, add in the flours and baking soda and start mixer on low, and only incorporate the flours, being careful not to overmix.

5: Take the bowl off the mixer and fold in the cherries, walnuts and chocolate by hand.

6: Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight, so that the dough is chilled thoroughly.

7: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking trays and measure out cookies using 1/3 cup as a measure. Slightly flatten the cookies and shape them as round discs.

8: Bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees, then cool the cookies on the baking sheets. Measure remaining dough the same way or wrap well and freeze.

 

Caramelized Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

Makes one 13-by-9-by-2 1/2-inch oval porcelain dish

INGREDIENTS

For the vanilla crème brûlée:

4 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup whole milk

1 whole vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 large egg yolks

1 cup granulated sugar

 

Approximately 8 medium-large stale (day-old) croissants, cut into 2-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups 61% bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Powdered sugar for garnish

 

DIRECTIONS

1: Make the crème brûlée: Heat heavy cream, whole milk and vanilla to almost a boil.

2: In another bowl, whisk egg yolks with granulated sugar until smooth.

3: Stir the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk together, strain and let cool.

4: When ready to bake, preheat oven to 275 degrees.

5: Place 1 1/2 cups crème brûlée mixture in the bottom of the baking dish. Layer half of the croissant pieces on top of the crème brûlée mixture. Sprinkle chopped chocolate on top of the croissant pieces. Pour 1 cup crème brûlée mixture on top. Place the remaining croissant pieces, and cover with the last of the crème brûlée mixture.

6: Place bread pudding on a baking tray in the oven. Bake 30 minutes at 275 degrees and then another 30 minutes at 250 degrees until the top is nice and caramelized. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

 

Lemon Berry Pavlova

Makes one 8-by-8-inch pavlova that serves 8

 

INGREDIENTS

For the French meringue:

4 large eggs (room temperature), separated

Pinch of vanilla powder (available online)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Pinch of cream of tartar or 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice (optional)

 

For the lemon curd:

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, strained

3/4 cup granulated sugar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

3 eggs

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

 

For the raspberry coulis:

4 cups frozen raspberries (thawed)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup water

 

For toppings:

1 basket each of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries

One 12-ounce jar seedless raspberry jam

Powdered sugar

Flower petals (optional)

Edible gold leaf (optional)

Whipped cream or ice cream (optional)

 

DIRECTIONS

1: Make the French meringue: Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Beat egg whites in a mixer on low speed with a pinch of vanilla powder. Cream of tartar or 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice can be used to help the meringue stiffen.

2: When egg whites are foamy and begin to stiffen, increase speed to medium and add in granulated sugar.

3: Remove bowl from mixer. Fold in powdered sugar by hand to meringue mixture.

4: Add the meringue to an 8-by-8-inch baking pan, lined with buttered parchment paper. Bake at 250 degrees for approximately 50 minutes. Let cool and set aside.

5: While the meringue is baking, make the lemon curd: Combine the first four ingredients in a heatproof, nonreactive mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water (do not allow the bowl to touch the water). Cook whisking continuously, until the mixture is frothy and begins to thicken to a custard, about 4 minutes. If using a candy thermometer, cook to 190 degrees.

6: Remove the bowl from over the water and whisk in the butter until fully combined. The curd should be smooth and homogeneous. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean, nonreactive mixing bowl.

7: Cool in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours or overnight covered with plastic.

8: Make the raspberry coulis by placing all ingredients in a food processor. Strain and refrigerate.

9: When ready to assemble the pavlova, start by piping the lemon curd into the shell. Layer the berries on top. Strain the raspberry jam and drizzle on top of the berries.

10: Sift powdered sugar on top of the pavlova. Top with flower petals and then edible gold leaf. Serve on a white plate with berry coulis. Pair with whipped cream or ice cream.

Recipes by Karen Krasne.