Consuming Consciousness

I’ve tried just about all the chocolate cheesecake recipes out there, and I was never very impressed. Chocolate is fabulous with cheesecake, but it doesn’t taste nearly as good when it’s actually beaten into the cheese. And I’ve been disappointed in all the cream cheese brownie recipes I’ve tasted, because I never felt like the cheesecake swirl or layer was as good as I know a cheesecake can be. After some experimentation, I’ve come up with something I like a lot better — a dessert that matches a fudge brownie top layer with the creaminess of a fine cheesecake. Unlike other layered cheesecake-brownie recipes out there, I’ve put the cream cheese layer on the bottom, where it belongs, and I bake it for longer than the brownie layer. The result — a perfect cheesecake on the bottom, and perfect fudge brownies on the top. The only challenge is in letting it cool long enough for it to set up perfectly — it smells so good you’ll want to dig in while it’s still warm.

Tiramisú is my husband’s favorite dessert, and when he complained about the awful version of the dish available in the corporate cafeteria where he works, I decided to make one for him. Although it’s not a very difficult dish, and although the home-made version is far superior to that served in any but the finest Italian restaurants, I rarely indulge myself. Ounce for ounce, it has to be one of the highest calorie and highest fat desserts around. Nor is it any use to create lower-fat versions — they just don’t taste the same. Fortunately, my husband is a natural mesomorph and burns calories like a furnace, so he did for all of it except one small portion. That was enough to last me another five years, but my guess is, now that I’ve made it once, he will request it on regular rotation every couple of months.  Check out the recipe!

Note:  This recipe uses raw eggs.  A lot of bad restaurant Tiramisú features an egg-custard filling, so that they can avoid using the raw stuff.  In my opinion, though, it’s not worth eating.  So I don’t recommend making the dish if you live someplace where salmonella is a real risk.

It’s the middle of winter and I just can’t seem to get warm, so, as usual, I turned to the kitchen to see if I could find a cure. There were a couple of tins of canned peaches in my cupboard, which had been sitting there for a while because I’m never really sure what to do with canned fruit. But peaches remind me of hot, sultry Augusts in DC, so I decided to figure out a way to use them.

Next to the peaches was a package of pecans (I hoard pecans because they’re hard to find in Europe) and an idea for a summery quick bread began to form. The result of the experiment was so aromatically peachy and tenderly nutty that I had to share it. This recipe makes two large loaves, so you can halve it if you want to make only one. (I make two because fruit breads freeze so well.)

This is a quick and simple recipe, using only one large bowl to mix the dry ingredients, and a blender to mix the wet ingredients. Like all quick breads, this should be folded gently to mix, rather than vigorously stirred.

(My Russian husband and my German friends had never tasted American quick breads, but now they are all addicted. German baking is, in my opinion, too dry and far too sweet, and quick breads are moist and rich without sending a person into sugar shock.)

Check out the recipe…

There are dozens of great recipes for carrot cakes and breads, and they all have their fans. The one I choose usually depends on my mood at the moment. This cake was invented at a point when I was craving a rich and nutty, tender, glazed, citrus-flavored cake, suitable for either dessert or for munching with a cup of tea/coffee.

Check out the recipe!

It’s very quick to make if you have a food processor and a blender, which adds to its charm. If you have only a blender, you’ll have to grate the carrots by hand. Cut the recipe in half if you only want to make one loaf instead of two. Between the oil and the sunflower seeds, this is a full-fat, mega-calorie cake. My very lean partner, who needs to consume about 3000 calories a day just to maintain his weight, can eat it by the plateful. I stay on a restricted calorie diet, and so I confine myself to thin slices, parceled out carefully and enjoyed fully with a big cup of hot tea.

A heady mixture of tastes and spices, this rich cake and its creamy frosting scream luxury. The cardamom flavor is distinct but not overpowering, and it’s perfectly complemented by the cashews. The cake itself is soft and moist, chock full of carrots and chopped nuts. For the frosting, you make your own cashew buttercream mixture. Though I’ve used only cardamom and cinnamon as spices, you can easily experiment by adding clove, ground coriander, or nutmeg either to the frosting or the cake batter. The cake would also work as well with peanuts as with cashews.

This recipe was inspired by chokylit’s cupcakes, which are lovely but deadly little calorie and fat bombs. I replaced as many of the ingredients as possible with lower-fat and healthier alternatives, including swapping out butter for coconut oil and white flour for spelt flour. It’s by no means a low-calorie dessert, but at 335 calories per rich, filling slice, I think it’s now in the realm of possibility for folks looking to control their intake. (more…)

Quite a bit of research in the last five years emphasizes that coconut is an extremely healthy (if high-calorie) food. It’s been claimed by some nutritionists and scientists that coconut has anti-microbial effects, enhances cardiovascular health, assists in weight management, increases metabolism, aids in digestion and the absorption of nutrients and may assist the body in coping with some diseases. While no food should be regarded as a “miracle cure,” and the “coconut diet” does seem to be a new fad promoted by certain health food and online information sites engaged in making a profit, I think that there are good arguments for the inclusion of coconut in one’s diet.

With that in mind, I assembled this recipe for a easy, quick, and incredibly creamy pie made almost entirely out of coconut. Sure, it packs a huge calorie wallop, but even those watching their weight can indulge occasionally. This is an incredibly rich treat which will fill your kitchen with the wonderful aroma of baking coconut for the 40 minutes it’s in the oven, and please everyone who eats it. (more…)

I gave up sugar and honey a while ago, but every so often I get a powerful craving for something sweet. This sugary-tasting carrot salad always does the trick, and the nuts and raisins make it taste downright sinful. Despite the big flavor burst, it’s surprisingly low in calories, full of Vitamin A and C, and a great source of fiber. Grating the carrots takes almost no time, and the salad is easily assembled in about 15 minutes. (more…)