Experience in the kitchen has taught me that I don't want to follow the steps on a recipe (unless it involves major baking.) It's more fun to see what happens when I play. This is part experimentation, part creativity, part coloring outside the lines or it's some deep seeded psychological desire to thumb my nose at rules, which I suppose I should seek professional help for. In any event, I send my apologies to the author of the following recipe for not entirely following her directions...
My new favorite Food Network cook, Giada De Laurentis showed the world how to make her Chocolate Ricotta Pudding with Strawberry Sauce. It looked yummy, so I thought, hey I've got some ricotta cheese in the frig - why not?
What follows is her recipe with my diversions:
Sauce:
2 cups fresh strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
On TV she shows this whirred together in a blender - on the FN website, the recipe states, "...blend strawberries and sugar in a food processor until smooth. Strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer. Cover and refrigerate." Maybe I blinked, but I didn't see her strain the sauce either.
DIVERSION #1Never a fan of mushed fruit, fruit sauce, fruit dessert (keep your damn raspberry sauce away from my chocolate) I opt instead to make a dark chocolate sauce.
My Chocolate Sauce
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup bakers sugar (ultra fine sugar)
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
1/4 cup Valrhona cacao powder (unsweetened)
My method (loosely stated):
Melt butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Add sugar, being careful not to burn (keep that flame low!) and stir. Add coffee and cacao powder. Whisk until smooth. Occassionally remove pan from heat during this process to avoid burning the chocolate (or use a double boiler, like a professional HA!) Sauce will thicken as it cools, but fear not - place in frig until ready for the final step (which is coming)
Now for the Pudding:
Giada's ingredients
butter for greasing cups
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (unsweetened), chopped
1 1/2 pounds fresh whole milk ricotta cheese, drained for 2 hours to remove any excess liquid
1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
AND AGAIN I DIVERGEMy ingredient substitutions and omissions are as follows:
1. for the 6 ounces of chocolate I substituted aprox 6 tablespoons of Valrhona cacao powder, mixed with 4 tablespoons of melted butter
2. Skim milk ricotta cheese instead of whole milk (effects the creaminess of this recipe I'm sure, but it shaves off a few calories)
3. No almond extract to be found - used vanilla
4. salt? forgot it (this acts as a stablizer to the baking process and didn't have any effect on this recipe - so I got away with it this time)
5. No cream of tartar - used here I am sure to give those egg whites a little more lift and cause the puddings to get a souffle like appearance during baking - didn't use and didn't seem to hurt.
Moving right along - Giada's Method:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Lightly butter 6 (6 oz) custard cups. Place cups in a roasting pan. Melt chocolate in a medium bowl over a saucepan of simmering water
(MY NOTE: this is the double boiler technique I allude to earlier - and it's key if you're melting chocolate)Set the melted chocolate aside. Blend the ricotta, 1/4 cup of sugar, egg yolks, orange zest, almond extract, cinnamon and salt in a food processor until very smooth
(ANOTHER NOTE: you don't need a food processor to do this - a hand mixer works fine, as do muscles and a wooden spoon.) Blend in the melted chocolate. Transfer the ricotta mixture to a large bowl.
Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites in another large bowl with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. Continue beating until semi-firm peaks form. Fold in the egg whites into the ricotta mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cups. Fill the roasting pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the pudding puffs slightly but the centers are still creamy - about 25 minutes. Allow puddings to cool slightly before removing from the water bath. Remove custard cups from bath, cover and refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours.
To serve, run a knife around the sides of each pudding to loosen. Invert the puddings onto plates and drizzle with strawberry sauce
(NOOOO, heat your chocolate sauce and pour this over the top and smile.)The outcome: delicious recipe, and perhaps next time I will follow her directions to a T and compare results. My assumptions are that with the whole milk ricotta the puddings are very creamy, that action of the cream of tartar will cause a higher puffing of the pudding and that the resulting fall when cooling will create a denser dessert.
