Editorial
Front Page - Friday, June 25, 2010
Kay’s Cooking Corner
Kay Bona
The fruits and vegetables that are pouring in now are just beautiful! Deep, red, juicy strawberries, plump blueberries and blackberries, fresh asparagus and sweet corn …um-m-m-m. And don’t forget those “real” tomatoes.
Now the cherries are coming in. I love those little yellow and red colored ones from Washington. But I love the juicy burgundy ones too.
When we lived in Colorado, there were cherry orchards every-where and they were about the most delicious cherries that you could ever dream of eating. I remember onetime my parents and some of the rest of the kids were going on a day trip. We passed one of the roadside fruit and vegetable stands that was selling cherries, so we stopped, and I bought a small bag of cherries.
Even though I was warned better, I ate the whole bag. Being the young person that I was, I paid no heed to the warning – and I paid for it later. They were just too easy to pop in my mouth, and before I knew it, I had eaten all of them. My stomach blew up like a helium balloon. Talk about some cramps ... I thought I needed to go to the emergency room. I learned a serious lesson about eating too much fruit at one time.
The recipe I have today is about delicious cherries. Actually two of my favorite things, cherries, and chocolate. The best remedy for a serious sweet tooth that I can imagine.
Last week on one of my and Don’s meal excursions, my dessert was Cherry Tart with Almond Crust and Sweet-corn Ice Cream. Yep, you read that right. Sweet corn Ice Cream, and yes it was made from sweet, yellow corn, and yes, it was absolutely delicious.
My recipe today isn’t that involved, but if you have never had sweet corn Ice Cream, I suggest you try it. You can find all kinds of recipes for it if you google it, but one of the best ones I have found is at http://find.myrecipes.com. I think you will be pleasantly surprised! I also think you will love these cupcakes!
Black Forest cupcakes
chocolate cupcake batter
from your favorite recipe
2 cups fresh
cherries, pitted (you can
use frozen, thawed)
a splash of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon light corn
syrup
1 teaspoon coarse salt
chantilly cream
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
seeds of one vanilla bean
2 cups heavy cream
dark chocolate shavings,
for decoration
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with baking cups.
Make cake batter as directed; spoon into prepared muffin pan, filling about three-quarters full. Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan.
Meanwhile, prepare cherries. Combine cherries, vanilla, corn syrup, and salt in a small saucepan; heat over medium heat for 3 minutes, then allow mixture to cool.
Once cupcakes have cooled, scoop out a round chunk of each top with a melon-baller or a paring knife. This will be filled later with Chantilly Cream and cherries.
For the Chantilly Cream, sift the confectioners’ sugar into a small bowl and set aside. Place the vanilla bean seeds in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and let it run for several seconds at medium speed. This releases the flavor of the seeds.
Stop the mixer, add the cream to the mixing bowl, and whip at medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until the cream reaches medium peaks. Mix several tablespoons of the cream into the bowl of confectioners’ sugar to make a paste, then add the paste into the mixing bowl and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.
To make the chocolate shavings, use a vegetable peeler or sharp chef’s knife on a large block of room-temperature dark chocolate and shave into large curls. If only small pieces of chocolate are available, chop very fine to make chocolate sprinkles. Set aside.
To assemble cupcakes, remove from pan. Fill each one with a dab of whipped cream, then a scoop of drained, cooked cherries. Top with another dollop of whipped cream, then chocolate shavings/sprinkles on top. Ices about 16.
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