Recipes & Food-Related Ramblings
Okay, so this tart was supposed to appear on the blog before Christmas but I got a little too into the merrymaking of it all. But I figure December as a whole is baking season and now that all the gifts have been purchased, and the elaborate tables have been set we actually have the time to, well, take our time in the kitchen and bake for fun. And I can tell you this Earl Grey Caramel Tart is very fun to make. It’s obviously more fun to eat but what dessert isn’t?
This is the second dish in this year’s nostalgia-themed holiday menu. And yes, we’re skipping right to dessert. It doesn’t appear to make sense, I realize that. But I figured this was the best place to put this Chocolate and Cheese Dessert Board because this is one of two dessert options. Yes, you have another dessert coming to you and I promise it will be more appropriately placed chronologically speaking. And when it comes to dessert and sugary things in general it pays to spread them out. Plus, this is a board and the Jalapeño Cold Pack appeared on a board, so they sort of make sense as a duo. Sort of. It doesn’t matter. What matters is this Chocolate and Cheese Dessert Board delivers elegant salty-sweet bliss. So let’s talk about it!
If you frequent this site, you might have noticed I don’t post cookies often. Sure, as a tastebud-possessing individual, I like a good cookie. What’s not to like about hand-held delights made primarily of butter and sugar? But I don’t tend to have a lot of cookie-related ideas. They seem to be my culinary blindspot. It might be because I don’t find them particularly beautiful. And I am a visual learner and schemer. Now, before you direct me to the plethora of perfectly gorgeous sugar and gingerbread cookies on the Internet, I know they exist. My other Achilles heel is royal icing. So yeah, I can’t even approach cookies from a design standpoint. But every now and then the baking gods come through and bless me with a good cookie idea I can actually pull off. And these Caramel Apple Linzer Cookies are a fine example of such an idea.
I know I’ve mentioned this before but I’m not much of a Halloween person. It’s not that I dislike the holiday. I kind of enjoy the energy of the day in general. It’s just that I don’t have many ideas surrounding it. I’m hopeless when it comes to costume concepts, I can’t plan a Halloween party and make it somehow different from a regular party, and I have next to no recipe ideas. Spooky treats are the furthest thing from my mind it seems. So today’s Blackberry Blackout Cake is more of an attempt at a Halloween-friendly dessert. How successful I was is really up to you. But I can assure you this cake is very delicious, very chocolatey, and gorgeously balanced. So while this may not be a Halloween cake, it is at least a delightful cake.