Get Cooking: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen (44 page)

hot fudge sundaes

Makes 6 or more servings

Y
ou’ll be amazed at the difference homemade hot fudge sauce and freshly whipped cream make. This sauce is the genuine article, just like the kind you get in an ice cream parlor and much better than the typical supermarket versions. It takes only about 5 minutes to make. So take the ice cream out of the freezer before you start, and by the time you’ve made the sauce and whipped the cream, the ice cream will be optimally soft and scoopable. Once you have everything ready, assemble the sundaes quickly so you can enjoy the wonderful, fleeting contrast of hot fudge and cold ice cream while it lasts. Be sure the chocolate chips you use for this are semisweet, not milk chocolate. Or swap in 6 ounces of some other excellent semisweet chocolate, broken or chopped into small pieces.

The sauce will keep in a tightly covered jar in the refrigerator for 2 months or longer. It will become solid, so you’ll need to reheat it in the microwave (or by gently warming the jar in a pot of water over medium heat). You can also just eat it cold with a spoon if you’re urgently craving a chocolate truffle fix.

1.
Measure out 2/3 cup of the cream and pour it into a medium-small saucepan. Put the remaining unused cream back in the refrigerator for now.

2.
Add the corn syrup and chocolate chips to the cream in the pan, and place it on the stove over medium-low heat. Whisk it slowly as it heats and the chocolate melts. Keep cooking and whisking over medium-low heat. Bubbles will begin to form around the sides. When it starts to boil, turn the heat to low and simmer, whisking often, for 3 minutes.

3.
Remove the pan from the heat, and slowly whisk in the 2 teaspoons vanilla and the butter. Cover the pan and set it aside.

4.
Take the remaining cream out of the refrigerator, and pour it into a medium-large bowl. (Extra space is needed because the cream will double in volume when whipped.) Beat the cream—vigorously—with the largest whisk you have. (You can also use a handheld electric mixer; just be very careful not to overbeat the cream, or you’ll have butter.) Be patient, and keep whipping. It will take about 3 minutes for the cream to start frothing. After that point, add the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla and the sugar. Continue to whip, paying close attention to the condition of the cream as it expands and thickens. You get to decide when it’s ready.

5.
Put a teaspoon or two of the hot fudge sauce at the bottom of each serving dish. Cover this with a scoop of the ice cream. Spoon on more of the fudge, and top with a dollop of whipped cream.

balsamic strawberries

Makes 3 to 4 servings

A
perfect strawberry, deeply red and exquisitely ripe, should just be eaten. But here’s a traditional Italian treatment to enhance those less-than-perfect ones. You simply cut them and let them marinate in sugar for a few hours. Then, shortly before serving, you sprinkle them with sweet-and-tangy balsamic vinegar, and they magically spring to life. This works fine with any good-quality balsamic vinegar.

1.
Clean the strawberries by wiping them with a damp paper towel. Hull them, and then halve or slice them, depending on their size.

2.
Place the strawberries in a shallow pan (a 10-inch glass pie pan works well) and sprinkle with the sugar.

3.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let the pan sit for at least 2 hours, stirring or shaking it every now and then. (If the berries are going to sit for much longer than that, refrigerate them, but allow them to return to room temperature before serving.)

4.
Within half an hour of serving, sprinkle on the vinegar. (Begin with 3 tablespoons, then taste and add up to a tablespoon more. If the berries taste too tart, add a little more sugar.)

GET CREATIVE

• You can make this with a combination of raspberries and blackberries, in addition to, or instead of, the strawberries.
  
• Balsamic Strawberries are a perfect topping for a great vanilla gelato or ice cream.
  
• Top each serving with a little lightly whipped cream (see Chapter 9: Desserts) or a dollop of crème fraîche.
  
• Spoon over Buttermilk Banana Bread (Chapter 9: Desserts) or slices of good pound cake from a bakery, warmed for a few minutes in the oven or toaster oven.
  
• Serve with small Italian cookies or chocolates.
  

chocolate–peanut butter crunchy things

Makes about 2½ dozen

T
his is the only recipe I know of that begins with melting peanut butter, and I can’t even remember where I got the idea. I’ve been making this, both with kids and by myself (that’s how much I love it), for years. After the PB is melted, you mix in some chocolate chips, which will become very soft and almost melt too. Then you add some crisp cereal and form little balls, which get chilled in the refrigerator. The PB and chocolate firm up, and the result is a batch of delectable treats somewhere between candy and cookie; lacking a culinary category, I call them Crunchy Things. (The school-age kids I’ve made this with call them “Doo-Dads.” You can call them whatever you like.) You can probably use any kind of peanut butter for this, but I have only made it with the very basic natural kind that is made from just peanuts. A trick to handling peanut butter without it sticking to everything is to lightly coat whatever you’re using to measure, move, and contain it (measuring cup, rubber spatula, spoons, plate) with vegetable oil spray.

1.
Place the peanut butter in a small saucepan or a cast-iron skillet. Put it over medium heat, and stir with a wooden spoon while it softens. This will take only about 1 minute.

2.
Remove the pan from the stove and put it on a trivet or a folded dish towel. Pour in the chocolate chips, and stir until they soften into the peanut butter. They don’t need to melt all the way; you just want them supple.

3.
Pour in the cereal, and mix slowly until all the pieces of cereal are completely (or at least reasonably) coated.

4.
Use two spoons to scoop up and form tablespoon-sized hunks of the batter, and put them on a plate. Refrigerate, uncovered, for about an hour, or until firm. You can eat them straight from the refrigerator, or transfer the solid Things to a heavy resealable plastic bag and freeze them. They are good frozen, or just plain cold.

chocolate–chocolate chip mint cookies

Makes 3½ to 4 dozen cookies

T
he world’s best holiday cookie awaits you. And my definition of a holiday cookie is that when you bite into it, a holiday happens. I believe this is the only recipe I’ve ever written that uses peppermint extract, but these cookies are worth the price of several bottles. The cookies freeze beautifully when stored in a tin, and even taste good frozen. In the meantime, the peppermint extract has a half-life of about 2,000 years, so keep that bottle around for the next batch, which will likely happen sooner than that. Heads up: You’ll need to take the butter out of the refrigerator about an hour before you start baking so it can come to room temperature.