To be honest, that was the only season of Top Chef: Just Desserts I have ever seen. And while watching, I was secretly rooting for Yigit. So, what a delight and dream come true it was to meet him in person.

He’s supercute with those dimples, very knowledgeable about baking, and very friendly. I was also surprised that he’s frugal.

Yigit told us about how he saved money by buying chocolate molds and forms not from a baking supply store but at a hardware store or plastic store. In his bake shop, he uses textured plastic panels from fluorescent light covers. Yigit will use it to spread chocolate to make innovative shapes and designs for garnishes.

He also doesn’t use a mixer to mix chocolate. Rather, it’s better to mix by hand with a spatula, not a whisk, so you don’t “piss off the cake”. That just means you don’t want to over mix the batter. Otherwise, the cake will come out too heavy and chewy instead of light and fluffy.

The chai chocolate cake was rich, moist, and tasty. The silky ganache melted in my mouth, while the chocolate cake was delicate and velvety, with a hint of chai and a creamy caramel center.

Serves 8

For the cake:

• 5.6 oz. all-purpose flour
• 2.5 oz. (5 Tbs.) Scharffen Berger® Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder
• 0.18 oz. baking powder
• 3/4 cups plus 4 tsp. whole milk
• 3.5 oz. crème fraîche
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 10.5 oz. (1 1/3 cups) sugar
• 3.5 oz. (7 Tbs.) grapeseed oil
• 4 tsp. chopped Ceylon tea
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon, preferably Ceylon
• 1/2 tsp. ground clove
• 1 tsp. ground green cardamom
• 1/4 tsp. ground star anise

For the ganache glaze:

• 7 oz. Scharffen Berger® 70% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped
• 10.5 oz. (1 1/3 cups) heavy cream
• 5 1/3 Tbs. corn syrup
• Cinnamon stick, for garnish
• Star anise, for garnish
• Candied orange strips, for garnish

Make the cake
Pre heat the oven to 350°F. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and set aside. In a bowl, mix the milk and crème fraîche and set aside. Place the eggs, sugar, grapeseed oil, tea and spices in an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip until the mixture has a thick, fluffy consistency. In two steps, alternately mix the crème fraîche mixture and the flour mixture into the eggs using a spatula. Be gentle not to overwork the batter or deflate it. Spray an 8-inch round cake pan with pan spray and lightly dust with flour. Pour the batter into the pan, about 1 inch from the top. Bake until the cake has a rise and peak, rotate gently, and bake until it passes the “skewer” test, and lightly bounces to the touch. Pull out of the oven, allow to cool 5 minutes and then loosen with a spatula on each side, and gently unmold and cool on a cake rack.

Make the ganache glaze
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Bring the cream and the syrup to a boil, and pour over the chocolate. Mix using a spatula, and in the end finish mixing using an emersion blender to emulsify the mixture, taking care not to add too many air bubbles. Use the glaze while warm.

Assemble
Place the chocolate cake on a cooling rack with a pan lined with plastic underneath it to catch the drippings of glaze. Put the chocolate glaze in a container with a spout, and gently yet quickly pour evenly over the chocolate cake, covering the entire top. It is ok, if not desired, if the glaze drips off some of the sides. Garnish with the cinnamon stick, whole star anise and candied orange strips.

Photo Credit: Scharffen Berger

My all-time favorite dessert is the warm ginger cake topped with pumpkin ice cream, caramel sauce, and whipped cream from Park Chow in San Francisco. There’s nothing like it anywhere else. Since I haven’t been to Park Chow in a really long time, I was on a mission to recreate it at home.

I used David Lebovitz’s ginger cake recipe. I think it’s the same one as Park Chow’s. I’m still searching for the right pumpkin ice cream. I’ve tried Double Rainbow’s and Trader Joe’s but they don’t taste right.

I also made my own caramel sauce and whipped cream. Yeah, I was a little ambitious because I was using my brand new, pink hand blender, which works really well for this. If you want to make your own whipped cream, use a hand blender (use whisk attachment, if you have one) to whisk heavy whipping cream in a bowl. Start with a little bit of cream, then as it thickens, add more. Add nutmeg or sugar to sweeten. Whisk until peaks form. I think it’s easier to buy ready-made whipped cream.

I didn’t have a 9″ round cake pan. Instead, I used an 8″ x 8″ pan and poured an inch of batter into a bread pan because I was afraid of overflowing the pan. It turned out fine. I also baked it with less time, 45 minutes instead, since I used 2 smaller pans.

Also, I used a hot water boiler to dispense hot water and mix it with the baking soda. It was more convenient than boiling it in a pan.

Ginger Cake Recipe

4 ounces fresh ginger
1 cup mild molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil, preferably peanut
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup water
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs, at room temperature

Position the oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9 by 3-inch round cake pan or a 9 1/2 inch springform pan with a circle of parchment paper.

Peel, slice, and chop the ginger very fine with a knife (or use a grater). Mix together the molasses, sugar, and oil. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper.

Bring the water to the boil in a saucepan, stir in the baking soda, and then mix the hot water into the molasses mixture. Stir in the ginger.

Gradually whisk the dry ingredients into the batter. Add the eggs, and continue mixing until everything is thoroughly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour, until the top of the cake springs back lightly when pressed or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If the top of the cake browns too quickly before the cake is done, drape a piece of foil over it and continue baking.

Cool the ginger cake for at least 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Remove the cake from the pan and peel off the parchment paper.

See original ginger cake recipe.

The frigid weather makes me crave more comfort food. Arroz caldo is one of my favorite Filipino comfort foods. It’s basically, Filipino porridge, much like Chinese congee or jook. But what’s different about arroz caldo is that it has so much more flavor than Chinese porridge. There’s ginger, fried garlic, and fish sauce to spice it up.

I use whatever rice I have on hand – brown, jasmine, calrose, long grain, or short grain. You can even mix them up. Also, if you have sweet rice, substitute it with one rice cooker size cup, which will make the arroz caldo creamier.

Fried garlic is sold in a plastic container at Asian grocery stores. It makes it much easier than chopping and frying your own garlic.

After making the arroz caldo, we can eat it over several days. You can also freeze it, which is what Filipino restaurants do.

After making this countless times, I’ve come up with an easy and quick way to make arroz caldo, by cooking the rice first and using a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.

Arroz Caldo Recipe
Serves 8 – 10

4 rice cooker sized cups of rice
2 inch knob of ginger, sliced into thick matchsticks
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
12 cups of water
2 cups of chicken broth
Vietnamese fish sauce to taste
1/2 cup of fried garlic
2 stalks of green onion, thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook rice. While waiting for rice to cook, peel and chop ginger, shred rotisserie chicken, and slice green onions.

2. In a large stockpot, saute ginger over medium heat, about a minute or until fragrant.

3. Add shredded rotisserie chicken to ginger. Saute for 1 – 2 minutes.

4. Add the water and chicken broth to the pot. (If you add the liquids before the cooked rice, it will prevent sticking).

5. Add the cooked rice and stir.

6. Turn up to high heat until boiling. Then turn down heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking at the bottom of the pot.

7. Add fish sauce to taste. I usually pour fish sauce, circling the inside of the pot, 4 – 5 times.

8. Add 1/2 cup of fried garlic or more if you like.

9. Add sliced green onions and salt and pepper to taste.

The arroz caldo always tastes better the next day, after the ginger has infused into the pot. You’ll also notice that the rice soaks up a lot of the water, making it very thick. Feel free to add more water before reheating.

I was at Walgreens today and picked up a copy of Real Simple. Their guide to a month of easy dinners was intriguing especially since there is a photo accompanying each recipe. Plus there’s a good mix of meat and meatless dinners that look yummy and delicious.

When I went home, I got online and found the same recipes along with the grocery shopping list here: Your Guide to a Month of Easy Dinners.

Real Simple. No thinking needed. Enjoy!

She made chicken kabobs. Then she used the left over chicken for chicken curry and rice. The leftover rice was used for rice pudding.

I always have leftover rice since I make it practically everyday. Things I have made with leftover rice – congee (jook) and fried rice. Now I can add rice pudding onto the list. I love rice pudding and can’t wait to try this out, especially since you can adjust the amount of sweetness.

Robin Miller’s Instant Rice Pudding Recipe