San Rafael Warnings Or Dangers Tips by jessicadf Top 5 Page for this destination

Chocolate coffee pie Food / Drink Review

This is an Alton Brown recipe, "Moo-less Chocolate Pie." It turned out delicious!
2 cups chocolate chips,
1/3 cup coffee liqueur
1 block silken tofu
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey
1 prepared chocolate wafer crust

Place a small metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Melt the chocolate and coffee liqueur in the bowl. Stir in vanilla.

Combine the tofu, chocolate mixture, and honey in the blender jar. Liquefy until smooth.

Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate for 2 hours, or until the filling is set.

I did some special touches for decorating the pie:
* Sprinkle chocolate cookie crumbs across the top of the pie
* Drizzle melted chocolate across the top of the pie
* Place chocolate covered espresso beans around the diameter

Cherry Chip Cake Food / Drink Review

Yummy! I followed the recipe in using maraschino cherries the first time and it was good, but I might try some sour pie cherries next time around for a slightly more adult touch. That said -- yum!!

Chocolate macadamia nut toffee Food / Drink Review

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 lb butter (NO substitutes!)
1/2 lb. macadamia nuts
1/2 lb. milk or dark chocolate (your choice)

Do not attempt to make this on a humid or rainy day. Do not double the recipe, make one batch at a time.

Melt butter with sugar, syrup and water in a pan (such as a large non-stick frying pan or stir-fry pan) on medium to medium-high temperature. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon. When butter is melted, add the macadamia nuts. When mixture comes to a rolling boil, set your timer for a minimum of 10 minutes and keep stirring (no more than 15 minutes). The mixture will thicken and turn darker in color. The macadamias will roast. Keep stirring and cooking until the mixture turns an amber color. If you don't cook it long enough it will not harden, so keep stirring and look for the amber (caramel) color.

When it looks light caramel colored, pour the mixture out onto a large cookie sheet and spread it as thin as possible with a fork. While it is still hot, break up the chocolate into chunks and distribute it over the nut mixture and let it melt. Spread it evenly on the top.

Let it cool (refrigerate if you want). When cold you can lift the whole thing off the pan and break into small pieces.

Note: You can use other kinds of nuts such as pecans, almonds or whatever nuts you think would be good.

Supreme Raspberry Cake with Flowers Food / Drink Review

Hollow yellow cake filled with pastry cream, fresh raspberries and blackberries, frosted with raspberry merengue buttercream and topped with crystalized pansies.

Recipe coming soon...

Chocolate Devil's Bass Cake Food / Drink Review

Recipe coming soon...

Matzo Charlotte with wine sauce Food / Drink Review

Grandma's recipe for Passover Seder dessert. As with old family recipes, directions may sometimes be a bit vague...

Wine Sauce
3 C red wine
1 C sugar
6 eggs, beaten
1 Tb orange zest
1 Tsp vanilla

*Wine Sauce is best when cooked one day ahead*

Heat wine and sugar until starting to boil. SLOWLY add beaten eggs, stirring constantly. Turn down heat and stir until thickened.

Remove from heat, stir in orange zest and vanilla.

Cool and refrigerate.

Dough
1 matzo per person
1 egg per person, separated
1 TB sugar per person

Soak matzo in cold water for 15 minutes. Squeeze as dry as possible. Add yolks and sugar. Mix thoroughly. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Apple layer
Apples
Sugar
Cinnamon

Stew apples, sugar and cinnamon until done.

Walnut layer
Walnuts
Sugar
Cinnamon

Chop walnuts and mix with sugar and cinnamon.

Assembly
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease a deep baking dish.

Start with a layer of dough, then a layer of apples, layer of dough, a layer of nuts and end with a layer of dough. Dot with butter.

Place in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to 325 until brown on the top and sides (~40 minutes).

Serve warm with wine sauce.

Pineapple Ginger Upside-down Cake Food / Drink Review

For the topping:
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, melted
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 cups 1-inch chunks fresh pineapple (about 1 pineapple)
4 tablespoons diced crystalized ginger

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, as an accompaniment

Topping: In a small bowl stir together well the butter and the brown sugar and spread the mixture evenly in a well-buttered 9 by 2-inch round cake pan. Pat the pineapple very dry between several thicknesses of paper towels and arrange it evenly on the sugar mixture. Sprinkle the crystalized ginger evenly on top..

Cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Into a bowl sift together the flour, the baking powder, the salt, ground ginger and the cinnamon. In another bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, the grated fresh ginger and beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately in batches with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating well after each addition. Pour the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly, and bake the cake in the middle of the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes, run a thin knife around the edge, and invert the cake onto a plate. Serve the cake warm or at room temperature with the whipped cream or the ice cream.

Lemon Tart Food / Drink Review

Spread lemon curd in evenly baked tart shell. Decorate top with whipped cream and/or fresh berries. Serve immedaitely or refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

Tart shell:
10-2/3 tb unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg yolk
1 3/4 c flour

Preheat oven to 375f. In a large bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and creamy. Beat in egg yolk until smooth.

With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour until butter is evenly distributed and dough is crumbly. With lightly floured fingers, press dough along bottom and sides of an 11" tart pan with a removable bottom. Prick bottom of pastry with fork. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Let cool completely on wire rack before filling.

Lemon curd:
1 c sugar
1/2c fresh lemon juice
2 large whole eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 stick unsalted butter
1tb grated lemon zest

In a medium saucepan, cook sugar and lemon juice over medium heat, stirring occassionally, until sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole eggs and egg yolks. Gradually whisk hot sugar syrup into eggs; return to saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, just until mixture thickens and coats back of a spoon, about 4 minutes (do NOT boil). Remove from heat.

Whisk in butter, a few pieces at a time, until melted. Whisk in lemon zest. Transfer lemon curd to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto top surface of filling to form a tight seal. Refrigerate until cold, 2 hours or overnight.

Ridiculously good birthday cake Food / Drink Review

Yikes, sometimes I scare myself. There's far too much to go in to for directions to make the cake, so I'll just give you the basic parts that you need to put it together:

1 10" yellow cake, split in to three layers
1 batch of pastry cream
1 pints perfect raspberries
1 pint perfect blueberries
2 pints whipping cream, whipped to stiff peaks with a little (not too much!) sugar, pure vanilla extract and almond extract.
10 crispy merengues, broken in to pieces

Place first layer of cake on plate and spread an even layer of pastry cream. Top with raspberries and spread thin layer of pastry cream on top of raspberries. Place 2nd layer of cake on top. Spread an even layer of pastry cream on top of 2nd layer. Top with blueberries and spread thin layer of pastry cream on top of blueberries. Please 3rd layer of cake on top.

Continued in next tip...

Ridiculously good birthday cake -- continued Food / Drink Review

Use a pastry bag to pipe an even layer of whipped cream on the top and sides of the cake -- using a decorating spatula to smooth it out.

Then use a star tip to cover the top of the cake with whipped cream stars/flowers. Place a few perfect berries in the center of the top of the cake.

Press merenge pieces to sides of cake and scatter on top of cake.

Refrigerate until time to serve and eat. Because the frosting is whipped cream, it's important to refrigerate until time to eat, or it will melt.