Zesty Cook » dessert

Delicious Desserts from Friends and Day 7 of Zesty Christmas

zesty — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:16:45 +0000

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This time of year one may loosen their belt a little and indulge, right? For me, I am not sure I loosen my belt – I might just push the pants down a little lower to sit under the belly… but that may be too much info. Regardless I wanted to share with you a few awesome recipes from some blogger friends that will make your mouth water. I have been reading each of these blogs for a while and needless to say I am impressed with their work, their food and of course their photography.

Take a quick scan through these sweet treats and tell me what you think.

How Sweet It Is

When you say cookies and cream cheesecake bars… what immediately goes off in your head? Amazing? Yeah I thought so. Take a look at this… Jessica rocks out this Oreo dessert and I am sure would be a hit at any holiday potluck you ever had to attend.

Picky Palate

Can you really go through the festive Christmas season without a little peppermint in your life? Feast your eyes on this treat that will have people caroling for hours after they leave your house. Seriously… I think I have to make these treats.

Kalyn’s Kitchen

For me when you say Chocolate…. I kind of get excited. Chocolate bread… gets me even more psyched. But when you combine chocolate and zucchini – it seems that you should be able to eat a bunch of slices because it has vegetables in it…. so I normally do. Look at this fun recipe from Kalyn’s Kitchen and I am sure you will be featuring this over the holidays.

Oh She Glows

I am a sucker for oatmeal based desserts and these Berry Bliss Bars are no exception. I would literally eat 3-4 squares of this treat before the sand timer would elapse on a board game. These look delicious! Even reading the details, they are somewhat healthy – what is up with that? Super deal. Whip these up in your kitchen and let me know what you think.

How to Win the KitchenAid Giveaway Today

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Alright so there you have it… a fun little round up of some of my fav desserts. If you so desire… head over to the blogs and check out all of their work…. you will not be disappointed. have a great Wednesday. Tree decorating night tonight. Talk to you on Friday.

Take care

zesty

Triple Chocolate Brownies… Yes I Said Triple Chocolate

zesty — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:00:48 +0000

You know my fascination with brownies right? Remember when I came out with a statement a while ago with a post that boasted a brownie that would change your life? Those brownies are pretty yummy to say the least. But today I have another story to tell you about. Saturday morning I was lying on the couch watching the food network when Anna Olson came on and started making an outdoor picnic lunch. On the menu was a triple chocolate brownie.

My ears perked up and I watched closely for the steps and tricks to make these super moist. The key with brownies is that they can be dry if you are not careful. There is no fear about these brownies getting dried out. They are super moist and the one really astonishing fact about these brownies is the lack of flour.

Check below and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

10 Oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 Cup unsalted butter
3/4 Cup sugar
1 Tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
1/2 Tsp salt
3 Oz white chocolate chips or chunks
3 Oz milk chocolate chunks

Method

Preheat oven to 325 F and grease and line an 8-inch pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl resting over a pot of barely simmering water, melt chocolate and butter, stirring gently. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla.
Stir in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour and salt. Fold in white and milk chocolate chips.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center of the brownies comes out clean.
Cool before slicing.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Chill these and top them with a dollop of ice cream to make brownie ice cream sandwiches. These will make you really happy any time of the day… trust me I tried it.

Alright, I am off to the office. The middle of the week is upon us and the sun is going to shine. Have a super Wednesday and I will keep you posted on the landscaping projects on Friday.

Take care

zesty

Zesty Goes Brick: Cooking at 900 Degrees

zesty — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:00:30 +0000

Guess what? I totally forgot it was Friday and I had to post today! Can you believe that? Well I just remembered and I knew I had nothing prepared. With that said, I thought of this post because hopefully we are approaching the nicer weather where the zesty-in-laws will be calling us up for some pizza. Whooo Hooo. Look at this post if you don’t remember it from last year.

Happy Wednesday and welcome to a very special post!

A few weeks back I got a call from a Zesty in Law stating that they were getting a brick oven built in their backyard and I was asked if I would like to photograph the build and feature it on zesty. Of course my answer was yes as I thought you would love to see it from start to finish. The goal being to see it at the finished stage and taste the food from the oven. That happened last Friday and we will get to that in a little bit.

One hint: AMAZING

What is a Brick Oven

Now some of you may ask what is a brick oven so I thought I would share a little insight.

These ovens work on retained heat. A fire is burned in the oven for a few hours, the coals are raked out, the oven floor brushed or swabbed with a damp mop and then the food is cooked using the heat stored in the oven mass. Wood-fired bakeovens are used to bake crusty bread, crisp pizza and just about anything else including the Christmas turkey. The oven can have a barrel/vault shape or it can be round. The inner workings of the oven can be of modern firebrick material or simply made of clay like the early settlers used. Plan your oven location, if you can, so it can be used in any weather.

OK. Everyone is on the same page on the “What is a Brick Oven” so now let’s get to “How to Build a Brick Oven”. For this next phase I am going to show you a bunch of pictures with very little narrative as I think the pictures will explain themselves.

The Brick Oven

The Final Product

Here is the final oven in all it’s glory! Notice the sheer size of the structure not too mention how cool it looks in general.

Pizza Pizza

Oh my God or OMG or whatever you want to say when you are super excited and you cannot get enough of something. This pizza was absolutely insane. For the night, I was sous chef Zesty as I was helping with the prep and layout of the pizza. Also was called upon every now and again to give the pizza a turn in the oven, slice it after completion and call over the troops.

For cooking pizza, the oven was around 850-900 degrees F and the pizzas would literally cook in 2-3 minutes. It was the first night of pizza cooking so there will be a few tweaks put in place to master the dough levels but overall the crowd loved it.

First off, you have to start the fire and get the oven up to temperature. Then using a brush, reach in and clean the floor in preparation of the pizza dough.

Zesty in law and myself cooked 11 pizzas including a couple of dessert pizzas that may knock your socks off. We will get to those in a minute. First up we have a basic pizza with homemade tomato sauce, some Genoa salami and cheese ( It was for the kiddos but I may have snuck a piece )

As the night went on we switched up the toppings, rolled the dough for a few of them and even picked some fresh basil.

Here is a little olive oil, fresh basil and cheese pizza. This was a huge hit!

On to the Dessert Pizza. How does strawberries, raspberries, chocolate, vanilla sugar and fresh dough baked at 800 degrees sound for dessert? Pretty damn good right? Well if you said “Holy Yum” you would be bang on. These were amazing!

We capped the night off with a Simple Smore done in the oven. I took a marshmallow, sliced a hole in the center and shoved in some chocolate, then roasted it in the oven and placed it between two graham wafers.

Let’s finish the night with a little FIRE!

Special thanks to the Zesty in Law’s for letting me feature this on the blog and Red Clay for building the oven and doing such a great job. John over at Red Clay definitely knows his bricks and it shows in the final product.

Before I go I want to say a special “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” to a Zesty in Law who reads my posts everyday. Hope you have a great day, CAW. Alright, I better get going here and get some breakfast. I know this was a long post but I felt it was the best way to describe such an amazing work of art. Have a super Wednesday and I will see you on Friday.

Take care

zesty