• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Oui, Chef

Fare for the family table

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Recipes
  • Links
  • Contact

Chocolate

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream with Toasted Hazelnuts

August 25, 2016 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream with Toasted Hazelnuts

It turns out that my beautiful wife is quickly becoming my ice cream muse.  For quite a while now I’ve based my ice cream making on recipes by the amazing Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of the now rightly Jeni’s Ice Cream.  Everything I’ve made from her fist book on the subject has been amazing.  Recently however, my wife has been struck with flavor inspirations and has challenged me to build on Jeni’s well researched (though unusual) base recipes with some new bolt-on flavors.

A few weeks back she had a hankering for a “blueberry cobbler” ice cream, a vanilla base with both blueberry and streusel swirls for fruity sweetness and crunch.  It sounded great, though I was a bit concerned that the streusel might somehow get soggy and gummy in the process of making the treat.  Rather than make a blueberry sauce from scratch, I used the exercise as an excuse to use a jar of “Stonewall Kitchen – Maine Wild Blueberry Jam” that had established a long-term residence in our pantry.  For the streusel, a few handfuls of Trader Joe’s “Pecan Praline Granola” did the trick, staying perfectly crunchy for the duration of its short tenure in our freezer.

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Ice Cream + Frozen Desserts Tagged With: Chocolate

Bittersweet Chocolate Semifreddo

May 7, 2016 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Bittersweet Chocolate Semifreddo Frozen Chocolate Deliciousness Without an Ice Cream Machine

See these two beautiful balls of frozen beauty?  They’re the super lucky result of a kitchen fail!

Working at America’s Test Kitchen I get paid to make recipes fail (in a sense) over and over again until they are positively bullet-proof and guaranteed to deliver great results for our fans.  At home however, I try to keep kitchen failure to a minimum.  That said, last weekend when making this semifreddo (Italian for half-frozen), I misread the recipe and ended up making a very different dessert from what the author intended.  I was in a hurry to throw something together and get it into the freezer for dinner guests that evening, and in my haste, “lost” an entire cup of cream from my mix.  Merde!

For those of you unfamiliar with the wonders of semifreddo, its a frozen dessert that can be made without an ice cream maker, and has a softly frozen consistency that feels more like a frozen mousse than an ice cream or gelato.  The key to its airy texture is that its made with a light, fluffy Italian meringue that doesn’t freeze as solid as the custard base typically used when making ice cream.

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Ice Cream + Frozen Desserts Tagged With: Chocolate

Peanut Butter Brownies

April 20, 2015 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Peanut Butter Brownies

I’m baaaack…..

Hey gang, I’m sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but its taken me a few weeks to get my schedule organized after starting my new job to where I’ve been able to put some time aside for Oui, Chef.  It turns out that I started at America’s Test Kitchen at the very busiest time of year, with everyone scrambling to get ahead on their magazine or cookbook work before much of the month of May is lost to filming the ATK television series.  As such, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved with some work that I otherwise might have had to wait months to try, and while in many ways its been cool, its also been a little overwhelming.

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Cookies + Bars Tagged With: Chocolate

Rum Balls

January 23, 2015 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Rum Balls

I made a bunch of these little darlings early in the holiday season and kept them in my fridge as a little sweet insurance in the event of impromptu visitors.  That’s one of the things I love about the holiday season, people just popping by for a cup (or four) of cheer, perhaps dropping by some treats, but usually just pausing for a bit to say hi and “where the hell did that year go?”.

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Cookies + Bars Tagged With: Chocolate

Milky Way Tart

May 4, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Milky Way Tart


A couple of days ago, Muppet, who had decided that we'd been making not nearly enough desserts as of late, sauntered over to our cookbook collection and pulled down Joanne Chang's fabulous Flour cookbook for a look-see.  Five minutes later she was waving the book in my face, showing me all of the post-it tags that marked recipes she wanted to try.  As most of them were rather large layer cakes, I asked her to take another swing through the book and try to find something a little more modest in size, "oohhh…good idea, she said, "bikini season's right around the corner"

My thoughts exactly.

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Pies + Tarts Tagged With: Chocolate

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

April 17, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake


You gotta love birthdays around here.  They may not be very good for our waistlines, but they sure are tasty!  Our lovely young Peyton just turned 15, and as is our custom when one of us tacks on another year, we (oui) kitchen slaves craft a meal and cake of choice for the lucky celebrant.  For her birthday meal Peyton chose an Asian theme with a Ming Tsai crab maki roll, and a Wagamama chicken gyoza, and for dessert, this insanely good chocolate cheesecake.       

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Cakes, Desserts Tagged With: Chocolate

Fig and Chocolate Bars

April 3, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Fig and Chocolate Bars


These little lovelies were inspired by my need to do a little pantry cleaning last weekend.  They were the perfect vehicle for knocking-off the last few dried figs we had laying about, as well as an unopened jar of fig preserves I bought at Hediard while living in Paris (I don't even want to tell you how long ago that was).  Any of you who have been to Hediard know they sell foodstuffs of only the highest quality (with prices to match), so I am pleased to report that even after YEARS tucked away in the deepest recesses of our pantry, the jam was still superb.  Whew……

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Cookies + Bars, Desserts Tagged With: Chocolate, Fruit

GF Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

March 20, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

GF Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

These little bad boys came about as the result of my volunteering to bring a sweet treat to a Cooking Matters board meeting I was attending last week. You see, one of my fellow board members is about to go on maternity leave to have her first child, so it was decided that we'd have a little baby shower for her at last week's meeting.

As coming up with cool baby gifts is not my strong suit, I offered to bring the eats.  My first thought was to make a batch of these Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes that I had found on Joy the Baker's site, but upon learning that one of the board members can't tolerate gluten, I had to pivot quick and work up another plan.

Read More »

Like 9 Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: Chocolate

A Chocolate Lovers Tart

March 13, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

A Chocolate Lovers Tart

On the ocassion of our college guy gracing us with his presence at the beginning of his spring break, I decided to pull out all the stops for dinner this past Saturday.  We started with his all-time favorite, steak with sauce bernaise to which we added a new treat, creamed kale (recipe to follow soon), and to finish off the feast this awesome chocolate tart.

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Desserts, Pies + Tarts Tagged With: Chocolate

Cappuccino Brownies

March 5, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Cappuccino Brownies

These gorgeous little bombs were the 4th "cookie" that my sibs and I traded in our holiday swap this year.  You regulars may remember the other "swap" recipes we've already shared, the Chewy Gingers, the 3 Chocolate-Cranberries, and the Chocolate Mints.  For what it's worth, just a half-step behind the Gingers at the finish line, these were my second favorite of our swapped treats.

Read More »

Like Google +1 Retweet

Filed Under: Cookies + Bars Tagged With: Chocolate

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

About Me

About Me

I started Oui, Chef a few years back as a means to chronicle my efforts to teach my kids a few things about cooking, and how their food choices over time effect not only their own health, but that of our local food

Read More »

Archives

Categories

Oui Tweets

  • Just posted a photo @ Plymouth, Massachusetts https://t.co/7EwWzEdoX3 February 25, 2021 4:54 pm
  • Just posted a photo @ Plymouth, Massachusetts https://t.co/19XKfDzYrf February 21, 2021 6:04 pm
  • The Blackened Chicken train keeps on rolling! #atkgrams #cooksillustrated #blackenedchicken #cajun #chicken @ Plym… https://t.co/iIfsvRDyVz February 5, 2021 4:44 pm
  • Just posted a photo @ Plymouth, Massachusetts https://t.co/JdR5WGBGNY February 3, 2021 6:45 pm
my foodgawker gallery
No Kid Hungry

Footer

Copyright © 2021 · This work by Steven Dunn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at ouichefnetwork.com/oui_chef.