Squash for dessert? Why not!

This one’s for those who are innovative and adventurous in the kitchen. That’s what I come to Macheesmo for—new and interesting ways to challenge myself in the kitchen, although I’m pretty challenged as it is. So when I ran across a pudding-stuffed chayote dessert recipe while looking for reasons to do a guest post on Macheesmo, I said “Yeehaw, let’s git ‘er done!”

I only recently discovered chayote, an amazing squash native to Central America. Is it odd I didn’t find it until I moved to Saudi Arabia? You’d think I’d be more focused on learning how to cook traditional Middle Eastern cuisine, but this baby is a delicious addition to soups, stews, and other squash and root vegetable concoctions. And, of course, to desserts, as well!

Pudding-Stuffed Chayote

Yield: Serves 3-6.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

3 chayotes
½ cup almonds
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cream
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 cups crumbled pound cake (set some aside for final topping)
½ cup raisins
Fresh-whipped cream

Directions:

1) Slice chayote in half and steam for 45 minutes or until tender.

2) Scoop out seeds and some inside flesh. Leave about 1/2 inch of flesh on chayotes.

3) Mix other ingredients except whipped cream together for a filling. Leave some pound cake for a topping.

4) Scoop filling into steamed chayotes and bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

5) Serve with fresh whipped cream. Can be served warm or cool.

Basic stuff plus a weird squash thing.

The ingredients: Pound cake, chayote, cinnamon, vanilla, egg, whipping cream, almonds, sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw someone gave me), raisins (any kind will do).

The recipe calls for a teaspoon of nutmeg and a teaspoon of brandy in the pudding filling, as well as sliced almonds as garnish. I haven’t found nutmeg in Saudi Arabia yet, and liquor of all kinds is illegal, so those two were out. I switched cinnamon for nutmeg and just ignored the brandy. I didn’t want to buy extra almonds, so I just nixed the sliced almond garnishes also. I’m not sure whether the cake I bought was a pound cake or what, because it was all in Arabic, but it tasted yummy and crumbled well!

Generally, I think if you use enough sugar, delicious spices, and cakey goodness, the dessert will turn out pretty frikkin’ tasty!

Sliced open.

First order of business: slice the chayote in half lengthwise (keep the skin on!) and place them in a steaming contraption. The recipe I mostly followed says to steam for 35 minutes, but I went about 45, and the chayote was still probably too firm. The skins on these were pretty sturdy, so they can probably be steamed until the insides are super-soft and easy to scoop out.

Scooped!

Which is the next step! Remove the seeds and scoop the chayote innards into a bowl. The recipe says to leave half an inch of squash to ensure it all holds together when you bake them, but I think I should have scooped them out a little bit more—the squash is fine, but I couldn’t fit as much pudding mix as I would have liked into these, and that filling was scrumptious.

Set aside the chayote innards. Take the almonds and sugar and chop them in a food processor or blender until they’re nice and finely ground. Then add the eggs and chayote innards and pulse until nice and well-mixed. Add vanilla and cream and pulse a little, then pour into a bowl with the crumbled cake, cinnamon, and raisins. Set aside a few tablespoons of crumbled cake to top the confection before baking.

A simple pudding filling.

My pudding filling looked like this, but I didn’t exactly measure the amount of cake, chayote, or anything else—I just eyeballed.

Grease a baking pan, place your steamed, scooped chayote in, and fill with the pudding filling stuff. Then sprinkle cake crumbs on top. If you’d like, add slivers of almonds as well.

Bake at 375 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes (for me, it took a little longer before the cake crumbs turned a little brownish). The recipe says to serve warm, but it also tastes good after being refrigerated overnight in tupperware. It’s almost like pizza and Chinese food in that way.

Stuffed and baked!

These look okay naked, but are better with fresh-whipped cream, which only took a few minutes of beating (I used what I think was heavy whipping cream—the only English was on the stuck-on label on the back and just said “whipping cream,” which was good enough for me—with some powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla to sweeten it).

All dressed up!

Okay, so it doesn’t look like the most delicious dessert. But if you want to try something new and interesting, or you’re going for a green-themed dinner party, pudding-stuffed chayote is the way to go!

As you can see from the first picture, the layers are awesome. Vanilla ice cream would totally rock this dessert!

If you follow the recipe, you will have a little bit of leftover pudding filling that won’t fit into the chayote shells. The recipe says to stick it in a bread pan and bake at 375 Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. And heck, that stuff is sinful! I had it for breakfast, I had it for lunch, and I had it for dinner. I’ve been on a sugar high all day!

Thanks Kenneth for the super-interesting recipe. I’ve never used chayote before and definitely wouldn’t think to stuff it with pudding! If you liked this post, be sure to check out The Expat Garden(er) and also follow Kenneth on Twitter!

As far as I can tell that’s the difference.

Even with all of that, I had no idea whether this fig thing I made was a pie or a tart. It was made in a pie dish, and I used a pie crust recipe, but it had a very tart feel to it. So I’m not really sure what to do about it. Anyway, it’s a tart for now. But feel free to call it a fresh fig pie if that makes more sense to you.

Whatever you call it, it’s really tasty.

The prettiest thing I've ever made?

It’s kind of hard to find fresh figs unless you happen to be in California where they are pretty abundant during the summer months. Don’t fret though if you can’t find any good ones at your store. You could substitute any berries I think for the figs. If you don’t use figs though, you might want to up the sugar in the filling a bit. The filling is not particularly sweet because the figs are really sweet.

Fresh Fig Tart

Yield: 1 tart.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

8-10 fresh figs, cut into sixths
6 ounces (approximately) of fresh raspberries
1 Cup heavy whipping cream
1 Cup ricotta cheese
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Rum Butter Sauce:
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup dark rum (I used light rum and I think it would be better with dark.)
1/4 Cup water

Almond Pie Crust (Adapted from Simply Recipes version)
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup almonds, ground into flour
8 Tablespoons (1 Stick) butter
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon sugar
1 - 3 Tablespoons very cold water

Directions:

1) Grind your almonds into a flour in a food processor or you could use a mortar and pestle.

2) Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

3) Cut in the butter and slowly add the water.

4) Roll this into a ball and then stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

5) Roll it out onto a lightly floured surface.

6) Transfer dough to a normal pie pan, poke a bunch of holes in the bottom and around the sides with a fork to make sure the crust doesn’t puff up while baking.

7) Put a layer of parchment paper in the bottom of the pie and filled it up with black beans. The helps keep some weight on it so it stays nice and thin.

8) Bake this at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes until the edges are golden brown. As soon as you pull it out of the oven, gently lift the black beans out of the pie. If the bottom is still kind of soggy, bake for 5 more minutes. The crust needs to be completely cooked before filling it.

9) After it comes out and is golden brown, make sure to cool it completely before filling.

10) Add the cream to a large bowl and whisk until it begins to turn stiff.

11) Gently stir or fold in the ricotta and all the spices.

12) Once it is all mixed up, you can fill the pie crust with the mixture. Make sure the pie crust is completely cool before filling it.

13) Wash the fruit and dry them thoroughly. Make sure to use only very ripe figs for this.

14) Roughly chop fruit and arrange around pie on top of filling.

15) Melt the butter in a sauce pan and stir in the sugar, rum, and water. Let that simmer together and reduce until the sugar is completely dissolved. Maybe 5 minutes. It should be slightly syrupy.

16) Let it cool before coating the dessert. Just drizzle it on the fruit-topped dessert.

Forming the crust

This is very much a pie crust recipe which really shifts the debate toward “pie” for this dessert. To start, grind your almonds into a flour in a food processor or you could use a mortar and pestle. You can also buy almond flour in some specialty stores. Combine all your dry ingredients in a bowl.

Pretty dry.

Next, cut in your butter and slowly add your water. I found that this dough came together really easily. Easier than a normal pie crust. I think it might be because the almonds are kind of oily and they give a bit more moisture to the dough than just flour.

At some point you’ll end up with a mixture that will easily hold together if you press it.

Kind of crumby.

Roll this into a ball and then stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes. That will keep the butter into nice chunks. Then roll it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Again, I found this pie crust recipe to roll out very easily which may mean that my version was too moist. I thought the final product was very good though.

A very easy dough to roll out.

I used just a normal pie pan for this because that’s what I had on hand. I poked a bunch of holes in the bottom and around the sides with a fork to make sure that it doesn’t puff up while baking.

Poking prevents puffing.

After doing that, I was still worried that it was going to puff up while baking so I put a layer of parchment paper in the bottom of the pie and filled it up with black beans. The helps keep some weight on it so it stays nice and thin.

Helpful??

Bake this at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes until the edges are golden brown. As soon as you pull it out of the oven, gently lift the black beans out of the pie. If the bottom is still kind of soggy, bake for 5 more minutes. The crust needs to be completely cooked before filling it.

After it comes out and is golden brown, make sure to cool it completely before filling.

As an aside, this bean thing may be unnecessary. I read somewhere that it helps and so I thought I would give it a try. It worked well, but I also think that it may have worked fine just by poking some holes in the dough with a fork.

The Filling

This filling is really simple. Add your cream to a large bowl and whisk until it begins to turn stiff. Also known as whipped cream people. Don’t over whip it or you’ll be staring at a bowl of butter.

Then gently stir or fold in your ricotta and all the spices. Adjust this to your tastes, but I found this to be a good balance. The filling was really light but still had some spice to it. When mixing in the ricotta and spices try to keep it really light. Gentle is good here.

Kind of winged this.

Once it is all mixed up, you can fill your pie crust with the mixture. It should fit perfectly.

Very important

Make sure your pie crust is completely cool before filling it. In fact, I put mine in the fridge so it was actually cold. If it is at all warm, your filling will just melt like ice cream on asphalt.

Filled up.

The Fruits

Wash your fruit and dry them thoroughly. Make sure to use only very ripe figs for this. I actually bought more than I needed so I could be sure to only use the best ones in the bunches.

Left over figs are usually not a problem.

Figs are good.

As you can see from the first picture I got a bit carried away with arranging my fruit on the dessert. Feel free to throw them on there however you want.

The Rum Butter Glaze

There is a very light glaze that goes on top of this dessert. Basically, just melt the butter in a sauce pan and stir in the sugar, rum, and water. Let that simmer together and reduce until the sugar is completely dissolved. Maybe 5 minutes. It should be slightly syrupy.

Let it cool before coating the dessert. Just drizzle it on your fruit-topped dessert.

Very refreshing!

This was very good and at the end of the day it reminds me much more of a tart than a pie which is why I called it a tart.

Thanks very much to reader Bethany for sending me the idea for this recipe. It was kind of an original idea and we went back and forth on crust options and fillings before I settled on this version.

One of my absolute favorite flavors of ice cream is the Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. I mean that stuff is like crack to me. Except I don’t think I could ever OD. I think I could eat it until my stomach exploded a la Se7en. If you don’t know what Cherry Garcia is it is basically vanilla ice cream with large chunks of dried cherries and chocolate.

Last weekend I was scrounging for something for breakfast and realized that I had all of the necessary ingredients to make pancakes. I also happened to have some cherries and some chocolate laying around, so I thought I would try making a pancake that tasted like my favorite ice cream.

These guys were rich.

My idea was a good one! These pancakes were moist and fluffy and had large chunks of cherry and melted chocolate throughout. They were super-rich, but they were delicious. Turns out pancakes are not one of my magic foods. In fact, I only made it through about 1/2 of this dish before calling it quits. They were that rich.

Before we even get to the pancakes though, let’s discuss something that I think is essential to pancake heaven: fresh whipped cream. Everybody always seems impressed by it, but it isn’t that hard. This is the basic formula I use:

Whipped Cream

- 1 Cup whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon vanilla

There is also this fear that it takes forever to make. In fact, once you get the hang of it, it takes no time at all. In fact, I think it is faster with a normal whisk than with an electric mixer.

So, I timed myself. Under a minute flat.

I rule.

If you aren’t willing to spend one minute to make heaven in a bowl, then to you, Sir/Madam, I bid good day.

There are a lot of different pancake recipes out there, but this is the recipe I’ve used the last few times I’ve made pancakes and loved it.

Buttermilk Pancakes (Adapted from Simply Recipes)
Serves 3-4 easily

- 2 Cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 Cup buttermilk
- 1 cup milk
- 3 Tablespoons melted butter

Also, you will want:
- 20 (apprx.) cherries, pitted and quartered
- 4-6 ounces milk chocolate, crumbled or just buy chocolate chips. You could use dark chocolate also I think.

Helpful Equipment:
- Nonstick Griddle

This recipe is great, but I had a quandary. I didn’t have any buttermilk and the corner store was out. So I did some research and read that you can approximate buttermilk by adding a few Tablespoons of lemon juice to a cup of milk and letting it sit for 10 minutes.

Buttermilk?

Note I say approximate, but this doesn’t actually make buttermilk. I tried it and it only sort of worked. It just tasted like milk with lemon juice in it. It didn’t have that signature tang that actual buttermilk has.

Anyway, combine all your dry ingredients in a bowl and then whisk in your wet ingredients which you should mix together separately.

Perfect consistency.

I also let my pancake batter rest for 10-15 minutes in the fridge to let some of the flour absorb the moisture a bit. You could make them right away though if you were in a rush or something.

For me, this gave me time to prep my cherries:

Quartered and pitted.

And my chocolate:

Chocolate chips would work better.

You want everything ready when you start making these guys.

Before you start cooking the real deal, I always like to do a pancake test. Heat up some butter or oil in your pan or on your griddle over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add a few Tablespoons of batter and cook a small pancake. The batter should spread out evenly. If it stays in one spot, your batter is too thick and you need to add more milk. If it runs all over your pan, it is too thin and you need to whisk in some more flour.

Once you are happy with the batter, it’s time to make the real deal. I like to use a bit of butter to cook my pancakes, but you could use oil also. Just use a little bit to lube the pan up.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to pancakes with stuff. First, is to mix all the things into the batter and then pour the batter onto the griddle. This works fine as long as you remember to stir your batter before each pancake because the goods will sink to the bottom.

I prefer to pour my pancake, and then after it has been cooking for 2 minutes (it will start to set up), then I sprinkle in my ingredients. This allows for an even distribution of awesome.

Nice.

There are two sure-fire ways to know when you need to flip your pancake. First, you will start to see good sized bubbles forming on the surface of your batter. This means that the center of your pancake is pretty much cooked. Second, the edges around your pancake will start to firm up and you’ll be able to easily maneuver a spatula under it.

Then the flip!

Just a minute or two now.

Now, the second side doesn’t need as long to cook. The first side will need probably 4-5 minutes and the second side will only need one or two minutes. Keep a close eye on it! It will burn quickly.

In fact, if I were to make this again (and I will because it was delicious), I think I would try mixing the chocolate chips into the batter before baking. The way I did it worked okay, but I had to keep a close eye on the pancakes after the flip because when I flipped them, the chocolate came into instant contact with the hot griddle and they would burn pretty quickly. I lost one pancake soldier due to this…

I think if I mixed in the chocolate before, it would maybe not be so bad because there would be a small layer of batter between the chocolate and the hot pan. The cherries worked great though and you can sprinkle those right on top to assure even distribution.

Oh man these were good.

These are kind of a surprise because from the top you can’t notice any cherry or chocolate. All of the goodness is on the underside or inside.

Then you cut them open and BAM:

A good bite.

I was totally going to call these Cherry Garcia pancakes but I was afraid that the Ben & Jerry’s lawyers would be knocking on my door. What? You don’t think hippies have lawyers?! They most certainly do.

Regardless of what you call them though, these pancakes were everything I hoped they would be. Top with a little whipped cream and syrup and you are in heaven.

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I wanted to do something simple given that I knew we were going to be out late the night before, so I settled on french toast. If done correctly, it is one of my favorite brunch foods.

You can't go wrong with French Toast.

What is hard to see in the above photo is the thin layer of caramelized brown sugar topping on each piece of toast. It gives them a bit of a crunchy top but the rest of the toast is rich with custardy goodness.

Caramelized French Toast (Recipe and Method taken from Best of America’s Test Kitchen)

- 8 slices high-quality white sandwich bread
- 6 large eggs
- 3/4 Cup half and half
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 Teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt
- 1/4 Cup vegetable oil
- 6 Tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon

Before I even begin on the french toast though, it is essential that you have whipped cream on hand.

Basic Whipped Cream

- 1 Cup heavy cream
- 1/8 Cup Sugar
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix this all together in a bowl and whisk it furiously for about 5-10 minutes depending on the furiousness of your whisking.

Homemade whipped cream is a staple at my brunches.

Also, mix together the last three ingredients on the french toast list (brown sugar, syrup, cinnamon) in a bowl. This will be the topping that we put on at the end. It should be pretty thick and have the consistency of wet sand.

Brown sugar. You DO make me feel so good.

Next, put all of your white bread in the oven at 300 degrees for 8 -10 minutes a side or until they are fairly crisp. You don’t want to brown them, but get out as much moisture as possible. Keep a close eye on them as you don’t want toast just yet. You just want dry bread.

Meanwhile, combine your eggs, half and half, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt in a large baking dish. Stir it up well.

This is not stirred up.

Once your bread is dried (and cooled!) set the bread slices in the custard mixture and let them absorb as much of it as possible. It should be okay to leave them in the mixture for 15 or 20 seconds a side. They should get soggy, but still be together. If they fall apart then either they were not dry enough or you bought really bad bread.

If done correctly though, your pieces will be very moist but still a piece of bread.

Next is a very important step. Let these pieces rest for a few minutes on a cooling rack. This will let the excess custard mixture drip off and also give the bread time to really absorb the mixture that is there.

Important step alert.

Meanwhile you can crank your oven up to 450.

One problem I have with the traditional way to make french toast is that you can only make a few pieces at a time if you are using a pan. If you have a griddle than you can do more I guess. The method that they use in this book though is amazing. Get a baking sheet and pour 1/4 Cup vegetable oil in it.

Swirl it around and put it in the oven to heat up for about 4 minutes. Once the oil is hot, lay your french toast right on the pan. I was able to fit 6 pieces per pan. It will sizzle and hiss and that’s good. Then back in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the bottom sides are well browned.

Take them out and flip them over.

How to cook 12 pieces of french toast all at once.

Depending on your oven, you might have to move the trays around from top to bottom to get even cooking on both trays. I rotated mine after 4 minutes. Once you flip the pieces then sprinkle about 1 Tablespoon of the brown sugar topping on each piece. Don’t worry about lumps or if it is uneven. When it melts it will spread out.

This just kicks it up a notch.

Back in the oven for another 6 minutes and you should have lovely oven baked french toast. Keep a close eye on it the second time around as the brown sugar can go from perfect to burned in about 30 seconds.

Let it cool for a few minutes before eating. I served these with the whipped cream, syrup and some fresh strawberries.

A good way to start the day no doubt.

I must say I was very impressed by the method of making these guys. The brown sugar caramelized perfectly and they were easy to cook. The one criticism I would have about the method is that it does leave you with a pile of dishes. The way I’ve made french toast in the past, you just have a pan and a bowl. Now I have to clean baking sheets, cooling racks, bowls, and other random things. Not a big deal though and worth the extra work in my opinion.

Give this a shot if you are looking for a new french toast recipe!

Creamy and yummy

Thursday’s are sort of my lazy days around here, so rather than reposting a step-by-step guide to these beauties, I’ll just leave you with the recipe: Buttermilk Pancakes. Two quick notes about this recipe: First, use 3/4 cup milk, not 1/2 a cup. Also, my photo kicks their photo in the ribs.

The next part of this recipe is homemade whipped cream and it really sets the whole thing over the top. Again, the recipe. It is really not that hard to make your own whipped cream and it is actually cheaper and better for you than cool whip. Cool whip is so uncool.

Make these this weekend. That is all.