Category Recipes

The goods

Roasted Eggplant and Caraway Bread Pudding- Man Alive- it is good!!!

Carroll 4 Comments

Turning savory into sweet and vice versa is very big trend in the culinary field today; we see herbs and vegetables in desserts and we see desserts turned savory.  A few months ago we had a candy manufaturing company at the convention center, not only did we use their product in the desserts, but we used them in savory items as well- Chocolate Almond Demi Glace with Short Ribs, Mozzarella Cheesecake with Tomato Basil Jam.  They were awesome!

I love bread pudding, and recently have been playing with savory ones.  It is such a great alternative to potatoes, rice and pasta sides. This recipe is perfectly delicious!

Roasted Eggplant and Caraway Bread Pudding

  • 1 Eggplant, diced in 1 inch cubes
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 loaf fresh rye bread, cut in 1 inch cubes
  • 1 small onion , large diced
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups dairy (I used half heavy cream and half milk)
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Roasted Eggplant and Caraway Bread Pudding Mis en Place

Pre heat oven to 425.  Start by tossing the diced eggplant in olive oil and laying it out on a sheetpan (cookie sheet :)). Roast for about 30 minutes until brown and tender.  Allow to cool.  At the same time as the eggplant roasts, using a second oven, or counter top toaster oven, and toast the rye bread on low heat, 250 for 15 minutes.   While everything toast and roasts, saute the onion over meduim high heat- semi carmelized, semi fried,  I like my onions to be a bit burnt as it adds so much flavor. Set onions aside to cool. Whip eggs, dairy,  lemon zest, lemon juice and seasonings together in a large bowl.

Large Diced Eggplant

Fry the onions

Roasted eggplant- AKA Roasted Goodness

Turn oven down to 350.  Add toasted bread and onions to cream and egg mixture and toss, pour ingredients into either a parchment paper lined 9 x12 baking dish or a 9 x 12 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray, aka- “pam”.  Place the roasted eggplant evenly around the dish carefully so the eggplant doesn’t fall apart.  Bake for 45 minutes.  We ate it right away, but it is also perfect to serve the next day.  When you allow it to cool, you can cut perfect squares, place on sheetpan,  cover with foil and reheat at 300 for about 20 minutes.  This will look so nice on a plated dinner, it will also help to free time on party day.

Feel free to substitute breads, at work we use pretzel bread- which is also AmaZing!

Bon Appetit!

Ginger and Ghost Pepper Peach Sangria

Carroll 5 Comments

Summer started today,  although here in Florida, summer feels like it starts much earlier!  What is even more fun about June 21st, is that it is the unofficial start date of sangria season!  The perfect answer to the humid, sweaty days of Florida summers!  My favorite girl, @sweetsbymaggie is here for the week, and we love to enjoy sangria together, it is just what we do 🙂

A friend gave me a bit of homemade ghost pepper honey a few weeks ago, which is the hottest pepper out there blended into honey.  I also had a bit of ginger left in the cooler, so I made a ginger simple syrup to use it up before it spoiled.  I saw a bottle of white wine on the pantry shelf and I knew what direction we were heading. It is so fun to play with sangria flavors, once you have the general idea of how to make a traditional white or red sangria, I highly recommend getting creative with the flavors.  I love muddling herbs in ours, basil and cilantro are great.

Here is the recipe I used, it made about 5 quarts and took me about 20 minutes to do.  We left it overnight and the next day it was nicely blended, all of the flavors had time to hang out together and bond 🙂

Ginger Simple Syrup

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon chopped ginger

Put all ingredients into a heavy sauce pan and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. and cool.  The flavor will develop as it sits, so don’t be afraid to let it rest before you use it.

Simmer down Ginger!!!!!

Ghost Pepper Honey

  • 1 pinch ghost pepper flakes*
  • 3 teaspoons honey

Mix pepper flakes and honey together well, the longer the honey has to sit the stronger the heat will get.  A perfect item to have in your cabinet.

*You can use any pepper here, dry them slowly in the oven and then put in a coffee grinder to grind, you could even red pepper flakes if you would prefer.

Ginger and Ghost Pepper Peach Sangria

  • 2- 12 oz cans peach nectar
  • 1.5 liter Pinot grigio
  • 1 cup peach schnapps
  • 1 cup brandy
  • 2 peaches, cut in small bites 1 lemon, sliced
  • 1 pint blueberries, muddled
  • 3 teaspoons ghost pepper honey
  • 2 cups ginger simple syrup

Sangria Fruit

Mix all ingredients together in pitchers (I used two which allowed room for stirring, and just split everything in half, for each pitcher).  Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.  If you let it sit longer then 12 hours check that the peaches haven’t been “overcooked”, they can become rancid over time.

Ginger and Ghost Pepper Honey Peach Sangria

Caramel Macchiato Whoopie Pies

Carroll 2 Comments

These are so delicious!  Perfect for Father’s Day treats! The kiddo’s will love to assemble them, and the father’s will love to eat them!

Caramel Macchiato Whoopie Pies!

Caramel Macchiato Whoopie Pie

Makes about 2 dozen assembled whoopie pies

For the cakes

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

½ cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vinegar

2 teaspoons espresso (use instant espresso and a few drops of hot water to wet it)

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour the whoopie pie pan..or…line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
  3. In a separate large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy using hand or stand mixer.
  4. Add eggs one at a time; then add buttermilk and beat until combined.
  5. In a small bowl, combine the milk, baking soda, and vinegar. Stir this mixture into the butter-sugar-egg batter.
  6. Add the flour mixture. Beat on low-speed until just incorporated.
  7. Stir in espresso, mix until all lumps are gone.
  8. Drop heaping tablespoons onto the floured whoopie pie pan, I used a size 18 sorbet scoop, which worked perfectly.
  9. Bake for 10-12 minutes. The whoopie pies should spring back when you press them gently. Let cool a few minutes before removing them from pan to wire cooling rack.

Flour mixture on the topless fireman apron 🙂

Whoopie Batter

Whoopies before the oven!

Baked whoopies!

Rich Caramel Buttercream

Start with the caramel

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/4 cup heavy cream

pinch sea salt

Sugar to caramel!

  1. Add the sugar to a small saucepan and pour the water over it. With the heat on low, swirl the pan around until the sugar has nearly dissolved.  Continue to swirl; no spoons or whips.
  2. Once dissolved, put heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Cover with lid and allow sugar to boil for 2 minutes.
  3. Uncover and continue swirling the mixture until it becomes dark amber, 230°F. Remove from stove immediately.
  4. Slowly pour in the cream, stirring with a whisk until combined; set aside.

Next up is the buttercream base–

3 egg whites

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 sticks of butter, at room temperature

Whipping the meringue Stiff!!

  1. Combine the sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar and water in the stainless steel bowl.  Bring a large pan of water to simmer. Set the bowl in the pan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. The mixture will get foamy when it is close- it doesn’t take long, just a few minutes!! Remove from heat immediately so egg whites don’t curdle!
  2. Using a hand or stand mixer, beat on high-speed for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture hold stiff peaks.
  3. In another bowl, beat half the butter and slowly add the meringue until incorporated.  Add remaining butter, tablespoon at a time.
  4. With the mixer on low, slowly add the caramel and mix until well-combined.
  5. Refrigerate if buttercream is soft for a few minutes before assembling whoopie pies.

Assemble the pies and dust with remaining espresso, adding a bit of garnish and flavor.

Pour Dad a glass of milk and serve 🙂

Banana and Orange Granola

Carroll 4 Comments
At Casa Mohler, we try to maintain a well balance lifestyle- exercise, sleep,  healthy meals, ECT.   We often have to refocus the balance after I have gotten an itch to make cookies, breads, or maybe we have been “over served” by our bartender.  Needless to say we usually are a bit “off balance”…..none the less we try!

The ripest banana will prove tastiest!!

This recipe for granola is great, I was looking for a low-calorie, low-fat recipe and ran into a few with mashed banana as the binder.  No oil? Perfect.  I added a few ingredients to build up a bit more flavor and protein.  There isn’t a ton of honey in the recipe, so the orange zest really plays a part in the sweetness factor. I am pretty certain without the orange zest that I would be feeding cardboard to my family.

Pulse, Pulse, Puree! BamO!

Banana and Orange Granola

Makes about  6- ½ cup servings

2 cups rolled oats

1 ripe banana

3/4 cup water

1 tbsp. honey

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1 tablespoon orange zest

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup almond slivers

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. In a blender or food processor (or by hand if nothing else), purée banana, water, maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla, and kosher salt until smooth.
  3. In a large bowl, toss the banana mix with the remaining ingredients, oats, wheat germ, orange zest and nuts.
  4. Lay out the mixture in a single layer on a baking tray, either non-stick or lined with baking paper.
  5. Bake for 40 minutes until oats are starting to brown. Check and stir often.  It can take longer to crisp; just give it a few more minutes.  It will become toasted and crunchy!
  6. Remove from the oven and allow cooling.

Stir it well!

Before the oven

This granola is perfect with all the typical granola roles, yogurt (Greek or Icelandic is my preference), or berries and fresh fruit.  I think it is perfect to use as cobbler topping, or even in a salad when you want some crunch instead of croutons.

Get it fast!

Bon Appetit!

Lemon Tarragon filled Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies

Carroll Leave a comment

Summer Goodness!!!

These cookies are great, buttered goodness.  They are a bit on the crumbly side with the almond flour, but it adds such a great texture.  The tarragon is perfect with lemon, and the healthier cookie.

These cookies are complete summer

Almond Shortbread:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (With
Shortbread cookies, I think it is a time to splurge on butter)

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup almond flour (almond meal)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar  until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl,  whisk together the whole wheat flour, almond flour, cornstarch and salt.  Add this mixture to the butter and sugar and beat just until incorporated.

Scrape batter out onto a sheet of parchment and form a log.  Refrigerate for one hour, and then slice into ¼ inch slices and place on a cookie sheet.  I made a well in the center of each cookie, using the screw top bottle. Put the cookie sheet back in the refrigerator to cool back down for 10 -15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 300, and slide the cookies into the preheated oven.  Bake them for about 35-45 minutes, until they are golden brown.  Once they come out of the oven I used the screw top again to reform the well.  Allow cookies to cool completely before filling, I would also recommend filling the cookies with the lemon filling the same day you will serve them which keeps the cookie from losing its great crumble texture.  I used some toasted almonds as garnish on some cookies and powdered sugar on others.

Creamed butter and sugar

Use what you have, you don't always need some fancy tool.

Evenly toasted, fresh out of the oven

Lemon Tarragon Filling:

Mis en place for the lemon filling

Juice & grated zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup sugar

1 eggs

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons tarragon, chopped fine

Combine all ingredients in a double boiler on stove. Simmer until thickened stirring constantly, about 15 minutes or 140 degrees.  Remove from heat and stir in the tarragon,
put in the refrigerator to chill.

Stir, stir, stir

It was so good, I was looking for things to spread it on!

Ready for the finishing touches!

Sangria all around…Sangria BBQ, Blueberry Basil Sangria…..Hello Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carroll 1 Comment

Sangria season to me is like pool season to a kid.  I just can’t wait for sangria season to start, and on Monday it officially does!!!  Memorial Day thru Labor Day, the short season of sangria.  During this time we reinvent the tradional recipe over and over, cocktails, dips, sauces, spreads-

What I had in the pantry

Today I made Sangria BBQ  Sauce, perfect to cook on the grill (if you have room to spare, or a fancy grill with a burner attached).  We will use this sauce on BBQ Chicken, Pork Tenderlions, Flat Breads, Pulled Pork, Ribs- anything that the Bull’s Eye BBQ might have made it on.

BBQ Sangria

1/4 Cup Ketchup

1/4 Cup Orange Juice

1/4 Red Wine

1 Gala Apple, peeled, seeded and cut into 1″ pieces

1 Navel Orange, zest first and set aside for later use, peel and seperate segments, double check for seeds

1 Lemon, zest first and set aside for later use, squeeze juice being careful of seeds

1/4 Teaspoon Smoked Salt

Put all in a pot and slowly simmer until fruit is tender, broken down.  Depending on the legnth of time you have, the apples will break down by themselves, or you can puree the sauce in a blender.

Starting off

Simmer down Chef

I’ll save the zests and make a gremolata or add them to a light salad …no way they will be around for long!

Sweet Summer Goodness- Sangria BBQ Sauce

Happy Memorial Day and God Bless our Soldiers!