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Attend a cooking class at Studio of Good Living in San Francisco and you’ll soon discover a new world full of culinary adventures. More than just a cooking school, the Studio of Good Living shares the art of living well with all its students!
Studio of Good Living offers exceptional cooking classes and events in the Bay Area and Beyond. Want to learn how to cook or brush up on your cooking skills? Take a class with us! Escape to San Francisco for a Taste of San Francisco or indulge yourself with Cook, Shop, Spa. Burned out? Drop into Live Well, Eat Well for yoga lovers. Continue the journey with the Art of Dinner Blog and view our video classes for new ideas to spice up your dinner table. . Need a change of scenery? Join us for a total culinary and lifestyle retreat in beautiful Maine. Discover the possibilities with Chef Phoebe Schilla and the Studio of Good Living. Life is Beautiful by Design.
 Texture. That’s all I have to say about this delicious and unusual chocolate dessert from ‘Screen Doors and Sweet Tea’ by Martha Hall Foose. It is cool, creamy, and absolutely delicious. I was drawn to this recipe equally by the name and the picture. Now, back to the texture. This dessert—I wouldn’t call it a cake,–is softer and not as sweet as fudge and creamier than a flourless chocolate tort or cake. It’s perfect for hot summer nights and can be frozen for up to a month, which makes it perfect to have on hand for when guests drop in.
Enjoy!
Darkness on the Delta
Serves 6-8
‘Screen Doors and Sweet Tea’ by Martha Hall Foose
7 oz Bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Place the chocolate in a large bowl and set aside.
- Combine the milk, 1/3 sugar and nutmeg in a small saucepan on the stove top and heat to melt the sugar.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Pour in half of the hot milk, whisking constantly.
- Return the milk-egg mixture to the remaining milk in the saucepan. Continue to cook the milk and egg mixture stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or so, until it thickens slightly.
- Pour the hot milk over the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously to melt the chocolate.
- Cut the softened butter into pieces and stir it into the chocolate a few pieces at a time.
- Stir in the vanilla extract. Set aside while you prepare the pan.
- Spray a 6 inch round cake pan with a removable bottom with non stick cooking spray and line the bottom and sides of the pan with plastic wrap.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan and place in the freezer for 6 hours.
- To serve, remove the sides of the cake pan, place a plate on top of the cake, flip it over and peel off the plastic wrap. Garnish with powdered sugar and raspberries.
- Store any remaining cake in the freezer.
 I don’t know anyone whose life has not been affected by cancer in some way. For that reason alone I am pleased to take part in Foodbuzz’s most recent posting challenge. Everyday Foodbuzz chooses 9 posts to feature as the ‘Top 9’. July 19th’s top 9 will be around a banana split theme. For every featured publisher that takes part by blogging about and picturing a Banana Split, Foodbuzz will donate $50 to ovarian cancer research, sponsored by Electrolux and Kelly Ripa. So here is my San Francisco Banana Split. I used Mitchell’s ice cream, of course. The three flavors that I chose were Chocolate, Buko (young coconut) and Ube (purple yam). The toppings are home made brown sugar- ginger syrup, hot fudge and coconut cream. The cherries are from a Bing cherry compote that I made a month ago and the whipped cream is fresh.
Messy but delicious!
For more information and to donate check out http://www.kelly-confidential.com/foodbuzz.
Picture it, you’ve been gone for a week (or more) and the house is cold, quiet and dark. Nothing makes me feel more comfortable and relaxed upon returning home from airports and vacation than opening up a cookbook and firing up the old oven. This, makes my fingers itch and my mind wander…..what shall I cook today? What is going to make my mouth water and the kitchen smell oh so good? I want to throw open my windows and let the scent of vanilla, cinnamon and sugar announce my return to the neighborhood. Today’s answer was a Custardy Peach Tart from Dorie’s Baking from My Home to Yours. Tomorrow’s answer will most likely be different, but today is all about sweet, ripe peaches in a nutty shortbread crust enveloped in a almond scented custard and topped off with brown sugar streusel.
Even if you are not ‘home’ this will make you feel like you are somewhere happy, nourished and loved.
Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart from ‘Baking From My Home to Yours’ by Dorie Greenspan
1 9” tart crust, partially baked and cooled* (See recipe below.)
Place the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat.
Preheat the Oven to 425F
Streusel Topping
2 Tbsp. Flour
2 Tbsp. packed light or dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp. Sliced almonds
2 Tbsp. Chilled butter cut into pieces
Filling
3 large ripe peaches or nectarines, halved and pitted
½ cup heavy cream
1 large egg
¼ cup sugar
1/8 tsp. Almond extract
Assembly:
Streusel topping: Combine the flour and sugar. Work the butter in using your fingertips. Add the sliced almonds, toss to combine and chill until you are ready to use it.
Filling: Whisk the cream, egg, sugar and almond extract together. Set aside.
The Peaches: Cut the peaches into thin slices and arrange in a wheel pattern over the pre- baked tart crust.
Pour the filling over the peaches and place in the oven. Bake the tart for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 375F and continue to bake for another 20 minutes. At this point pull the tart partially out of the oven and sprinkle the streusel evenly over the tart. Place the tart back into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the filling is set and the streusel is golden brown. (Total baking time is 50-55 minutes.)
Serve warm or cold, dusted with confectioner’s sugar.
Enjoy!
Sweet Tart Dough with Nuts
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup finely ground nuts, your favorite kind (if nuts aren’t your thing, replace the nuts with ¼ cup of flour.)
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
¼ tsp. salt
9 Tbsp. very cold or frozen butter cut into small pieces.
1 large egg yolk
*Butter a 9” tart pan with a removable bottom and set aside.
Place the flour, nuts, sugar and salt in food processor and pulse to combine. Sprinkle the small pieces of butter over the flour mixture and pulse in short bursts until the butter is cut in. Stir the egg yolk to break in up and add the yolk a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. Once the egg yolk is in, pulse the dough for 10 seconds at a time. The dough will come together in clumps. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead a couple of times. Press the dough evenly into the prepared tart pan. If you have the time, freeze the crust for 30 minutes prior to baking.
To partially bake the crust: Butter a piece of aluminum foil and place the foil buttered side down tightly against the crust. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed up, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Keep the crust in the tart pan and set it aside until you are ready to use it.
Not every week, but most weeks I like to try out a few different quick and easy recipes. Most often it’s dessert recipes for my incurable sweet tooth, but I like to play around. I love fresh cherries; the season always passes much too quickly for my taste. I think that Cherries just may be nature’s perfect fruit. So small, so round, so pretty, so full of vitamin C and anti-oxidants. Mostly I just eat them out of hand. However, when I came across a recipe for candied Cherries in David Lebovitz’s ‘Ready for Dessert’ I had to make it. It only has 3 ingredients—well 4 if you add a little almond extract (I did). The other ingredients are pitted fresh cherries (duh), sugar and water. Place 2 cups of pitted cherries in a pot with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar and simmer until thick and syrupy. The most beautiful thing about this recipe is that it keeps 6 months, yes, 6 MONTHS, in the fridge. These candied cherries are great on their own, over ice cream, folded into Greek yogurt or spooned over lightly sweetened mascarpone. Now I can have cherries for at least half the year.
The next recipe that I attacked was one for fudgesicles. I have an excuse, really I do. They were selling Popsicle molds at the local grocery store and Lily is teething. I thought that if my mouth hurt I would want a chocolaty fudgesicle. They are actually the pudding pops from the ‘Baked, New Frontiers in Baking’ by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito cookbook. I have a distinct fondness for pudding pops. Remember the Jell-O pudding pops that were popular in the ‘80’s? I checked several different grocery stores for them, but couldn’t find any. I guess they stopped making them, so I was very pleased to make my own. These are delicious and just the perfect thing whether your mouth is sore or not.
Somewhere in between Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Michael Ruhlman’s ‘Making of a Chef’ and Julie and Julia I lost my appetite for food memoirs. I mean, there are so many of them out there!! I don’t have a lot of time for just pleasure reading these days, but when I read the Food Gal, Carolyn Jung’s blog, about Kim Severson, the New York Times food writer and her memoir, Spoon Fed, I knew that I would have to read it. It’s flat out wonderful. It takes so much courage to tell your story and Kim does it so well, with grace, wit and compassion. I highly recommend that you seek out your own copy.
Cheers!
Phoebe
Tags: Anthony Bourdain, Cook, cookbooks, David Lebovitz, Home, Kim Severson, Kitchen Confidential, memoirs, Michael Ruhlman, New York Times, recipes —  Send to a Friend
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 The remainder Guess what I made while Lily was sleeping and the rain was pounding on the roof, making me feel all snug and warm in my kitchen? The most amazing Espresso Cheesecake Brownies from Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking From My Home to Yours’. I picked this recipe because in Dorie’s notes she says that this particular recipe can be baked then frozen…Awesome! I said to myself….I’ll freeze half then I won’t have a full pan of brownies tempting me every time I walk into the kitchen and I can do an experiment and evaluate how well they freeze for future reference. The cooking is good today!! What was I thinking? That was yesterday and the pan is half gone already—I love them, my husband loves them… Lily loves them. The brownie layer is slightly fudge-y and the cheesecake layer is soft, creamy and moist—everything that cheesecake is supposed to be. The original recipe calls for a sour cream topping to finish off the brownies. I left this off because if you are planning on freezing these lovely treats, you can’t freeze the sour cream topping. Little did I know that I wouldn’t get a chance to freeze these, but I think that the sour cream topping would push these to the ultimate level of decadence.
I hope that you enjoy these as much as we did!
Espresso Cheesecake Brownies
Followed exactly from ‘Baking From My Home to Yours’ by Dorie Greenspan
Brownie Layer
½ cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used ½ cup of Guittard Bittersweet chocolate drops.)
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
Espresso Cheesecake Layer
1 ½ tsp instant espresso powder
1 Tbsp. boiling water
8 oz cram cheese, at room temp
2/3 cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
¼ cup sour cream (I used whole milk yogurt because I was out of sour cream and I didn’t notice a difference.)
1 Tbsp. all purpose flour
Topping
1 ¼ cups sour cream
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9” square baking pan, dust with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan on a baking sheet. (I used an 8” square pan and everything turned out perfectly.)
To make the brownies: Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Put the butter in the bowl, top with the chopped chocolate and stir occasionally until the ingredients are just melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
With a whisk, stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla and beat vigorously for a few seconds. With the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Set aside while you prepare the cheesecake.
To make the cheesecake: Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water; set aside to cool to tepid. Meanwhile, working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on medium until completely smooth. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes or so until well incorporated. Beat in the vanilla and the espresso mixture. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sour cream, followed by the flour. The batter will be smooth.
Give the brownie batter a few stirs with a spatula and pour three quarters of it into the prepared pan. Smooth the brownie layer and pour the cheesecake batter over it, tilting the pan as needed to even the batter. Dot the top of the batter with spoonfuls of the remaining brownie batter. Using a table knife, swirl the dark batter into the cheesecake batter, taking care not to plunge the knife into the lower brownie layer. The cake looks and tastes best if you swirl sparingly.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the brownies pull away form the sides of the pan and the cheesecake layer is beige in the center, lightly browned around the edges and puffed all over. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature. When the brownies are completely cool, refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until thoroughly chilled.
To make the topping: Warm the sour cream and sugar in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and pour the topping evenly over the cold cheesecake layer.
Return the brownies to the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 more hour, or until the topping is also thoroughly cold.
The easiest way to cut this dessert is to run the knife blade under hot water, wipe it dry and cut the cake into quarters. Remove the quarters from the pan and again using a warmed and dried knife, cut each quarter into 4 pieces.
 Delessio Bakery (delessiomarket.com) Lily is our Peanut Butter Princess. Aka the great Peanut Butter Traveling sales women in training or the Peanut Butter Whisperer. Whatever you may call her, she just loves the stuff. I have to admit to a certain fondness for peanut butter too—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are my go to food when there is nothing else in the house to eat. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my all time favorite combinations. I was hooked on Reese’s as a kid, both the cups and the pieces. I also love Tagalogs—you know the girl scout cookies? One of my very guilty pleasures is to stash a box of Tagalogs in the freezer. I eat the peanut butter patty on top first, then the somewhat naked shortbread. I have always been very specific about how to eat my sweet indulgences. (Don’t even ask about Kitkats or Twix bars.) Lest you are shocked by these revelations, don’t worry—I only eat mass produced treats when I am desperate. Or out of gummy worms.
But Lily’s first birthday is coming up—this Friday to be exact and I want to make her something so delicious she will not be able to resist putting her entire face into her piece of birthday extravaganza. When Lily likes something she screams with joy and puts her entire face in it. Sometimes I wish that I could do that too!
 cakes from Delessio Bakery (delessiomarket.com) When I first started working in the restaurant business, I worked the cold station and helped make desserts. One of the desserts that I introduced to the The Cannery (now closed) in Yarmouth, Maine was Richard Sax’s Peanut Butter Pie with Fudge Topping. It rocks. It’s fast, easy and can be made with one hand on the kitchen aid and a baby on your hip. If you wanted to speed up the process you can make this delicious pie with a purchased graham cracker crust. I love the fudge topping. It’s just soft enough. (Really it’s just ganache, not fudge.) The chocolate that I really like to use is Guittard—it’ a San Francisco based company. They have exceptional chocolates and I really like supporting family owned businesses whenever I can. To complement the pie, I ordered up a small Chocolate Retro cake from Delessio Bakery in San Francisco. They make really great cakes and pastries among other things. Check them out if you can.
Peanut Butter Pie with Fudge Topping
Adapted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax
Graham Cracker Crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 15 individual crackers)
¼ cup sugar
½ stick unsalted butter, melted
Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter (do not use old fashioned or freshly ground)
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
Fudge Topping
½ cup heavy cream
6 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- Graham Cracker Crust: Preheat the oven to 350F with a rack in the lower third. In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter until well blended. Press evenly into a buttered 9 inch pie pan, reaching up to but not over the rim. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool the crust completely on a wire rack.
- Filling: Beat the cream cheese and peanut butter with an electric mixer or Kitchen Aid at medium speed until well blended. Add the confectioners sugar, butter and vanilla and continue beating until fluffy. (For a more mousse like filling fold in ½ cup not-quite stiffly whipped cream at this time.)
- Carefully spoon the filling into the cooled crust, spreading evenly. Loosely cover the pie and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours. (At this point you may put the pie in the freezer to speed it up. You may also freeze the pie for 2 weeks at this point.)
- Fudge Topping: Bring the cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to lukewarm. Gently spread the topping over the cooled pie. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
- Cut the pie into wedges and serve cold.
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I have been eyeing this recipe since I got Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking From My Home to Yours.’ The picture in the book is drool-worthy. These are delicious, decadent and really easy to make. The secret? Purchased Dulce de Leche. I love the combination of a crumbly shortbread-y crust, caramel-y duce de leche, nuts (!) and a dark chocolate layer on top. Oh my god. Totally heavenly. My mouth waters just thinking about it. If you bring these to the next office party or family gathering people will definitely sit up and take notice. I love the fact that you can throw the ingredients for the crust in the cuisinart and whir away until the dough forms then you press in, yes, that’s right press in the crust—no rolling out dough on the countertop and making a mess. You can even melt the chocolate layer in the microwave. The one complicated move is to caramelize the nuts—Dorie uses peanuts, but I had mixed nuts in my pantry so I used those instead. The caramelized nuts add a certain je ne sais quoi to the recipe, but if you are nervous about caramelizing or don’t have time you could just use roasted and salted nuts instead.
Enjoy! I’m going to have a piece right now…
Snickery Squares
From Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking From My Home to Yours’
 Crust:
1 cup of flour
¼ cup of sugar
2 Tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
Filling
Caramelized Nuts:
1 ½ cups salted, roasted nuts of your choice or a mixture of nuts
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. water
About 1 ½ cups of store bought dulce de leche (I used a 10oz jar of the Barefoot Contessa’s Espresso Dulce de Leche)
Topping
7 oz of bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Guittard bittersweet chocolate disks and eliminated the chopping.)
½ stick (4 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temp.
Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter an 8” square pan and put it on a baking sheet.
The Crust: Toss the flour, sugar, confectioners’ sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the pieces of cold butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Pour the yolk over the ingredients and pulse until the dough forms clumps and curds—stop before the dough comes together in a ball.
Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough all over with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven.
Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it takes on just a little color around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.
 To make the filling:
Have a silicone mat-lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon (you’ll be cooking sugar that will climb to over 300F, so you’ll want to keep as far away from it as possible) and a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan.
Put the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves (see picture). Keeping the heat fairly high, continue to cook the sugar, without stirring, until it just starts to color. (If sugar splatters onto the sides of the saucepan, wash down the splatters with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.) Toss in the nuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring to coat the nuts with the sugar. Within a few minutes, they will be covered with sugar and turn white—keep stirring until the sugar turns back into caramel. When the nuts are coated with a nice, deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts out onto the baking sheet, using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature.
When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces (I chopped mine.) Divide the nuts in half. Keep half of the nuts whole or in biggish pieces for the filling and finely chop the other half for the topping. Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base and then sprinkle with the whole candied nuts or the big pieces.
 Topping:
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water or in a microwave oven, using a low power setting. Remove the chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it is fully blended into the chocolate.
Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle over the finely chopped candied nuts. Put the pan into the fridge to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you’d like to serve the squares cold, (I do!) keep them refrigerated for a least 3 hours before cutting.
Cut into 16 bars, each roughly 2 ½ inches on a side.
Enjoy!
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Texture. That’s all I have to say about this delicious and unusual chocolate dessert from ‘Screen Doors and Sweet Tea’ by Martha Hall Foose. It is cool, creamy, and absolutely delicious. I was drawn to this recipe equally by the name and the picture. Now, back to the texture. This dessert—I wouldn’t call it a cake,–is softer and not as sweet as fudge and creamier than a flourless chocolate tort or cake. It’s perfect for hot summer nights and can be frozen for up to a month, which makes it perfect to have on hand for when guests drop in.
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