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A Homemade Life

What do bloggers dream of? One day, a publisher tells you to write your best blog posts ever and publishes them in a book. My book dream is still a long, long time away but our book club is reading a blogger whose dream came true. Molly Wizenberg is the writer of hugely popular blog called Orangette. Hers was one of the first blogs I started to read. Molly is also the author of the month at This Book Makes Me Cook with her "A Homemade Life".

Part memoir, part recipe book, A Homemade Life takes you on a journey through every phase of Molly's life. Her days in France, her time spent growing up with her dad. And finally, Brandon, her husband she met through her blog!

The story of a Homemade Life ends at their wedding. But Molly's story continues at Orangette and at Delancey, their restaurant. In the meantime, the book leaves you with a recipe at the end of every chapter. They all sounded so delicious I wanted to try them all. Finally, I settled at that French classic : Coeur A La Creme.



I've always wanted to make this. Traditionally heart shaped, a valentine classic, it's a lovely dessert.
Molly's recipe is rich yet simple. First you find a special heart shaped mold. Or you use a tea strainer. Line it with two layers of cheesecloth.

Combine 75 grams cream cheese with 2 tbsp cream and 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Beat with a whisk or an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Separately, melt 30 grams white chocolate, stir until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

Molly now says to beat 1/3 cup heavy cream to stiff peaks. If you have 25% cream like I did, beat it to light peaks or as high as it will go. Now add white chocolate to cream cheese mixture and beat until its well blended.

Fold the cream in if you have stiff peaks. If not, pour the cream into the mix and beat with your electric mixer for a couple of minutes. Spoon the batter into the mold, cover with cheesecloth, put it on a baking dish and let it chill for at least 8 hours.

You can scrap out whatever remains in the bowl and eat it with a spoon. I was amazed at how good it tasted already.

Molly makes raspberry puree to go with it. I made a strawberry one instead - blended a cup of chopped strawberries with a tbsp of sugar and strained it to get a puree. You can add more sugar if you like but make sure you still have a tart flavor. This needs to chill and wait out too.

Many, many hours later, pour the puree into a deep plate. Carefully unmold the cheesecake (or however you want to describe it) and place it in the center of the plate. Dig into the best dessert of your life.

Comments

Desisoccermom said…
Wow, that dessert sounds delicious and so hard to wait for till it chills. I bow to you Simran for having the patience to take a photo before digging in. And yes, we can dream for now that a publisher will ask us if we want to publish our best blogposts into a book. :)
Adele said…
I seriously considered making this when I read about it. I love your tea strainer version! You make it sound really delicious, I can't wait to make it.
Myvegfare said…
hey, Simran wow, that dessert the way you have explained, must be tasting absolutely delicious! Now I want to try this out too, my kids might love it and start talking like you I suppose :)
The ultimate blogger book dream....*sigh*.....
That sounds looks and sounds delicious. I discovered in the book. A sort of white chocolate- creamcheese mousse. Yum!
Thats a delicious dessert dear....looks incredible
notyet100 said…
will look for this book,..:-)
happy weekend
CurryLeaf said…
Love this Simran. But what with the cream available here I am a bit scared to try this.
Unknown said…
Oh wow Simran, that looks gorgeous. Heard a lot about the book, but I haven't gone out and bought it yet. Is it awesome?
Kamal said…
Wow Simran, i always wanted to make this. Which cream cheese did you use?
Bombay Foodie said…
Hi Kamal! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I normally use Philadelphia cream cheese but I've also tried this with Britannia cream cheese and that came out well too

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