Clementine Meringue Brulee: a Diet Dessert You'll Crave

Are you watching your weight this January? Cutting out sweets to get a good start on your new year's weight loss resolutions? Going without dessert is usually the first thing I do when I'm trying to shed a few pounds, but every night after dinner, my sweet tooth gives me some powerful sugar craving.

I crafted a dessert the other night that's perfect for this "I'm trying to be good" time of the year. My Clementine Meringue Brulee is easy to make and only has a little bit of sugar in it. I'm no nutritionist, but I can certify without the shadow of a doubt that it's much better for you than giving in to your sweet tooth and sneaking a bag of brownie bites in a weak-willed binge moment. Every bite contains the promise of summer.

The Clementine Meringue Brulee is elegant enough to serve at a dinner party, easy enough to surprise your husband after a bad day, and delicious enough to please the kids. It needs so little sugar because of the flavor and sweetness of the main ingredient: clementines. Those little orange cuties have gotten so cheap in recent year that it's easy to dismiss these sweet little fruits as a kiddie snack.

After you make this dessert, you'll look at clementines in a whole new light.

Clementine Meringue Brulee
Makes 1 dozen  desserts
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 2 minutes
Ingredients:
12- 14 Clementines
1/3 cup of sugar (optional or use less if desired)
3 egg whites
1/4 cup of sugar (no this is not a typo, I wanted to make it clear the sugar needed for the meringues vs the sorbet)

1. Juice the clementines, either by hand with a fork or with a citrus juicer if you have one. If you don't have a juicer, you'll need more clementines (14 to 16).
2. Add sugar to clementine juice. Pour in ice cream maker. Run machine for 30 minutes until juice is frozen yet soft. Alternatively, if you don't have an ice cream maker, put juice in freezer and mix with a fork every 5 minutes.
3. Remove sorbet from ice cream maker and put in freezer-safe container. Place in freezer until ready to serve.
4. Crack egg whites into a large bowl. Using hand held mixer, beat until soft peaks form, adding sugar halfway through.
5. Once egg whites are beaten and you are ready to eat dessert, ladle sorbet into pretty cups. Scoop a few tablespoons of soft meringue on top. If desired, use a kitchen blow torch to caramelize a little of the meringue. If you don't have one, you could try putting all the meringue in a baking dish in the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit and watching it closely until it is just toasted on top.
6. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Beet Cupcakes: Hands On with Dave Lieberman

Yesterday, as the temperature plummeted and the wind whipped in Columbus, I boarded a plane for New York City. My destination was a swanky culinary loft in Soho to attend a cooking demonstration with Food Network cutie David Lieberman. And to multiply the fun factor, I was bringing my baby sister as my plus 1 and meeting my NYC Moms Blog friends Jennifer Perrillo and Amy Oztan.

I basically danced with glee all the way through the Columbus Airport.

Even with the ferocious wind gusts, our plane was only delayed an hour and I arrived at the loft right on time.

The event was sponsored by Del Monte and tied in nicely with Dave Lieberman's new book The 10 Things You Need to Eat: And More Than 100 Easy and Delicious Ways to Prepare Them.

I was hanging out with the lovely Vera Sweeney and her husband, Tim, from I'm Not Obsessed, plying her with 1,001 questions about Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise, and Katie Holmes when Dave Lieberman started walking around. He was such a nice and approachable guy that I almost didn't recognize him. He came right over and chatted with us and once again, I was surprised by how down to earth TV celebrities can be.

He demonstrated four recipes, enough to make a knock out meal, and then gave us a chance to make each with him. He started with a spinach scallion dip, a chunky chipotle corn chowder, a chicken cacciatore entree, and the most interesting and most delicious of all, a beet and chocolate cupcake. As a butter and cream lover, I was highly skeptical of this beet creation, but it was moist, sweet and intensely chocolaty.

The recipe includes plenty of butter and sugar, and is by no means a diet recipe. It generates its health benefits from the inclusion of beets. I'll quote Anahad O'Connor, co-author of 10 Things You Need to Eat and a weekly column in the New York Times science section, to best illustrate its value, "Ounce for ounce, the beet boasts what may be a heftier range of nutrients - folate, potassium, iron, fiber, antioxidants, and even a little protein - than virtually any other fruit or vegetable on the planet." So eating one of these little cupcakes is a little like taking a multivitamin.

I'm including the recipe below, and off to make it myself to add pictures and validate its yumminess outside of a fancy Soho kitchen.

Beet Mash Chocolate Cupcakes with Beet Frosting

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes

• 1 1/2 14.5 oz can of fresh cut beets, thoroughly drained
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cups of vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup of warm water
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups of sweetened cocoa
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the glaze

• Approximately 1/2 a 14.5 oz can of beets, thoroughly drained and mashed
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter
• 1 pound of confectioner's sugar

To make the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a small bowl, mash the drained can of beets finely with a potato masher and set aside. (You could also use a food processor)
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, and water. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Fold in the mashed beets and mix well.
4. Pour the batter into cupcake cups. Bake about 70 minutes, until set but moist. Let cool on cooling rack.

To make the glaze frosting:

1. Mash the 1/2 can of beets finely with a potato masher.
2. Melt 1 stick of butter in a saucepan and add the mashed beets. Simmer on very low heat for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cream the second stick of butter with a mixer in a bowl. Mix in the melted butter and beet mixture until fully incorporated. Gradually beat in the confectioner's sugar.

Ice the cupcakes when cooled with a thick layer of glaze icing.

*A very grateful thank you to Bobby Marro Photography for these gorgeous pictures. I lugged my big camera through airport security, but forgot my memory card in Ohio.