Cinco de Mayo dessert

I wanted to let you know that there is a new heading in the Complete Recipe Index under the “Holidays” tab – Cinco de Mayo. It was called to my attention yesterday that it was missing. It is there now, with more than 35 dishes listed, the following recipe included.

I found this creative dessert on Pinterest. Over the years, I’ve made fruit pizza for many parties and cooking classes. You know – the recipe where you make a sugar cookie crust, top that with a frosting and then arrange cut fruit and berries on top.

This is a fun take on that. Instead of sugar cookie crust, we have sugar cookie “tortilla” chips. The frosting is colored to look like guacamole. And the fruit is chopped to imitate salsa.

Perfect for Cinco de Mayo!

You’ll notice that the recipe calls for pure lemon oil or lemon bakery emulsion instead of lemon extract. (I didn’t have lemon bakery emulsion, but wanted you to see a bottle of it, hence the almond in its place.)

What is the difference between the three?

An extract is flavoring dissolved in alcohol, while an emulsion is flavoring suspended in water with an emulsifier. Pure essential oils are more pure and clear-tasting and stronger in flavor when placed in a batter than an extract.

Bakery emulsions keep the incorporated flavors more stable while your mixture goes through temperature changes, and they combine more easily with other emulsions (such as butter, sugar, and egg) than extracts do. When extracts hit the heat and the alcohol evaporates, so does a bit of the flavor.

Not that extracts are bad. Extracts are perfect for everyday baking where the flavor is playing a supporting role rather than a starring one. Such as vanilla in a batch of chocolate chip cookies. The oils and emulsions are what you want to use when you want that specific flavor to really shine through and to give intense flavors to things like candies, frosting, and fillings.

That’s it for the flavorings lesson today… on the recipe…

Fruit Pizza  “Chips, Salsa & Guacamole”

Lemon-Poppy Seed Cookie “Tortilla Chips”
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1  1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons pure lemon oil or lemon bakery emulsion
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1 teaspoon salt

Fruit Salsa
Strawberries, hulled and cubed
Kiwi, peeled and cubed

“Guacamole” Icing
8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
7-ounce jar marshmallow creme
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small (individual size) vanilla yogurt
For coloring the icing
3 parts avocado green Americolor soft gel paste
1 part each: egg yolk yellow, leaf green, and warm brown Americolor soft gel paste

Create four or five 1-inch-diameter foil “dowels” by rolling sheets of foil into rods, as shown. The length of dowels will be the width of your baking sheet. Place a sheet of parchment over the dowels.

Cookies:  In a standing mixer, cream together butter and sugar.

Mix in the egg, lemon oil, and vanilla extract.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, poppy seeds, and salt.  Add the dry mixture, one cup at a time, to the wet ingredients. Mix until combined.

Lay out a sheet of parchment paper. Place dough on parchment. Place another sheet of parchment on top of the dough and use your hands to flatten the dough. Roll out the dough to between 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch thick.

Trim into a square or rectangle. Trimmings may be placed on edges and rolled again to help form the straight edges. Carefully peel away the top sheet of parchment. Use a table knife to cut the dough into triangular “tortilla chips.”

Drape the cookie “chips” on the parchment over the dowels.

Place baking sheet in the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely before removing from parchment, otherwise the “chips” will break.

Fruit Salsa: Mix together in a bowl, cover, and let sit at room temperature.

Icing: Place cream cheese, marshmallow creme, and vanilla in a bowl and blend together with a mixer. Add in just enough of the yogurt to reach a nice spreadable consistency. You don’t want to the icing to be so stiff that it will break the cookie when it is spread on top. Stir in the gel pastes. Cover and chill until ready to use.

To Serve: Place the “chips” on a platter and the “salsa” and “guacamole” in bowls and let guests serve themselves by spreading “Guacamole” icing on each cookie “Chip” and then topping with the fruit “Salsa.”

Makes about 2 dozen cookies