Elaine Corn mentions she has just bought a new dress. Normally, this would pass without comment, except Corn says it as she’s wrapping up a press tour, promoting her new book “Gooey Desserts” (Prima Press, $24.95).
It’s safe to presume “gooey” doesn’t translate to low-calorie (When is the last time you had a gooey carton of yogurt? A gooey plate of broccoli? A gooey piece of fish?), so it prompts the rather indiscreet question: Is the dress one size larger?
Corn stands and smooths her hands over her tummy to show that gooey hasn’t made her waistline expand.
It has gone to her head, though, in a nice sort of way.
“Gooey is a state of mind,” she explains, saying that dictionaries fall short of capturing the spirit of goo.
” `Sticky and sweet,’ is how they define gooey. But really, it’s more. It’s pure comfort. Gooey is mushy. It goes squoosh around the sides of your tongue. It’s soft. It’s lush. It’s velvety and smooth. It’s love,” Corn says.
A few gooey recipes in this, her first collection, may require a bit of preliminary chewing, but not many. Corn takes unabashed pleasure in sweets that glide down the gullet.
“My poor mother was told early on that I didn’t like birthday cakes: terminal cake dryness. From then on, she made me a New York-style cheesecake with strawberries placed just so-tips pointing up, and glazed with strawberry preserves,” Corn recalls.
Besides cakes, which are on her hit list, Corn also can wax unpoetic about pies-“too bland”-and cookies-“too hard.” But just ask her about a recipe in her book called Russian cream, a k a food of the gods.
“It feels so soft and safe on your tongue. It glistens and mounds. It’s perfect to smooth over the rough edges of an imperfect world.”
Asked what her favorite dessert flavor is, Corn names cream without too much hesitation, remarking on its goo-factor, the sensuous mouth-feel thing that so captivates her. Caramel and chocolate are close behind, and it’s those two ingredients, gooed together in something called caramel lava cakes, that grace the book’s cover.
In these calorically conservative times, Corn, a former newspaper food editor, most recently at the Sacramento Bee, has no trouble justifying indulgences.
“People don’t have desserts every night, so when they do they don’t want cottage cheese and buttermilk whipped up in a food processor posing as creme anglaise,” Corn says. “This is no foolin’ around stuff.”
Denial is not part of Corn’s vocabulary. She maintains that it’s her notion of balance and moderation along with a solid grasp of good cooking that allows her to maintain her dress size, her good health and her eternal affection for goo.
“I get very cavalier about this. I eat what I want and don’t exercise. The book is me, very arrogantly me, full of all the things I love. I don’t suffer people who eliminate entire categories of food because they think it is healthier or better for them. `Can’t eat something’ is different than `won’t eat something,’ ” she says.
Corn swears the first thing that comes to her mind when she thinks gooey is a Dairy Queen cone-with the requisite curlicue flourish at the top-but the desserts in her collection are more on the upscale side.
“Gooey sounds silly, but the desserts really are dignified, not simple things made from cake mixes and boxes,” she says.
The gooey goodies are divided into nine categories, including creamy dreamy, gooey desserts, chocolate goo, gooey in the middle, sticky gooey candy, bars and buns, the goo without the guilt and great gooey classics. It’s in the classics chapter that only-in-America desserts like Coca-Cola cake and the famous-and, yes, it is famous in some circles-“better than sex cake” is presented in a pure form made from scratch instead of starting with a mix. In case this is new to you, the “better than sex” cake is a layered affair consisting of yellow cake, crushed pineapple, vanilla pudding and coconut.
Aside from the sex cake and a few other such culinary meanderings, Corn’s recipes are sophisticated and finely tuned. White chocolate passion fruit mousse, gooey butter coffee cake, snow eggs in espresso caramel custard and nectarine parfait with almond zabaglione are among the gooey treasures.
Corn surmises, probably with some accuracy, that her indulgent collection of desserts responds to the need for gratification in trying times.
“If you can’t afford a Cadillac and you can’t afford diamonds, you still can have a great gooey dessert.”
Following are two recipes adapted from “Gooey Desserts.”
RUSSIAN CREAM
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Chilling time: 3 hours
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon plain gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
2 cups sour cream
1. Whip 1 3/4 cups of the cream in a large bowl of an electric mixer until it holds soft peaks. Add confectioners’ sugar, a little bit at a time. Continue beating until cream is stiff but not curdled; set aside.
2. Sprinkle gelatin over water in a small dish; let stand until gelatin is absorbed. Put dish in a bowl of very hot water; stir until smooth. Add remaining 1/4 cup cream. Heat mixture until it is very hot.
3. Quickly mix a scoop of the whipped cream into the gelatin mixture. Immediately fold this mixture back into the rest of the whipped cream, working with firm, fast strokes. Fold in sour cream.
4. Spoon into one large or individual dessert dishes. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.
JUDY’S CHOCOLATE CARAME PECAN PIE
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Chilling time: 6 hours or more
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Crust:
1 cup finely crushed chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (about half of a 9-ounce box)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Caramel-pecan layer:
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon dark corn syrup
1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup chopped pecans
Chocolate cream filling:
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1. For crust, heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix crumbs and sugar; add butter and mix well. Press into bottom and up sides of 9-inch pie plate. Bake until set, 10 minutes; cool.
2. For caramel, combine sugar, water and corn syrup in a small heavy saucepan. Heat to a boil over high heat, swirling the pan so any sugar crystals from sides of pan wash down. Watching closely, boil until mixture takes on a rich honey color, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butter. Add cream, return to high heat and cook until smooth. Cool completely.
3. Reserve 3 tablespoons caramel for garnish. Pour remainder into cooled crust; sprinkle pecans over.
4. For chocolate cream filling, chop chocolate; reserve about one ounce. Heat cream and butter to a boil. Remove from heat and add 5 ounces chopped chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Remove 1/2 cup and whisk in reserved one ounce chocolate; leave at room temperature to use a glaze. Refrigerate the rest for at least 4 hours.
5. Whip the well-chilled cream mixture with an electric mixture until it holds soft peaks. Spread over caramel layer. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
6. Mix chocolate glaze mixture then smooth over pie. Use reserved caramel to drizzle over top. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
