GrillinFools

The Grillin Fools have been known to push the boundaries of grilling beyond steaks, ribs, brisket, etc.  Whether it’s grilled salad, meat loaf, pizzas or wait till you see what we are doing with eggs on the grill, we try to push the envelope on the grill.  This happens to be one of those occasions, although we cannot take credit for the recipe.  Ray Lampe, AKA Dr. BBQ, came up with his original recipe in his cook book – The NFL Gameday Cookbook:

Myself and Dad met Ray at a BBQ event in the spring and Dad bought his book.  It is highly recommended by the Grillin Fools.

Now let’s get to the actual recipe along with step by step instructions and pictures.  Dad did this dish so he will take it from here.  Click below to see how you can make dessert on the grill too…

Dessert on the grill?? I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of doing this as most folks don’t even consider this a possibility. I was further inspired by Ray Lampe, Dr. BBQ, who the Grillin’ Fools met at a Celebrity Chef Cook-Off a few weeks back. Dr. BBQ prepared dessert tacos for the event and I had the opportunity to sample them and they tasted mighty good. The offering was actually a 6-inch tortilla wrap with a mixture of spreadable cream cheese, vanilla wafer crumbs, powdered sugar, vanilla, and dried cherries. Ray’s book, the NFL Gameday Cookbook, contained a recipe for chocolate-apricot tacos as follows:

• 6 oz. spreadable cream cheese at room temperature

• 16 Vanilla Wafers – Crunched up into crumbs

• ¼ cup of confectioners or powdered sugar

• ½ tsp. vanilla extract—I used pure Mexican vanilla

• 8–6-inch tortillas—I prepared just six, you can do as many as you like

• 1 cup semi-sweet morsels

• 16 dried apricots, chopped

While shopping for the ingredients, my local store was out of the apricots, so I decided to kick this up a notch or two with some variety. I bought dried cherries, fresh red raspberries, and fresh blueberries. Later I would be very glad that the fresh berries were in season.

***Editor’s note ~ This is a very important point. Don’t be dogmatic in following any recipe. If the recipe calls for something that is not in season or just doesn’t look good at your grocer, substitute something that does look good. In this case raspberries and blue berries looked great and Dad decided to give them a go.***

Mimi had semi-sweet morsels in the pantry but I thought why not try this with white chocolate mini-morsels also?  I basically went with a variety of combinations here to find the best one:

Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a small bowl. Spread the mixture on one side of each tortilla wrap then sprinkle the fruit on one half of the tortilla and the chocolate on the other then dust each wrap with the vanilla wafer crumbs. For this effort I used cherries, blueberries, and raspberries on 2 tortillas each then semi-sweet morsels on 3 and white chocolate mini-morsels on the other 3.

The tortillas were then folded in half and pressed together at the edges—like a taco. The dessert tacos were then set aside into the fridge until grill time which when done will be approximately 1-2 minutes per side. NOTE: be sure to fold the fruit over the chocolate for maximum effect.  So in the picture above fold from left to right or right to left but not top to bottom:

The main meal was was the Peachy Sweet and Sticky Ribs.  After we ate dinner it was time to grill the dessert tacos. The fire had declined a bit and was in need of stoking. Dr. BBQ suggests grilling the tortillas over medium-high heat and I wasn’t there. Hint—when removing the other courses of the meal toss on a few more coals at that time to have the fire where you want it by the time you are ready to make the dessert. This was my first attempt preparing this dish so I’m involved in a learning experience:

The tortillas now look a bit crispy with the grill marks but the true measure, the taste test by Mimi, is coming. The tacos were sliced in half for sampling and the consensus was the red raspberries with the semi-sweet morsels was the winner!

All varieties were good but the fresh fruit wins out over the dried fruit by a large margin. We were unable to finish all of them so they were foil-wrapped and returned to the fridge to be reheated and provide dessert for another evening. Looking back I’d probably slice the raspberries and even the blueberries in half to make the folding/sealing job a bit easier and would spread the cream cheese mixture a bit more thinly. In the future I would love to try this with dark chocolate also.

Unfortunately I neglected to add dessert wine to this tasty treat. Many would work—ice-wines—Meeker’s Fro-Zin—Dolce—and many others. Sounds like another episode with desserts will be forthcoming.  I settled for a Volante Zin that paired nicely with the chocolate:

Kudos to DR. BBQ for the basic recipe. Ray’s book, The NFL Gameday Cookbook, contains recipes tailored for every NFL city. While he is a grill-master there are numerous other tasty offerings as well. I know I’ll be using it this fall. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL????

***Editor’s note ~ I know I’m ready for some football!!!***

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or email me at Greg@GrillinFools.com.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures.

Filed under: Fruits and Vegetables