Category: Dessert

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut (Sometimes You Don’t)

March 2, 2010

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It’s been a while since I last talked about how I don’t like nuts in baked goods.  So, if you are new here, I don’t like nuts in baked goods.  I like nuts, I like baked goods but I don’t like them together.

And yet, I like people.  I like cooking and baking for people and some people do like nuts in baked goods.  Hence these bars.

For just about every yoga retreat, I have made some kind of cookie and some kind of bar for dessert.  I was leaning heavily toward lemon bars this time but to me, lemon screams spring and this was a winter retreat.  So along came the nuts.

Several years ago, when I was eight months pregnant with my second child and we had just moved into a new house, I thought it was a great idea to tell my then clients that I was making gift bags for the holidays.  One client ordered five large bags and 20 small bags.  Do you call that nesting?  Or maybe you call it being a crazy person?  Either way, every night I was in my brand new kitchen baking my pregnant little heart out.  I made these bars and I filed the recipe away in the “I would never eat this but they sure do look good” category.  Honey.  Mmmm.  I love honey.  Almost enough to eat it with nuts.

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One Year Ago:  Rosemary Flatbread with Blue Cheese Grapes and Honey

Honey Nut Squares
Adapted from Gourmet
Makes 25 1-inch squares

For crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten

For topping
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon mild honey
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 cup whole almonds with skins, toasted
3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and any loose skins rubbed off in a kitchen towel
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

Make crust:
Butter a 9-inch square metal baking pan (2 inches deep) and line with 2 crisscrossed sheets of foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides. Butter foil.

Blend together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add egg and stir with a fork (or pulse) until a crumbly dough forms.

Turn out dough onto a work surface and divide into 4 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough together with scraper.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Press dough evenly onto bottom (but not up sides) of baking pan and bake in middle of oven until edges are golden and begin to pull away from sides of pan, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.

Make topping:
Bring honey, brown sugar, and salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil, without stirring, 2 minutes. Add butter and cream and boil, stirring, 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in all nuts until completely coated.

Pour nut mixture over pastry crust, spreading evenly, and bake in middle of oven until topping is caramelized and bubbling, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack. Lift dessert out of pan using foil overhang and cut into 25 squares.

(Honey nut squares keep, layered between sheets of wax paper, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.)



Category: Bars, Dessert, Yoga Retreat Food
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Apple Torte from a Great Book

February 9, 2010

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When you are a cookbook addict and you have more than your fair share of vegetarian cookbooks, what do you do?  If you are me, you start buying baking books.

I don’t remember when I bought The Greyston Bakery Cookbook and I don’t remember why.  It is a fairly unassuming looking book.  It doesn’t feature any of the gravity defying desserts that seem so tempting from other gorgeous books I have been fooled into buying.  In a moment of unremembered inspiration, I brought home this sweet book and am I ever glad I did.

In spite of the draw toward architectural and difficult desserts, the truth is that I like my sweets on the simple side.  I like the challenge of making something involved but if I am going to sit down and eat a treat, simple is better for my taste buds.  I don’t mean simple as in plain; I mean simple as in unfussy.

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If you are with me, this cookbook is a treasure.  So often when I start opening my baking books looking for that elusive just-simple-but-still-delicious cake (like this one), I start to lose interest as page after page of time consuming sweets go by.  Last night I had some friends coming over and, after our vacation, I was ready to bake.  But I definitely wanted simple.  I first picked up Tartine, the dessert book I chose for my Top 10 Desert Island cookbooks.  Nope, nope, and nope.  Then I remembered this book.  Yep, yep, and yep.  Grapefruit Yogurt Cake, Orange Poppy Seed Cake, Chocolate Obsession Cake.  All tempting, all relatively simple.

I decided on this Apple Torte.  I was a little nervous about it turning out.  I have made some of the bar recipes in the book and a fantastic cookie recipe but never any of the cakes.  It could have been a mess.  It was not a mess.  In fact, I think it was amazing.  The contrast in textures of the crunchy crust, the smooth cream cheese filling, and the soft but not mushy apples was amazing.  And taste.  The buttery richness of the crust, the fruity sweetness of the jam, the tang of cream cheese and the spiced and maple syruped apples was sublime.  This is coming from an avowed chocolate lover – it is a terrific dessert.  I’m officially changing that Top 10 list to include The Greyston Bakery Cookbook.

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One Year Ago: Broccoli and Red Pepper Pie

Apple Torte
Adapted from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook
Makes one 9″ Cake, 10-12 servings

Although this recipe is found in the cake section of the book, it is really more like a tart.

For the Crust
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup flour
½ cup apricot jam

For the Filling
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 egg
¼ tsp. vanilla extract

For the Topping
3 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ tsp. ground cardamom
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ cup slivered almonds

Prepare the crust:
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F.  Grease a 9″ round springform pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla on medium speed.  Using a fork or your fingers, work in the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press the mixture onto the bottom and 1″ up the sides of the prepared pan.  Pierce the bottom several times with the tines of a fork.  Chill at least 30 minutes.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the pastry is set and golden.  Cool on a wire rack.  When the pastry is cool, spread the apricot jam evenly over the bottom of the crust and set aside.

Prepare the filling:
Using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat the cream cheese with the sugar until light.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Spread the filling over the prepared crust.

Prepare the topping:
In a large bowl, combine the apples with the sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon, and cardamom.  Arrange th eapples in concentric circles over the filling.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduct the oven temperature to 350°F.  Remove the torte and sprinkle with the almonds.  Put the torte back in the oven and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until the apples are tender.  Cool on a wire rack at least 30 minutes.  Release and remove the pan sides.  Cool completely and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

(DN: I didn’t do this, but I would recommend brushing the apples with warmed apricot glaze.  It will make them shine.  Also, I had LOTS of leftovers which I refrigerated and they still look great, so I would imagine you can make this a day ahead.  Much more than that and the apples will start to look tired.)


Category: Cake, Cookbooks, Dessert
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Monochromatic Food

January 28, 2010

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I was recently reading something about our sense of taste.  You probably know this, but it turns out that our tongue actually plays a fairly small role in our being able to taste things.  Our sense of smell is much more influential and our eyes play a big part too.  As I have become a better cook, I have paid more attention to the “eating with your eyes” part of food.  In planning a dinner party, for example, I will try to make sure that the plate has a balance of flavor, texture, and color.  Once in a while I am surprised when something turns out differently than my expectations and I have an all green dinner.  Or an all beige dessert as in this case.

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I’ve had this Caramel Cake in my dessert notebook for a long time.  Periodically I would pass it by and read, in the header, how the Gourmet test kitchen couldn’t keep their hands off of it.  For unexplained reasons, I would then turn the page.  Not last weekend.  It was finally time to see what got the test kitchen so excited about this cake.

To be fair, the cake itself is actually quite plain.  Moist and pleasant but really just a basic buttermilk cake.  The icing is where it’s at.  There isn’t much of it but what there is has terrific caramel flavor.  The recipe tells you to allow it to drip off the sides but I was really careful and tried to keep as much on the cake as possible.  Yes it’s fun to swipe your finger(s) through the yumminess that pools on your baking sheet, but it really tastes so much better on the cake.

Because I can’t leave well enough alone and because I am infatuated with my ice cream maker, I made a pear caramel ice cream to go along with the cake.  Here is a weird thing about me.  I keep chocolate, caramel, and mint in one category and all fruit in another when it comes to ice cream.  I don’t usually like those two categories to meet one another.  However, I had two pears sitting on my counter and it was time to use them up so I cross contaminated and found sheer ice cream bliss.   Pear and caramel – who knew??  David Lebovitz, that’s who.  The Perfect Scoop is full of untold treasures.

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One Year Ago: Orange Pound Cake

Caramel Cake
Adapted from Gourmet
Serves 9

For Cake
2 cups plus 2 tbsp. sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)
1 tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature 30 minutes
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

For Caramel Glaze
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Make Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.  Butter an 8-inch square cake pan and line with a square of parchment paper, then butter parchment.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.  At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture may look curdled).  Add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles.  Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.  Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan.  Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely; about 1 hour.

Make Glaze: Bring cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt to a boil in a 2 quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.  Boil until glaze registers 210 to 212°F on a candy thermometer, 12 to 14 minutes, then stir in vanilla.

Put rack with cake on a baking sheet and pour hot glaze over top of cake, allowing it to run down the sides.  Cool until glaze is set, about 30 minutes.


Category: Cake, Dessert
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Peanut Butter Cookies Done Right

January 19, 2010

Cookie Collage

On a cookie plate, the first one I will go for is the chocolate chip and the last one is the peanut butter.  Why?  I don’t think I’ve ever had a good peanut butter cookie.  They tend to be dry and crumbly and the flavor is pretty one note.  I find at the end of eating one that my tongue kind of hurts.  Just not enough variety of flavor for me in that cookie.

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So why did I make these?  First of all, the milk chocolate chunk part of the recipe just screamed at me.  Then I noticed that they have a lot of peanut butter and not much flour which means that dry problem would most likely be taken care of.  Plus, in the header of the recipe, the authors say, “This is not your ordinary peanut butter cookie.  It is, in our humble opinion, the only peanut butter cookie.”  How could you not accept that challenge?  And so, I made them.  And so, now I have to deal with the temptation of having them in my house.  It’s not just the chocolate that makes these so much better than other peanut butter cookies I have had.  It is the cookie itself – moist but crisp in the right places and pure peanut butter flavor.

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Peanut Butter and Chocolate Together on Dana Treat: Holly B’s Peanut Butter Brownies, Peanut Butter Cup Brownies, Peanut Butter Candy Mini Brownie Cups

Peanut Butter Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chunks
Baked – New Frontiers in Baking
Makes about 24 cookies

Holy mistake Batman!  I just realized while typing in this recipe that I did not add the called for 1 cup of granulated sugar to the butter and brown sugar.  Yes, my cookies were missing a whole cup of sugar and are still delicious.  If you choose to leave out that cup of  granulated sugar, be sure to still use the cup of brown sugar.  Below is what you are supposed to do.

1¾ cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup creamy peanut butter
6 ounces good milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars together until fluffy.  Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated.  The mixture will look light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and peanut butter and beat until just incorporated.

Add half the flour mixture and mix for 15 seconds.  Add the remaining flour mixture and mis until just incorporated.

Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate.  Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  (DT: I skipped this step and the cookies did not stick.)

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared sheets, at least 2 inches apart.  With the palm of your hand, very gently press each cookie down so it forms a very tall disk shape.  Do not press too hard and do not press it flat.

Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with granulated sugar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until the tops of the cookies just begin to brown.

Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Use a spatula to transfer the individual cookies to the rack to cool completely (although they are delicious warm).

The cookies can be stored, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days


Category: Chocolate, Cookies, Dessert
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Eggnog for Next Year

December 27, 2009

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I’m a little late with this cake.  Can you eat eggnog flavored things after Christmas?  I say sure, why not?  If we are all going to leave our trees up until after the first of the year, we can certainly enjoy a little eggnog pound cake until then, right?

If you don’t agree, please file this recipe away for next Christmas.  Even me, the avowed chocolate lover, thought this cake was pretty special.  So pretty, so fragrant, so buttery and delicious.  Eggnog is about the last thing on Earth that I would ever drink, even with lots of rum in it, but the flavor in the cake is subtle and intoxicating.  Spicy, creamy, and rich.  Plus the cake is easy to make and it stores well.  I got this recipe from Flo Braker’s Baking for All Occasions which is not my favorite baking book.  I have mentioned this before, but I don’t like how the recipes are laid out and I have also baked some duds from it.  But, this cake makes up for a lot.

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One Year Ago:  Penne with Greek Style Vegetable Marinade

Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze
Adapted from Baking for All Occasions
Serves Many

Cake
1/2 cup dried currants (DT: I used dried cranberries)
2 tbsp. dark rum or water
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup store-bought refrigerated eggnog
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Crystal Rum Glaze
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp. dark rum
2 tbsp. water

Before Baking: In a small bowl, combine the currants (or cranberries) and rum and set aside to macerate for 15 minutes.  Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (or 325°F if the pan has a dark finish).  Butter a 10-inch angel food pan, then lightly flour it, tapping out the excess.

To Make the Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg into a medium bowl.  Set aside.  Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-low speed until creamy and smooth, 30-45 seconds.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the sugar in a steady stream and continue to beat on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

With the mixer still on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, beat after each addition until incorporated and stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  One the lowest speed, add the flour mixture in four additions alternately with the eggnog in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing after each addition until incorporated.  Stop the mixer as needed to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the vanilla during the final moments of mixing.  Scrape the paddle and using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the currants (or cranberries) and any remaining rum.  Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with the spatula.

Bake the cake just until the top springs back when lightly touched in the center and the sides are beginning to come away from the pan, 55 to 65 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes while you prepare the glaze.

To Make the Crystal Rum Glaze: In a small bowl, combine the sugar, rum, and water and stir with a rubber spatula just until blended.

Using a thin knife, gently pry the cake away from the pan to release it.  Invert a wire rack on top of the cake, invert the cake onto it, and carefully lift off the pan.  Slide a sheet of waxed paper under the rack to catch any drips from the glaze.  Using a pastry brush, coat the top and sides of the warm cake with all of the glaze.  Let the cake cool completely before serving.

(I wrapped this cake well in foil and let it sit at room temperature overnight and it was still totally fresh.  I’m sure it could freeze beautifully for at least a month.)


Category: Cake, Dessert
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