Archive for the 'sweet' Category

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Ghughra (Happy Diwali!)

November 11, 2010

What could have possibly kept me away from my blog for this amount of time??  Well, celebrating Diwali in India, of course!  (well, that, and some pretty unreliable internet).

Growing up, Diwali never carried much significance in our household.  I would be fascinated by my parents’ stories of celebrating the new year in India with fireworks, and huge amounts of sweets and snacks, and hearing about the customs and traditions.  But celebrating Diwali in such a grand way in this part of the world seemed so far-fetched.  I wanted to relive the stories that my parents told me.  So…naturally…I went to India.

Diwali is the festival of LIGHTS!  It’s the new year!  It is supposed to be festive and colorful and loud and happy!  So this year, I got all of that, and more, by celebrating in India with my extended family.  Besides doing several designs of rangoli, and shooting bigger fire crackers than I would ever imagine for the 4th of July, we made many treats!  My favorite being the almond and cardamom scented pastry called ghughra.  The one that we made uses a traditional ingredient called mawa, which is difficult to find in the States.  I’ve included a recipe that uses a more readily available dried fruits – though equally delicious.

I’m not going to fool you about this one: it’s a tough recipe.  Just look at my attempt at the folded pastry below (mine’s the one on the right, if you can’t tell).  My grandmother shot me looks of disapproval as I tried to help with this process.  But it doesn’t matter!  Just make sure you seal the pastries completely, and I guarantee that the taste will outdo the look.

Moving from one food holiday to another, I’m now back at home preparing my list of Thanksgiving recipes, but until then, Happy New Year!


Ghughra (recipe adapted from here)
Ingredients for the stuffing

  • 1/2 cup dry coconut
  • 1 cup of coarsely ground almonds
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped figs
  • 1/4 cup of finely chopped dates
  • 1 tablespoon cardamom

Ingredients for the outer crust

  • 2 cups of all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup ghee, clarified butter, or butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons of water

For dough: Combine the flour, ghee and salt in a bowl.  Work the ghee into the flour with your fingers until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.  Sprinkle water onto the crumbly dough and with your hands push the dough from the sides to the middle of the bowl to form a ball that holds together. Be careful to add only little water at a time, and not allowing the dough to become soggy.  Knead well with our hands until the dough becomes into a firm ball of dough.  Put aside, covered, ensuring that the dough does not dry out.

For stuffing: Combine all the ingredients for the stuffing until all the ingredients hold together. Divide the stuffing mixture into 20 equal portions.

To assemble: Divide the dough into 20 equal portions as well.  Roll out each portion into a 3 inch diameter circle.  Place a portion of the stuffing in the bottom half of the circle.  Fold the disc over into a half-moon shape and seal the edges, ensuring that the stuffing has not seeped out.  Twist the sealed edge, from one end to the other, for a fluted edge.

Repeat with the remaining dough and stuffing portions.

Fry ghughras in batches of 4-5 for about 4 minutes, flipping mid way.  The ghughras should be golden brown in color.

Posted in sweet, Uncategorized | 13 Comments »
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Fresh Apple Layer Cake

October 12, 2010

A game that I like to play with my Indian Gujarati grandmother is the “How do you say this in Gujarati” game.  It’s quite fun, actually.  I get to learn ridiculous Gujarati words that I would never use in everyday language, while simultaneously hangin’ out with my awesome g-ma.  A win, win.  One day, as we were playing and thinking of the most obscure words, I realized that I had no idea how to say the word “apple” in Gujarati.  How strange.  So I asked my grandmother for the translation.  She looked at me thoughtfully, slowly took a deep breath,  and deliberately said, “ap-ple.”

Oh.


This is when I had the apple epiphany: there is something so quintessentially American about apples.  Apple pie is served at Thanksgiving, the true American holiday.  State fair wouldn’t be complete without caramel apples, and apple bobbing is a real…American past time.  Okay, that may be a stretch.  But apples are ingrained in our American culture.  That’s why I’ve noticed that so many people have a family apple cake recipe that is passed down for generations that is made at just about this time every year.

I, however, do not have a family apple cake recipe for obvious reasons.  But after going apple picking and coming back with over 30 lbs. of apples (eh..oops), I realized that it is time for me to find one.  I wanted to make an apple cake that had an apple punch to it.  I do love cinnamon cakes with a slight addition of apples, but I wanted something to really bring out the apple flavor.  With five sliced apples, this recipe was perfect – amazingly moist and deliciously spiced with a lovely apple flavor.  Try it, love it, take it to your grandmother, and add it to your family recipe collection.

Fresh Apple Layer Cake (adapted from here)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a tube or bundt pan.

5 apples, of mixed variety, peeled, cored and sliced
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1.5 tsp. nutmeg

Toss all ingredients together and set aside.

2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup apple cider

Blend all of the ingredients together with an electric mixer until combined.

Sift in:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Continue to blend with mixer for 3-4 minutes until the mixture is thick and well combined.

Pour 1/3 of the cake batter into the prepared pan.  Evenly spread 1/2 of the apples onto the cake batter.  Continue with another third layer of cake, the remaining apples, and ending with the cake batter.  Bake in center rack for about 1 hour, 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for 45 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.  Let cool completely.  Serve, sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Posted in cake, fruit, sweet, Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

Fig Galette

September 30, 2010

When you have a sweet tooth that is as big as mine, there are some days when you feel that you have to cut back.  Some days when you feel like you have to lay off the butter, sugar and eggs for a while, and go for something more natural.  So when I saw that figs are well in season and are abundantly being sold in grocery stores and farmers markets, I was more than satisfied to forgo my weekly dessert option and have figs as my post dinner sweet ending.

Sounds like a stellar plan, right?  Well, it was.  Until I found a recipe for a fig galette.  I mean, you really can’t blame me.  Figs dressed in a simple sprinkling of sugar tucked into an all-butter pastry crust coated with apricot jam!  Or…figs.  Just by themselves.  Who are we kidding – there wasn’t much of a choice.  At all.

The guilt did set in a little bit, though, so I decided to use a whole wheat, oil based crust instead of more traditional butter version.  Which surprisingly turned out to be quite flaky and delicious.  And the rest of it is basically just fruit!  ..And sugar and jam.  But who’s counting.

Fig Galette (adapted from Simply Recipes)

This recipe was a tad too sweet for me.  I remedied this by sprinkling a bit of sea salt on top of the entire galette after it baked.  But I included mixing it in to the filling in the directions.

Ingredients (for crust)

  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 3 tbsp. milk

Whisk together all of the dry ingredients.  Mix in the wet ingredients until dough forms.  Roll into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Take out and roll into a 12 inch diameter circle and place onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Place into freezer while making filling.

Ingredients (for filling)

  • 1 1/2 pints mission figs, tips cut off and discarded, quartered
  • 1 tsp. flaked sea salt
  • 2 tbsp. sugar, divided
  • 2 tbsp. apricot jam (or another jam)

Preheat oven to 375.  Stir together figs, salt and 1 tbsp. of sugar.  Spread the jam onto the chilled pastry, leaving a 2 inch border.  Arrange the fig filling on the crust, directly on to the jam.  Sprinkle with remaining tbsp. of sugar.  Fold over the 2 inch border of dough over filling, pleating as you fold to ensure the filling won’t escape.  Bake for about 45-50 minutes until golden brown.  Let cool for about 20 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

Posted in fruit, pies and tarts, sweet, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Lemon Ginger Yogurt Tart

September 23, 2010

Yogurt.  I love everything about it.  Frozen, fresh, vanilla, plain, fruit on the bottom, soft serve, the kind that looks like ice cream, fat free, full fat, cream top (oh!  the cream top!), it’s all the best in my book.  So when there was a slight grocery shopping communication issue, and we ended up with four full size cartons of yogurt in our fridge, I was not upset.

In fact, I was thrilled.  This not only made it easier to up my daily servings of yogurt to three, but also gave me a chance to play around with incorporating yogurt into my baked goods.  Specifically, a tart.  Not a pie.  Too late for berry pies but too early for apple and pumpkin, September happens to be a pie-less month.  But a tart!  A tart is the best of all dessert worlds and is, by far, the best lead-in to the upcoming pie-heavy season.

I found the perfect recipe, and with some tweaking with the ingredients I had on hand, I had a winner.  A cheesecake-like dessert with the sweet tang of lemon and ginger scented yogurt all wonderfully tucked in a buttery crust.  And because yogurt is available all year-round, it’s great at any time!  Who wouldn’t want that?

Yogurt Tart (adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

This tart is like a cheesecake.  But keep in mind, a very thin cheesecake.  But because of this similar consistency, I would support, in fact, encourage, a graham cracker crust.  Or maybe even crushing up some gingersnaps!  Think about it.

1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
6 tbsp. butter
2 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
2 tablespoons natural cane sugar (optional)
1.5 teaspoons orange marmalade

1 cup plain yogurt (I used a combination of low-fat Greek yogurt and whole milk regular yogurt)
1/4 cup agave nectar or maple syrup
zest of one lemon
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated on a microplane, juice and all
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350F degrees, rack in the middle. In a medium bowl combine the flour, oats, and salt. In a medium saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the agave nectar and sugar. Now add the flour and oat mixture to the butter and stir well. Cook a couple minutes – just until you get a bit of a toasted smell.  Press the mixture into (and up the sides) of the tart pan using your fingers and/or the base of a glass. Freeze until completely cooled – 5 or 10 minutes.

In the meantime, to make the filling, combine the yogurt, agave nectar, lemon zest and ginger juice in a medium mixing bowl. Taste.  Stir in the cornstarch until well incorporated.

Spread the orange marmalade onto the prepared crust.  Fill the tart shell with the yogurt mixture.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes. The filling should be set, and no longer jiggly.  Remove the tart and let cool for ten minutes.  Refrigerate for a couple hours.  Serve topped with chopped crystallized ginger, fresh fruit, or dried fruit.  Or a fruit sauce.  Or a warmed up lemon curd. Which, I suppose is essentially a fruit sauce.  But really, you have many possibilities.

Posted in pies and tarts, sweet, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Blackberry, Almond, White Chocolate, Lemon Loaf

September 17, 2010

Like in most things, there are certain aspects of baking that I could do without.  Converting a recipe from grams to ounces to cups, for one.  Or sifting the dry ingredients, which always leads to taking out and cleaning one more utensil.  But who really wants a dense, hard to swallow cake?  So I learned to do that one.

But the thing that I’m most lazy about is greasing a pan.  I would rather spend my time hoping and praying that my baked good will come cleanly out of the vessel in which that it was baked, than actually taking the time to butter and flour the pan.  It seems so simple, but I can never convince myself to do this part well.

Why all this insight into my baking bad habits, you may wonder.  Well, this was one bad habit I had to break.  It was reactionary, so please do not think that I just happened to see what was best for my products, and those that ate them.  I’m not that noble.  I wanted to make a quick bread as a gift, and thought that the extra step of greasing AND flouring the pan AND lining the pan with parchment paper AND greasing it again, seemed unnecessary.  So I quickly sprayed the loaf pan with my handy no stick spray and was set.

Set.  Ooooh boy, was that loaf ever set.  The loaf was so extremely stuck to its pan that I had to knife it out.  And then cut the burned edges.  And then cut it again so it didn’t look like I purposely cut the burnt edges.

But the result, minus the crispy parts in my trash can, was divine.  Almonds and lemon and blackberries, and white chocolate – you may first think that there is way too much going on, but no.  Think again.  It was just perfect.  All blended together in this amazing merriment.  And though it was delicious in its own right, I wish I had the whole loaf.  Including the crust.

Grease the pan.  That’s all I’m sayin.

Blackberry, Almond, White Chocolate, Lemon Loaf (adapted from Bake or Break)

Ingredients

  • 2 & 1/4 sticks (9 ounces) butter
  • 1 & 1/4 cups caster sugar
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 & 1/4 cups ground almonds
  • grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 4 ounces blackberries, or any berry (frozen could work too!)
  • 4 ounces white chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. almond extract
  • confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Method

Preheat oven to 350°.  Butter and flour a loaf pan.  Line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter pan and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, a little at a time, until blended.   Stir in flour, ground almonds, and lemon zest and juice.  Stir in both extracts.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Scatter raspberries and white chocolate over the batter. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour & 10 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Then, cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Posted in breakfast, fruit, sweet, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
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Coconut Cake

September 2, 2010

Coconut cake with coconut extract.  Filled with coconut custard with coconut rum.  Drizzled with coconut syrup with shredded coconut.  All with…chocolate frosting.

My sister’s birthday just passed, and just like every other year, she got to pick the cake she wants me to make for her big day.  There were several years of requesting boxed yellow cake mix with the chocolate frosting in the tub, another year when I went in a different direction and made orange cake with cream cheese frosting (the chocolate lover in her did not appreciate that one), one year with a caramel cake with chocolate frosting that ended up on the floor by mistake, and last year’s chocolate cake with raspberry filling.  This year, she took a chance with coconut.

Despite the lack of coconut in the frosting (though I doused it with coconut on the frosting), this cake was coconut heaven.  It seems that so many coconut cakes are just a white cake with coconut sprinkled on top.  That is certainly not enough coconut flavor for me.  Not only is every part of this cake flavored with coconut, the key is in the custard.  Oh my goodness, the custard.  Make it.  Eat a bowl of it.  You’ll see.  And then make it again and fill the cake with it.  The end result is so light and barely sweet that the coconut flavor shines through.  Beyond delicious.

Coconut Cake (adapted from Bobby Flay)

This cake takes quite a bit of time.  But seriously worth every minute!  Mostly because it tastes better after it sits for a while – gives time for the coconut custard and coconut syrup to seep through the cake for a bit.  I made the cake, filling and the syrup the day before.  And made the frosting did the assembling the day of.

Components

Coconut Syrup

  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Coconut Filling

  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablepoon coconut rum (recommended: Malibu)
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon coconut extract
  • 1 cup very cold heavy cream

Coconut Cake

  • 2 tablespoons softened butter, for pans
  • 2 1/4 cups cake flour, plus more for pans
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 6 large egg whites, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons coconut extract
  • 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
  • 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces, slightly cold

For the Syrup:

Bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir in the coconut, remove from the heat and let sit for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours. Strain the liquid into a clean saucepan, bring to a boil and let cook until the mixture is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Let cool.

For the Filling:

Combine the milks and vanilla bean and seeds in a medium nonreactive saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat.

Whisk together the yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Slowly whisk the warm milk into the egg mixture then return the mixture to the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until thickened. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the rum and vanilla extract. Let cool to room temperature then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours.

Combine the custard and cream in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9 by 2-inch) round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper.  Butter the parchment paper.

Whisk together the coconut milk, egg whites, vanilla extract and coconut extract in a medium bowl.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With mixer running at low speed, add the butter, one piece at a time and continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed until the mixture is pale and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add remaining 1/2 cup of the milk mixture, increase speed to medium and beat 30 seconds more. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 20 seconds longer.  Mix in the dessicated coconut.  Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pan and smooth the tops using a rubber spatula.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 22 to 24 minutes. Cool in the pan on baking rack for 10 minutes. Run a small knife around the side of the pan and invert cakes onto the baking rack, removing parchment paper, and let cool completely, about 45 minutes.

Chocolate Frosting (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1 pound fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 stick unsalted butter

Finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring 1 cup of cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.  Add rest of the cream.  Using an electric mixer, whip until frosting-like consistency is achieved.

To Assemble:

Using a long serrated knife, slice each cake horizontally into 2 layers. Reserve 1 of the flat bottom layers for the top of the cake. Place another layer on a cardboard round cut side up and brush with some of the coconut simple syrup. Spoon 1/3 of the coconut filling onto the cake and using a small offset metal spatula, spread it into an even layer, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge of the cake. Repeat with 2 more layers. Brush the cut side of the reserved cake layer with the remaining syrup. Place the layer cut side down on top of the cake.

Frost the sides and top of the cake with the chocolate frosting.

Posted in cake, chocolate, sweet, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

White Chocolate Cheesecake

August 24, 2010

Every home cook remembers the first recipe that they have ever made.  It is often inspired by their families, or gardens, or if you’re lucky like me…Mrs. Fields.  Um, let me explain.

The first thing that I ever baked by myself was a white chocolate cheesecake.  Divine.  And impressive for a 10 year old.  Why Mrs. Fields, though?  The famous cookie lady?  You see, there was no popular Food Network at that time, and cooking shows were not the first show of choice when my family was picking out something to watch.  But I was always intrigued by her  Saturday early morning show, Great American Desserts, and that day, I just got to the television before anyone else.

In the interest of full disclosure, it was not really the desserts that interested me.  Everyone had walked by Mrs. Fields’ cookies at the malls, but I a) never knew that a “Mrs. Fields” actually existed, and b) thought that if there was actually a Mrs. Fields baking cookies, she would be an old, fat, lovable, grandma-looking woman.  I was so intrigued by this young, attractive woman being so passionate about baking.  It was always so fascinating to me that she was the Mrs. Fields.

For whatever reason, on that particular day, I felt motivated and chose to write down whatever she did.  Then promptly announced to my family that I would be baking a white chocolate cheesecake that day.  It was not the most beautiful baking event.  I did not have a springform pan, nor did I know what one was.  I also mixed the topping into the cheesecake batter because, quite frankly, I did not know any better.  I also added a handful of stray white chocolate chips on top, because I thought that it would look pretty (it didn’t).  But boy.  What a cheesecake.  It was the best thing ever.

This cheesecake became a Thanksgiving tradition in my family for years to come.  Until I became more adventurous and confident in the kitchen.  It lost its place on the menu for a pumpkin cheesecake one year, to a sweet potato gingersnap pie the next.  There was also the year that I thought that we all needed to be on diets and I decided to make all of the pies with half of the sugar.  We really missed the cheesecake that year.

But just last week, my cousin reminded me of this cheesecake and asked me to make it for him.  I no longer had the recipe, but after some internet searching and digging, I found the exact one.  Having made so many other yummy dessert recipes over the past several years, I did not think that I would be that impressed with this old recipe.  But it was just as delicious as I remembered it, and I think that it may find itself on the Thanksgiving table once again.

Just so you know, my cousin appreciated the long lost cheesecake as well.  And ate half of it in one sitting.  ..Not recommended.

White Chocolate Cheesecake – directly from Mrs. Fields

Crust

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

5 tbsp unsalted butter – melted

To make the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs and butter, and process in a food processor until combined. Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan in aluminum foil. Press the crust into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Chill the crust.

Filling:

18 ounces white chocolate

1/4 cup heavy cream

1-1/2 pound cream cheese – softened

1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup sour cream

4 large eggs

1tbsp vanilla extract

To prepare the filling, melt the white chocolate with the cream over hot, not simmering, water. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Beat in the white chocolate cream. Pour into the prepared pan.

Preheat the oven to 275F. Set a shallow baking pan filled with hot water on the bottom rack of the oven.

Set the cheesecake on the centre rack and bake for 1 hour. Reduce the heat to 250F and bake for 1 hour longer. Without opening the oven, turn off the heat but leave the cake in the over for 1 hour. Cool the cheesecake on a rack for 30 minutes.

White Chocolate Ganache:

8 ounces white chocolate – finely chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Meanwhile, make the ganache. Place the white chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream and butter to a simmer. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let stand, covered for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Let the ganache col to room temperature.

Pour the ganache over the cheesecake and spread it smooth. Cover the cheesecake and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

To unmold, wrap a hot wet towel around the pan, then remove the sides of the springform.

Posted in cake, sweet, Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
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Grilled Peaches

July 15, 2010

I really like baking.  Obviously.  Sauteing, roasting, frying – they’re all things that I consider part of my, you know, cooking repertoire.  But grilling?  I have left that to the meat eaters and fire lovers in the past.  Sure, I’ll pull out my ol’ George Foreman once in a while to weave a new flavor into my Boca burger, but, let’s be honest, I’m not into the real deal.  That is, of course until, I saw this delicious sounding recipe for grilled peaches.

What was I to do?  A grilled dessert.  A grilled not-so-bad-for-you dessert.  A grilled dessert that would have been a perfect addition to our ongoing 4th of July festivities…where we already had a grill!  I had to try it.

With the help of some fire savvy friends, we were able to successfully grill peaches with sugar on top (delightful burnt caramel flavors ensued), accompanied by a lovely Greek yogurt maple topping, with some crushed biscotti on top.  Heaven on a grill, one might say.

Grilled Peaches (adapted from Ina Garten)

Ingredients

4 ripe peaches, cut in 1/2 and pitted

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup Greek 2% yogurt

1/4 cup Grade A maple syrup

4 biscotti cookies, crumbled

Method

Dip all of the peaches, cut side down into the sugar, until they are thoroughly coated on the cut side.

Heat a grill with a single layer of charcoal. When the coals are hot, brush the grill with a little oil to make sure the peaches don’t stick. Place the peaches, cut side down, on the grill and cook for a few minutes, until they’re slightly charred.

Mix together the yogurt and maple syrup.  Adjust syrup to taste.

Serve peaches with maple yogurt and sprinkle with crumbled biscotti.

Photography Credit: Patrick Tregenza and Hannah Mellman

Posted in fruit, sweet, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Plum and Raspberry Crumble

July 8, 2010

I have many Fourth of July recipes to share with you!  …a week late.  Let’s just call them July recipes, shall we?

I was in gorgeous, yet atypically warm, Deer Isle, Maine for the festivities.  No cell phone signal, no internet, no locked doors.  Simply glorious.  The weekend was filled with eating, and kayaking, and cooking, and eating and…well, eating.

I really wanted to go berry picking and make a dish that had only local ingredients that we picked ourselves.  I wanted to go really local, you see.  A true DIY project, if you will.  Though strawberry season has come and gone, we were a bit too early for any of the other berries.  So, though this dessert has local berries, I was driven to the supermarket to purchase them.  Less work, same great taste.

This super simple, but amazingly delicious crumble is a must-try.  Plums and raspberries are the two fruits that are used in the recipe, but I threw in a peach and blueberries too.  It’s the topping, though, that’s amazing.  That Ina really knows what she’s talking about.

Pair it with a locally made ice cream like we did (unreal vanilla ice cream…mmmm) find a spot on the picnic table (spray yourself with some powerful bug spray) and you have yourself one incredible July night.  Yum.

Plum Raspberry Crumble (adapted from the Barefoot Contessa)

Ingredients

1.5 pounds plums, pitted and quartered

1-2 peaches, pitted and quartered

2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour, divided

2 tbsp. lemon juice

½ pint fresh raspberries

½ pint fresh blueberries

1/3 cup light brown sugar

¼ tsp. salt

8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, diced

½ cup quick-cooking oats

½ cup sliced almonds

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly spray a 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray.

3. In the baking dish, combine sliced plums, peaches, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, ¼ cup flour, and lemon juice.  Stir to toss well.

4. Add berries and toss lightly, being careful not to break them.

5. In a separate bowl, combine remaining 1 cup of flour, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and salt.  Stir to combine.  Add butter and rub with fingers until it resembles a mealy texture.  Add oats and almonds and stir until large crumbles form.

6. Spread crumble mixture over fruit and pat down to make sure that the fruit is covered.  Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is browned.  Serve warm, room temperature or cold.

Photography Credit: Hannah Mellman!

Posted in fruit, sweet, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Welcome! (and so many cupcakes!)

June 22, 2010

I’ve had this blog for 2 months now.  I keep thinking that I know what I want my first blog post to be about, but it’s either not interesting enough, or yummy enough, or not significant enough to be my first blog post.  I had so many reasons not to post.

But then.  Then something happened that basically screamed “1st blog post!!”  That something was cupcakepalooza.

Let me back up.  First of all, this is not the most typical food blog.  To really get the gist of what I’m trying to do, please go to the About Me section.  Any input would be tremendous.

Second of all, cupcakepalooza?  What is that?  Well, my wonderful cousin was having a pretty smashin huge birthday party and I (crazily, stupidly?) volunteered to make the cake.  For 200 people.  In New Jersey.

To try out the cupcake flavors beforehand, and to weed out the favorite flavors, I decided that I needed to have a cupcake party (i.e. cupcakepalooza) for some taste testing.  To get some Indian flavors in the mix, I made some chai latte cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream, vanilla buttermilk cupcakes with rose buttercream, pistachio cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream and mango cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting in addition to the dark chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting and lemon blueberry cupcakes with lemon buttercream.

I then asked about 30 of my closest friends to come over to try and comment on all of the flavors.  As it turned out, the chai cupcakes were a favorite.  No changes were necessary for that cake, and it made the cut for the party.  As for the others, the helpful comments included “couldn’t really taste the pistachio….or the white chocolate” for the surprisingly enough, pistachio white chocolate cupcakes, “tastes very rosy – but I don’t really know what rose is supposed to taste like,” for the vanilla buttermilk rose cupcakes, and “SO GOOD!” for the lemon blueberry cupcakes.

Taking these helpful and constructive comments into consideration, I decided to change the chocolate cupcakes to include a dark chocolate frosting for the chocolate lovers, and then take it completely in an Indian direction for the rest of the cupcakes – vanilla buttermilk cupcakes with rose syrup buttercream, mango cupcakes with mango cream cheese frosting, and chai cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream.

It seemed that most people thought that the light marshmallow frosting on top of the denser chocolate cupcake left a bit of an imbalance.  Though, overall, the chocolate cupcake was a winner – and every cupcake party should have at least one chocolate feature.  The mango cupcake was also well liked overall, but lacked some mango flavor.  To pump up the volume, I tripled the amount of mango that I put into the actual cake, while also adding some pureed mango into the cream cheese frosting.  The rose also needed a bit more punch.  I had a hard time deciding between using rose water and rose flavored syrup in the frosting, while keeping a vanilla buttermilk base.  The rose water was the only thing I used for the cupcake tasting, mostly because I thought that there would be a sweetness overload if I had used the syrup.  But even though it could be slightly detected, there wasn’t a strong enough rose flavor.  For the birthday party, I decided to use both.  Rose water in the actual cupcake batter and rose flavored syrup in the buttercream.

The party?  It was a success.  The transporting, the last minute frosting, the dependency on the arrival of a cupcake tier – all very stressful, but definitely worth it at the end.  And, if nothing else, it inspired my first of many blog posts.

I do hope that you come back here periodically to see what I’ve been cooking.  I look forward to having you.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” chocolate cake)

Yield: About 30 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Method

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

3. Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

Dark Chocolate Frosting (adapted from Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” chocolate frosting)

Yield: Enough to lightly frost 30 cupcakes

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Melt butter. Stir in cocoa.

2. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed.

3. Stir in vanilla.

Mango Cupcakes (adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes)
Yield: A lot of cupcakes – 40, maybe?

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups of pureed mangoes (I used fresh Alphonso mangoes – delish)
8 egg whites, room temperature
2/3 cup milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and mango puree and mix to blend the ingredients. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk to blend.  Blend until soft peaks form.  Add the whites to the batter in two or three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition. Scoop into liners – filling until about 2/3 of the way full.

4. Bake the cupcakes for about 25 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Take out of pans and let cool completely on wire rack.

Mango Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted from Food Network)

Yield: Lots o’ frosting.  We had quite a bit leftover after frosting the 40 cupcakes liberally

Ingredients

8 ounces unsalted butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted (depending on how sweet the mangoes are)

¾ cup pureed mango

Method

1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer.

2. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy.

3. Beat in pureed mango.

Vanilla Rose Buttermilk Cupcakes (adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes)

Yield: About 48 cupcakes

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 1/3 cup buttermilk
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons rose water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

2. Combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix on low speed briefly to blend; then raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, rose water and the remaining 1/3 cup buttermilk until well blended. Pour one-third of the egg mixture into the cake batter at a time, folding it in completely after each addition.

4. Fill each liner about half way (they really tend to rise).  Bake for 26 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Take out of pans and let cool completely on wire rack.

Rose Syrup Buttercream (adapted from Food Network)

Yield: Enough to frost half of the vanilla rose buttermilk cupcakes

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp. vanilla

3-4 tbsp. cream, as needed

1/4 cup rose flavored syrup

Method

1. Whip everything together until desired consistency has been reached.

Chai Latte Cupcakes (directly from Happiness in a Pot)

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup soy milk or rice milk

4 black tea bags (or 2 tablespoons loose black tea)

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup vanilla or plain soy yogurt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Pinch to 1/8 teaspoon ground white or black pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners
2. Heat soy milk in a small saucepan over medium till almost boiling. Add tea bags,
cover, and remove from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. When ready, dunk teabags a few
times in soy milk and squeeze gently to extract any soy milk before removing.
Discard tea bags. Measure the soy milk and tea mixture and add more soy milk if it is
less than 1 cup.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, and tea mixture until all
yogurt lumps disappear. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon,
cardamom, ginger, cloves, and pepper. Mix until large lumps disappear; some small
lumps are okay.
4. Pour into liners, filling ¾ of the way. Bake 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted
into the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.

Cinnamon Buttercream (adapted from Food Network)

Yield: Enough to liberally frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp. vanilla

3-4 tbsp. cream, as needed

1.5 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Whip everything together until desired consistency has been reached.

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