Japanese Cheesecake

May 12, 2011

There are about 18 different types of cheesecakes in the world.  Not flavors, but actual types of cheesecakes and how they are made.  Yes, 18.  That’s what wikipedia is telling me, anyway.  Mostly they differentiate by region – by the flavor of compote that is put on top of the cheesecake.  Or they are refrigerated, rather than baked.  But while I happened to be on the wiki page for cheesecake, the Japanese description caught my eye: “smooth flan-like texture and almost plasticine appearance.”  What an amazingly delicious sounding and totally weird cheesecake!  I started looking up recipes.

Japanese cheesecakes does use cream cheese.  And like most American cheesecakes, it is baked, not refrigerated.  And it uses a lot of eggs.  But boy, that is where the similarities of the two versions end.  The Japanese version is light and fluffy and almost has a steamed texture to it.  It’s quite delightful, actually, but it lacks the traditional cheesecake quality of tasting like, well, cheese.  In fact, my mom, a lover of all things cheese and all things cake, especially when they are put together, said that this was even more delicious when you don’t call it a cheesecake.  Awesome (and so truthful!).

Do not let any of this deter you from making this, though!  In fact, let it be encouragement to make it as soon as possible!  It’s quite lovely in its own right.  It’s creamier than a chiffon cake, but still has the airiness quality of one.  And hello, wiki said it’s “flan-like,” which completely sold me.  And wiki is always right.

Japanese Cheesecake (adapted from here)

6 large eggs, separated

140 grams sugar

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

50 grams butter

250 grams cream cheese

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

zest of one lemon

60 grams cake flour

20 gram corn starch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees.  Grease a 9 inch round springform pan.  Line the outside with aluminum foil.

2. Over a double boiler, melt together butter, cream cheese and milk until completely smooth.  Set aside to cool.

3. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy.  Add cream of tartar and continue to beat on medium speed.  As you see soft peaks forming, slowly pour in the sugar until the egg whites are light and fluffy and hold their own shape.

4. To the cooled cream cheese mixture, whisk in egg yolks, vanilla and lemon zest.  Fold in all of the dry ingredients until they are completely incorporated into the cream cheese mixture.

5. Working in batches, fold in the egg whites to the cream cheese mixture, being careful not to deflate the egg whites.  When all of the egg whites are incorporated, pour into the prepared pan.

6. Fill a separate 9×13 baking pan halfway with water.  Place the cheesecake in the center rack of the oven.  Place the 9×13 pan on the rack below, to create a water bath.

7. Bake cheesecake for 70 minutes, until a toothpick tester comes out clean.  Let cool completely.  Serve at room temperature or cold with strawberry sauce.

Strawberry Sauce (recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

2 cups strawberries, rinsed and cut into big piece

3 tablespoons sugar

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup water

1. Blend everything together until smooth.  Strain to take out seeds.  Serve cold or room temperature with cheesecake.

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Chocolate Biscuit Cake

May 5, 2011

Did you hear about the wedding last week??  It was pretty big, you might have seen.  Did you see the dress?  Did you see the kiss?  Did you hear about the cake?!

I do have a mild obsession with the British monarchy, it’s true.  But this is neither the time nor the place to discuss this.  This, my friends, is about another obsession of mine: no bake desserts (especially those involving biscuits).  It may be a pretty specific category, but they’re pretty awesome – creating a full-fledged delicious dessert, using nothing but a couple ingredients and never turning on the oven!  So easy, so simple, so delicious.  They are a wonder to me.

Which is why I was surprised to learn that the groom’s cake at the Royal Wedding was a chocolate biscuit cake – a no bake “cake” using simply British tea biscuits, chocolate and condensed milk.  Amazing.  And that was all that was needed to serve such a regal crowd!  You know you have to try this one.

So it turns out that  you don’t need to crash a royal wedding in order to eat like the royals!  No, no.  You just need a few ingredients and a refrigerator.  And a fancy hat.  But only if you feel like it.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake (adapted from Tea and Sympathy via Daily Candy)

14 oz (400 grams) digestive biscuits, rich tea biscuits or graham crackers, crumbled into pieces

1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 stick butter

1 can condensed milk

5 oz. dark chocolate

5 oz. milk chocolate

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Grease a pie plate, 8 inch square dish, or any dish of a similar size.  Line with parchment paper and then grease the parchment paper.  Set aside.

2. Stir together the crushed biscuits with nuts and dried cherries in a large bowl.  Set aside.

3. Over medium heat, in a double boiler, melt together the 5 oz. of dark chocolate, 5 oz. milk chocolate, butter and condensed milk until completely melted and thick.

4. Pour chocolate mixture over the biscuits and stir together until everything is coated.  Pour into prepared dish and pat down to ensure that the cake will take the shape of the plate.  Refrigerate for 2 hours.

5. Melt the dark chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals.  Stir after every interval until the chips are melted.

6. Unmold the cake and remove the parchment paper.  Pour the melted chocolate in the center of the cake and spread so it will run down the sides of the cake.  Let the chocolate set for about 15 minutes and then slice.

Posted in cake, chocolate, sweet, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Carrot Cake Breakfast Bread

April 26, 2011

What do you call something made with carrots, bananas, dates, zero unnatural sugar, and whole wheat flour?  Hopefully, you wouldn’t call it dessert.  And usually, neither would I.

But there is something so intriguing about this recipe for…bread.  It’s a crazy extreme healthy approach to a carrot cake.  It has all of the necessary ingredients of a carrot cake: carrots, of course, cinnamon, cream cheese frosting, even!  But with the added benefit of healthy whole wheat flour and zero unnatural sugars.  It basically sounds impossible for it to be tasty.  So of course, I wanted to be proven wrong.

Results?  It’s not quite your grandmother’s carrot cake.  Think of it more like a banana bread with cream cheese frosting slathered on top.  We should even agree to call this breakfast and not dessert.  But it totally works.  You don’t miss the sugar too much.  And the bites with the frosting are especially divine (don’t judge)!  Regardless, it’s a tasty and healthy lead-in to a summer full of ice cream, pies and cobblers!

Carrot Cake Breakfast Bread (adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

I used whole wheat pastry flour, as the recipe indicates, but I would say that perhaps you shouldn’t be as virtuous when you give this a go.  I think that the whole wheat flour is what gives this bread the most “healthy” taste.  Try it half and half with all purpose flour, or even the full amount.  And while we’re on this subject of virtue, I would even say that adding about 2-4 tablespoons of brown sugar to the batter would be just fine.  But we would be bordering on calling it dessert with that.  I would suggest, however, splitting the 1 stick of butter into 4 tablespoons, and replacing the other 1/4 cup with applesauce for maximum healthiness without the healthy taste.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
4 ounces unsalted butter, heated until just melted
1/2 cup dried dates
2 ripe bananas, mashed well
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 eggs, lightly beaten

6 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
1/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Pour the melted butter on top of the dates and set aside for dates to soften.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the walnuts and set aside.

In a separate bowl combine the bananas and carrots. Whisk in the yogurt and the eggs (and the sugar, if using – see headnote).

Puree the butter/date mixture, and add it to the banana/carrot mixture.  Mix well.

Add flour mixture and stir until everything comes together.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45-55 minutes, until tester comes out clean.

While baking, vigorously stir together the cream cheese, agave or maple, and the powdered sugar.  After the bread has come out of the oven, let it cool slightly and then slather the cream cheese frosting on top, while still a bit warm.

Posted in breakfast, sweet, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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Almond Anise Biscotti

April 13, 2011

Biscotti and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love it.  It hates me.  There is something so delightful about biscotti – a cookie that is meant to be dipped.  How user-friendly!  No sogginess involved, no fishing cookie-bits out of your coffee cup.  Just a crunchy cookie that is waiting for a quick swim in your drink.  Yum.

But it just never seems to want to bake correctly whenever I have tried to make it in the past.  I’ve had crumbly messes of biscotti on more than one occasion.  I’ve had biscotti logs bake into each other, leaving me with a sheet pan of half-baked biscotti dough.  I’ve tried using the non traditional recipes that included butter.  No luck.  I tried it without adding in any kinds of nuts, seeds or chips.  Not tasty.  I’ve even tried rolling the dough into little balls so I could get biscotti cookies.  A huge disappointment.  In the end, I believe that biscotti truly hates me and willfully decides against baking in my kitchen.

But like any sane person, I decided that I would keep trying, chipping away at biscotti’s will to hate me until it completely backed down and couldn’t help but turn out beautifully in my kitchen.  It seemed that all it needed was time.  This particular biscotti recipe is not for the faint of heart (or those with the lack of time).  It takes about 6 hours to make from beginning to end.  And if you don’t plan ahead and still are completely determined to make amazing biscotti, you may have to set your alarm for 2:15 am to get up to take the biscotti out of the oven.  (not that I’m speaking from experience…).  Ridiculous, you might think.  But totally worth it.  Crisp and flavorful, chock full of nuts and spices – exactly what biscotti is supposed to be.  I think that biscotti and I may just call a truce.

Almond Anise Biscotti (recipe from Flour)

Ingredients

3 eggs

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon anise seeds, finely chopped

2 1/4 (315 grams) cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 (240 grams) cup sliced almonds

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla on medium-high speed until pale in color and slightly thickened.  If using a hand mixer, this process will take about 10 minutes; 5-6 minutes on a stand mixer.  Add anise seeds and beat to ensure that they have properly mixed in.

3. Stir together all of the dry ingredients and almonds.  Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined.  The dough will be sticky.

4. Scoop dough onto the prepared baking sheet and form into a log, about 5 inches wide and 12 inches long.  Damp hands will help with this process as the dough is very sticky.

5. Bake for about 50-60 minutes, until the log is firm and has turned a golden brown color.  Turn the oven temperature down to 200 degrees.  Let the log rest and cool for about 30 minutes.

6. Using a serrated knife, slice the log into 1/2 inch wide biscottis.  Place the biscotti, cut side down onto the same parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for an additional 4 hours, until the biscotti is completely baked through and crisp.

Posted in breakfast, cookies, sweet, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Cheeseless Mac and Cheese Florentine

March 31, 2011

Okay, I get it.  No one really craves cheese-less macaroni and cheese.  All you’re left with is macaroni and…  But this little number is something different.  It has all of the delicious qualities of a standard mac and cheese, the gooey-ness, the creaminess, even the cheesiness, believe it or not, but without the actual cheese.  I can see that you’re not sold yet.

White beans and cashews blended up together are what makes the consistency so cheese-like.  But then it has all the flavors of a normal mac and cheese – dried mustard, onions, breadcrumbs, the works.  It’s pretty much a win/win – a protein and vegetable filled, cholesterol-free (bonus!) dish, disguised as the comforting form of mac and cheese.  You’re craving it a little bit now, I can tell.  Make some and see if you ever go cheese-full again!?  Okay, that’s not a challenge.  Everyone loves cheese.  But you know what I mean.

Calling all requests! I did a bit of spring cleaning this week.  Great for the swim cap I thought I had lost 6 months ago.  Bad for me realizing that I have over seventy cookbooks and magazines that I never turn to whenever I want to find a recipe.  The internet has been my source for recipes and my cookbooks have been left for my bedtime reading (I like the pictures).  But no more!  I am challenging myself not to buy a single cookbook or magazine until I have tried something from every readable source that I have.  And I need your help!  Tell me anything you’d like to make – savory, sweet, brunch, dessert, vegan, gluten-free, really anything.  And I will make it my mission to find a cookbook recipe, put my spin on it, if need be, and post as many as I can.  Everyone wins!

Mac and Cheese Florentine (adapted from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker)

8 oz elbow macaroni
10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, cooked as directed, and drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 and 3/4 cups water
1 can white beans, rinsed
1 and 1/2  tbl. miso paste
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. butter
2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook macaroni for 6 minutes in boiling water.  Drain and add spinach.  Toss to combine.
2.  Saute chopped onions in the oil over medium high heat.  Cook for 7-8 minutes, until translucent, but not brown.  *Do not salt the onions!
3.  Grind cashews in food processor. Add 1 cup of water and blend. Add cooked onions, white beans, miso paste, remaining 3/4 cup water, lemon juice, dried mustard, cayenne, nutmeg, garlic powder and salt.  Blend again until smooth.  Taste and adjust the spices as necessary.  Pour bean/cashew sauce over the cooked macaroni and spinach.  Mix until well combined.
4.  Pour mixture into lightly greased casserole dish.
5.  Melt butter in a pan, over medium-low heat.  Add breadcrumbs and toast until browned and fragrant.  Spread on top of casserole.  Bake for 30 minutes until brown and bubbly.  Let sit for 5 minutes before digging in.

Posted in savory, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Vanilla Almonds and Coconut Candies

March 22, 2011

Spring’s here!  Which leads to the obvious question of: Is it too early to start thinking of holiday treats?  I understand that the weather is getting warmer and that we have all been craving this time of year, but I recently made two yummy things that epitomizes holiday food gifts: small, portable, easy to make, delicious and holiday-flavorly.  Yes, that’s a word.

The genius, just-thought-of thing about holiday treats is that they also double as picnic foods!  Try them now, make them again in December and you have yourself a win/win.  The almonds are these sweet salty, crunchy goodness that smell amazing like those sold on the street.  No, really.  A-mazing.  And these coconut candies were so good that my mom actually split all of them in half and had them once a day just to make sure that they last longer.  And if that doesn’t convince you to make these treats, then you’re simply a Grinch.  So with that, I wish you and yours a very happy spring!

Vanilla Almonds (adapted from Kelsey’s Essentials)

Ingredients

  • 1 egg white, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups whole almonds
  • 5/8 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Beat the egg white with the vanilla extract.  Add the almonds to the egg white mixture and stir to coat.  In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, salt, and cinnamon.  Mix into the almonds.  Spread the almonds in a single layer on a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove and cool completely on wax paper.  Break into clusters and store.

Coconut Candies (adapted from NY Times)

  • 1 cup condensed milk
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • 1.5 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut

In a medium-size heavy saucepan, combine condensed milk, coconut milk, butter, honey, and 1/2 cup shredded coconut.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat to low and whisk constantly until fudge-like, 15-20  minutes.  When mixture is ready, it will pull together.  Pour mixture into a bowl and let cool to room temperature; refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.  Scoop out teaspoonfuls of the mixture and use your hands to roll into balls, about 3/4-inch in diameter. Set aside on a baking sheet.   Place remaining 1 cup coconut in a wide bowl.  Roll 4 to 6 candies at a time in remaining coconut, covering surface completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days, or refrigerate for up to 1 month.  Serve chilled.

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Whole Orange Cake

March 16, 2011

On the spectrum of fruits that I enjoy, oranges come somewhere in the middle.  They are nowhere near the top with summer berries and mangoes, but I wouldn’t put them on the bottom with honeydew and cantaloupe either (can we talk about how disappointing restaurant fruit salads are when they are filled with melons??).  It’s not that oranges are not tasty; it’s just that they’re not always consistent.  Plus, let’s be honest, they just seem far too labor intensive to eat when the flavor is hit or miss.


That is until I discovered honeybell oranges.  They are the one and only exception when it comes to oranges.  Every year, right in the dead of winter, my parents send us a carton of honeybell oranges.  These oranges are only available for a short time during the year, but are seriously the juiciest, most flavorful oranges that I have ever encountered.  For someone who is typically so blasé about oranges and thinks that they are just mediocre in the fruit chain, the discovery of honeybell oranges was a very big deal.


This year, I may have expressed more excitement than usual because my parents did not think that 4 cartons of oranges would satisfy my need.  They sent us EIGHT cartons of oranges – I was left with NINETY-SIX oranges!  Huge, juicy, can’t-eat-more-than-one-at-a-time oranges!


After my initial shock, denial and disbelief, I gathered myself together, found space for the oranges in my apartment, and decided that this is a very good thing.  Instead of just using the oranges for fresh-squeezed juice in the morning, as a daily snack in the afternoon and as a replacement for milk in my oatmeal (have you ever tried that?  fruity and divine – try it), I realized that I could use these incredibly flavorful oranges in my baking.  I found a cake that used the entire orange, skin and all (no peeling involved!).  It was moist, light, and incredibly orange-y.  And in my unintentional effort to post gluten-free desserts, here’s one more for the list!

Whole Orange Cake (recipe from Scandi Foodie)

I added mini chocolate chips to the cake batter because I truly believe that the orange/chocolate combo is one of the best, but feel free to leave it plain, or add nuts, perhaps.  Also, I was nervous that the bits of orange peel would leave a slight bitter taste.  It did.  Not unpleasantly, but it was there in that marmalade kind of way.  But if you happen to plan in advance, this is one of those cakes that develops more flavor as it sits, and will lose any of that even slight bitter taste.

Ingredients

2 oranges
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 cups almond meal
1 tsp baking powder

1 cup mini chocolate chips, mixed with 1 tbsp. flour (gluten-free or otherwise)

Method

Wash the oranges, place them in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain, then return to pan, cover with water and bring to boil. Let simmer another 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Drain and chop the oranges discarding any seeds.

Place the oranges in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.

Whisk the eggs and the sugar until thick and pale. Add the orange, almond meal, and baking powder and fold until just combined. Add the chocolate chips/flour mixture and fold in.  Pour into a greased, 9 inch round or springform pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Posted in cake, fruit, sweet, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Mini Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

March 8, 2011

Do you have peanut butter?  An egg?  How about sugarbakingsodavanillaminichocolatechips??  I knew you would have these things on hand!  Because that’s all it takes to make the most delicious peanut butter chocolate chip cookies ever.  I’m not kidding, people.

Here’s the kicker, though.  I didn’t have all of those ingredients on hand.  Well, I did, but not nearly enough.  So I decided to trick the mind and make these cookies miniature instead.  Friends, a lesson: if you decide to make cookies in bite size so it actually looks like you’ve made more than you have (thinking that they will last you longer), you actually end up with having to make cookies sooner than expected because people eat them so fast!  Fact.  Seriously, people were so drawn to these little cookie-lets.  They flew out of my cookies jar, handfuls at a time, just because they were so small!  There is apparently no guilt factor when eating a miniature cookie…or, apparently, 30 of them.

But it wasn’t just their size – these cookies were so appealing because they were just so…cute.  That’s exactly the appeal of these cookies.  They’re cute, and they’re small, and most importantly, they represent “portion control”.  But they’re also soft and crumbly and my goodness, so yummy.   Make them for their ease, make them for their cuteness, but please just make them and go crazy.  Everyone around you sure will.

Mini Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Joy the Baker)
Ingredients
1 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.  Using a mixer combine peanut butter and sugar until well combined, about 2 minutes.  Add egg, baking soda, and vanilla and mix for another 2 minutes.  By hand, mix in mini chocolate chips.  Roll into teaspoon sized balls and place onto prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 7-8 minutes, until they look dry and lightened in color.  Let cook on baking sheet for a minute.  Carefully press each cookie down with a fork.  Continue to cool on baking sheet for an additional two minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Posted in chocolate, cookies, sweet, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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Homemade Soft Pretzels

February 15, 2011

Okay, I know what you’re thinking.  Why post a recipe for a perfectly fitting Superbowl snack, something that you could have easily wowed friends with, two weeks after the Superbowl?  For one, I made these on Superbowl day.  A little scheduling mishap…sorry about that.  (But they were a hit at my Superbowl potluck!  No, really, I’m sorry.).  But secondly, there are a lot of great sports that these pretzels would be appropriate for!  The aforementioned college basketball, for one – I hear that March Madness is coming up.  And isn’t baseball supposed to start soon?  But anyway, sports have no business being in this conversation because these soft pretzels are just so yummy that you won’t even need a sporting event to justify making them!

Oh, wait.  You’re saying that that wasn’t all that you were thinking?  You’re also thinking that who in their right mind would even attempt to make soft pretzels at home?  Who would go to the trouble of rolling little balls of dough into long, snake-like pieces just to twist them again in these weird shapes that never look quite the way they’re supposed to?  Especially when you can buy perfectly acceptable soft pretzels at your local mall.

Well, friends.  I have wonderful news for you.  These are a breeze to make!  You have to believe me!  Remember…I’m afraid of yeast!  There is usually a ban on yeast in my person kitchen!  And yet, the dough worked beautifully again – just like the last time I ventured into yeast-land!  As for the twisting, you can honestly make these any shape you like!  These babies, they’re about the taste (notice the picture where I just cut the long strips of dough into cute little soft pretzel bites!).  Homemade soft pretzels are out of this world.  These are no-need-to-host-a-Superbowl-party-just-make-for-yourself-on-a-Tuesday-night good.  Yep.

Homemade Soft Pretzels (original recipe from Brown Eyed Baker)

Ingredients

1 cup warm water
1 package dry active yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

6 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda

1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let stand for 10 minutes, until yeast is foamy. Add the water/yeast along with the oil, sugar, salt and flour to a bowl and mix.  Transfer to a floured surface and knead until the dough is soft and slightly sticky, but very smooth. Place dough in a large oiled bowl, and let rise, covered, for 1 hour, until doubled.

Punch the dough down to release air, and divide the dough into 12 equal shapes and form them into small balls. Cover and let them rest for 15 minutes. Roll them into 18 to 20″ length rope-like pieces and form them into pretzel shapes, or pretzel bites, if desired.  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow the pretzels to rise for 1/2 hour.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large pot, bring the baking soda and water to a boil. Add the pretzels one at a time to the boiling water for 1 minute, flipping midway.  Remove and place on a cooling rack. When cooled, transfer each pretzel to a parchment lined sheet pan. Brush with egg wash, and sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, until dark brown.

Posted in savory, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
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Pecan Cornmeal Cake

February 8, 2011

Have I told you that I’m from North Carolina?  I’m what they call “a Tarheel born, a Tarheel bred (..and when I die, I’m a Tarheel dead)!”  And oh so proud of it.  Not only do I think that The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the greatest school in this country, I also think that Chapel Hill is one of the greatest towns in the nation.

Now, if you know anything about schools, rivalries or college basketball, you also know that my love for UNC directly correlates with my disdain for Duke.  With the universities (and towns) just being 8 miles apart, I really, really do not like anything Duke.  Dark blue, Cameron Indoor Stadium and…Durham.

So you can understand that the recent love that Durham has been receiving from national publications has been a little much for me to bear.  The New York Times is saying that Durham is one of the 41 places in the world to visit this year?!  It’s on the list with such places as Iceland, Zanzibar and Turkey?!  How can this be true??  And then an article last year tells me that Durham has become a foodie town??  Where is Chapel Hill in all of this?!  In my ridiculously biased opinion, I think that Chapel Hill’s greatness must have just seeped into Durham.  That’s gotta be it.

To ensure that this was the case, I went ahead and read that article about Durham’s “great” food.  It turned out that the article had a recipe from a restaurant in Durham that sounded, well, delicious.  So I tried it.  I’m deeply saddened to say that it was nothing short of spectacular.  This cake, made with cornmeal and pecans, and browned butter was just the perfect balance of light and nuttiness and rustic and unique.  It had a simplicity to it that needed nothing to dress it up – though a dollop of freshly whipped cream put it over the top.  It was, to my dismay, a yummy cake.  The Durham-based restaurant that serves this deliciousness must be on the border of the two towns.

*A little FYI about this timely post: one of the two scheduled UNC/Duke men’s basketball games is on the 9th.  Meaning, yep, tomorrow.  I don’t feel like I need to say this, but I expect you to root for the true blue.  You know, with a piece of this cake in hand.

Pecan Cornmeal Cake (from The NY Times via Smitten Kitchen)

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for pans
1/2 cup pecans, toasted over a medium low heat for about 5 minutes, until they smell fragrant
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream, for serving

In a small pan, melt the butter and let it heat until it browns and smells nutty (about 10 minutes). It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Strain out the brown bits and set aside to cool.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, cornmeal and salt in a large bowl.  In a food processor, pulse pecans, and both sugars until powdery.  Don’t over mix, otherwise it will become pasty.  Add to the flour mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg whites and vanilla together, just to combine. Whisk this and the browned butter into the dry ingredients. Refrigerate batter overnight.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Thickly butter the sides of a 9-inch round tart pan.  Line the pan with parchment paper.  Pour batter into pan and spread to make sure that it has covered all sides.

Bake until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool 10 to 15 minutes in pan, then turn out on a rack.  Serve (warm, if you like – it’s delicious if you do) with whipped cream.

Posted in cake, sweet, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

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