TWD Rewind: Cranberry Upside-Downer
November 23, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 12 Comments
This week the TWD crowd will be going in about 200 different directions (and I’m not just talking about holiday travel plans)– we’re having a “rewind” day to make up a missed recipe or remake a favorite. I’ve been in the group for a long time, and I think I can count on one hand the number of recipes I’ve skipped. At some point, I’d like to tick at least a few of those of the list, but not this week…this week, I’m revisiting a recipe I’ve been itching to try again.
Back in September I made a Summery Peach Upside-Downer, and I’m been thinking about trying the original Cranberry Upside-Downer version ever since. Now’s the time, especially since I’m on a cranberry roll this month! The cake was just as soft and cinnamony as I remembered from the first time. I think I actually prefer this version, though, because the tart cranberries are a perfect balance for the sticky sweetness of the butter-sugar topping. If my husband weren’t insisting on pie for Thanksgiving, I would certainly not hesitate to put this on the table on Thursday night!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Superfluous, as it was Sabrina’s choice a couple months ago. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what everyone chose to make this week! Happy US Thanksgiving!!
Bolzano Apple Cake
November 18, 2010 at 4:22 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, simple cakes, sweet things | 27 Comments
When my husband comes home from work, he likes to plop down on the couch and settle in with some ESPN or some business news. Yawn. I like to plop down beside him and settle in with a cookbook. For the past couple of weeks, my book of choice has been Amanda Hesser’s The Essential New York Times Cookbook. I have to tell you that you won’t find many pictures in the book, but that’s fine with me because it makes way for heaps more recipes! The book spans the archives of newspaper, and the recipes in each section are arranged by date (one day I’ll be adventurous enough to make you a cake from 1876, but for today’s one is from 2004). It also has a beautiful red cloth cover, and would make a pretty sweet holiday present for anyone who loves to cook.
When I came across the Bolzano Apple Cake recipe in the book, I knew instantly that I wanted to give it a shot. (Just because October has come and gone, does that mean I should move past apple desserts? I hope not, because I still have half a crisper drawer full of them from my orchard excursion a month ago.) What really attracted me to this cake, was that it sounded so similar to Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake (which I was crazy about) from a few weeks back.
The cakes are not quite identical twins– maybe fraternal? Marie-Hélène’s has a healthy dose of rum in it, while the Bolzano is all about real vanilla bean. And while Marie-Hélène’s certainly has a custardy texture, this one does, too, but even more so. In the Bolzano cake, the apples are thinly sliced, instead of cut into chunks. The cake bakes up into a stack of soft apples with batter barely seeping in between the layers. I’m glad that I don’t have to choose between the two cakes, but can quickly and easily make either one!
Bolzano Apple Cake- makes 6 to 8 servings
adapted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped and reserved
1 1/4 pounds (3 to 4 small to medium) Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup AP flour, plus mor for dusting the pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
Powdered sugar for dusting
-Heat oven to 375°F (190°C). Line the base of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment, then smear with thick layer of butter. Dust with flour; turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour. Melt butter in small saucepan (you can take it a step further and lightly brown it, if you like). Set aside.
-Beat together eggs and half the sugar in a bowl (it’s not hard to do by hand). Continue to beat while slowly adding remaining sugar until thick; it should form a ribbon when dropped from a spoon. Add the vanilla seeds to the batter and add the pod to the melted butter.
-Peel, quarter and core apples, then trim ends and slice thinly.
-Remove vanilla pod from butter and stir butter into egg-sugar batter. Combine the flour and baking powder, then stir it into batter alternately with milk. Stir in apples, coating every piece with batter. Pour batter into pan, using fingers to pat top evenly.
-Bake for 25 minutes, then rotate pan; bake for about 25 minutes more, until cake pulls away from pan and is brown on top; a thin-bladed knife inserted into center will come out clean when it is done. Cool 30 minutes on a rack.
-Remove the sides of the springform, cut the cake into wedges and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Please note that the publisher, W.W. Norton, sent me a copy of this book…but I would have bought it anyway!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cranberry Lime Galette
November 16, 2010 at 12:29 am | Posted in pies & tarts, sweet things | 16 Comments
My husband was super-excited when I pulled this Cranberry Lime Galette out of the oven. For some reason more excited about it than about other things I’ve made recently. Thank you, ladies of Celestial Confections! I think he’s just pretty happy about Thanksgiving…a couple extra days off work and his mother coming to be the first overnight guest in our house…and the sight of this triggered thoughts of our favorite dinner of the year!
He was right to be excited– this is good stuff! I am a huge fan of tart and snappy cranberry deserts, and with the lime added in, this galette delivered on that. I used some candied ginger chopped into tiny bits in place of fresh, and it had a great spicy ginger punch, too. The crust stayed super crisp, and I think it’s quite pretty in its own rustic way.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here on NPR’s website) or Celestial Confections. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
French Fridays with Dorie: Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans
November 12, 2010 at 6:23 pm | Posted in french fridays w dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 9 Comments
This French Fridays with Dorie recipe isn’t a dessert flan with caramel, but a savory custard with blue cheese and walnuts. The pumpkin flan base comes together in snap thanks to canned pumpkin and the food processor. I think I was a little aggressive with the whizzing up…my flans looked like I had some tiny air bubbles trapped below the surface. No matter, they still tasted great, and baking them in a water bath ensured a creamy, soft texture. I know I usually think of pie when I think of pumpkin, but really, it’s just squash and goes wonderfully with cheese and nuts. Add a spinach salad, a piece of baguette and maybe a glass of wine, and you have dinner!
For the recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts (not all of us are doing flan this week)!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake
November 9, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 31 Comments
I am apparently the world’s worst interior decorator. Bought a few rugs for the new house, and totally don’t like them with the furniture. Got a new mattress for the guest bed, and didn’t realize I should have gone with a low-profile boxspring…looks ridiculous…like a princess and the pea bed.
At least I can usually make a cake look nice, although it’s not hard to do when the cake has a layer of gorgeous ruby-red cranberry jam running through it. This Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake that Jessica of Singleton in the Kitchen chose for TWD seemed more puffy cookie than fluffy cake to me, but I was more than happy to gobble it up. It’s very good, and it’s not just for Thanksgiving at all. I really like a nice, tart cranberry sauce, but it could just as easily be filled with fruit jam. In fact, I’m tempted to try it with the lingonberry jam I buy from IKEA, and also to see if a half-recipe with fit in a loaf pan, because I think it would make for nice bars.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Singleton in the Kitchen. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
I have a dentist appointment today…time to see if the past six months of sweets have caught up with me! Eek!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Peanuttiest Blondies
November 2, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 21 Comments
As evidenced by the little bit of blur along the plate rim on the bottom left, I am apparently not quite grown up enough to have a set of unchipped plates. If I did act my age, though, I may not have appreciated these Peanuttiest Blondies as much as I did. With hunks of chocolate and peanuts, and lots of peanut butter, they tasted remarkably like a favorite candy bar of mine (which I ate way too many of on Sunday night, by the way). A nice crackly top and chewy on the inside gives them a homebaked feel. I think I’ll wrap one up and take it to the polls with me today.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Bakeologie, as it was Nicole’s choice for TWD this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll! I’m interested to see if anyone else had this sinking middle (why? they were not underbaked–wacky, right?).
One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
October 30, 2010 at 4:03 pm | Posted in cupcakes | 11 Comments
I don’t equate cupcakes with Halloween, but every year I do whip up a batch to celebrate the day (and possibly come one step closer to using up my never-ending jar of orange and black sprinkles). Last year they were vanilla, this year they’re chocolate. I’d say that I’ve been a little choco-deprived lately, as the last true chocolate treat I made here was back in August…but that would be a total lie, since all week I’ve been pillaging the stash of Reese’s and Kit Kats that I supposedly bought for the neighborhood children!
Really, I’ve been wanting to make Martha Stewart’s One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes for ages…a good friend told me it’s the recipe she always makes for her kids. For something so easy (you go from zero to cake in about 25 minutes), they are surprisingly good. Perfectly moist, not too crumbly (cupcakes that fall to pieces when you unwrap them tick me off) and a fast chocolate fix.
The frosting was just a quickie, no measurements, cream cheese frosting with enough matcha powder added to look the color of Frankenstein’s face, or maybe pond scum. Gruesome, as my grandmother would say (not to mention a little too strong on the matcha). Happy Halloween!!
One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes- makes about 18
adapted from marthastewart.com
Steph’s Note: Don’t worry if your batter seems a little loose or runny…it’ll still become cake in the oven!
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons safflower oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
-Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 18-20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely before frosting.
French Fridays with Dorie: Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake
October 29, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, french fridays w dorie, groups, simple cakes, sweet things | 27 Comments
I mentioned last time we met, that R and I went apple picking in Warwick, NY. Sometimes it’s really nice to escape the city and go to a place that looks like this. It’s also nice to have a bin full of apples at home! The first thing I did with them was to make Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake.
This cake is easy to make because it’s easy to mix. No creaming required, as it uses melted butter. I actually used browned butter in my cake, which wasn’t entirely intentional (I put it on to melt before I’d had my morning coffee), but as soon as I tasted the cake, I knew it wasn’t a mistake either. Rum and vanilla flavor the apples, and while you could use cinnamon instead if you wanted, I really think that apples and vanilla are a fabulous combination. I went a tad skimpy on the sugar measurement, because although I was using a mix of apple varieties (like Dorie and her friend Marie-Hélène recommend), they were all on the sweet side. There’s really only just enough batter here to hold together all the chunks of apple, and the result is an almost puddingy-soft texture inside. Definitely one I will make again.
For the recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here on Epicurious). Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts!
Want more apple cake? How about Double Apple Bundt Cake, Fresh Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze, Applesauce Spice Bars or Applesauce Snack Cake?
Tuesdays with Dorie: All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie
October 26, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 22 Comments 
Wasn’t I just whinging about having too much kitchen crap? Know what did I do right after that? I bought a new half-size deep dish pie plate! Makes a lot of sense, right? Oh bother…at least I think it will get good use. In fact, I was able to use it right away for this All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie that Emily of Sandmuffin picked for TWD.
I haven’t made a double-crust apple pie in a few years, and this one was so good (the “all-delicious” is an apt description) that it actually made me feel a little sad thinking about what I’ve been missing. This was a true deep-dish pie– it was positively stuffed with apples. In mine, I used a random mix of red and green apples that my husband and I proudly picked ourselves during an orchard outing to Warwick with the in-laws a couple of weeks ago (I probably have enough apples in the fridge to make 20 pies!). I also used flour to thicken mine, although the recipe calls for tapioca…I didn’t want to buy any, but an equal amount of AP flour worked just fine.
These last couple of pie-crusted treats have turned me on to a bad little habit…purposefully leaving myself one last mini-slice to have for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Very naughty.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Sandmuffin. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Spiced Squash, Fennel and Pear Soup for a Celebration!
October 24, 2010 at 12:14 am | Posted in french fridays w dorie, groups, other stuff, savory things, soups | 20 Comments
Today is a special day for one of my favorite cookbook authors…it’s Dorie Greenspan’s birthday! Happy birthday, Dorie! A few TWDers and FFWDers have put together a sort of virtual progressive dinner party, all made from Dorie’s new book, Around my French Table, to celebrate.
I chose to take on a soup course, and made her Spiced Squash, Fennel and Pear Soup. I’m no stranger to squash soup, and usually I’ll use a butternut, but a crazy lumpy, bumpy golden hubbard caught my eye at the market and wound up coming home with me. I’ve never made squash soup with the additions of pear and fennel before…they brought a delicious sweetness to the pot. Don’t forget to toast up your squash seeds as garnish. This is a great, warming soup that gets even more flavorful the next day.
For the recipe for this delicious soup, see page 80 of Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Holly from Phe.MOM.enon worked hard to coordinate this party, and will have the whole round-up on her site!
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