Feigning Fall with Cider Cake

15. August 2011 · 33 comments · Categories: Baking, Cake, Dessert, food, recipes · Tags: , , , ,

Thank goodness the weather has been in the 80s lately instead of 90s. Unfortunately, I’m pretty tired of sweating within 5 minutes of stepping foot outdoors. I hate to say it, but I’m so ready for sweater weather.

Both Nate and my favorite season is fall. We love the crisp air, beautiful leaves, earthy smells and cooler temperatures! Plus, I love wearing sweaters.

So it would only seem appropriate that to celebrate our 1 year dating anniversary on Friday, we had a Cider Cake.

This actually came about because we had this bottle of TJ’s Cranberry Cider laying around for a while, and with the cold weather long gone, Nate had no desire to drink it. He also said that he had had it before and didn’t love it.

I hate wasting things or throwing them out, so I figured the cider would have to get used in some other form that we’d both enjoy. I scoured the internet for recipes that use cider and found quite a few, but I wanted our anniversary dessert to be something special.

So when I came across a recipe for a 3 layer cake with cider cake, cider filling and cider frosting, I knew that had to be it. Luckily, altogether it used 3+ cups of cider, but unfortunately that still leaves me with over half the bottle.

Next up I’m thinking of cider roasted pears, and maybe a cider vinaigrette.

This cake is part of the #cakelove bloghop!

you can see it here.


October Cider Cake
Taken from Oxmoor House

Print this recipe!

Makes one 3-layer cake 

3/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Cider Filling (recipe below)
Creamy Cider Frosting (recipe below)
Chopped pecans (optional)

Cream shortening; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves; add to creamed mixture alternately with cider, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in lemon juice.

Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 8-inch round cake pans. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove layers from pans, and cool completely in fridge.

Put a thin band of icing along the perimeter of each later, and then pool the Cider Filling inside. Put back in fridge to let it set completely or the filling will ooze out from the weight of the cake (trust me).

Spread top and sides with Creamy Cider Frosting. Garnish top of cake with pecans, if desired.


Cider Filling

1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup apple cider
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy saucepan; gradually stir in cider. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice and butter; cool in fridge.


Creamy Cider Frosting

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon apple cider
1/4 teaspoon salt
About 4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine first 3 ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat; cool. Gradually add sugar until spreading consistency; beat until smooth.

When life gives you…

04. August 2011 · 26 comments · Categories: Baking, Bread, Breakfast, Brunch, Cake, cooking, food, recipes · Tags: , , , ,

…lemons brown bananas, make banana bread!

My mom recently decided to bestow 3 extremely brown bananas on me. I suppose not everyone would appreciate such a gesture, but I was ecstatic! It’s rare for me to remember to buy bananas, and even less likely for me to have ones ripe enough for a perfect banana bread.

If you’ve ever made banana bread with yellow bananas, you’re doing it wrong. Even ones heavily mottled with brown spots aren’t quite there. The best bananas for bread have to be brown and so soft that they’re falling apart. If you happen to have bananas in this state and don’t have time to be baking banana bread, remove the peel and put them in a ziploc in the freezer until you’re ready.


Please don’t forget to peel them before you freeze them. I made this mistake once, and that’s all it took. It’s literally impossible to remove the peel, and just messy after it defrosts. Trust me.

Anyway, I wanted to make some changes to my family’s absolute favorite banana bread recipe. I’m not one to alter perfection, but I had some buttermilk leftover from making baked chicken fingers, and didn’t want it to go to waste. I also, for some unknown reason, had the idea that I wanted to throw some polenta into the recipe to give it a little crunch.

When I first took the bread out of the oven and cut myself a slice, I wasn’t sure what to think. It wasn’t the bread I was used to, and I’m not big on change.

But when I had another taste the next day, I kind of liked the subtle, crunchier texture. I mean, it’s not the recipe from childhood, but that’s ok. I can always go back to the old recipe, but I think this one might stick around for a while.


Chocolate Chip Polenta Banana Bread

Recipe by Me

Print this recipe!

Makes 1 loaf

1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 cup flour
1 cup polenta
1/2 cup light buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Grease bottom of a loaf pan.

Mix together sugar and egg, by hand or with mixer. Mix in bananas, butter, and buttermilk.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, polenta, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to banana mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into loaf pan.

Bake 50-60 minutes til golden, and toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Chocolate Cookie…ice cream sandwich!

01. August 2011 · 27 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, Dessert, food, recipes · Tags: , , ,

I usually like to keep our apartment stocked with at least something home-baked, whether it be breakfast goodies or dessert. But since moving, I haven’t really done any baking.

Because Nate likes to have dessert after dinner every night, we always have an assortment of cookies in the house. He runs 4 days a week (5 when he’s training for a marathon), and I feel like he doesn’t eat enough to support all the exercise he gets. So I encourage his dessert habit nightly. However, he hasn’t really been in the “mood” for the cookies lately, so I knew I had to bake him something good so he doesn’t whither away to nothing. I only wish I had to eat dessert every night to maintain my figure!

Anyway, it’s been so hot out that I wanted to give him something refreshing. That’s when i decided on ice cream sandwiches. I asked him some flavor cookie/ice cream combos he likes and he said chocolate cookies with mint chocolate chip ice cream, so that’s what i gave him!

You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to find a chocolate cookie recipe, but it was. I ended up just looking for chocolate chip cookie recipes and figured i could just add cocoa powder.

However, because this was a last-minute idea, I needed one that didn’t require softening the butter ahead of time. I searched for ones with oil instead of butter. The only one I could find that didn’t need softened butter used melted butter instead.

So I guessed how much cocoa powder to flour I’d need. The batter was really wet and I crossed my fingers as I slid the first batch into the oven. But you know what? They were PERFECT! I shoved a couple in the freezer to cool them off and made Nate one tasty ice cream sandwich. Nate certainly didn’t refuse dessert that night :)


Chocolate Cookies with White and Dark Chocolate Chips

Recipe by Me

Print this recipe!

Makes about 18 large cookies

1.75  cups all purpose flour
.5 cups dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbl (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter – melt & cool it until warm
1 cup packed lt or dk brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 lg egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 325 degrees and have racks on upper & lower middle positions. Put parchment paper on 2 oversized cookie sheets (or do it in batches with smaller cookie sheets).

Whisk together flour, salt & baking soda in medium size bowl. Set aside.

Mix butter & sugars until thoroughly blended by hand or with electric mixer. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla until combined.

Add flour, cocoa powder, salt & baking soda mixture to butter, sugar, egg & vanilla mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Stir in chips to taste.

Roll scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Put ball on cookie sheet leaving 2.5 inches between each ball.

Bake about 15 – 18 minutes, switching sheets halfway through reversing sheets front to back and top to bottom. cookies should be light golden brown and outer edges should start to harden, but centers are soft & puffy. Cool cookies on cookie sheets. When cool, peel from parchment.

Make into an ice cream sandwich!


July 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge…

27. July 2011 · 34 comments · Categories: Baking, Cake, cooking, Dessert, food, recipes · Tags: , , , , , ,

As you all know (or maybe not if you’ve only recently joined me), but I am a member of the Daring Bakers. Each month they host a challenge composed of a very complicated dessert that you must bake and post on the 27th of the month.

Unfortunately, last month I was in the midst of packing up my kitchen, so I wasn’t able to complete it. It’s too bad because the challenge was something I’ve always wanted to make, baklava.

But I’m back in the game this month with my brand new, much larger kitchen! It’s so nice to be cooking on the huge counters. I don’t even know what to do with all the space. You should see the mess I made in the process of cooking this. I used 4 bowls and two pots…just because I could!

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

This recipe was randomly requested from someone at work who happens to be French, but I put off making it because I knew it would take a lot of time. Well who would have thought it would be the recipe for my Daring Bakers Challenge! At least it gave me a reason to dive in and conquer this many stepped recipe.

Me and Frenchie

Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, and even kind of fun. I got real satisfaction seeing the finished product and knowing that I made that.

I brought it into work and it got compliments. Personally, I thought it was good but probably not worth all the effort I put into it. Maybe it’s because I’m not a fan of cream-based desserts. But if you are, and you have a spare weekend to bake/whip/assemble, then by all means give this a shot! ;)

These recipes have been adapted from the cook book Tartine by Elisabeth M Prueitt and Chad Robertson, the chefs and owners of Tartine, a beloved San Francisco bakery.

Basic Chiffon Cake:

Ingredients:

1 cup + 2 tablespoons (270 ml) (5½ oz/155 gm) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (4 gm) baking powder
3/4 cups (180 ml) (6 oz /170 gm) sugar
1/2 teaspoon (2½ ml) (1½ gm) salt, preferably kosher
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) vegetable oil
3 large egg yolks
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon (3.17 fl oz/95 ml) water
1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon (3¾ ml) (3 gm) lemon zest, grated
5 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1 gm) cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to moderate 325°F (160°C/gas mark 3).

Line the bottom of an 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan with parchment paper. Do not grease the sides of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Add in all but 3 tablespoons (45 ml.) of sugar, and all of the salt. Stir to combine.In a small bowl combine the oil, egg yolks, water, vanilla and lemon zest. Whisk thoroughly.

Combine with the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly for about one minute, or until very smooth.

Put the egg whites into a stand mixer, and beat on medium speed using a whisk attachment on a medium speed, until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat on a medium speed until the whites hold soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining sugar and beat on a medium-high speed until the whites hold firm and form shiny peaks.

Using a grease free rubber spatula, scoop about ⅓ of the whites into the yolk mixture and fold in gently. Gently fold in the remaining whites just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Removed the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack.

To unmold, run a knife around the sides to loosen the cake from the pan and remove the spring form sides. Invert the cake and peel off the parchment paper. Refrigerate for up to four days.

Simple Syrup

I chose to flavor by stirring in 1-2 teaspoons of almond extract.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup (2⅔ fl oz/80 ml) (2⅔ oz/75 gm) of sugar, flavored or white
1/3 cup (2⅔ fl oz/80 ml) of water
1-2 tsp flavored extract (optional)

Combine the water,sugar, and extract in a medium saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a boil and let the sugar dissolve. Stirring is not necessary, but will not harm the syrup.

Remove the syrup from the heat and cool slightly.

Transfer syrup to a lidded container or jar that can be stored in the refrigerator. Simple syrup can be stored for up to one month.

Fraisier Assembly

Components:

1 baked 8 inch (20 cm) chiffon cake
1 recipe pastry cream filling
⅓ cup (80 ml) simple syrup or flavored syrup
2 lbs (900 g) strawberries
confectioners’ sugar for dusting
½ cup (120 ml) (5 oz/140 gm) almond paste

Line the sides of a 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan with plastic wrap. Do not line the bottom of the pan.

Cut the cake in half horizontally to form two layers.

Fit the bottom layer into the prepared spring form pan. Moisten the layer evenly with the simple syrup. When the cake has absorbed enough syrup to resemble a squishy sponge, you have enough.

Hull and slice in half enough strawberries to arrange around the sides of the cake pan. Place the cut side of the strawberry against the sides of the pan, point side up forming a ring.

Pipe cream in-between strawberries and a thin layer across the top of the cake. DO NOT USE UP PASTRY CREAM HERE.

Hull and quarter your remaining strawberries and place them in the middle of the cake. Cover the strawberries and entirely with the all but 1 tbsp. (15 ml) of the pastry cream.

Place the second cake layer on top and moisten with the simple syrup.

If desired, knead food gel into the almond paste to get desired color. Lightly dust a work surface with confectioners’ sugar and roll out the almond paste to an 8-inch round 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) thick. Spread the remaining 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of pastry cream on the top of the cake and cover with the round of almond paste.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To serve release the sides of the spring form pan and peel away the plastic wrap.

Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Another Summer BBQ recipe! Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread

12. July 2011 · 12 comments · Categories: Baking, Bread, cooking, food, recipes, Savory, Side dishes, vegetarian · Tags: , , , ,

Nate loves corn bread. Who doesn’t.

Unfortunately for my waistline, I love all bread. But I do find cornbread to be one of the tastier varieties.

There are so many different types, though. I used to think I preferred the slightly sweet ones to the savory ones, but this recipe changed my mind.

Nate, his brother, and I headed down to his mom’s house in PA for 4th of July weekend. And as is required for this patriotic holiday, we had ourselves a barbecue. I thought this cornbread sounded like a perfect accompaniment to our grillings.

The result was cheesy, slightly sweet, salty, spicy and amazing. Lucky for me, Nate’s mom owns a really old cast iron skillet, but this could easily be made in an 8 inch square baking pan.

Please do yourself a favor and make this ASAP. You will thank me.


Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread
Taken from  Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys 

Print this recipe!

Serves 6-8

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup corn kernels (frozen, fresh, or left over from a cooked cob)- I used frozen that I got to room temp in microwave
2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeños (optional, but highly recommended!)

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cayenne. Blend in the milk, eggs, and butter. Fold in the cheese, corn, and the jalapeños, if using.

3. Scoop into a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet or a buttered 8-inch square baking pan and smooth over the top. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Note: Do not overbake or the corn bread will be dry. Cut into wedges or squares and serve hot.

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