Blackberry Crumb Bars

For regular readers of this blog, you’ll know that May heralds the arrival of my favorite social event of possibly the entire year: The Virginia Gold Cup Steeple Chase (and terrier race). An homage to floppy hats, fascinators, sundresses and seersucker in the style of the Kentucky Derby, this day filled with lawn drinking, people watching and, of course, horse racing is something I look forward to every year.

In addition to the critical details of planning the perfect attire, unsurprisingly I also spend weeks debating the perfect dessert to bring. Usually I, of course, lean towards cupcakes, celebrating with Derby-worth flavors like Mint Julep and Lemon Iced Tea. But the past two years I’ve come to realize that, sadly, perhaps cupcakes aren’t the most picnic-friendly food. So this year I decided to embrace the finger foods and went with crumb bars. Which can only mean one thing…BLACKBERRIES!

It’s no secret by now that blackberries are by far my favorite fruit, and I can’t help but whip up one of my signature blackberry pies whenever they’re on sale at the grocery.  One would think that crumb bar recipes would be pretty standard, but apparently this is not the case. I scoured dozens of recipes to find one that was not too crumb-heavy, and used both blackberry jam as well as whole blackberries to boost the sweetness and blackberry flavor. And, let me tell you, this recipe from Rumbly In My Tumbly is beyond drool-worthy. Trust me. Plan ahead, because when blackberries hit your local farmer’s market this summer, these will be the star of any pool party or BBQ you take them to.

Blackberry Crumb Bars make their Gold Cup debut

A couple of notes:

I love that these came together very quickly, leaving me plenty of time to also throw together a batch of lemon bars (can we also talk about how there is a dearth of good lemon bar recipes out there?) But I do recommend refrigerating them for several hours if you have the time to help them keep shape once you slice them. You could also substitute just about any fruit/jam combo for these bars, and the cream cheese drizzle frosting is optional if you’re trying to cut sugar but, believe me, it adds a lot. 

Blackberry Crumb Bars

1 cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon zest (about 1 medium-sized lemon)
1 teaspoon baking Powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, Cold and cut into pieces
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blackberries
1 1/4 cups of blackberry jam
1/8 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons cornstarch

Frosting
3 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 - 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon extract *optional
1-2 Tablespoons of cream or milk

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 9x13 inch pan with foil and butter/spray the foil.

2. In a large bowl, combine the lemon zest and 1 cup sugar. Using your fingertips, rub the zest into the sugar until it becomes moist and fragrant. (I used my food processor, and just pulsed the sugar and lemon together a few times) Add the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter, or use your finger tips to incorporate the butter. But work quickly, you don't want the heat from your fingers to melt the butter too much. (Again, I just used my food processor and pulsed it a few times). Stir in the egg. Dough will be crumbly and coarse, like thick wet sand.

4. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

5. In a separate, large bowl, stir together the 1/8 cup of sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blackberries and jam.

6. Carefully sprinkle/spread the blackberry mixture evenly over the crust (leave about a 1/4-inch border around the edges of the pan so the berries won't burn.)

7. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer. Bake in preheated oven for 30-45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown.

8. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Slowly sift in the powdered sugar. Start to add a little bit of the cream (don't add it all at once.) Add as much or as little of the powdered sugar and cream as needed. The drizzle should not be too thick, you want to be able to shake it onto the bars in a zigzag patten with a whisk or fork.

9. Drizzle the cream cheese mixture over the top of the warm bars.  Cool completely before cutting into squares.

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Snickerdoodle Dandy

So I've decided to ease into my "spicy" fall recipe extravaganza slowly by starting with a recipe that highlights just a single spice: cinnamon. I was instantly intrigued when I came across this recipe for Snickerdoodle Pie from Better Home & Gardens because it seems simple and homey yet comforting in the way that fall food always is. And, I mean, who doesn't love Snickerdoodles?
Even though it's assembled like a pie, this dessert puffs up just like its cookie namesake.

I also decided to pair this pie with a jarred caramel sauce and a quick cinnamon whipped cream. I'm totally pushing the cinnamon whipped cream this fall because it pairs with everything and is possibly the easiest way ever to impress your friends :) Also a note, the cinnamon syrup that tops this pie is delicious on its own and you may want to make up a couple of extra batches just to put on apple pie or vanilla ice cream or just about anything else you have in the house. It's that good.

Oh, and on a personal note...This is my 50th blog post! Hurray for me and a HUGE thanks to all of my readers out there!

Snickerdoodle Pie
1 recipe of your favorite pie crust
or 1 rolled, refrigerated unbaked pie crust
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 plus 1/4 tsp cinnamon, divided
2 tsp butter, melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
3 Tbs water
2 Tbs light corn syrup
1/2 plus 1 tsp vanilla, divided
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pie crust and line 9-in pie plate. In a bowl combine 1 Tbs. sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Brush melted butter over pie crust and sprinkle with 1 tsp of cinnamon sugar mix, set aside. (Reserve remaining cinnamon sugar).

2. For syrup, in a small saucepan combine brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter, water, corn syrup and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil gently for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 tsp vanilla and set aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat 1/4 cup softened butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Beat in sugar, powdered sugar, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar until well combined. Beat in egg and 1 tsp vanilla. Gradually beat in the milk until combined. Beat in flour. Spread evenly in crust-lined plate.

4. Slowly pour syrup over the filling in the pie plate, sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. Cover edges of the pie with foil and bake 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 20 minutes more or until top is puffed and golden brown. Cool 30 minutes on a wire rack and serve warm.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream
8 oz whipping cream
1/8 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon depending on taste

1. Using an electric mixer, beat cream at medium speed until fluffy and thick, about 2 minutes.
2. Add remaining ingredients to taste and mix until combined.

That's it!! I told you it was easy.

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Bananarama

Just as summer tends to lead to an overabundance of certain garden fruits and vegetables (zucchini comes to mind...) bananas are also a summer fruit that I can almost never seem to get through before the bunch seems to speckle and soften almost overnight. Such was the case this weekend when I came home from a business trip to be greeted by the sickly-sweet smelling present of overripe bananas I'd inadvertently left on the counter in the mad dash to make it out of the house the week before. Yummy. My mom is almost religious about freezing overripe bananas, which is a great idea for not wasting food and also to have bananas on hand whenever you need them for dishes like banana bread or even smoothies. Eyeing up the brown bunch, naturally banana bread was my first thought but having just made more zucchini bread than one human needs to eat, I was hoping to skip the loaves and mix it up a little.

Flipping through the tome of Martha Stewart Cupcakes I'd received for my birthday, eagerly deciding which recipe I should pick to take the plunge into the 175 (Yes, 175) recipes, I happened to stumble across one for Roasted Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting. Bingo! At first I thought "Roasted Banana" was simply the name of the recipe but, reading on, Martha does in fact call for you to actually roast the fruit. Don't worry, there are no spits or fire pits involved, simply placing unpeeled bananas into a 400 degree oven to enhance the flavors. Similarly to roasting almonds or hazelnuts (which, admittedly, I often skip in recipes) you'd be surprised how much a shot of heat really increases the taste.

Lately I'm also a really big fan of nontraditional frosting combinations, and I think that cinnamon-honey does a lot more for this cupcake than a typical vanilla or even cream cheese would. Because the cake recipe itself doesn't call for any spices, the cinnamon in the frosting makes it just slightly reminiscent of banana bread but in a modern way. Also because banana is a more neutral flavor, this would also be a good candidate for a filled cupcake (I just bought a Wilton #230 Bismarck Tip, stay tuned!) maybe with an apple cinnamon, or chocolate hazelnut filling, or something of that nature. I'm so glad I gave these cupcakes a whirl and I know they will definitely be on my recipe rotation from now on for whenever I have those pesky brown bananas hanging around.

Roasted Banana Cupcakes
makes 12-16

3 ripe bananas, plus 1-2 more for garnish
2 cups cake flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Place 3 whole unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet and roast 15 minutes (the peels will darken). Meanwhile, sift together cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Remove bananas from oven and let cool before peeling. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

2. With a mixer on med-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add roasted bananas, and beat to combine. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of sour cream, and beating until just combined after each. Beat in vanilla.

3. In another mixing bowl, with mixer on medium speed, whisk egg shites to soft peaks; fold one-third whites into batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in two batches.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a tester in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting, thinly slice remaining bananas and place atop cupcakes just before serving, if desired. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Honey Cinnamon Frosting
2/12 cups powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 Tbs honey
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat all ingredients until smooth. Use immediately, or refrigerate up to 5 days in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat until smooth.

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Luck O' the Irish Cream

Because I'm so obsessed with St. Patrick's Day, you all get a two-for-one recipe special on the blog today! I'm one of those people that enjoys St. Patty's Day because they like to pretend they are more Irish than they actually are. This sense is buoyed by the fact that I have genetically inherited several Irish traits. For example, for a school project at age 11 I wrote a story about a family emigrating to escape the Irish potato famine (what kind of child writes about the potato famine?) Additionally, I have an unnatural love for potatoes and I actually enjoy boiled cabbage. I also love to drink. I can impersonate an Irish accent and can tell the difference between Irish and Scottish accents. I also own a thatched-roof dairy farm near the Cliffs of Moher where I raise my own sheep to produce artisanal cheeses. Okay, maybe not that last one. But I am Irish, I swear! In all honesty, my maternal grandmother's maiden name was Slattery (which is about as Irish as you can get, short of O'Slattery) but our nearest born-in-Ireland ancestor arrived in America roughly 150 years ago. Sooo we don't exactly have ties to the old country.

But that's what St. Patrick's Day is for! A day when everyone is Irish. And drunk. As for holiday recipes, I've purposefully avoided anything green but I have given in to making Irish Soda Bread. To balance out the fact that every food blogger and their mother will be making Irish Soda Bread today, I have also made Irish Cream Brownies. At least Irish Soda Bread actually has some Celtic ties, whereas corned beef is not truly Irish. But that's ok, on this day, no matter what your heritage, go ahead and dig out that hideously too tight green Abercrombie polo shirt from college, find the nearest "Irish pub" and raise a stein of green beer to St. Patrick. And, when you're hungover, line your tummy with yummy Irish Soda bread and remember that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is still making it to work on time Wednesday morning.


Irish Soda Bread
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 Tbs unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
2 cups golden raisins (or regular)
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbs heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with a few large clumps remaining (may want to use hands). Fold in raisins.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the whole egg, buttermilk and baking soda. Pour egg mixture into the flour mixture; using a spatula, fold in, working in all directions and incorporating the crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, until dough just comes together (may need to add a couple more Tbs of buttermilk). With your hands, form the dough into a round, domed loaf about 8" in diameter. Gently life the dough from the bowl and transfer to the prepared sheet.

3. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolk with cream; brush over the loaf. With a sharp knife, cut a cross 3/4" deep in the top center of the loaf. Bake, rotating halfway through, 55 min- 1hr 10 min.

Irish Cream Brownies
1 cup butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate (Baker's brand)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Irish Cream Swirl
2 8-oz pkgs cream cheese (room temp)
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbs Irish Cream liqueur

For the brownies: Place butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring often. Remove from heat and let cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9 pan with foil coated with cooking spray.

Beat sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl with handmixer until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Add flour and sugar gradually. Fold in the melted chocolate mixture.

For the filling: Combine cream cheese and sugar in another medium bowl. Beat until creamy. Add egg and liqueur and beat.

Pour half of the chocolate mixture into the pan. Spread all of the cream cheese mixture over the chocolate (this may get messy, that's ok). Cover with the remaining chocolate mixture and smooth. If desired, swirl layers together with a knife for a marbled effect. Bake 30-40 minutes.

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Super Quick Bisquick

I wish I could take credit for this awesome-looking biscuit dough but, as you can probably intuit from the title of this post, it is in fact courtesy of none other than Bisquick. As an aside, the spellcheck suggestions for Bisquick are bisque and Basque. Interesting?

Anyways.

Biscuits aren't at all in my normal dinner repertoire but, having picked up some steak on a whim at the grocery store on my way home from work, I knew that the lowly can of green beans I had planned to microwave as a side dish just wasn't going to cut it. I was craving carbs. For some reason, the old standby of "steak and potatoes" didn't occur to me at the grocery store, and a quick scan of my pantry revealed that I didn't even have instant potato flakes. My glance fell across a bag of cornmeal and I started having warm-and-fuzzy flashbacks of the Jiffy cornmuffin mix my mom used to make. With that as an option I also caught a glimpse of a forgotten box of Bisquick mix peeking out from one of the lower shelves--When did I buy that? Though I assumed biscuits to be a long and messy affair, a quick comparison of ingredients showed that, whereas the corn muffin recipe called for 8 ingredients (8!) and 20 minutes of bake time, the biscuits needed only the baking mix and milk. Genius.

Of course, these aren't the enormous, flaky biscuits you may remember from childhood, but for a biscuit that can be made start to finish in 10 minutes I don't think you can beat these light and airy ones. As you can see, I made the rolled-out version of these biscuits (with the help of my trusty high-tech rolling pin...an empty wine bottle) but they can be even easier if you make drop-biscuits using heaping tablespoonfuls of dough dropped onto a cookie sheet instead. Before, Bisquick baking mix was one of those things that didn't even register to me when scanning the grocery store shelves. But, now that I know this one versatile mix can be used not only for biscuits but also for breading, shortbread, pancakes as well as hundreds of other recipes from Bisquick's website, it is definitely going to be one of my pantry staples from now on.

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Kneadlessly Simple: Cookbook Review

I have a confession. Although I profess to have a love of all things "baking," I am scared to death of yeast breads. Throughout these past couple of months of faithfully blogging out a record of my baking indulgences, I've always had a nagging voice in my head insinuating that I'll never be a "real" baker until I can actually make bread dough from scratch. Fortunately, however, this voice does not imply that I should be in any hurry to master the art of pastry dough. Let's not go overboard here. Because making a yeast bread from scratch is time consuming and factor-dependent, I guess I'm afraid that I'll devote two hours of careful attention to my dough only to end up with flat, rock hard doorstops instead of soft, flaky dinner rolls, for example. Maybe another excuse is that I am exceedingly immautre and have never really been comfortable with the words "yeast," "yeasty," or "yeasted." So, imagine my joy when I came across a new cookbook devoted entirely to breads that don't require kneading, thereby removing the most labor-intensive part of the process.

Finally, a cookbook for lazy time-conscious bakers like me. Don't get me wrong, I know that one day I will finally give in to the yeast yen, as I can already tell that there would be something immensely satisfying about baking up my own foccacia and ciabatta. I daydream about smiling to myself while I lunch in my cubicle, enjoying a turkey-and-cheese between two slices of soft, home-baked white bread. How quaint. But, until I'm ready to take the plunge, thankfully Nancy Baggett has created Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads as a stepping stone to the yeasty world of homemade breads.

This book includes a full 75 recipes ranging from classics like honey wheat and sourdough, to specialities like rosemary foccacia and brioche, as well as pannettone and other sweet breads (Double Chocolate-Honey Bread--need I say more?). Filled with gorgeous pictures and with easy to follow instructions this is a great book for anyone looking to liven up their bread repetoire, save a little bit of time, and get a little bit of that bakery-fresh flavor right at home.

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"Laissez les bons temps rouler"

Cake may not be the first thing you think of when you hear the words "Mardi Gras." More likely, you have visions of raucous debauchery heralding the last hurrah before 40 days and nights of oh-so-exciting Lenten deprivation. But in addition to beads and booze, King Cake is another (albeit more tame) New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition.

There are a number of legends tracing the history of King Cake all the way from the pre-Christian times when the cake helped decide who would be sacrificed to please the gods for that year. (Ooh, maybe this cake is more exciting than I thought) Ultimately the tradition was one of many adapted to Christian worship and its descendant--the French Galette des Rois--was the inspiration for the cake prepared all across the southern U.S. today. There are also many traditions associated with the cake, like including an uncooked bean, nut or even tiny baby representing the baby Jesus hidden inside. If you get the piece with the hidden treasure you'll have good luck for the rest of the year as well as the duty of baking next year's King Cake (much improved from the pagan times when this meant you'd be the lucky villager sticking your next out for the gods).

Though the French still use the Galette des Rois to celebrate Three Kings' Day on Epiphany, the American custom that developed from French settlers in New Orleans also kicks off on Jan 6th but continues all the way through Fat Tuesday (this year on February 24), culminating on Ash Wednesday. This drawn-out celebration timeframe wasn't the only change. Whereas the French version of King Cake uses flaky puff pastry and marzipan filling, the French-American version developed as an iced, yeast-based bread covered in green, yellow and purple sugars (the official colors of Mardi Gras representing justice, faith and power). Leave it to the American influence to turn a French almond-paste galette into a coffee cake doused in garish colored sugar and stuffed with a tiny plastic baby Jesus. Oh well, it's still an improvement over human sacrifice.

Most recipes you see for King Cake are yeast-based doughs but, frankly, I don't have that kind of time. I've created an uber-lazy person's King Cake and thought it was just as tasty. You can make it even easier by substituting canned pie filling or just cinnamon sugar for the nut filling I have here. If you'd like to try the traditional New Orleans King Cake, try one of these.

Easy Mardi Gras King Cake
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup raisins
2 Tbs packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs butter or margarine, melted
1 Tbs half and half, or milk
1 Tbs honey
1 egg
1 (8 oz) can Pillsbury refrigerated crescent rolls or dough sheet

Icing
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs milk
1/8 tsp almond extract

Yellow, green and purple sugars for decorating
*note, you can also make these yourself using granulated sugar and food coloring

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except dough; set aside.

2.If using crescent rolls: On lightly floured surface, unroll dough into 1 large rectangle; press or roll into 14x10-inch rectangle, firmly pressing perforations to seal. If using dough sheet: On lightly floured surface, unroll dough; press or roll into 14x10-inch rectangle. Spread nut mixture evenly over dough to within 1/2 inch of long sides.

3. Fold dough in half lengthwise pressing edges to seal in filling. Use hands to squeeze dough into a log and roll gently. Place on cookie sheet, bringing ends together to form a circle; press to seal ends together.

4. Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cover loosely with foil if bread is browning too quickly. Cool 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix icing ingredients until thin enough to drizzle and smooth.

5. Ice cake and decorate with sugars--don't worry about being messy, this cake is meant to signify the craziness of the celebration! Best served warm. (Oh, and this is when you insert the plastic baby...you know, in case you have one of those just laying around)

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Can't afford Paris? Try Bucharest!

At first glance, you might think that this is a picture of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. But if you look a bit closer you’ll realize that you are only half correct. It is the Arc de Triomphe…in Romania.

One of the things I have most been looking forward to exploring through my new blog is baking traditions from around the world. For those of you that know me personally, you might not be that surprised to see that my first foreign food foray is into Romanian cuisine. On a whim I spent my first year at the Ohio State University studying Romanian language and had the time of my life. At the time I was burnt out after 6 years of studying Spanish and was looking for something new and different. Of course, being young and stupid, I didn’t realize that Romanian is a Romance language and, thus, not really all that different from Spanish. Oops. But I met lots of great people and had possibly the sweetest old lady teacher to have ever emigrated from a communist stronghold. Also unbeknownst to me, this may have been the subconscious beginnings of my Francophilia.

I don’t expect anyone to know anything about Romania, but one thing I was surprised to find out is that they think they are French. Witness: they have an Arc de Triomphe. They also refer to their capital, Bucureşti, as “Little Paris.” They say “merci” (but, then again, so do the Iranians so I suppose I can’t fault them for that). I’ll spare you the history lesson, but suffice it to say that as early as 1853 a Romanian politician was pleading with Napoleon III to annex Romania to France. Seriously.

Thanks to the generosity of my Romanian professor, I also came to love the nation’s food. With obvious Eastern European influences, having been conquered by the Romans, and this clear French obsession, Romanian cuisine has taken on the best of many worlds. Since college I have been searching for a baked mămăligă recipe, which is basically a baked cheesy polenta. I finally found one courtesy of Galia Sperber and could only smile when I read the description she included above the recipe: “For some reason, which is still unclear to me today, this dish is called an ours (the French word for a bear).”

Mămăligă la Culptor
2 ½ cups milk
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup soft white cheese
¾ cup butter or margarine
Salt to taste
3 eggs, beaten

Bring the milk to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the cornmeal bit by bit, stirring continuously so that no lumps form, until it reaches the consistency of porridge.
Add half the cheese, half the butter, and the salt and mix well.
Allow the polenta to cool slightly and mix in the eggs.
In a greased 11” round cake pan, place half the polenta mixture.
Cover with sprinkling of the rest of the cheese and remaining butter in small pieces.
Fill the pan with the rest of the polenta. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 min.

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C'est La V-Day

So, here it is. Valentine’s Day. Since the dawn of 1 February I’ve been debating the merits of a Valentine’s Day blog post. I guess because I’m one of those people that debates the merits of Valentine’s Day. Yes, I’m one of those people. When I’m with someone on Valentine’s Day I always enjoy whatever we do together, though I can never shake the feeling that it’s somehow cheapened by societally-imposed expectations, and when I’m alone, well, Hallmark does a great job of hitting that one home as well. I mean, I’m all for sharing a day together with the one you love, basking in each other’s doleful eyes, spoon-feeding each other from your respective overly priced desserts across a candlelit table and all that crap. But, I mean, why do we need to SET ASIDE a day for that? Shouldn’t we be doing this already??

But I digress.

I am doing a Valentine’s Day blog post because I have decided that it would be a disservice to have a blog devoted to baking and not participate in one of the few days devoted to all things sweet and sugary. I am also doing a Valentine’s Day post because it allows me to daydream once more about my one true love…France. On my last trip to Paris a friend and I got to spend an amazing three hours drinking wine and learning to make pastries from a French chef. The next time you are in Paris, I cannot recommend these classes highly enough. We even got to keep the recipes for all of our creations and I thought this would be the perfect occasion to break out the one for Moelleux au Chocolat. This literally translates to “Chocolate Softness.” Amazing, I know. Basically, they are individual chocolate lava cakes. In class we made them with (stick with me here) a banana-avocado sauce. Which I know sounds gross but really only tastes like banana and provides a striking green splash across the dark chocolate cakes—incredible. But, for the sake of St. Valentine, I thought I would try amending this to a pink strawberry banana sauce instead. Enjoy!

Moelleux au Chocolat
5 oz light brown sugar (2/3 cup)
5 oz butter (1 stick and 2 Tbs)
5 oz dark chocolate (70%)
6 eggs, beaten
2 oz flour (1/4 cup)
1 oz softened butter for the molds

1. Slowly melt the chocolate and butter in a casserole dish over a pan of simmering water.
2. Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl.
3. Remove the melted chocolate from the heat and add the eggs, mix well and add the flour/sugar mixture, stirring to combine.
4. Pour the batter into buttered aluminum molds (the Reynolds ramekin-sized ones) and allow to chill for 1-2 hours.
5. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook for 10-12 minutes.

Strawberry Banana Sauce
Strawberries (about 1/2 pint)
1 ripe banana
2 Tbs sugar
Juice of ½ an orange
Juice of ½ a lemon

Add all ingredients to a blender and mix well, refrigerate until ready to use.
For the avocado banana sauce, simply substitute 1 ripe avocado for the strawberries.

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Mug Shot

Surfing the web I happened to come across what is possibly the most dangerous recipe I have ever seen. Not because it involves blow-torches or any other dangerous equipment, but because it is a recipe for a chocolate cake…an individual chocolate cake…which can be made in 5 minutes…in the microwave. As if you needed any more excuses to break your New Year’s weight loss resolutions. There is both an “easy” and an “easier” version of this recipe and I have included both (you’re welcome). These would also make great Valentine’s Day gifts for friends baked in cutesy holiday-themed mugs and wrapped in cellophane.

Easier Chocolate Mug Cake
9 Tbs hot chocolate powder mix
4 Tbs flour
1 egg
3 Tbs oil
3 Tbs water
pinch of salt
Chocolate chips (optional)

Easy Chocolate Mug Cake
4 Tbs cake or all-purpose flour
4 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs cocoa powder
1 egg
3 Tbs milk
3 Tbs oil
splash of vanilla
chocolate chips (optional)

Grease the inside of the mug with cooking spray. Measure and pour the dry ingredients into the mug and stir to combine. Add the egg and stir to combine. Measure and pour the remaining wet ingredients into the mug, stir to combine making sure that all dry ingredients are incorporated from the bottom of the mug, stir in chocolate chips if using. Microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes.

*NOTE: You may want to use a larger-than-average mug for this, as the cake does rise as it cooks

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Boozy Baking

After the success of my chai recipes, I’ve started wondering which others of my favorite flavors I could meld into new baking projects. Seeing as how “loaded baked potato” doesn’t exactly come down on the dessert side of the menu, I turned to one of my other favorites: wine.

After a study abroad stint in Paris a few years ago, I came back to the States with a serious wine and cheese habit. However, while I may be an oenophile, I am certainly no sommelier. I might play along with my drinking companions when they start to rave about the “blackberry notes,” or the “honeysuckle in the nose” (I’m not joking…) but if you start to tell me about the “spicy earth flavors and cedar finish,” I will probably tell you that I just think it tastes like dirt. That being said, I know what I like (anything red) and what I don’t (Chardonnay).

I don’t have to tell you that it’s not uncommon to use wine in cooking. Probably all of our mothers have one of those kitschy kitchen placards saying something about how they love to cook with wine—if there’s any left! (chortle, chortle). But wine in baking? Similarly to cooking, when baking with wine the alcohol cooks out during the baking process leaving only the flavor. I thought a white wine cake would be nice, but if you’d like a chocolate/red wine variety, this one looks amazing. I think the white wine glaze also adds a lot but if there’s still not enough wine flavor for your taste, just go ahead and have a glass alongside :) Next I think I’d like to experiment with infusing champagne flavor into a sponge or angel food cake, and now I have plenty of reasons to keep hanging out at my new favorite wine bar, Vinoteca. You know, for…inspiration.

White Wine Cake with Glaze
1 box white or yellow cake mix
1 (3 ¾ ounce) box instant pudding (omit if using a cake mix with pudding included)
½ cup sugar (or ¼ cup white and ¼ cup brown sugars)
4 eggs
½ cup canola oil
½ cup water
½ cup white wine
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (optional)
2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all ingredients, except nuts (if using) for 1 minute on low speed. Scrape sides of bowl, and mix on medium speed for two minutes. Fold in 1 cup of pecans. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or bundt pan, and sprinkle remaining pecans on bottom of pan. Add cake batter and place in oven. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool on baking rack

Glaze
1 stick butter
1/4 c. water
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. white wine

Boil butter, sugar and water 4 to 5 minutes. Add wine, bring back boil. Pour 1/2 glaze over cake while still in pan. Let stand for 10 minutes. Turn cake out on plate, pour on remaining glaze.

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Not-So-Vanilla Vanilla

I had a close call today. You may have heard of some people that refer to themselves as “emotional eaters.” Well, I have suspicions that I may be an emotional shopper. I’ve never done well with buyer’s remorse, so it’s even worse if I go shopping only because I am sad, anxious or (worse yet) bored. Both conveniently and unfortunately, there is a 4-level shopping mall only one Metro stop from my apartment. Also to my horror, they have a Williams-Sonoma. Ah, to die only to be reincarnated as an upscale cookie cutter hanging on the wall of a Williams-Sonoma….Needless to say, this morning I barged into the store like any number of similes or analogies you could think of to describe someone barging into something. Only now, because of this blog, I have essentially become my own enabler because any little knickknack or ingredient could be justified as a blog post. I think the store clerks were probably taking bets on how much of my drool they were going to have to clean up off of the floor.

Luckily, a good friend has recently directed me to our nearest public library, so I was able to keep myself from purchasing every volume from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook/entertaining anthology. I was also thisclose to buying a set of baba au rhum molds; if they’d had cannellé molds I think that would have pushed me over the edge. What mostly caught my eye, though, was a bottle of Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Paste. Vanilla what? Obviously I am a baking novice, but I have never in my life even seen a recipe that called for vanilla paste. And don’t get too excited, the ‘bourbon’ in the name comes from the history of where the vanilla is produced, it is not alcoholic *shucks* I know. The bottle contends that it is a sweetened paste containing the vanilla bean seeds and can be used as a substitute for vanilla extract in baking. But at $11.50 per bottle I’m wondering if this paste can possibly be worth its price. I managed to resist it this time, but the 3-pack of vanilla extracts from around the world is calling to me. With vanillas of different flavors and characters coming from locales as far-flung as Mexico, Indonesia and Tahiti, maybe vanilla isn't so 'vanilla' after all.

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Reading the tea leaves

I am officially a chai fiend. Lately, I just cannot get enough of that sweet/spicy mix of cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and vanilla in my tea. I think that chai is one of those things that a person either loves or hates. I know that I am a “lover” because I can even stomach the Starbucks variety which tastes, basically, as if Christmas has exploded in your mouth. Sipping possibly my fourth cup of the day, I started to wonder if there was a way to effectively steep these chai flavors into a baked good without it coming out tasting essentially like gingerbread. After a bit of research I also came to find out, lo and behold, that January is National Hot Tea Month! Holy tea leaves, Batman! And, while I would just about die for a chai latte cupcake, I figured it’s about time to lay off of the cupcake posts for now and branch out a little. So, I give you: Chai Spice Biscotti, courtesy of MyRecipes.com (from Cooking Light, November 2000). Enjoy the last week of Hot Tea Month!

Chai Spice Biscotti

Makes 2 ½ dozen

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon loose Chai spice tea or orange spice tea (about 3 tea bags)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon triple sec (orange-flavored liqueur) or orange juice
• 3 large eggs
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (flour through allspice) in a large bowl. Combine the oil, liqueur, and eggs, and add to the flour mixture, stirring until well-blended (the dough will be dry and crumbly). Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly 7 or 8 times. Divide the dough in half. Shape each portion into an 8-inch-long roll. Place rolls 6 inches apart on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; flatten each roll to 1-inch thickness.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove the rolls from baking sheet; cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Cut each roll diagonally into 15 (1/2-inch) slices. Place the slices, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°; bake 10 minutes. Turn cookies over; bake an additional 10 minutes (the cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; cool completely on wire rack.

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Where have all the bake sales gone?

Next week I’m participating in what must be one of the oldest of those time honored traditions: the Bake Sale. After jumping at the chance to donate a baked good for this upcoming charity sale at work, I began to wonder when was the last time I’d even come into contact with a bake sale? And, no, Girl Scouts outside the supermarket don’t count. Short of church fellowship meetings and elementary school lobbies have bake sales gone the way of the lemonade stand? (And don’t even get me started on the extinction of the Cake Walk…) Anyways, as I eagerly plan what to provide for the sale I’m looking for any suggestions of bake sale favorites, as I’m guessing the charity planning committee will have more lemon bars than they know what to do with.

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Obamania!

Well, you knew it was coming. Living in DC, there’s no way I could appropriately celebrate/survive the inaugural madness without some type of Obama-themed dessert. While I wish I could say I came up with some stunningly clever type of baked good in homage to the Obamas, I’ll have to admit that I stuck with a rather traditional chocolate layer cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. But, for what it’s worth, I have to say that this is possibly one of the more difficult desserts I’ve ever attempted (I know that’s not saying too much). But this time last year you would have found me dumping out the contents of a Duncan Hines box and stirring up the contents of a can of Pillsbury frosting/cement mortar/ceiling spackle.

This project also meant I had to buy my first ever pastry bag and set of decorating tips. Again, I am of the Good Housekeeping mindset that you can generally pipe out just about anything through the snipped tip of a Ziploc baggie filled with frosting (shush, I can hear your gasps of horror). But somehow I had a feeling that my MacGyver approach to bakery design was just not going to cut it for this one.

Unfortunately, as you can see, maybe I would have been just as well off with a paintball gun because this cake is not exactly what you’d call…elegant. But that’s ok, right? It’s the spirit of the thing that counts. Hope and Change and Perseverance and A New Day and all of that. And now I have my very own pastry decorating tips to practice decorating with on all manner of cookie, cupcake, pastry and greeting card and you can bet I’ll bring my A Game for next time around in 2012.

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Cupcake Wars

If you’ve spent any time lately in my home of Washington, DC and neighboring northern Virginia, you’ve probably caught sight of a new rising starlet in town. Well, she’s not exactly “new,” really, she’s always been around; the girl next door, usually overlooked in favor of her flashier sisters or delicate and exotic French cousins. Soft, yet full of in-your-face sweetness, the public can never get enough. That’s right, I’m talking about cupcakes.

I can’t speak for other cities nationwide, but a quick survey of recent media tells me that the cupcake phenomenon sweeping DC is not unique. In fact, the “cupcakery” has become so ubiquitous here that the Washington Post devoted 8 weeks of its Food section to the “Cupcake Wars.” Each week the paper put two cupcake-bakeries head to head in a contest comparing the desserts in areas like variety, texture, flavor and cost.

And when I say “cupcakery” I don’t mean bakeries that just specialize in upscale cupcakes. I mean that, if you stop into the shops for a cookie or a brownie, you will be disappointed because these bakeries are devoted entirely to the cupcake. Not surprisingly, to me this is a godsend. But understandably, I have had some difficulty convincing my friends that, in the midst of a crappy economy, up to $3.25 for a cupcake is money well spent. But one stop into my favorite new cupcake shop in town, Hello Cupcake, tells me that I am not alone. When Hello Cupcake opened in the Summer of 2008, I made sure to stop in during its first week in business. My friends and I eagerly walked through the doors at midday on a Friday only to find that by 2:00pm only 3 out of 13 daily flavors were left. With flavors like ‘Peanut Butter Blossom,’ ‘Tiramisu,’ and ‘Raspberry Beret,’ these cakes are clearly hard to resist and I find it easy to justify the cost of a boutique dessert by comparing it to something like a scoop of ice cream or a happy hour drink after a long day at work.

It doesn’t matter to me if DC might be somewhat behind the curve of the cupcake wave, because the simple pleasures of this old-fashioned dessert are timeless, an endless source of baking inspiration and, dare I say it-sexy?

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Red Velvet, if you please

Given the admittedly silly title of this blog, I thought it only appropriate that the first recipe featured on it be—cupcakes! And not just any cupcake, but a red velvet cupcake.

I can hear you now: “Red what?”

You’d certainly be forgiven if you’ve never crossed paths with the unique red velvet cake. In fact, even for most the proficient bakers it’s difficult to describe what, exactly, is red velvet. Clearly, it is red. And although the ingredients include cocoa powder, you’d probably be hard pressed to find a sampler who could pick out anymore than the slightest wisp of chocolate flavor. So isn’t this, essentially, a yellow cake dyed red? Oh, but it is so much more.

As a Yankee through and through, I suffer from the perception that everything in the south is just a little more...larger than life. So, perhaps that this southern comfort dessert is simply bright red should come as no surprise. Though the red velvet cake is usually associated with the southern US in popular imagination, its historical origins are also tied to any number of myths and urban legends since it first became popular in the early 1900s. This cake has enjoyed a surge in popularity over the past two decades--you may have recognized an armadillo-shaped one in Steel Magnolias, and popstar Jessica Simpson even chose a six-tiered red velvet behemoth for her wedding cake in 2002. Ever since I was young I have memories of my mother raving about an unbeatable, 7-layer red velvet cake that her grandmother used to make. While I may not yet be ambitious enough to attempt a full seven layers, maybe these delicious little cakes are just the place to start.

If you’d like a more traditional red velvet cake, try one with a butter roux frosting

The recipe I followed is from "Hey there, cupcake!" courtesy of Recipezaar

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 ounces water
• 2 ounces red food coloring
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

cream cheese frosting

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12 cupcake cups or line with paper liners.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add eggs and blend well.
4. Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring and add to the butter mixture.
5. Sift flour and salt together into this mixture.
6. One at a time, add the following ingredients: buttermilk, vanilla, and water.
7. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and the baking soda. Fold it into the cake batter. Make sure it's incorporated, but don't beat it.
8. Pour the batter into the cupcake cups. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn out of pan and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.
10. Cream Cheese Frosting: Blend together the following: 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.

*A couple of notes.

• You can make your own buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar to milk and letting it stand for 10 minutes.
• Due to the cream cheese frosting, these cupcakes must be refrigerated
• If you can't find liquid food coloring gel dye is fine, it will just take extra-thorough mixing to be sure it is distributed evenly
  

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