Category Archives: Desserts

Banana Bread (with Chocolate Bits)

I’m generally not a fan of bananas eaten anything other than in vivo, ie., peeled and popped into the mouth, fresh but not too ripe. I don’t like them in ice cream, oatmeal, cereal, cakes or even in fruit salads. Certain foods, in my opinion, just need to be enjoyed one-on-one, you know?

But last week, in my mother-in-law’s kitchen, a few over-ripe bananas were calling out not to be wasted, so my daughter and I decided to make banana bread. I figured that since others were there with us that evening, I would be under no obligation to eat the thing I was making, and my daughter and I would have a little kitchen fun, which we did.

To my surprise, I loved this bread! Perhaps it was the scattered chocolate, or the lack of large banana pieces to turn me off. Or the use of melted butter rather than oil or room temp butter.

Whatever.

This bread is moist, flavorful and keeps well in the fridge. It’s delicious eaten warm or even better, toasted and topped with a schmear of cream cheese.

Enjoy!

Banana Bread

I love that this recipe can be made entirely by hand, using just a whisk, fork and rubber spatula. This recipe is adapted from The Kitchn Website, which unfortunately left out a step in their instructions (forgetting to tell us when to add the sugar.) But the entire post is otherwise well worth the read, and the accompanying pics are great.
Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • softened butter for greasing the pan
  • 8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 medium, very ripe bananas
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3 ounces good dark chocolate, shaved or chopped into irregular sized small piece

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F with rack on bottom third of the oven. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8×5-inch loaf pan, then line with parchment paper, letting the excess hang over the long sides, and lightly grease the paper too.
  • Whisk melted butter and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Whisk in milk and vanilla. Peel the bananas, slice and add them to the bowl, mashing them in with a fork or pastry blender, leaving pieces as small or large as you like (I like them small and few in number.) If you want an entirely smooth batter, mash the bananas separately, then add to the batter.
  • Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl, then gently fold them into the batter using a rubber spatula just till combined. Do not over-mix. Fold in chocolate pieces.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for 50-65 minutes, checking with a toothpick or cake tester starting at around 50 minutes (Mine took 60 minutes, and could have gone another 5 minutes without harm.). This is a very moist cake, more likely to under- than over-bake.
  • Cool bread in the pan on a wire rack for a least 10 minutes before removing from pan, then cool another 10 minutes before slicing.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Philly Block Party Lemon Bars

We’ve owned our house in the Fairmount section of Philly for almost three years now, in anticipation of the day when we are ready to trade money for time, give up the daily grind that is the price for life in New York City, and move back home.

Well, I’m here to tell you that day has come.

A little sooner than anticipated.

You see, our landlord has decided to sell our Upper West Side apartment, and is not renewing our lease. Though I adore the apartment (small, but airy and sunny and the nicest kitchen I’ve ever had), we’re not going to try to buy it. Now is not the time to sink any part of our life’s savings into a building whose infrastructure seems to be crumbling around us.

Since we moved in, the hot water supply in the apartment has been anemic and erratic – it takes almost a half hour to heat up the water in the shower in our apartment line. (Old pipes…) Thankfully, our upstairs neighbor gets up earlier than we do, and runs her shower while she’s working out so that by the time we wake up, we can all take a hot morning shower. (I love New Yorkers…)

Four weeks ago, the building failed a Con-Ed inspection and our gas was shut off. (Old gas lines…) That means we have no working stove or oven. And probably will not have for the duration of our lease, which ends in four months.

Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s not the end of the world. We have heat and hot water (as it is). I’m making do for now with a cheap hot plate, but our landlord is getting us a larger countertop burner and oven. (I’m praying it will accommodate a Dutch oven for bread making…)

We’ve taken all this – the hot water, the gas, the unexpected lease non-renewal – as a sign that it’s time to leave. Not just this apartment, but New York City. We’ve been dragging out this goodbye for almost three years, and now it’s time.

Truth be told, I think we needed the push. ‘Cause you know, I do so love New York.

But I also love Philly.

I love the fact that we won’t need to keep working to afford to live there.

I love that I’ll be so close to family. (My sis and I share an alley and my daughter lives a few blocks away and did I tell you she’s engaged???!!!).

I love that I have a little brick row house with a backyard and it’s all my own, on the VERY BEST BLOCK in Philly. It’s a few blocks away from where we lived when we first were married, just around the corner from an amazing coffee shop, a bodega and local grocery, the best Bahn Mi sandwiches sandwiches and burgers I’ve ever eaten, and the great Irish bar with music on Friday nights. A stone’s throw from the Schuykill River and the excellent biking on the river drives. (Although I’m still puzzling out where to store the bikes…)

This past Friday, my daughter, sis and her hubby joined us and our dear out-of-town friends for drinks at our house, which is still sparsely furnished and awaiting our move here early next year. After drinks, we walked a few short blocks for a delicious Italian dinner on an outdoor table bathed by a warm heater. We closed the place after 11 pm, stopping on our walk home to watch the last play of the Phillies-Padres game on the outdoor big screen at the Irish bar. To top off the evening, the Phils won.

Then on Saturday, as If I needed any more convincing to move to Philly, our block had a party. (Didn’t I tell you I live on THE VERY BEST BLOCK in Philly?). The weather was perfect.

They blocked the ends of the street off to cars and set up chairs and tables, a moon jump for the kids and a big screen TV for the game.

There was even a band!

And lots of food.

We contributed our wooden folding table and benches. And I made lemon bars. In my WORKING GAS OVEN.

We met the most interesting, lovely people. Everyone was warm and welcoming. I can’t wait to get to know them all!

At the end of the night, we gathered around the TV to watch the Phils win the game that put them into the World Series. A perfect Philly way to end the day. Or as my sis put it “…watching the Phils’ at a block party? You gotch’er bona fides!”

Philly, I’m coming home.

Print Recipe

Lemon Bars

This recipe is from Ina Garten. Be sure to use the correct sized pan (9x13x2in). My pan was small, so the bars were a little too high, though they tasted delicious!

Ingredients

Shortbread Crust

  • 8 ounces Butter At room temperature
  • 2 cups Flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/8 tsp salt

Filling

  • 6 Extra large eggs At room temperature
  • 3 cups Sugar
  • 2 tbsp grated lemon zest (4-6 lemons)
  • 1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 cup flour
  • Confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
  • Cream the butter and sugar until light. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed and gather into a ball. Press it into a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill for 30 mins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
  • Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
  • Cut into triangles and dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serve.

My Best Chocolate Cake. Ever.

Long time readers of this blog know I’ve been on a many years’ long journey to find and make the perfect chocolate cake. This cake came close, but it took me three tries to get its right, and still it wasn’t quite the best. My friend Susan and I have been trying to get the Black and White Cake recipe from Amy’s Bread, hands down the best cake I’d ever tasted, to perform in our hands, but with disappointing results. (We are convinced she, like many cooks, has left out something in the recipe to make sure that none of us could ever match that amazing cake.)

Well, dear reader, I’m here to announce that I’ve finally found a cake that matches up to Amy’s. Its from Ina Garten, called “Beatty’s Chocolate Cake.

It’s hands down THE BEST chocolate cake I’ve ever made. Moist, rich, but not too dense, dark, and delicious.

I attribute my success with this cake to several factors:

  1. A great recipe.
  2. Using good cocoa. I spent some time researching cocoa, and eventually settled on Valrhona Poudre de Cacao. Then I discovered that in her most recent version of this recipe, Ina actually recommends Valrhona, a departure from her usual recommendation of Pernigotti cocoa. Both these cocoa’s are Dutch process, which is an important distinction. Dutch processing alkalinizes the cocoa, raising the pH, which in turn can affect how well the baking soda works. In this recipe there is both baking powder and baking soda. I suspect the baking soda is because of the acidic buttermilk, and that the baking powder is there to augment the rise. I also suspect for this recipe, it probably doesn’t mater if you use Dutch process or regular cocoa in this recipe. But get a good quality cocoa.
  3. These cake pans. An unusual size – 8 by 2 inches. They make for a very high yet compact and stable cake, easy to remove from the pan without breaking. I was tempted to split the layers and make a 4 tiered cake, but in the end left it as is and was not disappointed.
  4. Using instant espresso powder to make the cup of coffee called for in the recipe. Espresso powder is an open secret ingredient in the baking community for enhancing chocolate flavor without adding too much in the way of coffee notes. I use Cafe Bustelo or Medaglia D’Oro brand, but if you know of one better let me know.

Ina uses an icing made with a raw egg yolk, and I’m just not willing to go there. So I modified my own tried and true coffee icing, adding a little cocoa powder to make it mocha. Next time I’m going to using Amy’s buttercream and see how close I can come to her black and white cake. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

IINA GARTEN’S BEATTY’S CHOCOLATE CAKE

Note: The batter for this cake is quite thin, but don’t worry. It cooks up perfectly in the 8 by 2 inch pan. I used 2 tsp instant espresso in 1 cup hot water for the cup of coffee. Eggs should be at room temp, and coffee not too hot.

Ingredients

  • 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ¾ cups good cocoa powder, such as Valrhona
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 extra-large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans.  Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ones.  With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter will be quite thin. (Don’t worry). Pour batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. When completely cool, ice with mocha frosting. Keeps well in fridge overnight to serve the next day.

MOCHA FROSTING

  • ¾ cup butter
  • 1 tbsp instant espresso or coffee granules
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp hot water
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
  • 4 tbsps heavy cream

Dissolve coffee granules and cocoa in hot water. Set aside until cool. Place butter in bowl. Turn to Speed 6 and cream for 1 minute. Do not overbeat or it will melt. Stop and scrape bowl. Add cooled espresso/cocoa and vanilla to butter. Cream 30 seconds. Stop and scrape bowl

Add powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Stop and scrape bowl. Add cream and beat on Speed 4 for 2 minutes, until fluffy. If frosting is too soft, refrigerate for a while before frosting cake.

Place 1st layer on cake plate upside down and frost. Place 2nd layer on top and frost top and sides.

Summer Fruit Cake

Summer Fruit Cake

Labor Day weekend at the cottage with good friends. A bittersweet end to summer.

Lake swimming, hiking, biking, reading, stargazing.

Shunpiking* to discover gorgeous vistas, plump red sumac berries ripe for the picking (and drying for spice – I”ll post on that later) and the best garage sale ever.

Making Irene’s summer fruit cake to bring to a wonderful outdoor dinner party (great conversation, great food, great people) on an evening cool enough to end inside around a burning wood stove. (Thanks Rick for leaving the stove door open so we could see the fire.)

We left a day early, warned that the impending hurricane would make return to the coast near impossible. False alarm, but a traffic-less return with great music and great conversation more than made up for the early leave.

Here’s to the end of summer in the Endless Mountains, made even better by this year’s strategy of taking off a bunch of Fridays in lieu of a vacation week. The good news is the mountains and the lake are even more beautiful in autumn, the wood stove beckons, and we’ve got a good 10 weeks before we need to close the cottage up for winter.

*Shunpiking: an avoidance of major highways (regardless of tolls) in preference for bucolic and scenic interludes along lightly traveled country roads.

SUMMER FRUIT CAKE

This cake recipe is absolutely perfect and a delicious celebrating of the stone fruits of summer. My mother-in-law Irene makes it with small Italian plums – each slice has a single plum half nestled atop, making for a very pretty presentation. We used larger plums and white peaches from the Farm Market and sliced them before putting them on the cake – not as pretty a presentation but omg delicious. You can also make this cake using apples.

  • 6 oz. soft butter
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 3 eggs separated
  • grated lemon peel from 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsps. rum
  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 8 peeled and sliced apples tossed with lemon juice or any summer fruit* such as blueberries, apricots, peaches or small blue Italian plums. If using summer fruit, omit lemon juice. If using blueberries about 1 pint of berries will be needed. If using apricots, peaches or plums about 18 to 24 whole fruits will be needed, depending on size.
  • ¼ cup slivered or sliced almonds

Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Preheat oven to375 degrees fahrenheit.

Halve the fruits, remove pits. If they are large (i.e. peaches), slice them thick. If they are small plums or fresh apricots, just leave them halved and don’t slice them.

Beat egg whites until stiff and fluffy. Reserve.

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks one at a time beating thoroughly after each addition. Add rum and vanilla to butter mixture. Add lemon peel and mix well.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together and add to batter, mixing only until incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in beaten egg whites.

Pour batter into baking pan. Place fruit cut side down on top of batter. (If using apples, slice and arrange in rows on top of batter with a little sprinkled sugar and cinnamon, and ¼ cup currants or raisins if desired.) Sprinkle the top with the slivered almonds.

Bake in pre-heated 375 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes until tester comes out dry and cake is lightly browned. Cool on rack. Cut in serving size squares and remove from pan.

 

Almond-Lemon Torte w/ Strawberries

Almond and Lemon torte with strawberries

The never ending search for the perfect Seder dessert continues. This one’s coming close.

Of course, my family would probably say the prefect Passover dessert has already been found in my mother in law Irene’s hazelnut strawberry shortcake. Problem is, delicious as it is, I couldn’t bring the shortcake to my kosher friends’ seder, since it is served with whipped cream and the Seder is a meat meal.

The fallen middle in this torte is a given. It’s what happens when you depend on eggs alone for your leavening, pouring an air filled light batter into your pan, then holding your breath as you place it into the oven. You have two choices at that point – either bake it till its hard and dry, with a crust sturdy enough to stand up as it cools, or keep it lightly browned and moist and just let it fall as it cools. I chose the latter, testing several times till the tester came out clean to be sure I wasn’t under-baking the center, and taking the cake out before the top started to split or got too brown. I was worried when it fell, till I compared my torte to the picture in Epicurious – their’s fell about the same amount as mine.

Despite the fall, this torte is quite delicious. The cake itself is incredibly moist, not too dense, not too sweet and really just plain lovely. The strawberry sauce, while thin, is not too sweet and a perfect accompaniment. Even better, this dessert can be made a day or two ahead, as I have done.

You know what? I think this may actually be the perfect Seder dessert.

Almond-Lemon Torte with Strawberries

Adapted from a recipe by chef Diane Rossen Worthington on Epicurious.  I found using my hand held beater easier than switching and cleaning bowls for the standup mixer. Plus I think it whips things lighter. 

Torte Ingredients:

  • 6 tbsp olive oil (plus a little more to brush the pan)
  • 4 tbsp matzo meal (2 tbsp for the pan, 2 tbsp for the torte)
  • 2 cups almond flour or almond meal
  • 1 cup sugar, divided into thirds
  • 6 large eggs (you’ll be separating them)
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 2 tsp lemon zest, fine (I use this lemon zester)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds

Sauce and berries:

  • 5 cups sliced and stemmed strawberries (about 2 pounds), 2 cups for sauce, 3 cups to serve
  • 2 tbsp sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush 10-inch-diameter springform pan with oil. Line bottom with parchment paper round or wax paper. Brush paper with oil. Place 2 tbsp matzo meal in pan and shake to coat; tap out excess.

Combine remaining 2 tbsp matzo meal, almond flour, and 1/3 cup sugar in medium bowl; whisk to blend.

Separate eggs – yolks to a largish bowl, whites to a medium bowl.

Add 1/3 cup sugar to egg yolks and beat until thick and fluffy. Beat in 6 tbsp olive oil, then lemon juice, orange juice, and lemon zest. Mix in dry ingredients. Clean your beaters and wipe them dry.

In the other bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon salt to egg whites; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/3 cup sugar and beat until stiff but not dry.

Fold whites into yolk mixture in 3 additions. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle almonds over top.

Bake cake until golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 – 50 minutes. (It took me 50 mins) Remove to rack and cool cake completely in pan.

Can be made 2 days ahead. Store in pan, covered with foil at room temp.

For sauce and berries:

Combine 2 cups sliced strawberries and 2 tbsp sugar in blender or food processor; blend until smooth. Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

To serve:

Cut around cake; release pan sides. Cut cake into wedges. Serve with sauce and remaining sliced strawberries.

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Pears

maple cheesecake w roasted pears

She may have gone to prison for insider trading, but Martha Stewart does make one mean cheesecake. Maple syrup lightly sweetens the cheese filling and is brushed on pear slices as they roast before being layered atop the cheesecake, made here with a classic graham cracker crust. Not too heavy, not too sweet. Perfect.

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Pears 

Martha uses a vanilla wafer crust, but I prefer the traditional graham cracker crust. She broils her pears, I simply roasted them. She sprays her roasting pan with cooking spray, I brush it with canola oil. I used an Epicurious recipe for the crust because it had less sugar – graham crackers are sweet enough – and a little more butter – because you can never have enough butter.

Ingredients

  • 2 – 8 ounces packages Philly cream cheese, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 cup cold heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 Graham Cracker crust, made in a 9 inch springform pan (Recipe below)
  • 2 medium Bartlett pears, sliced lengthwise 1/8 inch thick

Instructions

In a large electric mixer bowl, beat cream cheese on high until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup maple syrup; beat until smooth.

In another smaller bowl, beat cream and sugar on high until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes. With a rubber spatula, fold a third of the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture, then fold in remainder. Transfer to prepared crust and refrigerate until firm, 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly brush a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet with canola oil. Arrange pear slices in a single layer on sheet and brush with 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Roast until pears are soft and browned in places, about 20 minutes. Let cool.

To serve, arrange pear slices, overlapping slightly, on cheesecake.

Graham Cracker Crust

If you find yourself running short while pressing this onto the sides of the pan (or eating too much while making it), just make a little more. I find how much I use depends on how thick I layer the crumbs, and it’s hard to do it uniformly every time. 

Ingredients

  • About 12 graham crackers to make around 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Make the graham cracker crumbs by processing crackers in food processor till fine. Blend 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs and sugar until combined. Gradually add butter and blwnd until moist clumps form. Press crumbs onto bottom and 1 1/2 inches up sides of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with removable bottom. Bake until set, about 12 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely before filling.

Almond Cake

Almondcake4

One of life’s better days.

Started with having both girls home for dinner. Add in daylight savings time and the first bike ride of the season in Central Park and life is pretty damned good.  Then give me a sunny afternoon in the kitchen baking and I’m over the top.

This cake will put you over the top, too. From my fave old magazine “Pleasures of Cooking”, it’s dense and sweet but not too sweet due to a touch of lemon tartness and has a wonderfully chewy outer crust.

I made the cake substituting olive for vegetable oil, resulting in a slightly richer and denser cake than the original recipe. Here’s the original cake made with veggie oil by my mother in law Irene-

VEGGIE OIL ALMOND CAKE

and mine made with olive oil. Mine is a little lower because I took some batter off to make cupcakes, which I”ll show you in another post, so concentrate on the crumb texture. See how it’s denser? It actually fell a tad when I took it out of the oven, but was well cooked from what I could tell. It could be my cake pans or the olive oil that made the difference there, I’m not sure.

OLIvE OIL ALMOND CAKE

Both were delicious. When we taste-tested frozen and thawed versions of both cakes with my husband’s family today, they were evenly split on which they preferred. So I’ll leave it to you to decide which you’ll make. I”m sticking with the olive oil because it seems healthier and more authentic and I loved how it tasted.

almondcake2

(See recipe after the jump) Continue Reading

Poached Pears

POACHED PEARS

Wonderfully simple, delicious, and almost decadent when paired with chocolate in any form, like a chocolate torte perhaps?… Even better when paired with good friends, lively conversation and a few well-chosen readings at a wonderful dinner party thrown by Paula and Tony.  Thanks, guys, we had a great time!

POACHED PEARS

I was inspired by David Lebowitz’s post on how to poach pears, which is really not a recipe but a suggestion. I made up my own combo and proportions of spices, and you should do the same. But I  found the sauce begging for a touch of salt, so I added it. Perfection!

  • 4 Bosc pears
  • 1 quart water
  • 1 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 small or 1 large stick cinnamon
  • 2 large slices crystallized ginger
  • Juice of one clementine + 1/2 its rind.
  • Juice of one lemon +  1/2 its rind
  • A few peppercorns
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • Parchment paper

Dissolve sugar in water in a large saucepan over low heat. Peel, quarter and core the pears, and add to water-sugar mixture along with the spices. Cut the parchment paper into a circle with a smaller circle cut out in the middle and lay atop (See Lebowitz’s post for pics and detailed instructions – it keeps the pears from browning).

Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, till pears are soft. Remove pears and spices with a slotted spoon and boil down the juice to about 1/2 cup. Store in fridge till ready to serve, then briefly reheat the pears in the sauce and serve warm. Each pear serves two.

Lemon Squares

LEMON SQUARES 4 TBTAM

This family favorite comes from the Pleasures of Cooking magazine, a publication of Cuisinart in the 1970’s-80’s.  We treasure the issues we have of the marvelous publication, long out of print and hard to get, but still inspirational.

As I was finishing this post, I went to see just how many issues of Pleasures of Cooking we had and all I could find was one! Now I know that I am infamous in our household for purging when the closets and shelves become too cluttered, but there is no way on God’s earth I would have tossed our Pleasures of Cooking magazines!  I have no idea where they could be, but given that I live in a NYC apartment, there are really few places for them to hide that I have not already looked.  My one last hope is that I may have taken them up to our cottage, though I have no idea why I would have done that.

So now, instead of being happy to have finally put up this recipe, I am beside myself in loss and despair. Thank goodness my mother-in-law Irene still has all her back issues. (You do, don’t you, Irene?)

LEMON SQUARES (aka Lemon Curd Cookies)

These wonderfully tangy cookies carry a tartness that is balanced by a generous dusting of confectioner’s sugar atop. They are easy to make and freeze well.   

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/3 cup blanched whole almonds (2 oz, 55 g)
  • Zest of 1 medium lemon
  • Zest of 1/2 medium orange
  • 1/2 cup flour (2.5 oz, 70 g)
  • 1/4 cup confectioners sugar (1 oz, 30 g)
  • 5 tbsp chilled unsalted butter cut into 5 pieces
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar (5 2/3 oz, 160 g)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • Pinch salt
  • 2 large eggs lightly beaten
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • Confectioners sugar and candied lemon and orange peel (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit (175 degrees Centigrade)

Process almonds, 1/2 the zests, flour, confectioners sugar and butter with metal blade in food processor till constancy of coarse crumbs, about 10 secs. Press into square 8 inch baking pan and bake in preheated oven till firm and lightly colored, about 20 mins.

Process sugar, baking powder, salt and remaining zests until zest is as fine as the sugar, about 1 min. Add eggs and juice and process till combined, about 5 secs. Pour over the crust and bake till set, about 20 minutes. Cool.

Loosen around the edges, then cut into 2.5x2in (6x5cm) squares with a sharp knife, being careful not to dislodge clumps of the curd.  Dust with confectioners sugar and garnish with candied lemon and orange peel. Remove from pan using a cookie spatula. (See below) Makes 12 cooked, about 1/14 oz (45 g) each.

This is a cookie spatula
This is a cookie spatula

Candied Lemon and Orange Zests

  • 1/2 cup sugar (3 3/4 oz, 100g)
  • 1/3 cup water (80 ml)
  • Zest of 1 medium lemon, cut into julienne strips
  • Zest of 1 small orange, cut into julienne strips

Bring water and sugar to boil in a small saucepan. Reduce the heat to low, add the zests and simmer for 10 mins. Transfer with slotted spoon to waxed paper to cool.

LEMON SQUARES TBTAM 3

Devil’s Food Cake with White Icing

Devils Food Cake with White Icing

The week before Christmas is not exactly a good time to have a birthday. Everyone, including me,  is overwhelmed with holiday preparations, not to mention final exams.  Adding a birthday celebration during that week feels like foisting yet another obligation on your friends and family, not to mention yourself.

Now, don’t go feeling sorry for me and throw me a party – it’s already been tried. My first year in med school, my sister Fran, God rest her soul, made me a surprise party the night before my Biochem final.  I was utterly miserable the entire evening. Thank god I passed the final, but not all my friends did.

The final straw on my birthday camel’s back was when I married into a Jewish family and Chanukah got added into the holiday mix.

Oy.

Between shopping for presents for eight nights plus Christmas, lighting candles, making latkes and decorating the tree, who has time for a birthday? I certainly didn’t.

Then, 18 years ago, on the day before my birthday, my second daughter Natalie was born.  Now that was a reason to celebrate!  Amazing really, how that additional birthday was nothing more than added joy. I found plenty of time to make a birthday party for her every year (one of which I even chronicled in this blog).  No sweat. Really and truly. Just a joy.

This of course, gave me yet another reason to continue to ignore my own birthday, which is actually a good tactic for forgetting how old you really are.  My family of course remembers, as do friends, and I get cards and gifts, but I never found myself celebrating my own birthday beyond that. I’m just too busy and I just don’t care.

But this year, my daughter, now a  college student with her own schedule, finals and friends, suggested we celebrate our birthdays together.  Suddenly, all the energy I had used to make her birthday special spilled back on mine. My husband made the dinner and my daughter and I made the cake. (Well, I made the cake and she licked the beaters.)  Although we sorely missed my eldest daughter, now living in Philly, it was really fun. And, for the first time in many, many years, I found myself actually enjoying my own birthday!

I think this shared celebration is going to be a new family tradition.

As is this delicious cake.

Devil's Food cake with WHite Icing TBTAM

DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE WITH WHITE ICING

This cake recipe is my third foray into a wonderful vintage cookbook, Favorite Tortes and Cake Recipes by Rose Oller Harbaugh and Mary Adams. The first two (Blueberry Cake with Lemon Sauce and a Rococco Torte) were resounding successes, and this recipe joins them as new classics in my baking repertoire.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 pound butter
  • 1 1/3 cups brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 5 squares bitter chocolate, melted and cooled
  • 1 1/4 cups milk

Sift flour, soda and cinnamon three times.

Cream butter until lemon colored, add sugar and cream together thoroughly. Add well-beaten eggs and chocolate and continue beating. Then alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating well after each addition. Bake in 3 well-buttered and floured 8 inch pans (I lined mine with wax paper) and bake 30 mins in 325 degree fahrenheit oven.

Fill and cover layers with Pretty Darned Near the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had.

Pretty Darned Near the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had

PRETTY DARNED NEAR THE BEST FROSTING I'VE EVER HAD

This flour-based icing recipe got famous on the Pioneer Woman’s website. I decided I would try it anyway since the recipe itself came from Missy Dew, a reader, and not Ree herself, whose recipes I don’t trust so much although she clearly is making a lot of money.

I’m probably just jealous that the whole gyno-food blog thing hasn’t quite taken off as well as the home-schooling ranch mom thing.  Maybe I should just post a few pics of my husband’s back side like Ree does. That would land me some real blog traffic…

Cake recipe coming up tomorrow.

PRETTY DARNED NEAR THE BEST FROSTING I’VE EVER HAD

What I love about this flour-based frosting is that it is sweet, but does not have that teeth squeaking too-sweet taste that most icings have. You can really taste the vanilla, and the cake flavor shines through. It very well may be the best frosting I’ve ever had, but I’m not passing final judgement till I try this recipe for another flour based frosting.Let me know if you try either one what you think. Next time I make this frosting, I’m going to process the sugar in the food processor first so it’s superfine – instructions here.  That should make the second step go much faster.

Ingredients

  • 5 tbsp Flour
  • 1 cup Milk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1 cup Butter
  • 1 cup Granulated Sugar

Instructions

  1. Whisk flour into milk in a small saucepan and heat, stirring constantly, until it is very thick. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.
  2. While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy without sugar graininess. (This will take what seems like hours, but is probably around 15 minutes. Hopefully you have a standing mixer.) Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat till it all combines and resembles whipped cream, another 3-5 minutes or so. I’m told if it separates to keep beating, but mine never separated, so that’s good.

Big Apple Apples (and a recipe for Apple-Pear Sauce)

BIg Apple Apples

We’ve got a real bumper crop of apples ripening on the tree on our roof right now.

I’m not sure who or what to credit, since laisse faire has been our unintentional gardening principle this year.  I think maybe I fed the trees twice and you can tell by the color of the leaves that I never sprayed them.

Container Garden Apples

Maybe it was the rain. Or the sun. Or someone has bees nearby. 

APPLES IN THE SUN

Regardless, these little macintoshes are white and unblemished inside and while not as crisp as say, a ginger gold or granny smith, they have a nice flavor,

APPLES

and make a very good applesauce, especially when you add in a couple of small overipe pears you found sitting on the counter.

APPLESAUCE JAR

Apple-Pear Sauce

1 cup orange juice (plus a little water if needed for larger apples)
6 small macintosh apples
2 small soft pears
1 cinnamon stick

Rinse the apples and pears in water and dry. Do not peel. Cut into quarters, removing the occasional brown spot, and core. Add the fruit to a heavy saucepan. Pour in the orange juice and toss in a cinnamon stick. Cover the pot and cook over low heat till the fruit is soft (20-30 mins), stirring occasionally to be sure all the fruit spends some time immersed in the juice.

Remove cinnamon stick. Using a large slotted spoon, remove the fruit from the juice and run it through a food mill (or press through a fine mesh strainer). Add back some of the juice if you need it to thin the sauce. The juice you don’t use, pour into a glass and drink slowly – hmmmm…..

If possible, serve the apple-pear sauce warm.

Cranberry Apple Pie – Doing Double Duty at Thanksgiving

Once again, since neither I nor my husband has ever been willing to give up Thanksgiving dinner with our respective families, we are gearing up for our annual schizophrenic Philadelphia holiday celebration, in which we join my family for an early afternoon dinner, followed by another meal at my in-law Irene’s home  later that evening.

Like us, this particular dessert will be found  at both family’s celebrations this year. It is a true harvest pie, with apples, cranberries, raisins and nuts,and quite delicious. Irene makes it every year for her dinner. I made it once a few years back for my sister’s dinner, and she requested I bring it again this year.

SInce we save dessert for the evening meal, I won’t get to taste the one I made. That’s okay – I’ll just eat a piece of Irene’s instead.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cranberry Apple Pie

This recipe hails from the November 1985 issue of Gourmet Magazine. Irene modified it by reducing the sugar.
  • 5 cups thin apple slices (Red delicious or other )
  • 1/2 cup golden raisins
  • 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 tsp cinammon
  • 2 tbsp corn starch
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 Pate Brisee pie crust recipes (top and bottom) – see below 
  • 3 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
  • Egg wash – 1 egg + 1 tbsp cold water
  • 1 tbsp sugar

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Roll out bottom crust and line an 11 inch deep dish pie or tart pan. Pour apple/cranberry/nut mixture into pan. Dot with butter pieces. Roll out the top crust and place atop the filled pie, sealing and crimping the edges. Cut 5 slits in a circular pattern around the middle. whisk egg and water together in a small bowl.Brush egg wash onto crust and sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar.

Bake atop a baking sheet on the middle rack of preheated oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 350 and bake another 50 minutes or until the juices start to bubble. Remove from oven and cool.

Can be made ahead and frozen. On Thanksgiving morning, remove pie from freezer and let thaw at room temp. Pop into a 350 degree oven to warm if you like.

Pate Brisee Pie Crust made with shortening and butter

This recipe makes one crust. For this pie, you will need to make this recipe twice for both a top and bottom crust . Alternatively, if your food processor bowl is large enough, you can simply  double the recipe and make it in one batch, then splitting the dough into two crusts.

If you want a butter-only Pate Brisee that is even easier to work with than this one, try this recipe instead.

  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 stick cold butter, cut into equal size 1 inch pieces
  • 2 tbsp Crisco
  • 3 tbsp ice water

Pulse flour and salt once in food processor. Add butter and pulse till consistency of corn meal, about 15 secs. Add water through feed tube and pulse till dough comes together, about 10 secs. Remove dough from bowl, pat into a round and press flat. Wrap with plastic wrap and keep cold in fridge till ready to roll.

Poached Nectarines

Poached fruit is one of my favorite desserts, especially in September when the cooler evenings beckon us to eat outdoors on picnic tables covered in cotton tablecloths, a sweater at hand for when the sun sets. And that moment, when the crickets start and the fireflies come out, is the perfect time to ladle warm, sweet  fruit atop cold vanilla ice cream, top it with a sprig of fresh mint and bring it out to the porch. If you haven’t finished that bottle of wine you opened at dinner, now is the time.

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