i’ve not been able to get into inner workings of my blog for awhile now. i’ve been somehow mysteriously locked out of wordpress and it’s been – well kind of bizarre. but i am temporarily ‘in’ so i thought at the very least i could give you these small and dainty sponge cakes that i made 2 weeks ago. i had seen these madeleines posted on james beard’s site and was drawn to them immediately. they come from chef nicolas elmi of le bec-fin in philadelphia.

i’ve only made madeleines once before. a browned butter and lemon version that were nothing short of spectacular, rich and fragrant. but – one needs the pan before one can make a madeleine, non?. and it took me awhile before i decided to take the plunge and make the commitment to baking madeleines on occasion. and so now i definitely think that you too should indulge in a madeleine pan and consider making these – right away.

this recipe is wonderful. a lot of fresh rosemary, orange and lemon zest along with just a bit of a salt bite that somehow takes them over the edge into a very grown up taste sensation.

rosemary madeleines

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and salt until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. sift together the flour and baking powder. alternate mixing the eggs and sifted dry ingredients into the butter mixture. mix in the rosemary, lemon zest,  and orange zest. cover the bowl and chill the batter for about an hour.

preheat the oven to 375º F. butter and flour the madeleine pan. fill the molds about two thirds full with the batter. bake for 6 to 7 minutes, until the madeleines spring back to form when poked in their centers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

they’re quite simple to make and nothing short of impressive. not so much a dessert as perhaps a 4:00 pm intermission to your day…

gina depalma would’ve been proud of my rendition. especially after my last fiasco. and mario batali would have happily served this at babbo with a scoop of their mascarpone gelato…

this cake was decided upon for a few reasons. but mainly it was the result of a "compromise". you see, the 13 year old, wanted chocolate. as in cake. or brownies. or perhaps a carrot cake. with cream cheese icing. and well, i didn’t. i wanted to make a galette. something rustic and simple with maybe some of the beautiful nectarines i’ve been seeing around. but she, the 13 year old, was so not interested. she was all like, "no thanks". so i seized the moment, approaching it as a learning opportunity and explained to her that seasonal mattered to me and that we could compromise. and when she looked at me quizically, i explained that a compromise basically would mean that neither one of us would get what we wanted… and she was all like "whatever", and went to watch the 12th season of the simpsons, now available on dvd.

and then while flipping through a few books i saw this. and it felt right. a perfect summer into fall cake. the tail end of the almost never ending zucchini, the brightness of lemon, along with the depth of toasted walnuts, cinnamon, ginger and clove – and olive oil – the clincher. i’m a big fan of cakes made with olive oil. the concept unleashes my inner italian-ness.

so i got right to it. and after the batter was prepared i called the 13 year old into the kitchen to lick the paddle, warning her it wouldn’t be your typical cakey/buttery/smooth batter – and she gave me the thumbs up. a good sign. but then i found myself looking down at the bowl and thinking, "there’s no way that this cake is going to set up", because the mixture appeared oddly thin. and yet through the nagic of HEAT, somehow after 45 minutes or so in the convection oven – suddenly i had perfection. and it was exactly as it should have been. and believe me when i tell you that no one is ever more surprised than i am when the cake turns out smashing… because the whole baking process ‘thing’ is always questionable around here. i’m not much of a baker, but i often bake very good things. and you know why? BECAUSE I CAREFULLY FOLLOW THE RECIPE. i know. imagine that…

but we’re talking bundt cake. and the glaze was nothing more than fresh lemon squeezed into sugar and whisked with a fork. so sure, this was easy as can be. but the final result was truly great. and the undeniable reason is merely the list of ingredients… thanks gina…

zucchini olive oil cake with lemon crunch glaze

dolce italiano – desserts from the babbo kitchen
by gina depalma

1 cup walnut pieces
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teasppon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teasppons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup GOOD extra virgin olive oil (i’m liking the ‘murray’s cheese’ oil a lot these days)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)

for the glaze

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar

preheat oven to 350 and position rack in the center.grease a bundt pan and then flour and tap out excess. you can also use that bakers spray that i always forget to buy.

place walnuts in a single layer and toast until golden brown and aromatic, 12-14 minutes. cool completely and finely chop in the food processor and set aside.

sift the flour baking soda, baking powder and salt and spices into a medium bowl. in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (have you seen these?), beat the eggs, sugar and olive oil until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then beat in the vanilla. scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition (unless you have one of these). beat in the dry ingredients all at once until thoroughly combined, then switch to medium and beat 30 seconds. beat in the zucchini and walnuts on low speed until completely incorporated.

pour the batter into the pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time to ensure even browning. the cake is done when a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the sides have begun to pull away from the pan.

when the cake is baking, prepare the glaze: in a medium bowl whisk together the lemon juice and granualted sugar, then whisk in the confectioner’s sugar until the glaze is completely smooth.

allow the cake to cool in the oan for 10 minutes then carefully invert onto a wire rack. using a pastry brush, immediately brush the glaze over the entire surface of the warm cake, using all of the glaze. it will adhere to the cake and set as the cake cools. allow the cake to cool completely and the glaze to dry completely.

transfer the cake to a stand or serving plate and if desired lightly dust with confectioners’ sugar. any leftover cake may be wrapped in plastic and served the following day.

oh and hey, i garnished with some chopped up basil. i had some and well, i must tell you that the addition of fresh herbs to olive oil cakes? a natural…

a sampling of some fresh picked wine berries, huckleberries and wild blackberries – a gift from my friend jack on my birthday last month

it’s not that i’m not cooking. because i am. there are gatherings of friends and just plain hungriness resulting in well, dinner. i even sometimes whip out the nikon and snap a few lame shots but these days not so much. and i’m not sure what’s come over me. but just the thought of posting on ceF was beginning to feel like ‘work’ and god only knows we wouldn’t want that to happen to a nice woman like me… after all, my lack of ambition is my greatest luxury. (i stole that line from my friend emily and have been using it ad nauseum but only because it is SO TRUE.)

but we’ve been to chicago and then i went to cleveland. dallas is this week and seattle comes next. i’m doing the 4 day cooking gig again come the first of october and then i’m off to nyc…  and all i want is to go back to italy. is that asking so much? IS IT? but honestly, i’m not complaining. it’s a charmed life. the past week or so has pretty much revolved around trips to the park in much appreciated cooler than normal temps, so after a 9 week hiatus i’m back on the bike and fighting the fat (albeit somewhat of a losing battle).

but mostly – if i could just say, i’m so deeply grateful for this amazing life that i get to live that i could cry. for those of you that read the sunday ny times magazine section yesterday, we are the fortunate ones…

ok – back to food…

presenting… a summer dinner. grilled corn with flaky maldon salt and a squeeze of lime. grilled tomatoes with thyme and a farro salad with a slightly overcooked poached egg on top. i’ve got just a vague recollection of what was in the farro salad but i’m thinking it was pequillo peppers and goat cheese – and something else but remembering is difficult…

best beans ever. rancho gordo cannellini’s with grape tomatoes, basil, thyme, lemon zest and juice, some potlikker, finely minced anchovy, a very good olive oil, salt and pepper. i think that was it but i’ve no idea because i can’t recall a damn thing.

lamb meatballs with a cherry sauce over whole wheat couscous finished with mint leaves. a lot of ingredients went into that sauce until it was nicely balanced and pretty damn impressive tasting. but i’m not sure exactly what i did – because of my memory…

all cary ever really wants for his birthday are two (2) angel food cakes with his grandmother’s ’7 minute boiled icing’. the icing becomes slightly hard on the outside and then yields to a slightly marshmallow like goo on the inside. ruhlman’s angel food cake from his bestseller ‘ratio‘, takes this cake to where it needs to go – from spongy and boring to totally delicious. in my opinion it’s all in the weighing of the flour and then using both lemon juice and vanilla. for your viewing pleasure i give you 4 pictures as they were all so awful i just couldn’t choose… this is the whitest cake in america and despite the absence of any fats and the overabundance of sugar, somehow it just works.

my icing technique is legendary. obviously.

moving on…

i phone pics before i bought the 3Gs. but this is the wonderful donnie madia pictured at his flagship restaurant blackbird. for my money, he and eduard seitan are the best restaurateurs in chicago with blackbird, avec, the publican and the newest addition, a tacqueria opening very soon. donnie’s attention to every detail is second to none with a modern sensibility that slays me, as i am highly susceptible to such things. with executive chef and partner paul kahan at the helm of the kitchen, it continues to be a recipe for greatness. we were in chicago for only 4 nights and ate at avec, then publican and then blackbird – finishing up with an anniversary dinner at tru, a gift from my mother. and for a whopping $425 that included only one glass of wine, it paled in comparison by such a long shot that i can’t even begin to explain the differences in the food except to say that in the end, blackbird kicked tru’s ass – big time. tru is supremely elegant and the room is lovely. it’s quiet and serious and the servers are ON IT. but dinner at blackbird was once again phenomenal. oh AND best negroni ever – hands down.

so, a few things… and please again – forgive the poor photo quality.

salad of endives with crispy potatoes, basil, dijon, pancetta and poached egg = sheer perfection. not kidding. this salad was incredible in every way.

chilled cuttlefish noodles with green garlic, red onion jam, trout caviar, nasturtiums and buttermilk = amazingness. i loved it.

wood-grilled california sturgeon with english peas, braised peanuts, crispy bacon and bourbon caramel = seriously impressive.

cary had the organic pork belly and crispy sweet shrimp with chinese broccoli, preserved green tomato and black pepper. he started with the pistachio gazpacho with ahi, watermelon confit, sea beans and cocoa. both were smashing.

this was my idea. sorry.

desserts were wonderful. donnie brought us three and each one was greatness. ricotta fritters with compari, rhubarb and pine nut ice cream, pistachio panna cotta with a raspberry consommé and brown butter ice cream and a torn black sesame cake with pineapple that looked a little something like this that was  – out. of. this. world…

avec, a bit more down to earth, is my favorite restaurant in all the land. and at the publican, albeit a bit on the loud side, we had an abundance of seriously excellent food. beer, oysters, fish and pork. just splendid.

chicago is such an extraordinary food town… thank you donnie.

south west of chicago. mies van der rohe’s masterpiece – the farnsworth house. i wept in its presence. it is genius if not impractical.

no tinkering with picassa was going to help this photo taken through the door of my oven. it was shredded zucchini and yellow squash with minced garlic, chiles and ricotta. i stole the idea from city house restaurant here in nashville. their’s was far better and i’m going to work on this because it was frustrating that i couldn’t replicate it. i need to call chef tandy wilson and ask for help. plus my chiles were so strong that they almost hurt. so, fail, although not in an epic way…

the project – buy 20 lbs of balaton cherries from earthy.com and use 10 to make some cherry bourbon hooch. i’ll get back to you in 6 weeks on how it turns out and if you’re on the short list, it’s what’s for christmas, so no surprises here. the other 10 lbs. became a salted cherry vanilla bean balsamic compote.

oh, and jack’s arm after blackberry picking. the things friends do for friends…

ok. this was good. as in very good. as in i won’t go all yoplait ad on you, but this was another definite do-over. and the sooner the better.

i take very little credit as this plate of pasta was nothing more than a blend of: the latest post from rachel eats‘ blog, along with the addition of some murray’s cheese mail-ordered burrata. i’ve since found out – and to my surprise, that trader joe’s carries "burrata", but my obvious thoughts on that were although it’d most likely do in a pinch, there’s no way it could be even close to the same quality as these delicate cream filled mozzarella balls made in italy on monday, and at my door on wednesday…

because you deserve a closer look…

it’s hot as hell in nashville. we’re on day 10 of 90+ degrees with the usual humidity issue, and well, cooking is only so appealing. the ovens are off limits but i will boil a pot of water and saute some onions – and happily.

but here’s what i won’t do. although i preach high quality ingredients and authentic preparation, here’s another ceF ruling to go along with the whole ”i don’t do pastry crusts" thing. so now you can just go on ahead and add to that – "i don’t slip the skins off tomatoes". because honestly, it just seems SILLY. yet despite this blatant admission, i still struggle with the fact (if only ever so slightly) that this conscious oversight would be sneered upon by better cooks than me. i mean the italian nonas do things for GOOD REASON. but then i quickly rationalize the whole thing – i honestly don’t think it changes the experience. and i’m at peace with tomato skins – though i have succumbed to certain other kitchen practices such as always trussing my chickens.

adding to the list of ‘do’s', i also have claimed the red onion as my personal onion of choice for nearly all cooking purposes. i just like them better. and they look beautiful on my counter.

an important component of this dish is that you barely cook the tomatoes. for the record, mine were not home grown, as those are not quite yet available in nashville, but joyously coming soon. still, what i’d picked up at TJ’s were juicy and tomatoey. i used a fair amount of chopped basil from my herb pots, adding it the same time i added the chopped tomatoes to my pan of slowly sauteed onions, thinly sliced into half moons. you salt, you pepper and you’re done in 15 minutes. if that.

and then i strayed away from the recipe because I AM A REBEL and cut a creamy burrata ball in half and plopped it on top along with some more fresh basil. it’s a perfect dish. it just is. even with the aforementioned skins still thinly present…

but by far, the best part of dinner was the company. we had new friends over – emily and kevin. they brought extra tomatoes (in case), bread (i had none), wine (2 bottles of pino grigio) and a glazed lemon almond poppyseed cake that was quite good and tangy. and while we all sat there happily digging in to our respective slices, emily took her first bite and i watched as she sat there wrestling the flavors and consistency in her brain, thinking out loud about all of the things she perhaps could have done for it to have been better – and how she could improve upon it the next time.

and i thought to myself, i’m going to love this chick…

update  – with 3 reports now in on trader joe’s burrata, i am strongly recommending that you stay far away. my good friend heidi robb who i trust implicitly says, "Take a big hearty PASS. Their Mandara buffalo mozzarella is more burrata like than this insipid stuff."

dear gina,

i’m so sorry. really i am. and even worse, i am terribly ashamed. you see, about two weeks ago i ran across this beautiful recipe for your torta di mandorla and decided to bake one for my guy. it was a late sunday morning, i had all the ingredients in the house – as well as a 13 year old sous chef just itching to crack an egg.

i did everything right. or so i thought. and then when it was out of the oven, all cooled and glazed, i took one bite and i knew i’d made a mistake. a big one. it was just, well – it was off. but what could it have been? where did i go wrong? i thought i was ON IT. i mean afterall, it’s a simple recipe. and then, after about 20 minutes i realized the error i’d made. and sadly, it was an unforgiving error. i used baking soda instead of baking powder.

not much more i need to say here as i’m sure you’re quite aware of the consequences. so allow me to say again, i’m so sorry to have defiled what could have been and should have been, your wonderful cake.

respectfully yours,

claudia young
www.cookeatFRET.com

ps. my boyfriend ate the entire thing.

torta di mandorla
from gina depalma – pastry chef at babbo via serious eats

*ceFRET’s note – i’m really fond of the meyenberg goat butter and decided to use it for the glaze to lend a slightly different note. the butter is browned, so perhaps you can imagine how spectacular this was. the glaze turned out beyond stellar. but indeed, i ruined the cake itself. even if cary didn’t seem to notice…

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup blanched or natural almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
grated zest of 1 medium lemon or 1/4 a medium orange
1/2 cup orange juice

for the glaze:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (the goat butter makes for a lovely and subtle flavor)
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
3 tablespoons whole milk
a few drops of fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sliced, blanched almonds, toasted and cooled

preheat the oven to 350°F. grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan and set aside.

in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt to thoroughly combine them and set aside.

crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk them lightly to break up the yolks. add the sugar to the bowl and whisk it in thoroughly in both directions for about 30 seconds. add the olive oil and whisk until the mixture is a bit lighter in color and has thickened slightly, about 45 seconds. whisk in the extracts and zest, followed by the orange juice.

add the dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk until they are thoroughly combined; continue whisking until you have a smooth, emulsified batter, about 30 more seconds.

pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake the cake for 30 to 45 minutes, rotating the cake pan halfway through the cooking time to ensure even browning. the cake is done when it has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, springs back lightly when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

allow the cake to cool for ten minutes in the pan, then gently remove it from the pan and allow it cool completely on a rack.

while the cake cools, make the glaze. melt the butter over medium heat in a small, heavy saucepan. when the bubbles subside, lower the heat and watch the butter carefully, swirling it in the pan occasionally to distribute the heat. when the butter begins to turn a light tan color and smells slightly nutty, turn off the heat and let the butter sit. it will continue to darken as it sits.

while the butter cools, sift the confectioner’s sugar into a medium bowl. whisk in the milk until completely smooth but thick, then slowly whisk in the butter. taste the glaze and add a few drops of lemon juice to balance the sweetness. stir in the toasted almonds. spread the almonds and glaze onto the top and sides of the cake and let it sit until set and dry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the moral of this blog post is – when baking, one slight miscalculation, one small slip up – and you’re done. finished. over.

baking can be a cruel mistress.

merle, my loved and adored burmese kitty: february 1, 1994 – december 25, 2008

happy new year. it’s been so seemingly long now since i’ve written that i barely know where to begin except to say that i’ve thought of you. often. like every time i cooked or ate i’d think – i’m a food blogger and i should be telling somebody something about this. and then i’d go watch a movie.

but first of all, thanks for supporting ‘menu for hope V‘ and for bidding on the mullet roe from ‘rk’s black hammock smokehouse’. the total worldwide effort raised over $60k which will make a real difference in the lives of so many african children. or it could buy me the bmw i’ve had my eye on. you decide. anyway, i hope that a ceF reader wins the mullet roe because then you’ll finally understand just what i’ve been going on and on about regarding this esoteric florida delicacy.

and please note that i truly believe that you are all more than worthy of this amazing foodstuff and i can assure you that if i were empress there’d be mullet roe sacs for each and every one of you. because that it the kind of empress i would be. and if being empress were an electable position, smoked mullet roe and bottarga would be my platform, and my campaign slogan would be "smoke fish eggs, not your enemy" or "more sacs, less tax". granted, the concept needs tons of work. but i would totally be there for you in this way.

and thanksgiving in december was finally celebrated on ny’s eve. and after i read through every suggestion that you left in the comments, we took it all to heart and as many of you suggested, opted for sheer simplicity. we kept the food close to the ground with few ingredients. i roasted 2 chickens using the infallible zuni café method of salting smaller sized birds and covering loosely in the fridge for 2 or 3 days, then hitting them with a very high heat for about 50 minutes. the result – crisp skin and moist meat every time. i baked a simple cornbread using olive oil and made the stuffing using that and chicken sausage, red onions, garlic, celery, sage and veal stock. i also caramelized some brussels sprouts in a heavy skillet and hit them with a balsamic glaze and then roasted some sweet potatoes in nothing more than olive oil and salt. the cranberry sauce had fresh orange zest along with the juice, just a bit of brown sugar and a cinnamon stick.

at dinner, santos toasted to his beautiful wife rudrani, recognizing the auspicious evening and upcoming year with an excellent bottle of tattinger’s and we ate our dinner with a bottle of cotes du rhone. we felt grateful to not only be alive – but together, looking forward to the best year of our lives, if only because it is the one we will be living.

and being the exciting people that we are, cary and i were in bed at 11:30pm and flicked on the tv to watch all the festivities in nyc and do the whole pretend countdown (we’re on central time) and DID ANYONE ELSE SEE DICK CLARK AND GET FREAKED THE HELL OUT? it was, shall we say, NOT GOOD. it wasn’t the slurring due to the stroke it was "the face". he looked like he had died 2 days before and was embalmed, then put in full make-up and propped up in a chair. NOT GOOD. we both got the willies and quickly changed the channel. so much for going out with grace… i think much of america collectively gasped when they saw him. it kind of broke my heart.

and there was actually some food worth mentioning that happened to get cooked and then photographed in my kitchen during the tail end of ’08. so i thought i’d purge what was left in my files and hit you with it all at once in the name of starting fresh and not being wasteful.

this first dish, which i’ve now made perhaps 4x and have neglected to mention it to you, dear readers, is a smashing thing to eat. it’s a total wow and you need to make this one soon. grilled haloumi with caramelized fennel. oh. my.

just grill the fennel in some olive oil until it caramelizes, toss it with chopped italian parsley and spritz with lemon. then top it with the grilled halloumi. it is so much better than you might imagine it to be. so even if you are sitting there thinking, "no – i get it. that would be excellent", then you go and make it and it’s like crazy good and everyone thinks you are a brilliant cook and talks about you for days on end. i saw this dish on an australian blog called souvlaki for the soul. besides his beautiful food, the guy is a serious photographer. anyway, you heard it here second. now go make this.

jennifer? i told you i was going to make this and i did. and then i bought the book because ‘sunday suppers at lucques‘ by suzanne goin is most definitely a must own. and romesco is a must have in your repertoire. it works with nearly everything and although i’ve no recollection what fish this was, it was an excellent accompaniment to the romesco along with steamed broccoli.

romesco sauce
from ‘sunday suppers at lucques’ by suzanne goin

5 ancho chiles
2 T raw almonds
2T blanched hazelnuts
1 ¼ c extra virgin olive oil
1 slice country bread, about 1 inch thick
1/3 cup canned san marzano tomatoes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 T chopped flat leaf parsley
½ lemon for juicing
kosher salt

preheat the oven to 375. soak the chiles in hot water for about 15 minutes, then seed and stem them. spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast them for 8-10 minutes. remove from the oven and set aside. fry the bread in a bit of the olive oil, then let it cool and cut into cubes. return the pan to the stove, heat the chiles for about 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes. cook them until they break down and the juices are reduced, then turn off the heat and set aside.

pulse the nuts, bread and garlic in a food processor, then add the chile and tomato mixture and pulse again to combine. pour in more olive oil while the machine is running until you have the texture you want. taste for seasoning, then stir in the lemon juice and parsley.

ok. i know. not beautiful. but i am so incredibly proud of what’s going on in that bowl you just couldn’t know. you see, peter and heather are constantly cooking all these amazing asian dishes filled with mysterious ingredients to the point where i personally find it to be borderline between annoying and inferiority complex causing. my problem? i’d say so. but a few weeks ago i whipped up this little number using only what i had on hand. undoubtedly a red bell pepper would have come in handy along with some bamboo shoots or something else with color but it tasted pretty damn good and it contained the following, in no particular order:

white miso
mirin
shoyu
raw chicken breast
a chopped shallot
frozen peas
sriracha sauce
fresh rice noodles – sold refrigerated in the vacuum sealed bag
gochujang
sesame oil
my poultry stock

never to be duplicated, but again, it was a proud moment – especially since there is no chinese food in nashville worthy of buying unless you count ‘pf changs’. sad but true.

presenting, farinata – a thin chickpea pancake/pizza like thing that’s pretty popular in liguria. i saw farinata mentioned somewhere and then i found this recipe on the food & wine website – and well it’s very much my kind of food. yes yes, i scorched the top a bit with my broiler but really it was no big deal – just a very surface ring of black. you basically mix garbanzo flour and water and let it sit for a couple of hours. then you preheat the oven to 500f, skim any foam off the batter and add salt, rosemary (i think i used sage) and olive oil. then heat a cast iron skillet in the oven for 10 minutes, add some olive oil to the pan, add the batter and bake. again, i made the mistake of deciding to brown the top a bit more and i took my eye off the oven…

but there were no complaints and it went fast…

this was from the ‘king arthur flour whole grain baking‘ book. i’m pretty sure this recipe called for peaches but i loaded it up with 3 pears being that i had just bought a huge box of them to support a friends daughter school choir. great idea… so much better than gift wrapping or magazines. anyway, i lowered the amount of sugar the recipe called for and well, cary ate the entire loaf in one day.

vegetables on brown basmati rice. exciting, i know. please try and contain yourselves. but for the record we’ve got brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, garlic, broccoli and some lovely briney olives lightly sauteed in olive oil and finished with a balsamic glaze. and i must tell you, it was quite delicious. and since i took a picture of it, i felt the need to share. because not only am i needy that way, but also because the rice had the perfect bite and the vegetables were cooked to that crisp but not overdone finish. i got lucky on this one. it was a moment in time where all the planets aligned just so, and the vegetable gods smiled down upon me. and i was grateful and appreciative and all those things that the vegetable gods expect one to be.

scarlett runners from rancho gordo dusted with espelette. there’s some pan fried tilapia back there with a spicy green olive tapenade on top. but the beans and the espelette were seriously good. and even more seriously basque.

but regarding the espelette… like if ever you were to get some? think eggs. scrambled, deviled, fried or perhaps just one orange egg yolk sitting atop a small mound of sheeps milk ricotta mixed with a bit of orange zest, sprinkled with this extraordinary pepper and then tucked carefully between 2 sheets of thin pasta…. yes. think that.

so dear readers, for the record – my personal ‘o9 resolution is to lean down both physically and financially. and i’m heading in that direction, yes i am. and there’ll be more on that later.

and although i may be 4 days late, allow me to raise my virtual glass to you. here’s to a kinder, gentler new year…

(thunderous applause from the blogosphere)

ok, so maybe they’re not typically pretty. no icing or sparkles, sprinkles, jam or chocolate. just a rustic beige looking baked good that i’d take over just about any cookie ever. except perhaps a black and white, but only because somewhere in my dna i’m genetically programmed to love those.

and now, dear readers – for today’s lesson, courtesy of the wiki:  biscotti, derived from some latin word that means twice baked, were most likely prepared this way so that they could be stored for longer periods of time, particularly useful during journeys or wars.

in america, the italian term "biscotti" has been taken to refer to a specific type of biscuit, derived from tuscan cantucci, a type of hard almond-flavoured biscuits traditionally served with vin santo, probably originating from the town of prato and therefore still known as "biscotti of prato".

ok. class over.
see how we learn together? how beautiful is that?

but before we move on i must make one thing perfectly clear. MY BISCOTTI WILL NEVER EVER CONTAIN ANY BUTTER. because it would quite simply be wrong. i am a firm believer that the moment you add butter to biscotti they turn into a whole different cookie – an imposter. they are then cake-like. they’re crumbly. not crunchy. and they will then have that butter thing going on and listen, i love butter as much as you, if not more – but keep it the hell out of my damn biscotti. are we clear? i hope so because this totally matters to me. so, go ahead and put cream in your carbonara if you must, i can handle that if only barely. but no butter in the biscotti or i will be forced to talk bad about your baking decisions.

on a lighter note, every year angela and i have a tradition of getting together and baking biscotti. it’s this thing we’ve done for quite some time now although lately it translates into her doing all the work and me pouring the wine while giving my opinion as to how it should all be done and why. anyway, we have a recipe that we’ve used over time that we’ve honed – and it’s quite good. we’ve also tended towards over toasting them which makes them quite hard. but if you’re inclined to dunk, they’re perfect that way.

angela and claudia’s famous biscotti
(eat at your own dental risk)
3 3/4 cups ap flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups almonds, whole – toasted
1 cup chopped candied ginger pieces – optional
melted chocolate for dipping – optional

toast almonds about 12 minutes or until fragrant at 350f on baking sheets – single layer… keep an eye on them. 

in the bowl of an electric mixer (or not) fitted with the paddle attachment blend the flour, the sugar, the baking powder, and the salt until the mixture is combined well. In a small bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, the vanilla and the almond extract, add the mixture to the flour mixture, beating until a dough is formed, and stir in the almonds.

turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead it several times, and divide it into fourths. Working on 2 large floured baking sheets, with floured hands form each piece of dough into a flattish log 11 inches long and 2 inches wide, arrange the logs at least 3 inches apart on the sheets.

bake the logs in a preheated 350f oven for about 30 minutes and let them cool on the baking sheets for at least 15 minutes. on a cutting board, cut the logs crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2" inch slices, arrange the biscotti cut sides down on the baking sheets, and bake them in a 300f oven for 10 minutes on each side, or until they are pale golden. transfer the biscotti to racks to cool.

but – our recipe is not the biscotti pictured. because this year, we used the biscotti recipe that i had found on the babbo website. it’s quite similar to ours, but this was gina depalma’s version… and well, i respect the hell out of gina depalma. so we gave her version below a go and it was excellent.

almond biscotti
adapted from babbo ristorante – by gina depalma

gina’s recipe calls for 6 cups of nuts which is how they’re pictured above. but when i made them a second time i brought it down to 4 cups. it really just depends on how you want them. both quantities work. i also omitted the anise seed, using other add-ins. one log had candied ginger, one had candied citron peel and another had candied orange peel. we left the 4th plain.

3 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
4 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 Tbl. amaretto
4 cups coarsely chopped whole almonds

in a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
in a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until light, about 2 minutes; the mixture will look somewhat curdled. beat in the vanilla and amaretto. beat in the dry ingredients, then the chopped nuts.

preheat the oven to 325 degrees. lightly grease two heavy cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper. divide the dough into four portions. on a lightly floured board, shape each portion into a flat log, just about the length the cookie sheet. place two rolls on each cookie sheet. bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the logs are lightly golden brown, firm to the touch and just beginning to crack slightly.

allow the logs to cool on the cookie sheet until cool to the touch, about 40 minutes. reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees. with a serrated knife, slice the biscotti, slightly on the bias, into ½-inch slices. lay the slices on the cookie sheets in single layer; return the biscotti to the oven and cook for 20 more minutes, or until the biscotti are toasted and crisp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the ginger version is our automatic annual biscotti. sometimes we half dip them in chocolate, sometimes we don’t. the citron really needed some lemon zest and in place of the amaretto, limoncello would work nicely here to brighten them up a bit. the citron kind of got lost amidst the vanilla extract and the amaretto. angela swore that the candied orange peel biscotti tasted like fruit loops and well, i’m not sure what to say about that except that she was thinking that was a bonus and i was hoping it wasn’t so.

as for me, i loved them all.

but again, these are my kind of cookie…

as you very well know, right now we are in full pumpkin swing. pumpkin everything is everywhere. let’s face it – once a year we all go pumpkin crazy and really, it’s a good thing. all the baked goods – from pies to muffins to cheesecakes and breads, pumpkin concoctions stuffed into various shaped pastas and sauced with sage brown butter, and even ‘pumpkin as edible vessel’, filled with dried fruits and spiced rice. if it’s autumn, we’re eating pumpkins, winter squash and sweet potatoes. which is a more than welcome sight after seemingly endless quantities of the zucchini and yellow squash we’ve had to contend with all late summer…

so while flipping through the babbo cookbook, looking for cookie ideas for the upcoming december class, i spotted this cake and began to longingly read the recipe. somehow i had every single thing i needed, right here in the house. so obviously, it was not only going to get made, but it was absolutely meant to be. except for the accompanying olive oil gelato – sadly, that wasn’t going to happen. and i say sadly because i’ve had mario’s olive oil gelato and it is insanely good. but it would have required a trip to the store and the ice cream maker bowl wasn’t in the freezer and well, quite frankly with 6 egg yolks and the heavy cream and olive oil, my ass is fat enough these days – and i was thinking we could eek by without it…

the ingredient list was simple and sounded like perfection and the process was uncomplicated – another huge plus. and so far gina depalma, pastry chef at babbo restaurant had never steered me wrong. her desserts are thoughtful and well executed and are inspired by the italian way of thinking and eating, but are still unlike what you might find in italy. gina is probably my favorite pastry chef and i highly recommend her book dolce italiano: desserts from the babbo kitchen.

pumpkin cake with toasted pine nuts
mario batali – the babbo cookbook

1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons brandy or grappa
1 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 cup light brown sugar – packed
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup canned pumpkin purée

preheat oven to 325f. lightly spray a 9" square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray

spread the pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until light golden brown, about 10 minutes. allow to cool. place the raisins in the bowl with the brandy and pour the boiling water over them. set the raisins aside to plump.

in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking soda. in the bowl of an electric mixer beat the eggs and brown sugar until very light. add the rosemary leaves and then, with the mixer running, slowly beat in the olive oil. beat in the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl. add the pumpkin and beat until smooth. stir in the drained raisins and pine nuts.

pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. allow cake to cool and remove from pan.

i’m not a huge baker, and i stay clear of most anything with a rolled pastry. but i am a huge dessert fan and when i can find a recipe that reads pure deliciousness with minimal fuss i am very grateful. the fresh rosemary, olive oil (i used a buttery spanish) and brandy soaked golden raisins along with the toasted pine nuts resulted in a true standout flavor – and the cake itself was light and moist.

and yes, the gelato would have capped it perfectly – but i suppose that is for another time…

i have a recipe for a flourless chocolate cake, found years ago in a ny times sunday magazine, that is unbelievably good. if baked with all the best ingredients, it costs $40 to make and serves 20 generously, weighing in at over 2 lbs.

i rarely make it. and now there’s a good chance that i never will again…

because i’ve found a new chocolate cake. and it’s the one for me. as in forever.

except for one thing. and it’s a very funny thing. you see, the recipe calls for 6 tablespoons of butter. and i don’t know how it happened, but i used 16. yes dear readers, the entire package of plugra butter went into my cake. as in more than double the called for amount. hee.

i keep wondering how i slipped up. granted, it was the 5th recipe i’d made that day. so maybe i was tired – or perhaps even momentarily distracted. but somehow, regardless of the miscalculation it was ‘screaming crazy’ good. it was ‘call each other on the phone and talk about it the next day’ good. but now i’m thinking that this particular incarnation of my new favorite chocolate cake has sadly fallen into the ‘once a year only’ good category…

on the upside, at least now i have learned that 1 T butter = 1/2 an ounce…

new bittersweet chocolate cake
adapted from alice medrich’s pure dessert

8 oz 70% bittersweet chocolate
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (i used 16, as in 8 oz. – hee)
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
scant 1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
1/3 cup plus 1 T (1.2 ounces) all purpose flour
whole nutmeg for grating

position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350. line the bottom and sides of a 9" round baking pan with foil

place the chocolate and butter in a double boiler that is barely simmering and melt until smooth. stir frequently. when quite warm, set aside.

in a medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla with a hand-held mixer on high speed until the eggs are thick and light colored about 2 minutes. whisk in the warm chocolate and then fold in the flour.

scrape the batter into the lined pan and spread evenly. bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. cool on a wire rack.

invert the cake onto a rack and peel off the foil. turn right side up on a cutting board. while still warm, grate liberally with the nutmeg.

there is something about a 9" round, single layer, simply adorned cake that appeals to my inner aesthetic. it feels elegant to me. and so although medrich offers this cake recipe as her "new bittersweet brownies", made in an 8" square, only suggesting as an afterthought the round pan with the grated spice, i for one, could not imagine serving it any other way…

the question is, when i make it again, i wonder how much butter i’ll use?

*authors note – i posted once again on thursday night smackdown while michelle is on a short hiatus. please click on over and read about my foray into ‘cheater bbq’.

              

my rss feeder broke.  and i didn’t realize it for 3 months.  mostly because i (still) don’t even understand what exactly an rss feeder is, or what it does – talk about being oh so techno savvy… but my stat’s were dropping off and well, try as i might to just ignore the cold hard numbers, i started to take it personally.  was it something i said?  something i cooked?  where did so many of my bleaders go and why would they leave me after all we have meant to each other? 

but before i called my therapist, i called mark from simpler computing! and he quickly came to my rescue – again.  thank you mark.  you solved the mystery and now once again you are so totally my blero. 

so listen up – all you techno losers out there that just like to cook and write and take a little photo here and there, but do not want to bother your pretty little heads with html and templates and embedding and wordpress editors that suck and the like, call mark.  today.  he can tweak your blog into submission.  AND he likes to cook… (btw – ceF is still under construction as i type so please bear with…)

speaking of liking to cook… here’s the deal.  i cook a lot.  but sometimes it’s just dinner.  and sometimes it’s not my idea of a blog worthy post.  and usually it’s just that i’m too lazy to write.  but it’s totally me, not you.  you, i adore.  you make my life better, adding an entirely new fangled dimension that did not exist just 16 months ago. but still, i am often unmotivated, or perhaps even more often than that, i’m just reading OPB’s…

so what happens is that some of these dishes fall by the blogosphere’s wayside.  but i thought since we were dealing with feeds and feeding, i’d show you what gets fed around here to my immediate world.  so i’m going to hit you with a fair few of what i’ve not bothered to bother you with until now, along with some pictures. take a deep breath – here goes…

look familiar?  this one was made with the half and half, as per ripert’s recipe.  was it better?  yes.  did i LOVE it?  not so much.  it’s ok.  kinda brunchy, not desserty.  i like custard.  life is good.  and eric, you’re totally cool and sexy and hot and all those things.  but my tony still has you beat, big time. i hope you can understand…

ok so i realize i am blogger #4721 to make jim lahey’s no knead bread.  but i did it.  quietly.  and it was a good and crusty loaf of bread that if nothing else looked very, very impressive. 

i baked it in my romertopf that i dug out and dusted off.  although it stays unused and because it looks so beautiful – i keep it.  i’m sure you understand such things.  so, i soaked the terracotta in water and then baked the bread as per the direction for a dutch oven.  i felt my dutch oven was too big and i didn’t want a 2" high bread.  somehow, this worked out quite nicely.  so take a chance, dear readers – bake no knead bread.  oh, and have i made this again since?  nope.  will i?  maybe, probably not.

this was made quite awhile ago.  it was panko encrusted chicken livers served over what i think was swiss chard and finely sliced ‘delightful tiny purple potatoes’ and shallots sautéed with pimm’s and port.  what?  you think they may not have been tiny and delightful?  you are sooooo wrong….

i present to you… delightful. tiny. purple. potatoes.  i only wish i could have been in the room when the marketing team thought of that.  can you imagine what the discussion would have sounded like?  i only know they were republicans with bad haircuts.  after that, i know nothing.

so now you ask, what the hell is that?  that, my dear readers is a watermelon salad with mint leaves, chili oil and feta – topped with a very anti-locavore piece of barramundi from costco via australia.  in a previous life i lived down under (husband #1) and ate this fish regularly.  perhaps i didn’t need to sit the barramundi on top of the watermelon, but it seemed like a good idea at the time… and it was our dinner that night and we were happy enough.  so stop smirking.  thank you.

i made this last weekend and it was good and rich and saucy and chicken thighey – all that with trofie pasta thrown in for very good measure.  it’s what patricia wells eats when she’s at home in provence, a recipe that i picked up from feeding groom.  oh and it’s got sherry vinegar and garlic cloves and dijon mustard and lots of tarragon and minced sundried tomatoes… it’s more wintry than it is septembery in nashville, but i had 4 chicken thighs in the freezer and suddenly this just happened…

ok are you ready to hear what this was supposed to be?  what it almost was… what i wished it might have been and what it could be if i ever decide to take it on again?  salted butterscotch pudding with chocolate covered bacon.  thank you and goodnight.  the end.  by claudia. 

except it never really thickened properly.  and benton’s bacon is crazy salty.  so salty that i forgot just how salty it was therefore making it an out and out wrong bacon choice.  because it seems that is actually possible.  to make a wrong bacon choice.  you’d think not, but what this dessert needed was a thin cut good bacon that crisps up in a curly, artsy strip, and only then could it be dipped into lindt chocolate and put into a pudding recipe that WORKS.  because this recipe did not.  and another blogger tried it and it didn’t work for her either.  so. oh well,  we all drank our pudding and chucked the wayyy too salty pork.  seemed sinful but we got over it.  we lived and learned, moving onwards and upwards – with the comforting knowledge that bacon rarely ever lets you down…

so not even a little pretty.  AND the wrong color bowl.  but it was just a simple dinner of fresh crowder peas with bacon.  the bacon did just as it should, redeeming itself from the previous mishap.  there was something else served with this but really, i have no idea… i think it was grilled tilapia.  unexciting, quick and easy and not exactly memorable – but hey, not every night can be foie gras…

OK – EVERYBODY STAND UP AND STRETCH.  NO REALLY.  BECAUSE I AM NOT DONE.  BATHROOM BREAK?  GO ON.  I’LL WAIT….

oh, hi, you’re back.  wonderful, because i was worried… ok, just a few more…

this was lazzaroli’s sweet potato and ricotta ravioli.  i dressed it up with a side of kale, done in a sauce of olive oil, cream, honey and sage, and then dusted the pasta with nutmeg and parmegiano.  again – super fast and easy.  (tommy noodles, you are a nashville godsend… thank you for giving me an option that is first rate and still allows me to get creative.)

yes, i too jumped on the bandwagon thanks to michelle from thursday night smackdown and all the rest of you that grilled the hell outa a bunch of pizzas…  except michelle was the one who took my call on a saturday night so i could get very specific information about the whole pizza grilling process.  this particular pizza was taken from her post and it was damn fine.  i cooked down some swiss chard in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and used copious amounts of minced garlic and ricotta.  i also sliced up a big ripe yellow tomato with red stripes running through it (we will miss you beautiful heirloom tomatoes),

awesomeness, no?  well yes – but… from here on in i’ll stick to the pizza stone with my oven set to broil and 550f… because grilled pizza is too damn white on top.  and flipping it before the toppings go on doesn’t allow the cheese and sauce to bake into the dough and well, my grill runs hot (it’s infrared) so even on the lowest setting it never got the top brown and i kept having to turn the flame on and off so as not to scorch the bottom and was nervously moving it to the top rack and well, i like my pizza stone in my oven.  so if i had a real charcoal grill which i don’t and do not plan on getting because it’s too much work and i am not willing (go on – think of me what you will but there are extenuating circumstances… like a boyfriend who is also happy with oven baked pizza’s), maybe that would be better.  but as it stands, and i repeat – i am a pizza in the oven kinda gal – set to broil on super high heat with the stone on the very bottom rack.  but i made the obligatory grilled pizza.  yes i did.

i present to you… voodoo mac and cheese

do you read gild the (voodoo)lily?  if not, you need to read gild the (voodoo)lily…  heather is very smart and very funny and this bitch can cook.  and i mean that in a good way.  heather is another one of those foodcentric people that seriously knows how to put ingredients together.  like if you turned your pantry over to her, she’d blow your mind.  and you’d be thinking all, why didn’t i think of that?… and the answer is because she KNOWS MORE THAN YOU DO.  plus she’s a botanist.  a freakin’ botanist... so she’s always growing and foraging and well, it’s a little bit intimidating.  heather could totally kick your ass and never even touch you…

anyway, back in july she made something called garden mac.  for her it was merely a ‘clean your fridge out’ kinda dinner, and i’m thinking – mac and cheese with roasted tomatoes in a bechamel base?  sign me the hell up. 

the ingredients i used were as follows; mostaccioli pasta, the 4 cheeses were – asiago, parmigiano reggiano, st jerome and fontal.  and for the garden part – fresh thyme and heirloom tomatoes, kale, onion, squash and zucchini.  i drove all the ingredients about an hour south, down to my friend shannon’s house and we spent the day cooking and drinking wine and talking and laughing and then we sat out on the porch overlooking her farm and had a late lunch…

and for the grand finale i give to you an extremely abbreviated version of my veal stock mission…

bones arrive from snook’s.  i tried for weeks to find a local source.  nada.

20 lbs.

because i am awesome…

i made brown and white stock.  i followed the ruhlman way.  it is the only way. (great version here)

otherwise when you die, you go to culinary hell where you are forced to live on nothing but shoney’s buffets. (please click on the shoney’s link.  there are no words…)

and hey, thanks so much for reading.  i realize this post was a commitment. 

you can go now…

as you know i have a bit of a baking aversion. but before you remind me of how i tend to go on about this little culinary problem of mine, let me just say that it is really most specifically pastry that i run from – screaming. cakes, loaves, pizza dough – even breads, i can do on occasion despite it being a messy undertaking with flour everywhere. when i bake it’s as though a fairly major renovation job has gone down in my house, and i’m still finding drywall dust in every nook and cranny days later. yes, this is what happens when i bake… which is why i rarely bake. except for pastry which i never ever do. ever.

but i made 2 caramel cakes in 3 days.  the first was a birthday cake for angela (and a dare to myself) and the second one was just to see if the first one had been a fluke.  because this cake was a surprisingly good cake.  and it is doable.  you don’t even have to ice it.  it’s merely a caramel glaze that runs over the sides in a grown up kinda rustic looking way.  this cake? is my kinda cake.  and it is now my official signature cake.  from here on in – if it’s your birthday – it’s caramel cake.  if you want carrot cake, you’ll have to go elsewhere.  and i will not apologize.  because i am the friend who will bake you a kickass caramel cake. 

and it won’t be a white cake or a yellow cake with caramel frosting either.  it will be 3 layers of real caramel cake held together with caramel syrup.  because this is the way it’s done in my house when i bake ceF’s official signature caramel cake.

caramel cake
adapted from desert candy

for caramel syrup:
1 ½ cups sugar plus ¾ cup water
½ cup of water for stopping

for cake:
14 tablespoons (7 oz) unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups light brown sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
½  cup caramel syrup (from above)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ cups buttermilk

for assembly:
the rest of the caramel syrup

for glaze:
1.5 cups heavy cream
¾ cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt – or more to taste

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, have the additional ½ cup water ready on the side. Boil the syrup, watching closely, until it turns dark amber. Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining water to "stop" the caramel. Stir the mixture with a fork until it comes together, then set aside to cool to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 F, grease and flour 3 9-inch cake pans. In a bowl cream the butter until smooth, then cream in the brown sugar and salt until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in the caramel syrup. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla, until very smooth and combined. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the flour in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, to make a smooth cake batter. Divide cake batter among prepared pans. Bake in the center of the oven (rotating pans halfway through), for 25 minutes, or until firm, golden, and the sides pull away from the edge of the pan. Set aside to cool.

(note – i use convection ovens so this was how long it took in mine. keep an eye and don’t overbake!)

On a cake plate, stack the cake layers, spreading 2 tablespoons maple syrup or caramel syrup between the layers so that they stick together. Press down firmly (at this point, the cake can be triple-wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to one month, or simply covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight).

Glaze cake: Combine cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a saucepan. Boil the mixture until it reaches 235 F, or soft-ball stage. Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla. Give the mixture several rapid stirs, then quickly pour it over the cake before the glaze hardens.

in the first cake (above) i used 3 cups of heavy cream as i accidentally misread the recipe which i know that you, dear readers would never do because you are not too vain to put on your reading glasses.  so although it was excellent, i never let it get to the soft-ball stage because first of all i think i must have used too much cream, and secondly, if that were not the case then i just needed more nerve, know-how and patience because i, quite frankly had no idea what the hell i was doing and could not find my old candy thermometer.  candy shmandy, i never go there either… 

for the second cake i used 2 cups of cream but again was thermometer-less which made me ’concerned’ while it was boiling away - so this time the glaze came out a bit thin.  then again, you’re never too rich or too thin and this was certainly both of those, but still, i kept trying to get the damn soft-ball to form in the glass of cool water, and again, i was beyond clueless.

my next cake i am using 1.5 cups of cream (as now reflected in the recipe) – as in following directions – something i am not wont to do…

because… the glaze should set quickly after being removed from the heat and form a crust-like finish when poured.  and mine never quite got there.  but my next one will.  because i found my candy thermometer. so now i am unstoppable. and hey, it’s not like the first 2 weren’t excellent cakes…they just were not perfect. and well, as you know, here at ceF, we strive for perfection bigtime - and then we take what we get and go on merrily with life.

cake #2 – with thin caramel glaze pooling at the bottom…

cake #2 suddenly exuding a greenish lightsaber-like glow…

i am a jedi baker…

a clafouti as deflated as my ego…

dear mr. ripert,

i am a long time fan of le bernardin and an avid reader of your new blog, avec eric. i eagerly await the new book being released this autumn and may i also take this opportunity to tell you that i absolutely adore ‘a return to cooking’ and would have to say that it is without a doubt the most beautiful cook book that i own. 

i think you’d be pleased to know that because of you i purchased the cuisinart brick oven, if only to cook along, through a simple but perfect array of dishes that you yourself appear to thoroughly enjoy.  of course watching you cook while listening to your ever so incredibly sexy french accent…  well, all i can say is that the people at cuisinart are marketing genuises.

so i grill my tomatoes, bake and broil my fish – among many other things, and tonight i decided to finally make the clafouti as i had just bought a batch of tart blackberries at the farmers market this past weekend.  the thing is, i only had 2% milk.  eric (may i call you eric?), i drink my coffee black and well, i just didn’t want to head out to the store for a pint of 1/2 and 1/2 that would most likely turn bad after i used my 6 tablespoons.  big, big miscalculation on my part. 

i suppose i don’t have to tell you what my clafouti tasted like because naturally, if you are reading this you are making the same face that i did upon taking my first bite.  it was that nearly inedible low fat version of what might have been a wonderful dessert if i’d so much as followed your directions.  i say nearly because as a woman in my 40′s i am guilty of eating substandard foods on occasion in the name of vanity and valiant attempts at zipping my jeans – but this was no place to skimp on a few fat grams.  so my clafouti was permeated by ‘that taste’ that is devoid of all that it could have and should have been. 

so eric, when you wrote "its consistency will lie somewhere between a custard and a cake. smooth, moist, silky with a slight crisp of the crust."  mine was kind of rubbery, devoid of anything that could ever be construed as silky.  and for this i am sorry because i should have just listened to you.  afterall it’s not like you even asked us to use heavy cream.  you were being moderate, just like a true frenchman would.

i knew better, eric.  i really did.
but mostly, i believe that i have learned from the error of my ways… 

sincerely,

claudia of ceF

it had been my birthday, and i have this friend phil who is a wonderful and thoughtful gift giver.  phil had seen a newfangled silicone bundt pan in the ‘ny times style magazine’ a few months back, and lucky for me, he ripped out the page – which he then thoughtfully tucked into the box.

the concept is quite simple, that the slices are pre-defined into 4 sizes – which in turn creates an architectural looking cake.  a thing of total beauty that incorporates both form AND function.  dear readers, let me explain… this to me is huge.  this rings my chimes and floats my boat and just generally makes me very happy.  because i so appreciate the brilliance.  i mean people… don’t you love this?  because i love this.  those damn germans can design the hell out of anything…

so on my first go around, which fell on a hot summer’s day, i made a classic blueberry lemon cake, because why wouldn’t i?

blueberry lemon cake

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
4 eggs
the zest of 3 lemons
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup milk

preheat oven to 350F
butter a bundt pan and then dust with flour, shaking out excess

mix 2 1/4 cups flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  set aside.
in another bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
beat in eggs one at a time, then add lemon zest
as you stir, add half the flour mixture, then milk, then remaining flour mixture
toss blueberries in remaining 1/4 cup flour
(dredging fruit keeps it suspended in cake batter and prevents it from sinking during baking)
fold blueberries into batter and pour into bundt pan
bake for about 50 – 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
let cake cool in pan for 15 minutes, and turn onto a wire rack

dust with powdered sugar when cool
 

it’s a truly wonderful cake that i think you should all make this weekend, ok?  just do it.  go on.  you will be so glad that you did.  honestly, it’s not too sweet or too heavy – it’s just a simple summer cake of fresh local blueberries brightened by the lemon zest, and well, it was just right.  i served it with some ’boulder sweet cream’ ice cream that i picked up at whole foods.  it’s a ‘no flavor’ flavor that tastes like the very best frozen whipped cream – except it’s in ice cream form and well, i didn’t want even vanilla messing with my cake.  so i was overly excited to see it sitting there in the freezer case.  my eyes actually lit up when i saw it – but i’m excitable like that.

and yes of course, i’m sure any bundt pan will do.

but not for me…

and now dear readers, a few bundt facts just for you
(because wikipedia exists and therefore i can…)

A Bundt cake is the name used for a dessert cake cooked in a Bundt pan, whose identifying attribute is its ringed shape. The Bundt pan (a registered trademark) was created in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, founder of Nordic Ware, at the request of members of the Hadassah Society’s chapter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were interested in a pan that could be used to make bundkuchen (sometimes called kugelhopf or Gugelhupf), a popular German and Austrian coffee cake. The old-world pans, with fluted and grooved sides, made of delicate ceramic or heavy cast iron, were difficult to use. He modified some existing Scandinavian pan designs and fashioned the pan out of aluminum.

The pan sold somewhat slowly until a Pillsbury-sponsored baking contest in 1966 saw a Bundt cake win second place. This prompted a scramble for the pans, causing them to become the most-sold pan in the United States soon after. Since introduction, more than 50 million Bundt pans have been sold by the Nordic Ware company.

Pillsbury licensed the name in 1970 for a line of cake mixes.

In early 2007 some of the original Bundt pans were taken into the Smithsonian Institute’s collection.

National Bundt Pan day is November 15.

i just needed to simply and quickly tell you that i made these muffins and they were gone in one day.  a solid dozen.  gone for good – goodbye.  cary had 5.  yes, five.  and i even forgot to brown sugar the tops as per the recipe.  but then they might have been gone in half a day.  and well, the cold hard reality of that would’ve been a bit hard to take.

the night before, i measured and mixed all of the dry ingredients. the butter was left out so it’d be at perfect consistency - with the egg right beside it.  the next morning while the coffee was brewing, the batter got thrown together and the muffin tin was popped into the oven in no time flat.  and within 20 minutes- voila!  hot apple muffins were being enjoyed by all.  and we rejoiced and sang, while gleefully dancing around the table.  maybe.

the recipe came from ‘smitten kitchen‘.  again.  (hi deb.  love ya.  mean it)

whole wheat apple muffins
adapted from king arthur flour

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour an 18 cup muffin tin and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the buttermilk gently (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

these really were a huge crowd pleaser.  from the nutty earthiness of the ww flour, along with the not too sweet cakey bread and the generous amount of big chunks of apples – these were overall a really exceptional muffin that i would make over and over to the delight of all the peoples.

next time i may even forget the brown sugar topping again…

ok. i got it. finally. 347 banana breads later. dear readers, i’ve figured it out. so now you don’t have to. you’re welcome.

there’s a few key things here. ok one. well, one big one. because you can use all the vegetable type oils you want. but if you want it to be great, it’s all so very about the butter. butter is better in your batter. i made that up. maybe. so it’s the butter – and it’s the yogurt. and then it’s not too dry, not too moist, not too unbanana’y – it tastes juuuuust right. because it has butter in it. not oil. got it? good.

so i blended together eleventy hundred recipes and came up with this one. and don’t mess with it ok? well you could probably substitute walnuts for the chocolate. but that’s where i draw the line. you hear me? so do not cross that line. or i will be forced to turn this blog around AND tell your father. geeshk…

i personally have tailor made this recipe so it can be made it one bowl and mixed by hand. only because i care about you.

ceF’s banana bread
(adapted from eleventy hundred recipes over 25 years)

preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a loaf pan

3 large ultra ripe spotty bananas
1/3 cup melted butter – cooled
1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream ( i use 2% greek style yogurt)
2 eggs – room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup – sugar (ultra scant)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips

mash bananas well in a bowl – add eggs, melted butter, yogurt and vanilla – mix vigorously – add sugar and mix again add baking soda and powder directly to the wet ingredients – give a good mix and then add flours mixing until everything is incorporated. lastly mix in the chips. pour batter into the pan and bake for about 60 minutes. check for doneness using a toothpick/skewer. unmold after 10 minutes of cooling.

the main reason why having a recipe such as this is SO IMPORTANT is because inevitably your bananas don’t get eaten and start to go overly spotty on you. and unless you’re a smoothie making fool or a cold cereal eating maniac – you’re throwing away your bananas. and i know this because i’ve been checking on you. often.

sliced warm with melted chocolate streaks and an obligatory espresso….

when ’08 rolls around i will not be baking for quite awhile. if i do, feel free to come to my house and kill me – but only because i will deserve it. baking isn’t even my thing but i can be way too easily coerced into going there. but let’s be honest here. if one doesn’t bake in december then one is just not ever baking. i’d say that’s pretty close to a fact. it’s a tradition around here to do a biscotti baking night about a week before christmas. for the past 7 years or so, angela and i produce some mighty kick-ass almond biscotti – some with chunks of candied ginger. the real kind. the kind with no butter. just flour, eggs, sugar, water, vanilla extract and almonds. the kind that is heavy and hard and just so wonderful with a cup of good coffee. but this year we punted. we got together, cracked a fine bottle of pinot noir and declared it a "no biscotti biscotti night". and we proceded to drink agreeing that we were all fat enough. but last week while out and about i spotted a madeline pan. and i’ve always wanted to make madeleines. they’re so french sounding and so beautiful to look at. and for $18 it was all mine. another baking thing to own. and there is some strange comfort in that. which i am sure is wrapped up and intertwined all quite nicely with some semi-major psychological defect… but really, it started with heidi’s post. and i followed the recipe exactly. veering nowhere. a rarity for me. but this is a classic case of not messing with perfection.

and i’ll be damned if they don’t taste as spectacular as they look. little charming individual shell shaped browned butter and lemon sponge cake christmas cookies! a new tradition…

(this piece was originally written for a more general audience, but i thought i’d share it with you lest it die a senseless death.)

december is a mighty decadent month. it gives us a reason to dress better, shop harder – and eat a lot of food. restaurants are slammed, parties abound and your office-kitchen is most likely out of control. we ve got this holiday thing down and we like it. and no one’s reinventing the wheel here. it’s the ‘holiday ball trinity’ cheese, bourbon and sausage. it s the white chocolate covered oreos beside the m&m snicker doodle cookies, next to the peanut butter marshmallow treats – adjacent to the countless other distinctive creations we’ve come to expect. we re strung out on carbs and then sobered by fat grams and perhaps not handling this whole food thing as well as we could. we are quite literally, intoxicated with december.

i present to you – an option. just one for now. and perhaps it could replace that chocolate coca-cola cake? no, no – i’m not the pushy new york city transplant coaxing you away from your all time faves. not that I could. not that I even want to. go ahead and make aunt shirley s velveeta fudge. because i totally love me some fudge. i’m just thinking there are a lot of other things out there you might consider, and well really, i was thinking about myself – and one thing in particular. because it’s been on my mind since I heard mario batali talking about my kind of cheesecake. and maybe it s not really a bonafide holiday cake , but it certainly could be, as it has candied fruit, nuts and TWO kinds of alcohol – which technically makes it a fruit cake. and nothing screams holiday like a fruit cake. but this this is an authentic sicilian cheesecake and although it s not for the faint of palate, when executed well, it s something tony soprano and i truly long for.

ingredients are my game. keep them few and fabulous. so I m thinking that a cake like this will only shine with fresh ricotta. polly-o’s plastic sealed version might do in a pinch but i figured fresh is where it s at. so i hit the phone pretty hard, calling three of very best italian bakeries in the tri-state area. i wanted their take on the cake. ‘veniero s’ in the east village owned up to using polly-o, while ‘carlo s’ in hoboken, nj uses fresh cow s milk ricotta and ‘buon italia’ in chelsea imports their own sheep s milk ricotta from italy. so there you have it. it s a one bowl number that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. or just don your inner orange crocs and do what our mario does:

sicilian cheesecake
(inspired by Mario Batali s Budino di Ricotta )

*please note that ricotta cheese inherently has a more rough and crumble texture than the ubiquitous cream cheese cake. if you prefer a less grainy, more creamy texture, use a food processor or a blender to smooth out the batter.

4 cups (about 2 lbs) fresh sheep’s or cow milk ricotta (or prepackaged in a pinch – works fine)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sambucca
3 T amaro (recommended: Fernet Branca)
7 eggs yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 t fine sea salt
1 orange, zested
1/3 cup finely diced candied orange or citron peel or a combo cup toasted pine nuts

toast pine nuts in a pan over low heat, watching carefully and shaking often until they brown.

preheat the oven to 275 degrees then butter a 9-inch springform cake pan.

in a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flour and salt add the ricotta with the sambucca, amaro and zest add the egg yolks mix well using a food processor or blender (for creamy consistancy) pour the ricotta mixture into the prepared pan and gently mix in the orange peel evenly then top with the pine nuts, gently pushing most of them below the surface bake until just set, about 60 minutes serve room temperature or chilled

in the name of december, we ve covered some of the major food players – cheese, fruit, nuts and alcohol. you ll just have to get your chocolate somewhere else. but hey, last week I picked up a ‘Mo s Bacon Bar by Vosges Haut Chocolate’. bits of applewood smoked bacon suspended in a dark milk chocolate if I were you, I wouldn t live another day without trying it. no offense to those red and green kisses

holidays can make you do things that you wouldn’t ordinarily do were it not for the sake of the joyous diversions that we recognize as “festivity”.  some people (not me) carve out faces on big orange gourds and dress up in scary/amusing costumes, while other people display flags attached to their homes adorned with turkeys and pilgrims (also most definitely not me).  and then there are those that string colored lights on various foliage (guilty and jewish), and put huge blow-up snowmen in their yards (if i ever do this you have permission to take me out of my insanity however you see fit).  and while they’re at it, these same good folks are often baking up a storm.

i read about this tart on two really exceptional blogs where it was beyond raved about.  so i was willing to break my ‘never ever make pastry like ever’ rule in the name of both greatness and thanksgiving.  so i went there.  and now i am here to tell you how i am reminded that pastry making is some messy thankless business.  and i am once again done with it.  it’s a temperamental foodstuff requiring all the planets to be in correct alignment while the temperature of both your kitchen and countertop are within 3 degrees of like, whatever.  there is so much room for failure that my better judgement just looks at me and says, “why go there?” while my ego says “you surely have enough ‘know how’ if not kitchen apparatus, to see you through just one damn tart shell”. 

“and what is that ever so interesting texture on the bottom of your tart shell”, you ask?  well, i was thinking i needed pie weights.  and i was wrong.  so they all sunk down and needed to get flicked out of their hot little bunkers leaving me with that very entertaining holey pattern.  oh, and as you can see, as i feared the crust did shrink down the sides.

but no one noticed…

oh smitten, oh heidi, oh derrick and molly - forgive me for i have sinned.  and somehow, in someway i’ve gotten away with it, much to my chagrin.. 

i feel the need to confess…

it all started when ‘french laundry at home‘ unknowingly lulled me into some kind of false sense of security that i too could recreate a recipe from ‘the french laundry cookbook‘.  of course this was no usual keller hundred step monster.  this cake was an unassuming yet charming küchen left behind by the restaurants previous owners, the schmidts – and i please ask for their forgiveness as well.

because after reading carol’s post i went and bought some fresh cranberries and a few golden delicious apples and figured i’d ratio off the ingredients and improvise. 

but never did i think i could get away with what i did.

i started with 2 beaten eggs, added some softened butter and whisked hard, added some vegetable oil because i ran out of butter, added the end of one bit of brown sugar and some demerara sugar – both had been mixed together in a small glass jelly jar for what reason i no longer can recall, used the dregs of a bottle of vanilla, some baking powder, fresh grated nutmeg and salt.  and somewhere in the midst of this non-measuring frenzy, instead of reaching for the flour my eyes landed on cary’s favorite go-to breakfast food.  ‘bruce’s sweet potato pancake mix‘.  just add water.  no preservatives.  and ‘AHA‘ heart friendly.  yes.  that’s right.  it’s right there on the package.  and i don’t know about you, but a little friendly heart goes a long, long way with me.

above all, the step i am most proud/mortified of was when i had the batter ready to pour into the pan, i realized it was a bit too thick so without as much as a second thought i reached for my cup of earl grey tea and dumped some in.  whadaya think of that there little move?

so have i lost you forever, dear reader?  is all respect gone for good?  because although i might be ever so slightly ashamed, i’m here to tell you that it totally friggin worked.

honestly, nothing at all was measured and it came out quite good.  it was a total flukey kinda thang.

never to be duplicated…

tis the season to cook and bake with pumpkin.  yes, the recipes for all things orange have taken over the foodie blogosphere.  it’s literally pumpkin, squash and sweet potato mania.  so after just recently seeing someone do a lovely version of a pumpkin bundt cake that i later spotted on ‘epicurious‘, i knew i wanted to do something a bit more along the lines of “this isn’t your grandma’s pumpkin cake anymore”.  you see i was watching ‘the next iron chef‘ marathon, so the potential of this innocent recipe becoming quasi radical and innovative was exponentially increasing per episode and totally driving the way this cake was going to go down.

but i am if nothing else, a realist.  so in staying within the confines of what is viable in my world of cooking, i present to you:

a very spiced pumkin cake with ginger icing

heavily adapted from the november 2005 gourmet recipe found on epicurious with various inspirations coming from the comments

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can of solid-pack pumpkin -15 oz. can
about 3 T honey
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
about 2/3 cup chopped walnuts

some buttermilk – like 2-3 tablespoons
ginger preserves – like 2 big tablespoons
about 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

a 10-inch nonstick bundt pan, buttered and floured – and a preheated oven set to 350

please note: i took some serious license with the instructions.  this was not a fine, flakey french pastry that needed to be carefully handled.  this was more of a peasanty kind of cake that i figured could withstand a little ‘one mixing bowl’ abuse.

so first, into the electric mixer went the softened butter and sugar.  that got creamed for about 3 minutes.  then i added the eggs and mixed for another minute or so.  next up was the buttermilk and then the vanilla and honey.  after that the can of pumpkin, all the while mixing in between additions.  then the flours and baking powder and soda. i alternated these to try and get an even batter without sifting.  and then lastly, i added the walnuts and all the spices and salt.

one bowl. it can be done. i put the batter in the pan and placed it on the middle rack. i’ve got a convection oven and 45 minutes was about right.

while that was baking i put the buttermilk, preserves and sugar into my vitamix – a powerful blender, because i am relatively lazy and the ginger pieces were chunky. this worked like a charm giving me a smooth sugary glaze.  it really turned out well.

after the cake came out of the oven, depanned and still warm – i drizzled with the icing. when the cake cooled down a bit more, i drizzled again.

and now that it’s been borne of a need to blog, (NaMoBloMo? someone out there explain to me why we’re doing this? please?) it needs to get adopted.  i need to give this cake away.  but you see, it’s not for the faint of heart.  it’s for the kind of person who demands a bit more from their pumpkin cake.  this is no light and fluffy, buttery little tea cake.  you could slice this up and serve it with a double espresso or a cognac – and it’d hold its own just fine.

i like my cake like i like my men…

i realize this isn’t the usual picture you might expect to see on a pasta post here at ceF,  but what happened was this.  earlier this week angela came over and well, she’s a close friend and it’s rare these days that we get an evening together alone. we live three minutes from each other but still communicate mostly via email and phone calls.  so to get a little face to face time – well, it’s a sacred evening. i hold her in the highest esteem for many reasons and i’ve always felt that my status in life was elevated because she loved me…

we gathered at my home and i proceeded to prepare some dinner while we drank an excellent bottle of sancerre. i had hit whole foods for a loaf of ciabatta and some taleggio and picked up another cheese that was new to me – caciotta al tartufo – it’s made from cows milk and flecked with black truffles. so we ate cheese and drank wine, talking in between the laughing while polishing off the sancerre pretty quickly. isn’t sancerre just about the sexiest name of a wine that could ever exist? anyway, then i opened an argentenian white, a torrontes and got to making our pasta.

this dish is one of my favorite things to eat of all time and i vary it depending on my mood or what’s in the pantry/freezer.  the last time i made it i used spaghetti and shrimp.  this time around i used the fettuccini from tom at lazzaroli pasta that i found tucked away in my freezer - and then i proceeded to kept it even simpler than ever.  i salted the boiling water well, cooked the pasta and quickly portioned it into bowls and tossed with: creme fraiche white truffle olive oil chopped fresh chives fresh cracked black pepper  that’s it.  i mean this is not even really cooking.  this dish is so easily prepared - with what are to me, perfect ingredients.  and i loved the fresh pasta twist this time. it was just plain decadent. 

angela and i swoon over this pasta. (that and scallop with spicy mayo sushi which angela fondly refers to as orgasm rolls.) anyway 1+ bottles of wine into the evening, and snapping a picture was the farthest thing from my mind.

and so that you know, angela kaset  is a singer/songwriter of the very best kind.  sometimes we’ll be shopping at costco (my san pelligrino connection) or we might be at a movie, or the mall or home depot - and she’s just my bff, out for the afternoon. then i’ll go and see her play a gig at for instance ’the bluebird cafe‘ and i once again remember…

"oh that’s right, she’s a brilliant goddess"…

(summer ’05, sporting my post divorce suntan…)

italian prune plums.  every august they show up all too briefly and then they’re gone again – you know the drill. it’s the same with our beloved tomatoes and corn.  i bought a bag earlier in the week with the intention of making something fabulous, but like the decadent fresh figs that i’ve been continually buying these past 2 weeks they just got eaten au naturale.  and then poof.  see you next year. 

yesterday after our usual saturday morning trip to the farmers market we headed to wild oats and i bought probably 3+ lbs of these little guys which at $1.99 per lb. i thought was a pretty decent deal.  it’s nothing for me to pop 6 or more of these little purple orbs, one after the next – multi times a day.  they’re definitely in my top 10 fruits along with anything berry, mango’s, figs, fuyu persimmons, pineapple, blood oranges, watermelon, honeydew and tomatoes – making the list by a technicality as i just see them as a vegetable and always will.

and i keep swearing off baking because i just do not need to be eating cake and truly i am not even much of a baker - but this time i really mean it – starting right now.  but last night (which is so like not right now) i dug through some recipes and decided upon the ‘cook’s illustrated’ rustic plum cake from their august issue. 

i ran into 2 glitches.  first, i had the wrong size pan.  i am the proud owner of not one but two beautiful high end french nonstick 10″ springform pans which comes in handy during the holidays when i’m cooking for large gatherings which is rarely if ever these days.  the recipe called for a 9″ and this size has somehow evaded me, so i just decreased the baking time and all was fine although it obviously made a thinner cake than i’d have liked.  second, i put the plums in upside down damnit, but realizing my error relatively quickly i pulled it from the oven and flipped the plums over leaving them slightly batter covered resulting in a not nearly as beautiful rendition of what can be a very impressive looking austrian cake.  hey, i can live with that.  i didn’t even bother with the dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

but despite myself, this was absolutely delicious – a great recipe - which is what i’ve come to expect from anything ‘cook’s illustrated’ puts forth. and for me, it’s just a perfect cake.

rustic plum cake
from ‘cook’s illustrated’  aug ’08 edition

2 T red current jelly or seedless raspberry jam
3 T brandy
1 lb  about 10-14 italian prune plums – halved and seeded
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
6 T unsalted butter – cut up – softened but still cool
1 large egg plus one egg yolk
1 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract – optional

cook jam and brandy in 10″ nonstick skillet over medium heat until reduced to thick syrup about 2 to 3 minutes. remove skillet from heat and place plums cut-side down in syrup. return skillet to medium heat and cook until plums shed their juices and thick syrup is again formed, about 5 minutes, shaking pan to prevent plums from sticking. cool plums in pan, about 20 minutes.

adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350. grease and flour 9″ springform pan. process sugar and almonds in food processor until nuts are finely ground, about 1 minute. add flour, baking powder, and salt; pulse to combine. add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand, about 10 one second pulses. add eggs, vanilla and almond extract and process until smooth, about 5 seconds, scraping bowl if needed. batter will be very thick and heavy.

transfer batter to prepared pan; using offset spatula, spread batter evenly to pan edges and smooth surface. stir plums to coat with syrup. arrange plum halves, skin-side down, evenly over surface of batter. bake until cake is golden brown and wooden skewer inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 40 to 50 minutes. run paring knife around the sides of cake to loosen. cool in pan on wire rqck until just warm or room temperature, at least 30 minutes. remove cake from pan and dust with confectioners sugar.

i’d make this again and again if only my waistline would allow.  using the wrong pan, sloppy looking plums, with no powdery white dusting to dress it up.  it’d be just fine with me.

afterall, what is essential is invisible to the eye…

summer squash and more summer squash.  tis the season.  i am inundated with these yellow guys – and i declare, they are most definitely guys – if ya know what i’m saying…

delvin, my csa must be growing these like crazy.  i made ratatouille twice the week before last.  i’m making it again tomorrow.  i’m using them as fetch toys for the neighborhood dogs, piling them up in artistic arrangements on my kitchen counter and still, the squash are winning. 

so yesterday my guy asked if i could maybe bake some squash bread, not knowing in the least if there even was such a thing.  but being that he’s a forward thinker and that i’d recently made two batches of zucchini bread, well – he put 2 and 2 together and deducted that it was a definite possibility.  i mean afterall, what’s the big difference in the two?  especially when grated into submission.  so i googled ‘squash bread’ and sho nuff - this culinary being exists in the universe.  cary’s lightbulb moment may not have been an original thought, but i thought it was pretty damn sexy.  especially because he said it while sitting at his computer flickr’ing away (the man is addicted), peering at me across the room over the lenses of his reading glasses – in desperate need of a haircut.  totally sexy my rumpled architect is… 

so i made up a recipe.  and it was good.  it was a variation on a few themes.  i tried to keep it more on the healthy side, albeit given the nature of cake breads that’s a bit of a stretch. so it’s on the darker denser side due to the whole wheat. you could flip the white and whole amounts of flour to lighten it slightly. but i felt guilty enough just making it in the first place so i did what i could and it was all i could do.

walnut squash bread

preheat oven to 350 and grease 2 loaf pans

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil – raw and unrefined
1/4 melted butter
3 eggs
2 t vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts
3 cups unpeeled coarsely grated yellow squash

mix the wet ingredients along with the sugars in one bowl
mix the dry ingredients in another
blend together gently but thoroughly
add in walnuts and squash

bake for 45 minutes – testing at 40 - be careful not to overbake these or they can become dry

i’ve allotted myself 2 slices and the second loaf is being given away – today.

if you’ve been reading and paying attention (and i am hopeful), i said i would bake this and i kept my word.  101 cookbooks calls this ‘my special zucchini bread recipe’ so i was going to call this post ‘her special zucchini bread recipe’ but after meditating on it i decided to shorten it since i am directing you there with a link as opposed to posting the actual ‘recipe’ and i do tend towards being wordy so here i’ve managed to shave one off, except now my explanation has more than made up for this. 

not less than 4 of ’her’ 16 ingredients were optional but i figured if i was going to do it at all, then i’d go the whole route.  anyway, ’she’ seems like ‘she’ totally knows what ‘she’s’ doing – as in more than i ever will – so i wanted to experience the recipe in it’s true glory.  and i LOVE all the optional ingredients so in they went.

and now my house smells friggin other-worldly.  the breads just came out of the oven and i’m about to have a slice with some espresso.  it seems kinda pointless to try and take the perfect pic since ‘she’ already did as you can see on ‘her’ blog – but just to document the event i’ll take my puny pics and post. (i crack me up.)

ok – be right back…

i’m back

wow
wow…

damn excellent
really
REALLY…

PEOPLE, LISTEN TO ME
DO NOT OMIT ANYTHING OPTIONAL

everything works together perfectly. the curry is subtle. do not be afraid of the curry. walk towards the curry embracing the concept of letting go of all preconceived ideas for this zucchini bread is not only complex, it has true depth of character.  it bucked the bourgeois system by not wanting to be chocolate.  it needed to be more, even if it ran the risk of being shunned by the common man. 

you gotta respect that in a bread.

that and this:  the phone rings and it’s my mom’s voice. “hiya honey, i just love the blog – it’s so wonderful.  i sent it to my friend marie who is my food guru and she says you write like james beard.” my reply was a somewhat muffled “oh, that’s nice” due to a mouthful of chocolate zucchini muffin while trying to imagine what james beard writes like, all the while knowing that this was most probably quite the stretch for just too many reasons to list.  to which my mom then asks “what are you eating?’ and i say “you’ll read about it in my next blog entry.  it’s a chocolate zucchini muffin.” to which she immediately responds “oh claudia, don’t gain all that weight back that you worked so hard at losing…”. 

it’s a wonder that i can function on this planet…

but that all being said and moving right along,  i do eat my fair share of dark chocolate and i had all this zucchini, so i had that vision of the guy rounding the corner with the peanut butter and the other guy with a zucchini except the peanut butter was a jar of let’s say fudge and… ok, i’ll stop.

after a quick google search and sizing up about half a dozen variations on the theme, i found a july ’05 blog entry from “101 cookbooks” and it felt right.  especially her suggestion of using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.  the coconut oil that i use is raw and unrefined – extra virgin if you will – just wonderful.  and it’s much better for you than cooking with the wesson type highly processed oils.  spread it on your toast and you will be very happy.  it’s better than butter!  ok – it’s different than butter but i couldn’t resist saying that…

and they came out excellent!  totally moist and devils food cake like.  i used raw unprocessed cocoa powder that was mucho expensivo – bought during a phase when i thought i could be all raw all the time – and the chips were a vegan all natural bittersweet mini-chip.  the cinnamon and allspice along with the chocolate and coconut oil gave off an aroma that was intoxicating .  it all totally worked together. and there is no way one could ever guess they were loaded with zucchini.   i made 6 muffins and one loaf.  after plugging all the info into my food/diet/nutrition program that i sporadically obsess over, they came out to about 265 calories each and 15 grams of fat.  i allotted myself 2.  cary got 3 and i gave one away to my dear friend jesse who meets me on most mornings on belle meade blvd to ride my bike.  (i eat therefore i ride – my mantra while climbing the hills).  the loaf is going too – my friend dave is going home with that tonight after i make him dinner.  so, bye bye chocolate zucchini foodstuff.  it was nice to meet you…

BUT howzabout this?  just how serendipitous could it be that heidi fom 101 cookbooks had a brand spanking new blog entry entitled ‘my special zucchini bread recipe’.  i mean, wouldn’t you have to take this as a sign?  so today or tomorrow i am baking this one too and that should about cover my baking stint for the season. 

i just can’t handle the guilt.