Sunday Brunch

On a suddenly cold, rainy Sunday, what's better than a cozy, leisurely brunch?  We had a ton of food for five people, but that's how it should be.  Brunch is my favorite meal--you can go in so many directions, and you're supposed to have plenty.  You don't have a bowl of cereal for brunch.  I made a leek and goat cheese frittata, a cinnamon-apple coffee cake made with sour cream and lots of pecans, and chocolate chip-cranberry cream scones.  We also had a selection of cheeses, smoked fish, fruit, olives, nuts, the requisite coffee, apple cider, and pear cider with prosecco--which is every bit as tasty as it sounds.

Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

Pound cake is one of those cakes you could almost forget.  It's not that it's not good, but a lot of the time it just doesn't stand out, or it's covered up with fruit or ice cream.  But this recipe from Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes is a reminder of why you shouldn't forget it--butter, cream cheese, and roasted vanilla beans come together to make a rich, moist, and very flavorful cake all on its own.  The vanilla bean is roasted and then blended with the sugar, intensifying its flavor.  Adding berries and ice cream on top isn't bad, however ...

New Year, New Apple Cake

I saw this cake in the paper recently and found it hard to get out of my mind.  Not that it's bad to have cakes on the brain, but it can get a little distracting sometimes.  And hunger-inducing.  But a recipe that was well-loved, buttery, apply, beautiful, and easy should not be ignored.  The batter mixed up in about five minutes.  Thinly sliced raw apples are arranged on top -- and that part did take some time, but the sunflower effect isn't necessary.  This would be just as good with chopped up apples tumbled on top.  Pears could also be used, or even berries or stone fruit would work as well.  I served it with a dollop of cinnamon whipped cream.

Blueberry Boy Bait

How could I resist a recipe with this name?  It could be almost anything and I'd try it with a name like "boy bait"--but in this case, the combination of cake and blueberries was also a really good one.  The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, and I followed her lead in using buttermilk instead of whole milk.  I used frozen wild blueberries, because that's what I had; they're much smaller than the berries currently available.  I bet this would also be good with raspberries (though the name wouldn't flow quite as well.)

I don't know if the cake is supposed to attract blueberry boys or boys who like blueberries.  So far, this is the only boy who's tried (to try) it.

This is the best time of year for fruit, especially berries.  My original idea for this was a giant strawberry shortcake, but biscuits only last a short while before getting too soggy.  So for the base, I made a yellow cake with lots of lemon zest and filled it with strawberries and whipped cream.  Not a bad start, right?  To keep it light (tasting), I frosted the whole thing in more whipped cream and covered it in more berries and berry and almond flowers.

Chocolate Mousse Cake with Raspberries

The Passover baking challenge isn't that you can't use flour--there are plenty of desserts that don't include flour.  But so many of them end up heavy with too much almond or matzo meal or too fudgy chocolate creations.  And it's not that they're not good, but after a big meal, sometimes you don't want something quite as dense.  This cake is impressive in its height, with hints of Grand Marnier cream and raspberries peeking out from between the layers.  And when you slice into it, it's surprisingly soft and light, like mousse, but still deeply chocolatey.  I've made moussse cakes before, but this recipe, from Smitten Kitchen, has the great suggestion of freezing the delicate layers when they're cool, so they're easy to handle when you put the cake together.  This also means you can do the more involved part of the cake on one day, and then just put it together a few hours before dinner, and the frozen layers will help keep things cool as they defrost. 

Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cranberries

We had this for dessert on Christmas. Spicy with lots of added ginger, tart with a cup of fresh cranberries tossed in, and creamy with cream cheese frosting.


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Thanksgiving Just Desserts

After the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and squash, there's not always a lot of room for dessert on Thanksgiving. Still, I usually make three or four pies and cakes so we can have choices. But this year, thinking more is better, and having more people over, I made seven desserts. Yes, seven--it's not like I made 19 pies or anything. From front to back, we had classic apple pie, raspberry key lime tart, pumpkin chiffon pie, carrot cake, chocolate-cranberry-pecan pie, apple crumble cake, and mocha buttercrunch pie. Possibly it was too much ... but I don't think so. One day later, and there's not too much left.
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All-in-One-Thanksgiving Cake

This recipe combines pumpkin, apples, pecans, and cranberries. Technically, I think it's called an all-in-one holiday cake, but to me it just says Thanksgiving. All that's missing is the turkey--but I don't want turkey in my cake. I was a little dubious with the combination--everything all in together?--but it's so good. It's not too sweet, and it disappeared very quickly. It was a great first use for my cool new cathedral Bundt pan.

A Very Berry Fourth

Happy 4th of July! We celebrated the holiday with family, food, and fireworks--an excellent combination. The dessert above is a lemon cake filled and topped with whipped cream, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. Patriotic--and so tasty.



We grilled out (chicken sausage and veggie burgers) and also had corn on the cob, green beans and both carrot and potato salads.



And SwimmerGirl made lime snowcones.



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Lemony Layer Cake

I've been wanting to make this cake for a long time, but somehow other cakes kept jumping the line. The opportunity finally presented itself, though, and I'm very happy I made it. As is my usual way, I didn't follow one particular recipe but combined parts of ones I liked, with a few twists. The two cake layers are filled with a tart, tangy lemon curd, which I also folded into the frosting.


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Banana Cake with Pecans and Coffee Buttercream

This recipe, from Saveur, is delicious though a little different. The cake isn't super sweet, but the bananas and pecans take on a kind of caramelly flavor. The buttercream is, of course, rich; however, the coffee flavor really comes through, too.



Just a slice

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Chocolate-Guinness Cake

Continuing the Guinness theme, I made a chocolate cake with it for St. Patrick's Day. The cake was rich and moist but light at the same time. The frosting, not the one paired with the cake recipe, was incredibly dark and chocolatey. I actually added a bit more sugar because it was too dark at first. And because I didn't have a pot of gold handy, I caramelized some hazelnuts and added them as a simple decoration around the base of the cake.





Dinner was more like brunch, and it wasn't overwhelmingly Irish. It was good, though: baked tomatoes with breadcrumbs and herbs, soft scrambled eggs, and asparagus. 



Mushrooms sautéed in Guinness


Cheesy baked hash browns

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Sunday Brunch

Yesterday was rainy--really rainy--but we were cozy inside with good friends and warm food. The night before I put together a big strata, with layers of bread, cheese, onions and peppers and then soaked in a mixture of milk and eggs. This was refrigerated and then popped into the oven about an hour before everyone arrived. It came out puffed up and golden, a savory, delicious sort of bread pudding.


I also made a coffee cake that included lots of fresh ginger and was swirled with crunchy pecans and brown sugar.





We also had a big berry salad--blueberries, raspberries and strawberries--a couple of different cheeses, and, of course, lots of coffee.

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Merry Christmas 2010!

Merry Christmas! Our holiday this year was cold but lovely and filled with family, friends, and good food. We kept it fairly simple--but not boring--and had for dinner a big, cheesy lasagna and salad. For dessert, we had a creamy peppermint bark cheesecake. The cake includes peppermint bark both inside and on top as well as peppermint whipped cream.  The recipe is pretty simple.  For the base cake, I made a variation on the Barefoot Contessa cheesecake (which, yes, makes a lot), but I used one less egg yolk, no lemon zest, and about 2 tsp of vanilla.  I also added 8-10 oz of broken up peppermint bark (this is a guess--use enough so you can see it mixed in, though it will sink down when baking.)  Once baked and chilled, I topped the cake with fresh whipped cream mixed with a few drops of peppermint extract (it's strong stuff, so go slowly ... I didn't want a ton of peppermint in the cream) and then decorated with crushed candy canes and more peppermint bark.

Just a slice ...


Just another slice ...

Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving! Our table was very full and happy this year, with lots of family, friends and food. The main meal is pretty traditional, including roast turkey, Mom's famous stuffing, mountains of mashed potatoes, roasted butternut squash, and homemade cranberry-orange sauce. However, my focus was on making the desserts. We had four desserts this year--and sadly, now only slivers of these remain.

Cheddar-apple pie, with lots of cheddar cheese mixed into the crust

 

Salted caramel banana pudding tart

 

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

 

Pumpkin chiffon pie

Apple-y Apple Cake

There are a lot of apple cake recipes out there, and pretty much everyone you ask says their recipe is the best. I found this recipe in a cooking forum where people were just falling all over themselves saying how good this is. And they were right -- it really is that good.  I added a few more spices to the cake, but all the flavors really shine together.  This cake is full of apples, but you taste the butter, pecans, and spices, too.

Apple Cake
(based on the recipe in Ronald Johnson's An American Table)

4 c apples peeled and cut into a small dice
1 c chopped pecans
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon (I used 1 tsp cinnamon, heaping 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp allspice, big pinch of cloves, and 1-2 tsp chopped crystallized ginger)
2 eggs
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Mix in the vanilla and then the spices.  Add the eggs one at a time.

Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Then add the dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with the chopped apples and pecans.  The batter will be very stiff.

Spoon into a thoroughly buttered Bundt pan (I used two mini Bundts and the six-inch heart above), and bake at 350 degrees for about one hour (til golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean ... smaller cakes will take less time.)

Cool briefly in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

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Rosh Hoshanah

Happy New Year! This year, with a mid-week Rosh Hoshanah, I kept things fairly simple, though still very flavorful. We had chicken roasted with honey and wine, rosemary potatoes, and honey-glazed carrots. For dessert, I baked an apple layer cake -- I made it like a carrot cake but with apples and a slightly cinnamony cream cheese frosting. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone