Aunt Sara's Famous Toffee

Now you too can use up 2.5 sticks of butter in a few short minutes.   We made this on Thursday but unfortunately we didn't let it get hot enough so instead of snappy brittle toffee we have snappy-ish crumbly deliciousness.  (A tragedy that has not gone unmourned, I assure you.)  The recipe says to go to 280 degrees, which we did, but the current thinking is that 280 degrees is correct for the thermometer of the recipe-author but our thermometer reads lower.  So, either cook your toffee to 280 as directed (make maybe a half batch to test) and see what happens, or cook to 300, which is what we're going to do next time.  Without further ado:


[Carter's] Aunt Sara's Famous Toffee
2.5 sticks butter
1/3 c brown sugar
1 c white sugar
1 T molasses
1/3 c water
2 tsp espresso powder*
1 shake cinnamon

1 c chopped nuts (ideally pecans but we used walnuts--technically nuts are optional).
A couple handfuls of chocolate chips (The recipe calls for a mix of dark and white chocolate...we used half a bag of bittersweet chips b/c I'm stubborn like that.)

*We don't have instant espresso/coffee powder so we ground some coffee beans really really finely, practically down into individual molecules, and it worked great.

Cover a baking sheet in foil (doesn't need sides) and spray with cooking spray.  Get all the ingredients measured and ready.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan.  Add sugars, molasses, water, espresso and cinnamon.  Cook over medium heat, stirring absolutely all of the time, until the mixture boils.  Keep cooking, and start checking the temperature-- aim for between 280 (written) and 300 (our goal for next time).

getting closer

just after sugars, etc. added

When the toffee reaches temperature, remove from heat and stir in the nuts.  Immediately pour onto foil-covered sheet and gently spread into a thin layer.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Wait 5 minutes, then smear chips (melted from heat of toffee) into a pretty pattern.  Slide foil onto cool surface or cooling rack, and let cool for what felt like an eternity (a few hours or overnight).  Snap the toffee into pieces and store in an airtight container.  Yum!

Chocolate Velvet Cheesecake

This recipe courtesy of the Velveteen Rabbit, obviously.  Actually it's from a cheesecake recipe book that my mom has, which has been loved to near-death (just like the Velveteen Rabbit!).  I changed the instructions only very slightly, because I have discovered that the less you (over)beat this cake, the less likely it is to crack in the end.

Crust of your choice, pressed into bottom of 10in springform pan.  (Preferably made with chocolate cookies, ground and mixed with melted butter.  There are many recipes on the internet for this sort of thing, or you can wing it.)

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, in small chunks (if this doesn't say "good chocolate chips" to you, it should)

2 T butter

1.5 lbs cream cheese, chunked, at room temp

1.5 cups heavy cream

1 t vanilla extract

1 c sugar

3 eggs at room temp

2 T cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F.  Melt chocolate and butter carefully, stirring until smooth.  Set aside to cool.

Cream the cream cheese in mixer until completely smooth.  Scrape down sides of bowl and add chocolate, beat slowly until mostly mixed.  

Mix on medium speed for the following, and scrape down the sides of the bowl every couple minutes/between additions:

Gradually add cream and vanilla, beat until mostly blended.  

Gradually add sugar, beat until mostly blended.  

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beat until fully blended.  

Sieve cocoa powder over batter, stir in until fully mixed.

Pour into crust, smooth top.  Gently shake pan to destroy air pockets.  Bake 30 minutes, then reduce temp to 325 and bake another 30 minutes.  (KEEP OVEN CLOSED.)  Turn oven off, prop door slightly ajar, and let stand for 30 minutes longer.  Move cake to wire rack away from drafts, let cool for until room temp, then refrigerate until eating.  Cake will likely crack during cooling, which can only be fixed by covering it with fruit/ganache/whipped cream/other disastrous fates.  Cake improves with age (24-48 hours ideal), and is best (IMHO) if it warms up on the counter for a bit before you eat it.

It cracked as it cooled, but was still scrumptious!

Chocolate Pumpkin Chess Pie with gingersnap crust

There will be no pictures because the pie was eaten before I could take them. Seriously. It's that good.
This was the dessert for my father-in-law's surprise 60'th birthday dinner.  It was such a huge hit that they made me leave the table to go write the recipe down before I forgot it.  Needless to say I kinda made the whole thing up as I went along. :-p

Crust:
~1.5 cups crushed gingersnaps
4 Tbls melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Crush gingersnaps to almost powder. Slowly mix in butter until the mixture, when packed together, will form a loose ball.  Press mixture into 9" pie tin.  Bake for 8 minutes and let cool completely before adding filling.

Pie Filling
4 Large Eggs
2 Large Egg Yolks
1.5c Granulated Sugar
2.5 Tbls Cornmeal
1/4c Whole Cream
1/4c Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 tsp Salt
1.5 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 Tbls Fudge sauce (recipe to follow)

Fudge Sauce
1/2c chocolate chips
3 Tbls butter
1/4c Whole Cream

-Melt Chocolate chips and butter in a small bowl in the microwave on medium power for 1 minute intervals. When mostly melted add cream and return to microwave until able to be stirred smooth.


Filling Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl using electric beaters or a whisk.  Make sure it's all smooth. Add filling to pie crust and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until middle barely jiggles.  You may need to cover it in foil after 30 mins to keep crust edges from burning.

Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches...

Millions of peaches! Ok, maybe not millions.  Two pints a week for 4 weeks is still a lot for just two people to nom through. So when we got our produce box last week, with two fresh pints, and I was still staring at one, slightly wrinkly now, pint from the previous week; it was clearly time to make cobbler. I mean really, I had no choice.

Now, cobbler, when it's all said and done may look easy, but there's a reason that your grandmother's is the best you've ever had.  She's had 50+ years to perfect not just her recipe, but also her technique.  It takes practice people. Peaches are slippery little buggers.  And before you ask, yes, I still have all my appendages.

 Fastest way to get rid of peaches EVAR!

Onto the Howto:

What you need:
-1/2 Stick butter, room temp
-1/4c Sour cream
-3 lbs peaches, skinned-- see here for easy technique, just below the tomato picture
-1/2c sugar
-1/2c AP flour
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-Smidge salt
-1 Egg
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

What you do:
Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease a 8- or 9-inch square or round baking dish. Peel, pit and slice your peaches.  Place in bowl with 1/4c of sugar and 1/4c bourbon :) Toss.  Set them aside.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and remaining 1/4c sugar and beat in your butter and sour cream.  I used my food processor which worked great.  Put your peaches in your baking dish and spoon your sloppy batter on top of it.  Don't worry about spreading it, just glop it on there.  Proceed to baking and let it go for 35-45, until golden brown and not soupy in the middle.

And as always, enjoy!

P.S. This makes amazing breakfast.

Applesauce

Do you know what you need to make homemade applesauce?  Apples.  Water.  Heat+time.  A potato masher.  (Maybe a scale, but if you weighed the apples when you bought them that's close enough.) That's all!!

Peel, core, and slice the apples into small chunks.  Add to a pot with 2 ounces of water per pound of apples (or so).  If you'd like, add some cinnamon and/or a splash of lemon or lime juice.  Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes.  Mash.  Eat.

I used two very large apples, which was about 1.5lbs of apple, and got about 2.5 cups of applesauce from them.  Yum, yum, yum.

Dobos Torta (aka Nutella Cake)

Smitten Kitchen lady made this a bit ago, and I just bought myself this amazing cookbook, and two of my friends are going away for a month, and another of my friends says he ate this cake growing up in Serbia, so I just HAD to make this, you see. If this were a real dobos torta I’d've made a caramel-soaked top layer, but I can’t count and thus made too few layers so I skipped that (see the link above for details for how it’s supposed to look). A committee of two decided that a five-layer-cake without caramel is more exciting than a four-layer-cake with caramel. I decided to follow the cookbook’s recipe rather than the Smitten Kitchen one, almost entirely because it requires fewer eggs (6 versus TEN!). And it seemed like an apt way to break in the cookbook—page 72 is now well-marked with sticky batter drips. Luckily the copy I bought is a used ex-library book, complete with plastic-covered-dust-jacket! Since I bastardized it (er, adapted it) by making it without the caramel and covering it in roasted hazelnuts instead, this might get re-named to Nutella Cake. (A tragic occasion indeed.)

Dobos Torta

Batter

6 eggs, separated

1 1/3 c. confectioner’s sugar (divided use)

1 t. vanilla extract

1 c. plus 2 T. sifted cake flour*

pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips)

3 sticks unsalted butter, at cool room temp (yes, three sticks)

2 T. cocoa powder

1 ¼ c. confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1 t. vanilla

1 large handful hazelnuts, de-skinned** and chopped (I guess this is optional)

*If you don’t have cake flour, take 1 c. AP flour, scoop out 2 T. and replace those 2 T. with cornstarch to make 1 c. cake flour. For this recipe I used 1-cup-minus-1/2-tablespoon AP flour and 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch. Or thereabouts.

**Since you already have the oven on, throw the hazelnuts on an ungreased cake pan (or cookie sheet, or whatever), and roast them for about 15 minutes, or until the skins look loose, then let cool and rub vigorously in a kitchen towel until most of the skins come off. I may have over-baked mine as the skins turned almost black, but miraculously they didn’t burn and the nut meats actually got nicely golden brown and roasty.

Prepare pans/parchment:

Unless you have removable-bottom cake pans (thanks Bonnie!), I recommend the parchment paper method. In fact, it was even somewhat of a pain to get the layers off the greased-and-floured removable bottoms, so I’d parchment those too. But really this batter is so thick and foamy that you don’t need cake pans at all. Cut out parchment paper a bit bigger than the layer size you want, trace the circle (or rectangle, or whatever) that you want on parchment and lay the parchment on a cookie sheet (the cookbook notes that you should have the side of the parchment with the graphite/ink on it facing DOWN so as not to pollute the batter). I made five layers, each 9.5 inches in diameter, and supposedly the batter is enough for 6 layers at 9 inches, or you could do some math and make crazy sizes/shapes. Once you have all that set up (you might have to borrow some cookie sheets), turn the oven on to 400 F with the racks in the center and top third of the oven.

Make and bake batter:

Beat eggs yolks, 2/3 c. confectioner’s sugar and vanilla at high speed for 3 minutes, until they are pale yellow and thick (this is a job for the stand mixer).

In a clean, grease-free metal or glass bowl (I used my hand mixer for this), beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 2/3 c. of confectioner’s sugar until stiff, shiny peaks form.

With a large spatula, stir about ¼ of the meringue into the egg yolks to lighten. Then fold in the remaining meringue until mostly-mixed, leaving some streaks of white. Don’t worry about being overly-gentle, the meringue is pretty sturdy. (This is the perfect time to sample the batter for, er, quality assurance purposes.)

Sift half of the flour/salt over top and gently stir in, repeat with other half of the flour and stir until homogenous in color. Batter will be thick and foamy. Plop approximately equal portions of the batter onto your prepared parchment outlines, and spread the batter to the edge of the circles (push, don’t pull) to make a mostly-even layer, about ¼ inch thick, depending on the size and number of your layers.

Bake each layer for about 5 minutes (mine actually took closer to 7, I think my oven’s a bit cool), or until the top springs back when pressed and the edges are golden brown. Be sure to rotate the layers on the oven racks and turn them once; most ovens have a hotter side which will quickly burn these skinny little guys.

When done, flip the layers onto a rack and peel off the parchment, then flip them back onto the parchment or a rack to cool. The tops are very sticky, so don’t leave them sitting around top-side-down for any period of time. Let the layers cool completely, it won’t take long. Don’t worry if some layers are ugly (one of mine ended up with a hole in it), because they will all be lovely ensconced in chocolate frosting very shortly. Any that are particularly large or non-circular should be trimmed so that they stack nicely. (The cookbook recommends laying the bottom of an appropriately-sized springform pan or plate on top and trimming around...I just eyeballed it. I assure you that taste is not affected.)

Make frosting and frost:

Melt chocolate. Cream butter until smooth (for some reason the cookbook recommends using a hand mixer as opposed to a stand mixer for this—maybe to take advantage of the finer metal blades rather than the stand mixer’s paddle?). Mix cocoa into butter, then confectioner’s sugar, then chocolate, then vanilla. Beat until evenly-colored and frostingey. If your kitchen is 90 degrees, I’d recommend throwing the frosting in the fridge for a few minutes while you drink something cold (or wash the dishes) or you end up trying to spread something that’s the consistency of melted butter. Trust me.

When the frosting is spreadable, start stacking and frosting the layers of your cake. It’s a fancy cake, so use a fancy cake plate (thanks Bonnie!). I alternated the ugly layers with the pretty ones, saving one that was fairly flat and uniform for the top layer. Frost tops of all layers as you stack, then frost top and sides of cake. You don’t have to be too sparing with the frosting, but be modest about it or you’ll end up short for the sides. Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on the top of the cake and refrigerate until eating time.

As you can see, my frosting layers are a little uneven...but it's good just the same!

Ginger Pear Skillet Cake

I'm a bit late on this again, sorry... I made this in, erm, early January. The recipe is straight out of a really pretty cookbook called "Farmers' Market Desserts", which I bought not 1, not 2, but 3 copies of last summer... (Not all for me, honest!) I used "Asian pears", which surely have a real name but I don't know it. They're about the size and shape of a Granny Smith, and they taste like pears but have nice bite (think a really juicy apple) when ripe. And they seem to ripen more gracefully than pear-shaped-pears, I've noticed. I have to say I almost made this cake with apples instead of pears, but the compromise worked out very very well. Without too much further ado, Ginger Pear Skillet Cake:

(from Jennie Schact's cookbook, see above)

She claims that this serves 8-10, but see, it's not really a dessert-cake and is likely to disappear rapidly and at all hours a la, well, cake. But it's good for you! Molasses is full of iron (and manganese, apparently)! Also, I left out the 3 ingredients that are supposed to get sprinkled on top of the pears before baking b/c they were on the back of the page so I didn't see them at the time...no unpleasant side effects were observed.

the recipe, finally:

2.5 c AP flour (I replaced almost a cup with whole wheat flour)

1.5 t ground ginger

1 t salt

1 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground allspice

1/4 t ground cloves

3/4 c canola oil

1/2 c "gently" packed brown sugar

1/2 c unsulfured molasses

1/2 c plain yogurt or sour cream (I ended up using a bit of buttermilk to round out the half cup)

1 T finely grated fresh ginger

1 egg

1 t baking soda (not "baking sofa", as I originally typed)

1/2 c hot strong coffee

turn the cookbook page over to see:

1 T butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 325, oil a 10 or 11 in cast iron skillet. (Yes, okay, you could make this in a springform pan or even a 10 inch cake pan, but then it wouldn't be skillet cake, would it?)

Stir together flour, salt and spices (minus fresh ginger).

Whisk together egg, oil, brown sugar, molasses, yogurt, fresh ginger, and any other wet-ish ingredients I left out of that list until smooth. Stir in half of the flour. Mix baking soda/sofa into the coffee, then add that to the batter. Stir in remaining flour. Pour/glop into skillet and smooth top. Slice a few pears on top, arranging artfully (or scientifically). Then either do what Ms. Schact intended and sprinkle remaining butter/sugar/salt on top, or do what I did and just put the thing straight in the oven. Bake for about an hour, or until the top springs back when you poke it and it passes the toothpick test. Let cool for at least 20 minutes. No need to unmold it-- serve straight out of the skillet. I would have a picture of a slice or something if I hadn't been too busy stuffing my face. You know how it is. I only got the picture below b/c it was waaayyy to hot to be eating it yet.

A note on the spices: for heaven's sake don't be stingy. I know it says 1 t of cinnamon, but it's competing with molasses and Ms. Schact is a self-professed disliker of cloves, so you can double up all of those without much worry.

Candied Grapefruit Rind

It was snowing, so I took after this post and made candied citrus rinds! Grapefruit, from some delicious Texas grapefruits, yum. I would recommend that one boil the rinds a fifth time, as the four that were recommended still left them a bit bitter...

So, to do this yourself:

Halve and scoop the flesh from a few grapefruits (and eat it!)

Put them in a pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and pour off the water.

Repeat 4 times.

Let rinds cool slightly and slice them prettily.

Using enough water to cover the slices in the pot, make a 2:1 simple syrup (that's twice as much sugar as water, by volume).

Boil the slices in the syrup for 20 minutes,

then strain them out and let cool on a rack until tacky (4+ hours). Save the syrup for...I'm not sure what yet. Grapefruit mojitos?

Meanwhile, make a bit of superfine sugar (sugar+food processer=superfine sugar).

Dredge slices in superfine sugar,

let dry for 12+ hours, then put in airtight jars.

Yum!

Cinnamon Rolls

Unfortunately, the blog that this came from (What Geeks Eat) is down! And I didn't write the recipe down anywhere...hopefully it'll be back up soon.

Mixed Berry Tart!

I recently made this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Strawberry-Mascarpone-Tart-with-Port-Glaze-352272 But with raspberries (black, purple and red) and blueberries instead of strawberries. It. Was. Amazing. I boiled a handful of raspberries and a dash of sugar with the port, which made a delicious glaze which would be really amazing on pancakes. (In fact, I saved most of it in my fridge for that purpose.) Oh and I used lime juice/zest instead of lemon because that's what I had. Other than that, I followed the recipe. I took no pictures because I have no camera still/again, but it was beautiful. Go pick some berries and make yourself one!!

Easy as pie!

I've wanted to make pie crust from scratch for a long time now...so I did! I had some moral support from here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/pie-crust-102-all-butter-really-flaky-pie-dough/ and my mother, who was visiting, so I went to town. (She was the photographer for most of this too, after I got flour all over my camera... And she helped with everything else, too!) As the above blog will tell you, it seems to help to have everything really cold. Particularly if you don't have a food processor and pastry blender because it makes everything take that much longer-- I periodically stuck the whole bowl in the freezer for a few minutes to help the butter firm back up. Nor do I have a rolling pin (!) so I used a cylindrical stainless water bottle, which worked great. Despite all that, it was quite easy! The recipe is for two crusts-- if your pie/quiche only takes one crust you can wrap the second well in plastic wrap and a bag and freeze it. I didn't have enough AP flour for rolling out the crust so I used WW pastry flour, which was fine. I wrote a lot of notes on how to combine the dough, but it's really not terribly complicated, I promise!

All-butter pie crust:

2 sticks unsalted butter, very cold

2.5 c. AP flour, plus more for rolling

1 T. sugar

1 t. salt

1 c. ice water

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Place in freezer while you dice the butter into small cubes. Retrieve the very cold dry ingredients and sprinkle the butter lumps over it. Combine with a pastry blender or food processor or knifes or your hands until the butter lumps are the size of large lentils or small peas (in the picture I'm about halfway to that stage). In a food processor err on the larger side. The lumps will be uneven, but that's okay. If you're combining with a processor or other tool it will go quicker than you expect, or so I'm told. If you're combining by hand you'll need to stop periodically and put the whole bowl into the freezer for a few minutes while you rest your hands.

You don't want to butter to melt. Once you have the proper sized butter bits, pour in about 1/2 c. water and combine with a spatula. Add more water, 1 T. at a time, until the dough is in a few large lumps with minimal dry flour at the bottom. Stop and combine the rest of the way with your hands-- you want a lump that sticks together but you should still see the butter bits distributed through it.
Split dough into two halves (should be about 12 oz each) and refrigerate them in a plastic wrap for 1 hour or longer. (If your refrigerator is odiferous you might want to put them in a baggie too.) Go start dinner.
When you're ready to roll out the dough, generously flour a nice clean counter or silicon mat. Also generously flour your rolling implement and hands. Plop one cold dough lump in the middle of your surface and slowly start to roll it out, taking care to roll from the center out towards all directions evenly.
Re-flour the top of the dough and your rolling implement as needed so it doesn't stick. Stop when your dough is approximately circular with a diameter of 12 inches for a standard pie tin. In the picture I was almost done-- the second-to-outer circle is 12 inches.

Then you have a few options for transferring the crust to the pie tin. If you have a flexible mat you can put the tin upside down on top and flip the whole business over, otherwise you can roll the crust over your rolling pin and then unroll it into the tin or carefully fold the crust into quarters and unfold it into the tin. You may need extra flour to coax the crust off the counter/mat; be patient with it so it doesn't tear. If needed, trim the edges that hang over the tin, and crimp the edges as desired. Set the crust in the freezer while you prepare the pie filling. That's it! You've done it!

Just in case you need a filling idea, here's an easy one. I like the apple peels in my pie, but many people don't...

Apple pie filling (adapted from Betty Crocker):

4-6 apples, (peeled?) cored and sliced (try Braeburn, McIntosh and Cameo apples)

2 dashes cinnamon (or more...)

dash nutmeg

dash cardamom

1/4 c. AP flour

1/3 c. brown sugar

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Combine all ingredients and pile into your pie crust. It should mound up pretty high-- don't forget that the apples cook down and shrink in the oven. Top with crumb topping.

Crumb Topping:

1/3 c. butter

1/2 c. AP or WW pastry flour

1/3 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. rolled oats

1/3 c. chopped pecans (or almonds, or walnuts)

Combine first three ingredients with a pastry blender or hands until butter is the size of lentils/oats. Then add oats and nuts.

Sprinkle generously and lovingly over the apples.

Bake for 40-50 minutes. Check after 30 minutes-- if the top is browning cover the pie loosely with aluminum foil so it doesn't burn. When done the pie filling should be bubbling in the middle and the top should be browned. Enjoy!

Two N.B.s: Yes, I lack both a pastry blender AND a rolling pin. Shameful, I know. Also, sorry about the picture quality-- my camera is REALLY on its last leg and has decided that its new trick is to put horizontal lines through every image...maybe it was a television in a past life. That makes three things for my wish list!

Chocolate Linzertorte

This is the recipe for the linzertorte from this post, which I finally typed up the other day to share with a friend... I transcribed it from a photocopy that came out of some cookbook or newspaper or something maybe years ago...I have no idea what its origin is but I certainly didn't make it up myself! (I did include my notes in the recipe.)

You need: 11in tart pan with a removable bottom.

linzertorte pastry:

1 cup blanched almonds

1/4 c. confectioner's sugar

1 c. sifted AP flour

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. cocoa powder

3/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. cloves

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/8 t. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, in 1-T. cubes

3 egg yolks (reserve whites)

2 t. vanilla extract

1 t. grated orange zest

1 t. grated lemon zest

raspberry filling:

12 oz. raspberry preserves (seedless is traditional)

2 t. lemon juice

meringue:

3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 egg whites

1/4 c. granulated sugar

make "pastry":

preheat oven to 350 F. (If using a tart pan with a "light shiny finish" preheat to 375)

in a food processor combine almonds and confectioner's sugar, process until finely ground. add flour, spices, granulated sugar and salt and process until evenly mixed. distribute butter, egg yolks, vanilla and zest around blade and process 35-45 seconds or until mixture is creamy. press into tart pan in an even layer. bake for 25-30 minutes, or until pastry springs back when pressed lightly. allow to cool briefly while preparing the filling and meringue.

filling:

stir together preserves and lemon juice. spread over baked pastry, leaving a 1/4 in border free along the edge.

meringue:

melt chocolate over double boiler. let cool until tepid. combine egg whites and sugar over a shy double boiler (water should touch bottom of boil but not simmer). whisk mixture constantly until it is white and creamy and hot to the touch/110 F and the sugar has dissolved. remove bowl from heat. using a hand-held mixer, beat mixture for 5-8 minutes until it's a stiff shiny meringue. fold in chocolate. place meringue in a pastry bag and pipe a lattice top over the filing and a line around the circumferece to cover the bare ring. bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the meringue is firm. let the torte cool fully in the tart pan and then place in an airtight container, it will improve with age.

Cardamom Bread

I might christen this carda-yum bread! It's easy and delicious and it makes the kitchen both warm and wonderful-smelling! (All of these things are pluses.)

This recipe comes from the Razor Family Farms blog-- http://razorfamilyfarms.com/cooking/ and has only slight alterations, but I'll repost it anyways...

Cardamom Bread (ala http://razorfamilyfarms.com/cooking/cardamom-bread-sweet-and-rustic/)

4 c. AP flour

1/2 T. cardamom

1 1/2 T. yeast

1 1/4 c. warm milk (soy or dairy) or water or some combination-- I usually use 3/4 c. soymilk and 1/2 c. water

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. oil

1 shy t. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

Mix flour and cardamom in a large bowl (of your mixer, if you'd like). Dissolve sugar and then yeast in warm liquid. Pour into dry stuff and mix until doughy. Add oil and mix until doughy again (and oily--it won't all absorb yet). Cover with a plate and let rest for 20 minutes.

Thoroughly knead in the salt (I use my hands, but you could use the dough hook), and extra flour as needed to achieve the right consistency. (Like most dough, it should feel like an earlobe-- warm and elastic and soft.) Oil a baking sheet. Divide dough into thirds and place far apart on the baking sheet. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes, or until almost doubled in bulk. (This will take many hours if your house is chilly-- try preheating the oven for just 30 seconds and letting it rise there, with the oven light on-- ideal rising temperature is around 90 degrees F.)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll each dough lump into a long snake and braid together. Pinch the ends together firmly and fold them under.

Brush the braid with beaten egg and bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Sometimes I make two smaller braided loaves and they only take about 20 minutes. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes before you cut into it (it's torturous) for best texture later on. Enjoy!

The picture doesn't really do it justice...

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Pudding

Sounds a bit unappetizing, right? Well it's not. It's amazing. Zero taste of tofu, excellent texture (though admittedly more like mousse than pudding, perhaps), and amazingly rich and chocolatey. Also, super quick and easy.

Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding (from NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/201mrex.html?_r=1&ref=dining adapted slightly)

3/4 cup sugar

1 package silken tofu

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted (I used 1 generous cup semisweet chips and 1 oz unsweetened chocolate)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. cayenne

1/2 t. orange extract

1/4 t. allspice

Heat sugar and water until dissolved. Blend all ingredients until smooth. Chill for 30 minutes or more. Eat.

Note: You need to sign up for a (free) online account with NY Times to view the original recipe.

Vanilla Custard with Cantaloupe and Basil

Over the summer I had lunch at Cafe Gutenberg in Richmond, VA. After an excellent lunch (I had some sort of sandwich as I recall) they happened to have a muskmelon-basil custard for dessert, which had won them some sort of award in a cooking competition the day before. Intrigued, we ordered it. It was amazing! As I recall, the custard itself was muskmelon-flavored, with chopped basil on it (maybe also through it, I don't quite remember). The sweetness of the custard base went well with the sunny melon flavor, and the basil added a nice twist. I recently found myself with an heirloom cantaloupe-of-some-variety and an excess of milk, so I took a stab at a version of this excellent summer dessert.

I remain fairly convinced that you cannot put the melon in with the custard while it's hot-- cooked melon doesn't sound appetizing and would do interesting things to the texture I think. So I made a simple vanilla custard, ala Southern Living, reproduced below. I should have gone a bit light on the sugar, as it turned out almost cloyingly sweet. (Luckily the basil helped cut it a bit.) It didn't set up as much as perhaps it should have, maybe because I halved the recipe and my pot may have been a bit large-- letting it boil too quickly, etc, etc.

It was 10:30PM when I decided to put the melon/basil bits together with the custard, so I simply cut a wedge of melon, spooned on some custard, and snipped some fresh basil for a generous garnish. When I have more time I will consider pureeing the melon and basil together and straining off some of the liquid (to drink, yum!) before mixing that into the custard base. Of course, that would work better if the custard were more firm to start out with-- I may just end up with chilled melon-basil-custard soup! (Of course, that sounds fabulous too...) I'll let you know what I get up to tomorrow in the way of making the three ingredients meld more. As it was, the basil chunks flavored the custard somewhat, and alternating bites of custard with bites of melon did the trick.


Half Vanilla Custard Recipe (reproduced from http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=520254)

1/4 cup sugar--USE LESS!
1.5 T. cornstarch
1/4 t. salt
2 egg yolks
1.5 cups milk
1 T. butter or margarine
1 t. vanilla extract

Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat (about 20 minutes), whisking constantly; boil, whisking constantly, 1 minute or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Chill two hours.

Another serving suggestion (Day Two edit):
Tonight I finely diced the cantaloupe (if you cut a wedge of melon and cross-hatch the flesh with a paring knife you can scoop the meat off the rind in neat cubes!) and the basil, and mixed those in with the custard. After all that stirring the custard had the consistency of yogurt, which was fine. The flavors blended a lot better-- in fact I'd consider doing this with the whole batch of custard and letting it sit in the fridge for a day to marry the flavors. Of course, it's not as pretty of a presentation as custard-with-orange-and-green-lumps. Suit yourself. Also, I now want to try yogurt with basil in it, and raspberries perhaps...