Pistachio Biscotti
Here's something we haven't had in the house in a while - biscotti! They haven't been a part of the weight-loss regimen. In fact, they're still not - but we have a friend coming over tomorrow and we can't just offer her our normal gruel. We do have standards!
Back when I did my Eataly buy-out, one of the things that I bought was a Pistachio Spread - Crema Pistacchi - thinking it would be a good addition to the Christmas Cookies. After tasting the cookies - I was right!
These are the richest and most pistachio-ey cookies ever! Victor added a mere teaspoon to his already fabulous recipe and it sent them right over the top!
We live in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, so Pistachio Liqueur and Pistachio Cream Liqueur are not available in our State Stores - we had to make it. It should be readily available in other forward-thinking states.
Pistachio Biscotti
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cube (stick) butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp Pistachio Spread
- 3 tbsp pistachio cream liqueur – or pistachio liqueur
- 8 oz pistachios, roasted – unsalted
- 1 tsp vanilla
Sift together dry ingredients. Cream sugar and butter, add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, pistachio spread, and pistachio cream. Stir in flour. Stir in pistachios. Refrigerate dough about 30 minutes.
Divide dough in half. Shape into logs. Place on greased cookie sheets and bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes.
Cool completely. Slice into 1/4 to 1/2″ slices and toast on both sides in 350° oven.
Pistachio Cream Liqueur
- 8 oz pistachios, roasted and coarsely chopped
- 750ml Everclear or 100 proof vodka
- 1 1/2 qts whole milk
- 3 lbs sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Pour alcohol over pistachios and let sit for a week to 10 days or more infuse. Shake or stir now and again.
On day 7… Bring sugar and milk to a boil and simmer until sugar is dissolved and mixture gets syrupy – about 10 or 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
Strain pistachio alcohol through several layers of cheesecloth. Discard pistachios.
Mix cooled milk syrup with liquor. Add vanilla.
It’s done.
The liqueur itself tastes pretty good. Over ice it would make a nice martini of sorts…
Our Christmas Biscotti are going to be pretty fabulous this year!
Vanilla Cake for Two
Since I made a Chocolate Cake for Two a couple of weeks ago, I thought it time to make a Vanilla Cake for Two.
I love cake. hell - I love desserts, period. This is where I really take after my mother. You'll note in the cook books she put together over the years that the dessert binder was twice the size of the Appetizers/Salads/Entrees/Soups/and Sides. The woman liked her desserts - and still stayed slim all of her life. That, is where I don't take after my mother. Oh, well.
Since I had lots of fresh Strawberry Jam, I spread it between the layers.
Vanilla Cake for Two
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup flour
- pinch salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- scant half-cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 6" cake pan.
Cream butter in mixer. Add sugar and cream together for about 5 minutes. Add egg and mix about 30 seconds.
Mix vanilla with buttermilk. Mix flour with salt and baking soda. Add the flour and liquid alternately, starting and finishing with the flour. Just mix well enough to get everything together.
Spread into prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes.
I made a basic cream cheese frosting - equal parts of butter and cream cheese, plus vanilla and powdered sugar. I split the layer and added some homemade strawberry jam.
Momma would be proud!
Grape Clafoutis
I was looking for a quick dessert and just happened to have some grapes in the 'fridge. Next thing I knew, there was a clafoutis in the oven!
Clafoutis is a French dessert that is traditionally made with cherries with the pits - along with milk that has been steeped in ground almonds.
I have made the traditional, but I have also made numerous variations on the theme. It's one of those recipes that you can do anything to!
Green Grape Clafoutis
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp creme de casis
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 375°.
Butter 10″ pie plate and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
Arrange grapes in bottom of pie plate.
Beat eggs and sugar until frothy. Add flour, salt, creme de casis, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add milk and mix until smooth.
Carefully pour batter over grapes and bake about 35 minutes or until knife in center comes out clean.
I've made them with peaches, apricots, cherries, bananas and raspberries... go for it and have fun!
Peach Upside Down Cake
In keeping with our mini-dessert theme, Victor headed into the kitchen and made a mini Peach Upside Down Cake - and it is outrageously good! It's one of those things that is so basic in concept and so over the top in flavor. One simple perfectly-ripe peach and a simple vanilla cake blend together to make an anything but simple-tasting dessert! It's the ultimate in a few quality ingredients making a huge statement.
There's no trick to this other than getting into the kitchen and making it!.
Peach Upside Down Cake
Topping
- 1 peach, sliced
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Cake
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 6" pan.
Topping:
Melt the butter and pour into pan. Sprinkle in brown sugar. Lay peach slices over mixture and sprinkle with nuts.
Cake:
Beat the butter and sugar until light.
Beat in the egg. Mix vanilla with milk.
Add the flour alternately with the milk in three additions.
Spread batter over peaches.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool slightly then invert onto serving plate.
Every bite put a smile on my face!
Chocolate Cake For Two
We have dessert every night. Yep. Every night. 7pm. The Jeopardy theme song starts playing, Blanche perks up, and dessert is served. Every night.
Blanche gets her two cookies and we get cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream - sometimes even something silly like a bowl of fresh fruit - with or without freshly-whipped cream. It's all just a part of our daily routine.
The problem is making a dessert that only two people are going to eat. Nonna will only eat vanilla cake with vanilla icing, nowadays, and when I walk into the kitchen, the usual result is enough food to feed the neighborhood. Day Five of seeing the same cake is, well... Day Five. I think that Day Three would be better suited for a new treat - and with more free time during the day, I think it's time to start thinking about making more mini desserts instead of my traditional family-sized creations.
My mindset has pretty much been that if I'm going to make something, I might as well make enough for it to be worthwhile. I need to train my mind to start thinking that I can make something every single day if I want, so I no longer need to think in terms of when I have time and when I don't.
I decided to start off by doing a cake, since they're the most difficult to make smaller. Pies are simple, as are cookies - but the proportions in a cake batter to produce 2 cups of batter for a 6" cake pan is a bit trickier. Not every cake recipe is going to easily divide into halves - or in thirds - and come out right. You need to play a bit. Fortunately, this didn't take a lot of play.
A starting point for a basic 2-layer cake recipe to convert to a single 6" pan would be dividing the recipe by thirds. Obviously, that's not going to easily work in recipes calling for 2 or 4 eggs, so that's where you need to play. I have a chart for cake batter and cake pan sizes put out by Wilton to give an idea of volume needed.
Chocolate Sour Cream Cake for Two
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp Kahlua
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 6" cake pan.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 4 minutes. Add egg and mix about 20 seconds. Add sour cream, vanilla, and Kahlua.
Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir into liquids and mix well.
Pour into pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until pick comes out clean.
I split the layer and made a simple chocolate cream cheese frosting with a bit of Kahlua added.
It came out pretty swell. Moist, really chocolatey, and just the right size.
Lemon Blackberry Pound Cake
I love it when I come home and there's a fresh dessert waiting for me!
While I usually get (take?!?) all the credit for being the baker in the family, Victor ain't no slouch - and his repertoire keeps growing!
His latest creation is a Lemon Pound Cake with Ricotta and Blackberries. It's a spin on a BH&G orange pound cake recipe from many moons ago. Some of the best recipes in the world come out of those old cookbooks and they're really easy to play with and tweak.
Lemon Blackberry Pound Cake
cake
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 4 eggs
- juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 pint blackberries
lemon glaze
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/8 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 325º F and butter and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together ricotta, lemon juice, vanilla, and zest.
Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time - about 20 seconds per egg.
Add the dry ingredients in three additions and the ricotta in two beginning and ending with the dry. Do not over-mix.
Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Dot with half the blackberries, pushing them in a bit. Pour the rest of the batter in the pan and poke the remaining blackberries into the batter, making sure they are covered.
Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool.
Make glaze.
Mix lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan and cook until slightly thickened. Cool.
Poke cake with skewer and then brush glaze over cake until it's completely absorbed. Top with powdered sugar, slice, and enjoy!
It came out really lemony and the blackberries were a perfect fit.
It's so nice to have a man around the house...
Banana Pound Cake Pudding
The problem with making desserts around here is there's only two of us eating them. There comes a point, once in a while, where something goes stale before we can finish it. I've pretty much stopped trying to freeze things, because... we keep running out of freezer space. If we had more freezer space, I would just fill it - I wouldn't stop making things. So... when something really good is starting to go stale, I think of ways to re-purpose it.
Like turning pound cake into a bread pudding.
A few ripe bananas and a couple of eggs made for a brand new dessert!
Banana Pound Cake Pudding
- bananas
- pound cake
- eggs
- sugar
- milk
- vanilla
- chocolate chips
- pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cube pound cake. Slice bananas. In bowl, mix eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, and pinch of salt.
Add pound cake cubes, banana slices, and chocolate chips. mix carefully and pour into a buttered casserole.
Bake about 40 minutes or until set.
Really simple. Really tasty.
Bourbon Glazed Pound Cake with Peaches
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”
― Oscar Wilde
I must admit that I didn't realize that was an Oscar Wilde quote until I went to look it up. I was thinking of the first part - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and had no idea the second part existed. Oscar was a bit snarky.
I was going to use the quote - as I knew it - and then state how I didn't necessarily agree with it. I think being inspired by someone is the sincerest form of flattery. That someone can inspire you to do more or be more creative is truly a great thing. So much more than merely copying them.
Back in my professional cooking days, I knew the value of making something the same way and the right way every time. When a place is known for something, that something has to be consistent. And if two or six or ten people are making it, they all need to make it the same.
But cooking at home is so much different than cooking for the public. At home, I love the randomness of what we can do. I love taking a recipe from a James Beard Award Winner and thinking I wonder what I could do with that?!?
And that's pretty much what I did with Dolester Miles' Bourbon Glazed Pound Cake.
Dol Miles is truly an inspiration. And playing with a recipe of a James Beard Award Winner is fun and exciting. It's not about making it better because, let's face it - she's a James Beard Award Winner. I'm definitely not. Whenever I play with someone else's recipe, it's about playing with that genius and seeing what else can be done with it - it's not about improving their recipe, it's about making something different based upon the same idea.
So... while at the produce market, this morning, I picked up some peaches. Ripe peaches. And my first thought was that bourbon and peaches go together really well. I wonder what would happen if I topped the cake with peach slices and demerara sugar before baking it?
The rest, as they say, is history.
I followed the recipe on the Bake From Scratch website except I topped the cake with bourbon-soaked peach slices and then sprinkled it all with demerara sugar before putting it in the oven. The recipe states 1 hr to 1 hr and 15 minutes for baking. Mine took 1 1/2 hours.
For over 30 years Dolester “Dol” Miles has served as Executive Pastry Chef at Highlands Bar and Grill, Bottega, Bottega Cafe, and Chez Fonfon, creating a legacy of delicious desserts and leaving a lasting mark on the Birmingham dining scene.
I have never been to Birmingham, but I now have a serious reason to visit.
Cherry Crumb Pie
It may seem early for cherries, but after tasting some this morning, I knew they were coming home with me!
It seems I haven't made a cherry pie in a while - or, I didn't blog about it. That's a possibility, albeit remote, since any time I make a cherry pie I have to casually mention how I won 2nd Place in the Cherry Pie Cook-Off at the Cherry Festival in San Leandro back in 2000. No brag. Just fact.
So... armed with my trusty cherry pitter, I went to work.
It didn't take long to pit 2 pounds of cherries, and I hardly ate any at all whilst doing it!
Then it was mix the cherries with a splash of kirsch, sugar, and tapioca - and a bit of vanilla.
I had a crust in the freezer left from another baking project, so I rolled it out...
And filled it with those luscious cherries.
Then I made the crumb topping with butter, flour, oats, and just a pinch of cinnamon...
That went on the top and into the oven.
Less than an hour later... Perfection!
I'm not sure this one is enter-into-a-contest-worthy, but it's pretty darned good.
Cherry Crumb Pie
filling
- pastry for single crust pie
- 2 lbs cherries, pitted
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp kirsch
- 2 1/2 tbsp instant tapioca
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
topping
- 2/3 cup flour
- 2/3 cup rolled oats
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 4 tbsp butter
- pinch cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Roll out crust and fit into pie pan. Flute edges and refrigerate until ready to use.
Mix pitted cherries with sugar, tapioca, kirsch, vanilla, and salt. Let sit, stirring occasionally, for about an hour for tapioca to set.
Place in pie shell.
Make topping. Mix flour, sugar, oats, and a pinch of cinnamon. Stir in butter.
Bake at 400°F for about 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°F and bake another 20 or so minutes. Allow to cool before slicing.
Not bad at all for a spur of the moment creation!
Birthdays and Mother's Day
Friday was Victor's Mom's 92nd birthday. Today - Mother's Day - would have been my Mom's 92nd birthday. They were born 2 days apart on opposite coasts and both would share a birthday with Mother's Day from time to time. They really could not have been more different, but they were both representative of their place and time - the immigrant's daughter and the small-town girl. Neither grew up with much and both learned to make do - and they did it well.
Even though they were on opposite coasts, they both met a few times and got along great - as did our fathers. It's nice when the in-laws like one another. There are some good memories, there.
Victor's mom no longer likes anything but plain white cake, so I pulled out my old standby. It's an easy cake to make and always comes out great.
Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 9-inch round cake pans.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition - about 20 seconds for each egg.
Mix baking powder, salt, and flour. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three additions and milk in two, beginning and ending with flour. Beat just until combined after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 28 to 30 minutes. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.
Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 oz butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp vanilla
Cream butter and cream cheese together until light. Slowly add powdered sugar. Add vanilla and mix well.
And here are a couple of pictures of the boys with their mothers...
Cantucci
Cantucci is a Tuscan biscotti, and, as Martha Stewart says, this variety is also called biscotti di Prato.
A biscotti by any other name would smell as sweet.
Deepest apologies to William Shakespeare.
We were watching Martha the other night when she made these. It was an immediate - we're making these tomorrow. Actually, it was an immediate Victor's making these tomorrow. He's the biscotti-maker in the house.
He used his own biscotti recipe and adapted it to the fillings Martha used on her program. His recipe is perfection, so there's no need to use another.
Victor's Cantucci
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cube (stick) butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- juice and zest of 1 orange
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
- 1/2 cup chopped dried cherries
- 1/2 cup chopped pistachios
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds
- pinch salt
Sift together dry ingredients. Cream sugar and butter, add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, salt, orange juice, and zest. Stir in flour. Stir in fruits and nuts.
Divide dough in half. Shape into logs. Place on greased cookie sheets and bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes.
Cool completely. Slice into 1/4 to 1/2″ slices and toast on both sides in 350° oven.
They are really good! We make a lot of biscotti in our house, but, they are more often than not, a single flavor with a single added filling. These were fun because you really taste the various add-ins - the different nuts, the cherries, the apricots - along with the orange background.
These are definitely being added to the Christmas List!
Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry season! My favorite time of year - besides Peach season, Blackberry season, Watermelon season...
I remember the strawberries at my grandparents house in Bakersfield. There was a brick BBQ pit in their backyard that had been filled with dirt and planted with strawberries. Bright red, sweet and juicy... Free for the taking. We never tired o0f them.
Their backyard was a great place for kids to play and explore... They had a chicken coop with lots of chickens we got to feed - and eat - although a couple of them were pretty mean and didn't take to kids being in there with them. There was a grape arbor along the side of the house with huge juicy sweet grapes with seeds and a neat old tree where my brother and I built a tree house.
Grandpa always had something growing back there - the place was a riot of color with flowering trees, roses, and gladiolas. My brother and I would take grandma's canning jars and catch bees from one of the trees in front of the house - when we weren't taking shotgun shells and hitting them with bricks and shooting them across the street. (We got into a LOT of trouble over that little trick.)
Mrs. McNamee next door had a peach tree where we would get fresh peaches, and next door on the other side was Mr Brown - Grandpa's drinkin' buddy and grower of huge watermelons. We stole his prize seed melon one year - not knowing it was a seed melon - it was just the biggest melon in his yard. He was royally pissed. Everyone knew we had done it, but we denied it like hell - and they couldn't prove it. We stayed clear of his yard after that.
But back to strawberries...
Back in those thrilling days of yesteryear, strawberry shortcake was a standard summer dessert - made with homemade shortcakes. Shortcakes, biscuits, and scones are all in the same family and they're all made pretty much the same way. Tweak a few things to sweeten or make them more savory - cream instead of buttermilk, butter vs shortening, sugar or no sugar... But if you can make one, you can make the others - and most cooks could make all three with their eyes closed.
This is a foolproof shortcake recipe. It uses both butter and shortening, but feel free to use all of one or the other. Or... make another old standby...
Strawberry Shortcake
- 2 cups flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp shortening
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- Melted butter and sugar for tops
Heat oven 450° F.
Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in butter and shortening. Mix in cream. Form into a circle about an inch thick and slice into 4 to 6 wedges. Place on a baking sheet.
Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until brown. Cool.
Split shortcakes and fill with strawberries and whipped cream.
I sliced the berries and added a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of Grand Marnier and let them sit for an hour to macerate.
They came out pretty damned good. Maybe not as good as Grandma's, but she would have eaten them and loved every bite!