Chocolate Orange Cake
If chocolate cake is my friend, chocolate orange cake is my best friend. Bestest best friend.
We have lots of recipes for cakes but when it comes to simple, basic, and never-fail, Victor heads straight to his battered copy of the Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book.
Cake-baking is a science, and it can either be a complicated science or an un-complicated science. BH&G makes in uncomplicated. Simple, basic ingredients and instructions.
He tweaked the basic chocolate cake recipe by adding orange zest and 1/2 cup orange juice to the batter (and cutting the milk by 1/2 cup.) The icing is just butter and powdered sugar with orange zest and orange juice. All fresh-squeezed, of course!
BH&G Best Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1-1/2 cups milk
Directions
1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease bottoms of three 8-inch round baking pans or two 8x8x2-inch square or 9x1-1/2-inch round cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Grease and lightly flour waxed paper and sides of pans. Or grease one 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Set pan(s) aside.
2. In a mixing bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder; and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total). Beat in vanilla.
4. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to beaten mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan(s).
5. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes for 8-inch square pans and the 13x9x2-inch pan, 30 to 35 minutes for 8- or 9-inch round pans, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Peel off waxed paper. Cool thoroughly on wire racks. Or place 13x9x2-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with desired frosting. Makes 12 to 16 servings.
For the holidays, this also makes a great peppermint chocolate cake by substituting 1 tsp peppermint extract for 1 tsp vanilla. And peppermint icing, of course!
Love It!
Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake
When Marie brought over the corned beef, she evidently said she would bring dessert. Victor heard it but I missed that part. And ya can't have people over for dinner without having dessert, so I decided a cheesecake was in order. But since cheesecake is about as Irish as corned beef and cabbage (really - it's an American invention - they don't eat it in Ireland) I thought I would at least give it an Irish twist. Bailey's Irish Cream.
Cheesecake is one of my most favorite desserts - real cheesecake, that is. There should only be a few ingredients.
Bailey's Cheesecake
The Crust:
- 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely ground
- 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
The Filling:
- 4 pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 oz melted good quality dark chocolate (I used Valrhona)
- 1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
Ganache:
- 4 oz melted good quality dark chocolate
- 4 oz Bailey's Irish ream
Preheat oven to 350º. Mix crust ingredients and press evenly into bottom of 10″ springform pan. Set aside.
Cream the cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add sugar and then the melted chocolate. Add the Bailey's, mixing until smooth and light.
Pour into pan and bake 60 – 70 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
Mix Bailey's with melted chocolate. Spread ganache on top and refrigerate.
As if this wasn't enough, Marie brought over outrageously-good white cupcakes with coconut icing.
I had both.
Pear Pie
Ya know how sometimes you bake a pie and it just comes out perfect?!?
Well... this isn't one of them.
It has chosen to break up and crumble. It tastes pretty awesome, but those lovely slices just ain't there. To misquote A Chorus Line, Taste Ten, Looks Three.
I actually know what I did wrong... First was not baking off the cookie crust before filling. The second was cutting it while it was still warm.
Oh well. The important part is the taste. It's a winner.
Pears are an often overlooked pie ingredient. they really work well and can take on a variety of other flavors. You can add raisins or walnuts change out the spices... Just have some fun.
And if it doesn't come out in perfect slices?!? So what?!? Put it in a bowl with some ice cream.
Pear Pie with Ginger Cookie Crust
Crust:
- 2 cups triple ginger snaps
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 6 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/4 cup sugar
Place cookies, walnuts, and sugar in food processor. Process until you have a fine crumb. Add butter and mix well.
Press into 10" pie plate. Bake in pre-heated 375° oven about 7 minutes. Cool before filling.
Filling:
- 4-5 pears, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Mix pears with dry ingredients. Add butter and mix well. Spoon into cooled pie crust.
Top with crumb topping and bake at 350° about 50 minutes.
Crumb topping:
- 1 cup triple ginger snaps
- 1/4 cup walnuts
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
Process as for pie crust. Sprinkle atop pie before baking.
Oscar de la Dessert
And the Oscar for Best Dessert goes to.....
Banana Golden Raspberry Coconut Clafoutis!
::wild applause and standing ovation::
This is a definite star!
I very seldom will pick up a berry out of season. February just isn't Raspberry Month. But I saw some golden raspberries yesterday and decided to make an exception.
I'm glad I did!
I've been making clafoutis for quite a while now... It's one of the most simple of desserts yet has an abundance of flavor.
The classic clafoutis hails from France and is made with cherries. But it's the type of dessert that just lends itself to absolutely anything. I've done peaches, pears, strawberries, apricots... You seriously can use anything - as tonight's version proves.
Tonight's dessert combination came about because I wanted to make a clafoutis but had no milk in the house and couldn't be bothered to head a mile down the road to get some.
Enter a can of coconut milk...
Raspberry and coconut sounded good, but I also had one getting-riper-by-the-minute banana that needed using up. Waste not, want not, right?!? The three flavors were a natural combination.
Banana Golden Raspberry Coconut Clafoutis
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- 1 banana
- 1 pint raspberries
- white chocolate
_____
Preheat oven to 375°.
Butter 10" pie plate and sprinkle with 1 tbsp granulated sugar.
Arrange fruit in bottom of pie plate.
Beat eggs and sugar until frothy. Add flour, salt, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add coconut milk and mix until smooth.
Carefully pour batter over fruit and bake about 35 minutes or until knife in center comes out clean.
Top with melted white chocolate.
Traditionally served warm, I prefer them cold. What can I say?!?
This really was a flavor-combination that rocked.
Chocolate Cake
The chicken soup made me feel better, so I made a chocolate cake.
A really yummy, strawberry-and-cream-filled chocolate cake.
The cake comes from Ina - the Barefoot Contessa. Really simple. It's definitely my go-to cake. It's rich, moist, chocolaty, and the perfect recipe for making something dramatic and tall. It calls for 8" round pans and I do think it's important to use them. I have 3"-deep 8" round pans that weren't that expensive and really do make a difference when baking a cake. Having some good quality cake pans really is the secret and if you're going to spend the extra five minutes to make a cake from scratch, it deserves a good pan!
Ina's Chocolate Cake
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line them with parchment paper; butter the paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out any excess.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.
I went a little overboard with the strawberries and cream. I used a full two pounds of berries and 2 pints of whipped cream to put this thing together. We're gonna have cake for a week.
After splitting the layers I spread the bottom layer with whipped cram, arranged halved strawberries, covered with more cream, added another layer, and repeated.
Totally decadent and totally fun.
And if you're looking for cake pans, try Fantes in South Philly. They deliver.
Chocolate Cake
I'm a few days late with this one, but the cake was so good I thought I'd get it up here...
I don't use a lot of cake mixes but I do like to keep one on the shelf for those moments when I want a semi-instantaneous dessert. I shy away from the national brands and their unnatural ingredients. If I'm going to be a slug, I at least want to be a reasonably healthy slug.
Another thing I do is use 8" cake pans for layer cakes.
Most of the cake pans one finds at the grocery store or home store are 9" pans. An 8" pan makes a higher layer that is much easier to split for additional fillings - and it makes a more impressive-looking finished cake. Much more "bakery" professional.
And we do eat with our eyes...
Chocolate cake just screams for a berry filling and raspberry jam is a natural companion. But another berry good companion is the raspberry's cousin, boysenberry.
Boysenberries are a cross between a raspberry, a blackberry, and a loganberry. Loganberries are a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. It's a raspberry/blackberry/raspberry/blackberry.
And it makes a great jam!
Putting the cake together is simple. Split the layers, spread the jam, and ice.
And here's a layer-splitting hint: To get an evenly-sliced layer, use dental floss!
Yes. Dental floss. Simply wrap the floss around the cake layer where you want it sliced and pull. The floss slices right through the cake with no muss and no fuss. Just keep the two ends even as you pull.
Simple.
All-Day Dining with Linda and David
Hors d'Oeuvres started at 2pm. Cheesecake was served at 7pm.
We ate all day.
It's pretty much what yer supposed to do when you get together with good friends. And we all believe in following the rules when it suits our purpose.
This has been a tradition since we moved back here 10 years ago. Victor has known Linda since childhood. She was our real estate agent when we bought our house. David was our mortgage broker.
Good friends with a lot of history. Friends you can say anything to without having to filter.
And friends who like to eat!
We started off with hors d'oeuvres. Just three, because we didn't want to spoil our dinner.
First off was a puff pastry dish Victor came up with based on something Ina Garten makes. She does a puff pastry, ham and cheese. Victor took it to a whole new level.
Puff Pastry with Pancetta and Dates
- 2 sheets puff pastry
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomato pesto
- 4 oz thin-sliced pancetta
- 1 cup shredded fontina cheese
- 1 cup chopped dates
Roll puff pastry to fit sheet pan - 10" x 16" or so. Brush with sun-dried tomato pesto, them layer pancetta, cheese, and dates.
Roll second sheet of puff pastry and place on top. Crimp edges and brush with egg. Cut slits to allow steam to escape.
Bake in a preheated 450° oven about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
These were definitely a hit. They were easy to prepare and the fillings can be switched out a million and one ways!
Definitely a keeper.
I decided we needed to do at least one deep-fried hors d'oeuvre because... well... we do have that deep fryer! I went with a crab fritter because I just couldn't think of anything else savory that I wanted to do. This was a totally wing-it recipe from the fritter to the dipping sauce, but it turned out great. The test fritters I made were still a bit doughy in the center so I really was caredul about the size. 1 tablespoon cooked up perfectly!
Crab and Green Chile Fritters
- 8 oz crab
- 1 4 oz can green chilies
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 2 tbsp chopped chives
- salt and pepper
Mix crab with chiles, buttermilk, chives, and egg. Add a bit of salt and pepper, to taste. Add enough flour to make a moderately-stiff dough.
Drop tablespoon-sized balls into hot oil and cook until well browned.
Serve with dipping sauce.
For a dipping sauce I decided to go sweet and spicy.
We had homemade cranberry sauce in the fridge, apricot cookie filling in the fridge, and chipotles in adobo in the fridge.
I made a cranberry apricot chipotle dipping sauce!
Cranberry Apricot Chipotle Dipping Sauce
- 1 cup cranberry sauce
- 1/3 cup apricot preserves
- 1 chipotle in adobo, chopped (or to taste)
Place ingredients in small saucepan. Heat. Mix briefly with immersion blender to blend and to break down larger berries or apricot pieces.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
And finally, we had bruschetta.
I love bruschetta in any and all its various incarnations.
Anything on toasted baguette with cheese is my idea of good. This was mere open-a-jar.
We had a jar of Harry and Davids Charred Pineapple with Candied Peppers on the shelf for quite a while. Today it was spooned onto baguette slices, topped with cream cheese, and placed under the broiler for a couple of minutes.
This was so simple and a total hit.
By 4:30pm, it was getting time to sit down to dinner.
We started off with a simple Calabrese Salad.
Red and Green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.
I drizzled the whole thing with that nice, expensive olive oil Nick gave us for Christmas and some 15 year old balsamic. And a pinch of salt and pepper. It didn't need anything else.
And then it wan on to the main attraction:
Handmade pasta with a lobster sauce.
Oh yes, you read that right. Handmade pasta with a lobster sauce.
Oh yes.
Victor made the pasta from a recipe he saw on Ciao Italia with MaryAnn Esposito. She serves the pasta with a clam and mussel sauce, but Victor had a better idea. Lobster.
Scialatielli
- 1 extra large egg
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon grated Pecorino cheese
- 2 tablespoons minced basil or parsley leaves
Directions
Place egg, 1/3 cup milk, olive oil and salt in bowl of food processor and whirl until smooth. Add flour and cheese and pulse until mixture is grainy looking. Add parsley and pulse just until dough begins to leave the sides of bowl. If dough is too dry, add a little of the remaining milk until you can pinch a piece of dough between your fingers and it does not crumble.
Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Place a bowl upside down over the dough and allow to rest for 30 minutes to relax the gluten and make it easier to roll.
Divide the dough into quarters and keep three covered while working the first piece. Flatten the dough to a four inch wide piece. Place it through the rollers of a hand crank pasta machine set to the fattest setting (#1). Set the rollers to the next fattest setting down (#2) and run the dough through again.
Use a small knife to cut 1/8 inch wide strips and place the strips on a clean towel. Repeat with the remaining dough.
It made a wonderful and delicious pasta dish, but we think next time we make it, we'll (that's *we* as in *Victor*) roll it a bit thinner. It's supposed to be a thick pasta, but our tastes tend to go for thinner.
The sauce was a variation on a La Cucina theme...
Aragosta al Limone
- Chunks of Lobster Tail
- 4 Large Egg Yolks
- 2 Lemons
- ½ cup plus 2 tbls Grana Padano grated plus more for sprinkling
- ½ tsp freshly ground pepper
- ½ cup plus 2 tbls heavy cream
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tbls whole milk
- 3 tbls finely chopped flat leaf parsley
- 2 tbls finely chopped chives
Sauté lobster chunks till just done, about 3 minutes or opaque. (Don’t over cook)
Place egg yolks in a large bowl. Grate the zest of 1 lemon into the bowl. Add cheese and pepper, whisk to combine, then whisk in the cream, milk, parsley, chives and a generous pinch of salt.
When the pasta is al dente, drain and return to the pot. Immediately add the egg mixture and lobster meat then toss together to combine. Serve immediately with more Grana Padano.
It was gooder than good. It was great watching both Linda and David go back for more. It was everything it could be and more.
And then, finally, it was time for dessert.
Linda is just a bit of a chocaholic, so we decided a cheesecake with a chocolate crust was in order. And this morning, I decided the cheesecake needed a chocolate ganache to cover it.
The ganache was pure over-the-top decadence. I loved every calorie of it!
I made my favorite "Worlds Greatest Strawberry Cheesecake" except I didn't use the strawberries...
World's Greatest Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache
The Crust:
- 3/4 cups walnuts, coarsely ground
- 3/4 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
- 1 3 oz Valrhona chocolate bar
- 3 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
The Filling:
- 4 pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup whipping cream
The Topping:
- 16 oz sour cream
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
The Ganache:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 12 oz bittersweet chocolate
- 1 tbsp vanilla
Putting it together: Preheat oven to 350º. Mix crust ingredients and press evenly into bottom of 10″ springform pan. Set aside.
Cream the cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add sugar, vanilla, and whipping cream, mixing until smooth and light. Pour into pan and bake 60 – 70 minutes. Remove from oven and cool about 15 minutes. Keep oven on.
Mix topping ingredients and spread onto top of cheesecake to within about 1/2 inch from edge. Return to oven and bake about 7 more minutes. Cool completely, cover, and refrigerate at least 24 hours (2-3 days is best.)
On day you’re going to serve, make ganache. Heat cream. Remove from heat and stir in grated chocolate. Stir until smooth. Add vanilla.
Remove cake from pan. Spread ganache over cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
It really was a stellar day. And while we did eat a lot, at least it was spread out over 5 hours.
Our next feast with them is tentatively scheduled for July at their house to celebrate my and Linda's birthdays.
I can't wait.
They feed us the same way.
Gianduja
I think this may be the surprise dish of the holiday season. It's mid-December but the February issue of La Cucina Italiana magazine is already here. And I am very glad it is! A past issue had a recipe for Nutella Cookie Sandwiches that seemed perfect as one of our Christmas cookies this year. But since Nutella is not on my regular shopping list, I just keep forgetting to pick it up. Had I not come across this recipe, the cookies would have probably fallen into the ever-growing "I thought about making" category.
And to make good things even better, I just found out that this recipe and the cookie recipe both come from Pastry Chef Karen DeMasco. I've been checking her out online and really like her style. I see more of her ideas coming to town!
Gianduja is a sweet chocolate and hazelnut invented in Turin 1852 by Caffarel Chocolate Company. The better-known to us Nutella came into being in the 1940's in Italy. Nutella is good. This is nothing short of totally amazing. And it literally took minutes to prepare.
I bought hazelnuts already hulled from Oh! Nuts in Brooklyn. They are cheap at $8.99/lb! Plus they arrived in just a couple of days! The Demerara sugar came from Atlantic Spice. I bought it a while back with no particular plan or recipe. I just figured I'd use it, eventually... Around here, nothing ever goes to waste.
One note... since I bought hulled hazelnuts I didn't have to go through the toasting-and-rubbing, but I did put the nuts in the oven for a few minutes to warm them before making the spread.
Gianduja
Chocolate Hazelnut SpreadDemerara sugar gives DeMasco's Gianduja its signature "bit of crunch." Though loose when first made, the spread can be enjoyed immediately as a dip or drizzle. Once thickened (after 2 to 3 days at room temperature or a few hours chilled), it makes a fantastic cookie filling. Scoop chilled spread into balls and roll in cocoa powder or dip in melted chocolate to make decadent truffles.
- 5 ounces hazelnuts (1 cup)
- 8 ounces good-quality milk chocolate
- 1/4 cup Demerara sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
Heat oven to 350°.
Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant and golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Wrap nuts in a kitchen towel and rub to remove loose skins (don't worry about skins that won't come off).
While nuts are warm, combine with chocolate, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Puree until smooth, adding oil in a slow steady stream.
Transfer to an airtight container. Let stand at room temperature until thickened, about 2 days. Spread keeps in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month or refrigerated for up to 3 months. To loosen chilled spread, heat in microwave for about 5 seconds.
And now that the gianduja is done those cookies are going to be made in the next few days.
Lemon Polenta Cake
Today has been a non-stop cook-and-bake day at our house.
I baked bread and a fruitcake, and Victor made pasta for tomorrow and a Lemon Polenta Cake for dessert tonight!
Gastronomic heaven.
The Lemon Polenta Cake comes from the Food Network's Nigella Lawson. He saw her make it on TV and decided we needed one. This is further proof that a well-stocked larder always comes in handy. We had the ingredients in the house.
And OMG! Am I glad we did! This is G-O-O-D!!!
Lemon curd in cake form is a perfect description. It is lemony-tart, moist but not wet or under-cooked, and it has a perfectly luscious texture.
Everything about it is good.
I am seriously resisting going back for more.
Lemon Polenta Cake
Nigella Lawson
Directions
This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favorite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavorsome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almond meal provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour.
But there is more to it than that. By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.
Although I am greedily happy to slice and cram messily straight into my mouth, letting damp clumps fall where they will, this cake is best eaten - in company at least - with spoon and fork. Either way, consider it a contender for teatime comfort and supper-party celebration alike.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- 2 cups almond meal/flour
- 3/4 cup fine polenta/cornmeal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if required)
- 3 eggs
- Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)
Syrup:
- Juice 2 lemons (see above)
- Heaping 1 cup confectioners' sugar
Special Equipment: 1 (9-inch) springform pan
For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
Mix together the almond meal, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.
For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a smallish saucepan. Once the confectioners' sugar has dissolved into the juice, you're done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its pan.
Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.
Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.
This is definitely going into the dessert rotation!
Christmas Fruit Cake
It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!
While we're not doing the mega-baking of years past, I do have to make a few things for the holidays - and fruitcake is really one of my favorites.
I know.. I know... Fruitcake has a really bad rap. Many moons ago I started making an Apricot and Macadamia Nut Fruitcake just to ease folks back into the mood. The past couple of years I've abandoned all pretense and have gone for the real McCoy.
This year I made one fruitcake. Just one. And as soon as it is completely cooled it's going down into the basement until Christmas.
It's an easy cake to make - and well worth the cost of ingredients.
While there are often very traditional dried fruits used. I chose what we had in the house already. 8 cups or so of dried and candied fruit and a hefty cup of nuts.
Mix 'em up.
Christmas Fruit Cake
- 2 cups mixed diced glacéed fruits
- 3 cups golden raisins
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup dried cherries
- 1 cup dried apricots, chopped
- 3/4 cup rum
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 1/2 cups chopped assorted nuts
- 1/4 cup peach jam mixed with 1 tbsp rum
In a large bowl combine all of the fruits with the rum and let macerate overnight.
Line the bottom of a well-buttered 9 1/2-inch springform pan with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper. Into a small bowl sift together the flour, the baking powder, and the spices.
Cream together the butter and the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and beat in 4 of the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
Drain the fruit mixture well and mix the juices into the batter.
Stir the flour mixture into the batter, one fourth at a time, stir in the fruit mixture, the almond meal, and the nuts, stirring until the mixture is just combined, and turn the batter out into the prepared pan.
Put 2 loaf pans, each filled with hot water, in a preheated 300°F. oven and put the springform pan between them. Bake the cake for 1 hour, brush the top with the remaining egg, beaten lightly, and bake the cake for 1 hour more. While the cake is baking, in a saucepan melt the peach jam with the remaining 1 tablespoon rum over moderate heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and strain it through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on the solids.
Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pan. Brush the top of the cake with glaze.
The cake will keep, covered, for 6 months.
Pear and Raisin Pie
I had a craving for a pear pie yesterday. I hadn't had one in a long time and decided I was going to bake one when I got home from work. I broke down and bought a frozen pie crust.
I don't know why I do this stuff. I should know better. I'm always disappointed. It's not that this particular crust was bad. It wasn't. It just wasn't all that good.
And then there's the time-factor. Folks talk about a frozen crust being this big time-saver. Well... I guess it is if you planned the pie days in advance, thawed the crust in the refrigerator and pulled it out and filled it with your jar of pre-made pie-filling it may be a time-saver, but what about if you decide you want to make a pie today? Or, right now?
It's a different story when you're waiting (and waiting) for the dough to thaw enough to unfold it. And after two hours on the counter it's still going to break into quarters no matter what, so out comes the rolling pin to put it back together.
The pie could have been made, baked, and cooled by the time the damned dough almost thawed.
Time-saving, indeed.
And I really am beginning to think that even a bad homemade crust is going to taste better than a store-bought.
They just do.
So while the pie shell may have been a bit disappointing, the filing was superb. Very simple, yet richly flavored. Boiling down the pear nectar really concentrates that pear flavor and a bit of lemon juice adds the tartness to offset the sweet.
Really good.
The recipe is based upon a Bon Appetit recipe from years ago.
Pear and Raisin Pie
- 1 cup pear nectar
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 3 lbs pears, peeled, quartered, cored, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Pie pastry for double crust
Preheat to 400°. Prepare double crust according to your favorite recipe. (see below fr mine)
Boil nectar in heavy medium saucepan until reduced to 1/3 cup. Pour into large bowl and mix in raisins. Cool. Mix in sugar and remaining ingredients, then pears.
Spoon filling into crust. Seal top crust to bottom crust. Cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake pie until pears are tender, about 1 hour. Cool.
And make a pie crust.
Pie Crust
This may be the easiest pie crust in the world! Try it with 2/3 butter and 1/3 (not shortening) if you have it available.
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup pastry/cake flour
- 2 sticks butter, frozen
- pinch salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup ice water
Using a food processor, add flours, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.
Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.
Slowly add ice water and pulse until mixed.
Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into two disks . I usually use right away, but you should really wrap it in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.
Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.
Torrone
I did it!
My first real candy-making attempt in years. I did it!
I have cooked and baked all my life, but candy-making has always juuuust slightly eluded me.
Candy-making is an unforgiving science - and I am not a scientist. The old adage that cooking is an art and baking a science is definitely true. But I've been baking long enough to know where I can change or substitute things and get my desired result. Bread-baking is totally touch and feel. Yes, the science is getting the right ratios of leavening, flour, and liquid, but it is the feel of the dough that lets you know when that balance has been achieved.
Not so with candy.
It is exacting step-by-step, exact temperatures, exact, exact, exact. I am so not an exact person.
But I was today - and it came out great!
The only hassle I had was blanching the almonds. And that wasn't difficult - just time-consuming. There is a suburban conspiracy going on around me. None of the local stores had whole blanched almonds. So... I blanched a pound of them, myself. It's not difficult. Pour boiling water over them, let them sit for 2 minutes, drain, rinse under cold water. Drain, again, and slip off the skins.
There's a lot of almonds in a pound,. It took me about 45 minutes to do them.
The recipe comes from La Cucina Italiana Magazine and it was extremely straightforward and easy to follow. The candy did exactly what it said it was going to do in the recipe at every step. It was great. The one caveat is this is a sticky, sticky candy. And I do mean sticky. I broke a heavy-duty spatula stirring in the nuts. It was old, granted, but it was my favorite. Oh well.
The only change I made was to use edible rice paper instead of cornstarch and parchment paper. I laid out the rice paper on a sheet pan, spread the torrone on it, topped it with rice paper, rolled it to the desired thickness, and then cut it after it had cooled and set.
Sticky.
Torrone
Ingredients
- Cornstarch for dusting
- 3 cups whole blanched almonds
- 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 cup clover honey
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Finely grated zest of 1 large orange
Special equipment: parchment paper; a candy thermometer
Instructions
Heat oven to 350º. Lightly dust a clean work surface with cornstarch. Line a 9- x 13- inch baking dish with parchment paper, letting excess paper hang over edges.
Spread nuts on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring once halfway through, until fragrant and golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack; let nuts cool completely.
Put egg whites and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with whisk; set aside.
In a heavy 4-quart saucepan with candy thermometer attached, heat sugar and honey over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until mixture begins to simmer and sugar is mostly dissolved, 12 to 14 minutes (mixture will be very thick, then begin to loosen and turn cloudy). Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until candy thermometer reaches 280º degrees. Continue to cook mixture, stirring once or twice, until temperature reaches 315º. It will take the mixture about 15 minutes more to reach that temperature (the mixture will begin to foam and darken in color as temperature increases).
Meanwhile, beat egg whites on medium speed until firm peaks form. Add confectioners sugar and continue to beat until fully incorporated, about 1 minute more. Turn off mixer, leaving bowl in place.
When sugar mixture reaches 315º, remove from heat; stir until temperature reduces to 300º, 1 to 2 minutes, then carefully remove candy thermometer. With mixer on medium speed, slowly pour sugar mixture down the side of the bowl (egg mixture will double in volume, then decrease); continue to beat until mixture is cooled to warm and begins to lighten in color, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla and zest; beat for 1 minute more, then, using a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, fold in nuts (mixture will be very sticky).
Turn out candy onto prepared work surface; dust hands with cornstarch. Knead for 5 to 6 turns, then transfer to prepared baking dish. Dust hands with more cornstarch, then press candy to flatten and fill pan. Put pan on wire rack and let candy cool completely, about 1 hour.
Using parchment paper overhang, lift out candy from pan; cut candy into pieces. Layer in a sealed container, between sheets of parchment paper and let stand overnight, with container sealed and at room temperature, to dry, at least 8 hours or overnight. Candy can be kept, layered between sheets of parchment paper, in a sealed container at room temperature, for up to 3 weeks.
The recipe makes about 2 1/2 pounds of candy.
There's a recipe for Chocolate Torrone that I'm going to try next... I just have to watch myself. I tend to get a bit cocky after a success like this and not pay attention the second time around.
I really need to pay attention!