Kitchen Wench

Cake is kind of my white whale.  For the longest time, I just couldn’t get it right, despite being able to handle seemingly more complicated things (e.g., pie crust) without incident.  After a slew of failures early on in my baking career (bundt cakes that got stuck in the pan, layer cakes that resembled the leaning tower of Pisa, etc), I came to the sorry conclusion that I might just be better off buying a box mix.  But you can always tell when cake comes from a mix — it’s moist and has a nice texture, but it never tastes homemade.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my fair share of artificially-flavored things, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the taste of real butter or vanilla.

But this cake  is practically idiot-proof:  it is tender, moist, and light every time.  Just like a box cake, except it tastes about a million times better.  The secret is in the buttermilk.  I’ve never baked anything with buttermilk that didn’t turn out amazing.

The original recipe calls for raspberries, but you can use any berry you want.  The other change I made is the addition of almond extract.  Having made this cake several times now, I find that it’s a bit dull with just vanilla.  The almond brings out the sweetness and lightness of the cake and contrasts wonderfully with the berries.  If you don’t like almond flavor, some citrus zest would also work nicely.

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My friend Ilana and I had a baking day on Saturday, and we made this bread recipe from Serious Eats (along with chocolate cake from The Atlantic Food Blog).  The chocolate cake was good, but the bread really exceeded our expectations.   It’s like Fall in a loaf of bread! Personally, fall is my favorite season, partly because of the weather, but mostly because of the food.  So, if you’re anything like me, I think you’ll really like this bread.

Pumpkin Walnut Cranberry Bread

From Serious Eats.  Adapted from by The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree.

• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 14oz can pumpkin puree
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• Zest of 1 small orange
• 7/8 cup water
• 4 1/8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg
• 2 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 1/4 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 1/3 cups toasted walnut pieces
• Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of the loaves (optional but makes a great crunchy top)

1. Position one rack in the top third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350F. Grease 2 loaf pans.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, cooled slightly, with the eggs. Whisk in the pumpkin puree and sugar. Stir the orange zest into the water then add to the pumpkin mixture and whisk to combine.

3.  In a separate bowl, add the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and whisk together.

4.  Pour the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients and fold gently until almost combined, then add the cranberries and walnuts. Finish with a few gentle strokes combine without over-mixing.

5.  Divide the batter evenly between the 2 prepared loaf pans (batter will nearly reach the top of the pan). Sprinkle the top of each loaf lightly with the turbinado sugar, about 1 tablespoon per loaf, to form a crystal crust.  Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the loaf. [Note: When I made this, I needed to bake them for closer to 75 minutes.  Your experience may vary, but don't fret if it's taking over an hour.]

6. Cool the loaves in the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully turn them out of the pans and place the loaves on a wire rack until completely cooled. Wrap in plastic film and store in the refrigerator. These loaves keep well for 3 to 4 days, and freeze well if wrapped in plastic and then foil.

Makes 2 very large loaves.

I must confess, I’ve never been a big bread pudding fan.  I guess I’m a fair weather bread pudding eater — I like it if it’s good and think it’s pretty disgusting when it’s bad.  Good bread pudding, in my mind, should be light, eggy, and fluffy.  Too often, bread pudding is so dense and sugary that it’s like eating a brick of hardened custard.  Gross.

My dad likes bread pudding, and so does my boyfriend, so I’ve tried to make it on a couple occasions.  The first time, I used this Epicurious recipe by Maya Angelou.  I don’t know why, but I just assumed that since Maya Angelou was a great poet that she would also be a great cook.  Well, I was wrong.  The bread pudding was just kind of blah, nothing special.  It wasn’t custardy enough, and now that I look at it, it’s clear that the recipe needed more fat.

I forgot all about my bread pudding failures until last week.  I had half of an enormous loaf of Italian bread from Heller’s Bakery and a potluck at 6, so I thought I’d try bread pudding again.  This time, I based my pudding on a recipe for Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding from the Little Fountain Cafe in Adams Morgan.  I didn’t have chocolate chips, so I chopped up some Ghiradelli bars and threw in some strawberries and amaretto.  It was really freaking good.  The texture is light, pleasantly eggy, and not to sweet.  Plus you really can’t go wrong with strawberries and chocolate.  This is my new bread pudding recipe and I’m sticking to it.

Chocolate Strawberry Bread Pudding

• 1 lb loaf of stale, white Italian sandwich bread (brioche or challah bread would also work), crusts removed and cut into 1″ cubes
• 6 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 lb of strawberries, diced into 1/2″ pieces
• 3 oz  bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2″ pieces
• 1 oz white chocolate, chopped into 1/2″ pieces
• 1 tbsp amaretto
• 1 1/4 cups half and half
• 3 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to350.  Grease a 9″ x 13″ glass baking dish.

2.  Toss chopped strawberries with amaretto and set aside.

3.  Place bread cubes in a bowl and toss with 4 tbsp of melted butter. Spread a layer of bread into the bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle with the chocolate and strawberries.  Top with the remaining bread cubes.

4.  In a bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together eggs, egg yolks, half and half, sugar, and vanilla. Pour egg mixture over the bread.  Gently toss the mixture make sure everything is evenly coated.  Allow to sit for at least 30 minute to allow the bread to absorb the egg.    (You can make this up to 1 day ahead, just cover and refrigerate until you are ready to bake it.)

5.  Mix the brown sugar with the remaining 2 tbsp of melted butter.  Drizzle over the top of the bread pudding.  Bake until puffed, brown, and set in the center, about 45 minutes.  This would be nice served with some fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream, but it’s also good all by itself.

Serves 12.

I think you either love or hate this holiday, and I know a lot of people hate it.  I realize that despite the business it draws, restaurants must hate this day.  I showed up last night for a 5 pm dinner reservation at Brasserie Beck (the only time available when making a reservation 2 weeks in advance) and the hostess was already starting to lose it.  While we were waiting to be seated, some poor idiot called and asked if there were any tables left.  “No,” she said, clutching her head, “we are completely booked.  The restaurant is completely booked.”  I got the feeling she’d probably had this conversation countless times that day.

As we were escorted to the table, it dawned on me.  Eating out on Valentine’s Day is like the dining equivalent to flying on Thanksgiving weekend.  All sorts of people who normally never eat out or come into the city pop out of the woodwork for this one day.  They’re like those infuriating people in the security line who somehow haven’t heard about the 3 oz liquids rule.  You can usually tell just by looking — there’s the  guy in sloppy jeans and sneakers; the girl in an inappropriately tiny dress with inappropriately high heels; and that horrible couple that keeps making out at the table across from you.

As for me, I like Valentine’s Day.  But not because I like roses or chocolates or fancy dinners.  Don’t get me wrong–I like all of those things very much, but you can have them any day of the week if you really want them.  No, I like Valentine’s Day for far, far nerdier reasons.  I like Valentine’s Day in the same way that the staff at Martha Stewart Living likes Valentine’s Day: it’s an excuse to make beautiful, delicious things.  As I kid, I loved making paper Valentine’s.  Actually, I’d really love it if someone gave me some construction paper and glitter glue right now.  Now that I’m older, I like the excuse to bake something in the shape of a heart and put pink frosting on it.

Last year, I decided to indulge myself and I made a myriad of chocolate and vanilla cut out cookies.  I sandwiched some of them with raspberry jam and covered the others with all sorts of pink and red designs.  It was delightful. This year, I was felled by a bout of stomach flu and couldn’t make any cookies.  Well, I suppose I could have, but I wouldn’t have been able to eat any, and  no one wants cookies made by a germy person, no matter how pretty they are.  I’ll just have to wait until next year.

I just took this loaf out of the oven, and it’s so good than I ran to my computer to type up the recipe.  Now, beer bread does not have quite the same crusty texture and tender crumb as a yeast bread, but it’s quick, easy, and you can make it in an hour.  In other words, it’s about as close to instant gratification as homemade bread gets.

One thing I have learned is that baking with beer is a lot like cooking with wine–you should use beer that you’d actually drink.  If you don’t like how it tastes out of the bottle, you probably won’t like it baked either, so it’s in your interest to spend a little extra for something tasty.  I used Young’s Double Chocolate Stout because it is absolutely delicious.  Young’s is made with actual chocolate and is incredibly smooth.  The trick here is to use a beer that has a rich, malty flavor but is not strongly bitter.  This is a dessert bread and a very bitter beer is going to make your bread taste foul.  (I once made a completely inedible loaf out of some Bell’s Porter.  It was a grayish and tasted like burnt coffee–so, so wrong.)

I seem to be on a bit of a cherry kick here, but you could easily substitute a different type of  dried or fresh fruit.  For Christmas, I recieved a giant jar of homemade sour cherry cordial from Lee’s mom, and this seemed like a great way to use up the tipsy cherries left floating in the jar.  Fresh or canned sour cherries in water would also work just as well.

Chocolate Stout and Tart Cherry Beer Bread

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup whole sour cherries, pitted
• 12 oz Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.  Make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in beer and cherries.  Gently fold the flour into the beer, stopping when the dough has just absorbed all the flour.  Be careful not to over mix or stir vigorously, as this will destroy the bubbles and make the bread dense.

3. Pour dough into loaf pan and smooth the top with a spoon or rubber spatula. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Biscotti is one of those cookies that can be hit or miss.  I have nearly broken a tooth on dry, flavorless store-bought biscotti.  I know you’re supposed to dunk them in coffee, but I believe a good biscotti should taste delightful even by itself.  I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for years, starting with the original version for Chocolate-Dipped Cherry-Hazelnut Biscotti.  The first time I made it, I thought the orange zest was overpowering, and dipping the biscotti in chocolate was messy and time consuming.  However, I kept the recipe because I always ship some cookies at Christmas, and biscotti are very sturdy and keep for several weeks.  Instead, I started tweaking the recipe a little bit each year.  I dropped the orange zest and swapped out hazelnuts for almonds.  I tried mixing in chocolate chips, which tasted good if inauthentic.  This year I decided to simplify by ditching the chocolate altogether and enhancing the nuts with Amaretto.  The resulting cookie has the rich almond flavor and crunchy (but not rock hard) texture that I’ve been looking for all this time. Read the rest of this entry �

Better late than never, I say… This month has been incredibly busy; I’ve currently got one Christmas down and one more to go.  I wanted to get these pictures  up sooner, but this will have to do for now.  Click on the thumbnails for a full size image.  Recipes, where available, are linked.

Homemade Marshmallows from Alton Brown

Martha Stewart’s Pecan Bars

Almond Cherry Biscotti (recipe forthcoming)

Bittersweet Mocha Cookies from Fine Cooking

Smitten Kitchen’s Brownie Roll-Out Cookies

Jam Thumbprint Trios

Coconut Snowballs and Itty Bitty Gingerbread Men

Peppermint Meringues

This is officially my new favorite pie flavor. I have a bit of a penchant for mixing fruits in my pies, in part because I think the result is a more complex flavor. Also, I must confess, I keep buying rather expensive fruit at the Penn Quarter and Mt. Pleasant farmers’ markets, and I get greedy and buy a pint here and a quart there of every berry they have. I initially planned to make a cherry pie, but I didn’t have enough cherries, so I frantically threw in some blueberries. It’s actually a great combination–when cooked, both fruits have a really bold flavor, but the blueberries help balance out the tartness of the cherries. Sour cherry season is short, so take advantage of it!

Sour cherry blueberry pie

For crust:

I actually tried using a sweet tart dough instead of my usual all butter crust recipe, with mixed success. The sweetness pairs well with the tart fruit, but the tart dough is very soft and difficult to roll. When I first put the pie in the oven, the temperature was too hot, and the crust started to melt off the pie plate. In the future, I will go back to my standby recipe and just double the sugar.

For filling:

• 1 quart sour cherries, pitted (Don’t have a cherry pitter? Use Smitten Kitchen’s needlenose pliers method. I like to insert the tip of the pliers into the top of the cherry–where the stem attaches–grab on to the pit, and pull straight up.)
• 2 quarts blueberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tbsp corn starch
• 1 tsp almond extract

1. Make dough according to recipe. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 20 minutes.

2. Toss fruit with sugar, starch, and extract.

3. Roll out one half of the dough. For dough rolling tips (aka my mess-free Saran Wrap rolling method), go here. Place dough into the bottom of a 9″ pie plate and gently press into the sides. Brush the bottom with a little bit of beaten egg.

4. Pour fruit into the crust, mounding in the center. Roll out the second half of the dough. If you want, you can get fancy with lattice or some cookie cutter shapes. Or just cut a few slits with a knife to allow the steam to vent. Lay dough over the fruit. Trim any excess from the edges (a scissors is great for this) and gently seal the edges with your fingers or with the tines of a fork.

5. Brush the top of the pie with the remaining beaten egg. Sprinkle with sugar. If you are using the traditional butter crust, bake in a 375 oven for 45 minutes to an hour. If you are using the tart dough, bake at 325 for an hour and ten minutes.

This pie tastes like summer. I made it for a work picnic on Thursday. I was going to make a strawberry rhubarb pie, but Giant was out of rhubarb. Instead, I got some purple plums and Bosc pears, both of which were a bit under ripe. I was a little skeptical of the flavor combination, but it turned out great! The pears and plums were cooked, but not mushy. The texture contrast was great with the soft strawberries. Also, this pie tastes very fruity, but not overly sweet. I think this might be my new favorite pie.

For crust: I swear by this all-butter crust recipe from Bon Appetit

For filling:

• 1 lb ripe strawberries (1 of those plastic flats = 1 lb)
• 6 firm medium purple plums
• 4 firm Bosc pears
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 heaping tbsp corn starch
• 1 tsp high quality cinnamon (I use Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon from Penzey’s and it makes a huge difference in the flavor. If using lesser quality, I would increase the amount.)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I received a bottle of Haitian vanilla for Christmas and it’s got a wonderful bright flavor that I love with fruit. Mexican vanilla would also work nicely.)

1. Make crust dough per Bon Appetit’s recipe. While dough disks cool in the fridge, make the filling.

2. Hull and quarter strawberries. Cut plums and pears into roughly 2″ sized pieces. You can leave the skins on. Toss cut fruit with the sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, and vanilla. Set aside.

3. Roll out 1 disk of dough for the bottom of the pie. I like to roll my dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. This means I don’t have to worry about my dough sticking to my counter or rolling pin. Once you have rolled your dough out to the desired thickness, carefully peel the plastic off one side of the dough. Lay the dough into your pie plate, plastic side facing up. You can then grip the plastic side and adjust the dough as needed. Once your dough is in place, carefully peel off the other piece of plastic and press into the pan. If there are any holes, you can patch them with excess dough on the edges of the pie.

4. Pour fruit into pie. Roll out the second disk of dough. After you’ve peeled off your first piece of plastic, you can cut little shapes into the crust with a cooking cutter. I use the pointy end of a chopstick to pull the cut outs off the plastic sheet on the backside of the dough. Lay the dough over your fruit, plastic side up. Be extra careful when removing the plastic, as it is easy to tear the shapes. Alternatively, use a knife to cut a few vents for the steam to escape.

5. Use a pair of scissors to trim the excess dough from the edge. Fold edges over and crimp as desired. I am terrible at crimping. If you want to learn how to crimp your pie nicely, Epicurious has a nice instructional video. Otherwise, you can just use the tines of a fork to smush the edges together.

6. For a nice golden crust, lightly beat an egg and brush it over your finished pie. Sprinkle with sugar for extra crunch and flavor. Bake the pie at 375 for 45 minutes – 1 hour.

Makes one 12″ pie. Easily adapted for a 10″ pie–just mound the fruit in the middle.

Every year, Lee’s mother mails him a birthday care package. Aside from presents, it always includes a box of angel food cake mix, as well as candles, balloons, and paper plates and napkins. It’s sort of quaint, because no matter how old he gets, the care package is exactly the same. This is not limited to birthdays. For the last two years, we have received plastic eggs, candy, easter grass, and an egg dying kit for Easter. This package is usually accompanied by a phone call explaining that Lee can open the box early if we want to dye the eggs the night before. I am 24 years old and have not dyed an Easter egg in over a decade.

While I don’t dye the eggs, I do make the cake. (I’m not really sure if the cake mix is really for him so much as me, since I can’t really imagine Lee making himself a cake.) In my early baking days, I attempted angel food cake from scratch, not realizing it was one of those fussy recipes that require precision and good technique.  My cake puffed up nicely in the oven, but quickly deflated into a lumpy mess once I took it out.

The mix, however, is completely idiot-proof. You add water and, through the magic of chemistry, the mixture foams to 3x its original volume. Then you pour it into the pan and bake it. Unlike many box cakes, which have an artificial taste, I think box angel food tastes pretty darn authentic. I like to add some extra vanilla and almond extract, so it tastes like a giant, almond-y marshmallow.

This year, I decided to mix it up with some cupcakes, which are oh-so-trendy right now. I wanted to make mine sparsely beautiful, like Nigella’s fairy cakes. Per her recipe, I whipped up some royal icing and spread it on the tops with the back of a spoon. But, unlike Nigella, I didn’t have any cute little sugar flowers or fondant cut outs to stick on top of my cupcakes. After digging through the pantry, all I came up with were some raw almonds and leftover Christmas sprinkles. So, I did the best I could, given the circumstances. I think they look decently cute, if not ideal.