Classic Apple Pie

Two-Layer Apple Pie

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 sticks + 1 tbsp butter, cut into small chunks

10 tbsp ice water

5 apples

1 1/4 cup sugar

5 tbsp corn starch
3 tbsp cinnamon
fresh ground nutmeg

Whisk the flour, salt, and sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter a bit at a time and mix with a pastry cutter until it looks like fine crumbs, with pieces no bigger than peas. Sprinkle the ice water over the crumbs and mix by pressing down with a rubber spatula. You can add an extra tablespoon or two of ice water if it won't come together.

Divide the dough in half. Form into 5" disks and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour.

After the dough has had time to chill, Preheat the oven to 375º. Take one piece of dough out and place between two sheets of parchment paper. With a rolling pin, roll it out to a 12" circle, then carefully roll it around the rolling pin. Hold the rolling pin just above the pan and carefully unroll the dough into place. Press down lightly to fit the dough into the pan, then cut excess off edges. Prick the bottom of the crust to reduce risk of bubbles when it bakes.

Cut up 5 apples, toss them in a sauce pot with about 1/2 cup of sugar and a few tablespoons of corn starch and a splash of water. Simmer and occasionally stir over medium/high heat until the apples are caramelized, let them cool a bit then throw them into the crust and do whatever fancy work you want with the top layer of crust.

Brush the top with a mix of egg whites & water, then sprinkle with sugar before baking.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Sometimes it takes 40.

Let cool mostly before serving.

Zebra Cake with Raspberry Puree & Chocolate Ganache

Zebra Cake

3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
2 2/3 cup all purpose or cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350º. In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth, then beat in sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl in between. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside. Stir the vanilla into the milk in a bowl, set aside. Mix 1/3 of dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then 1/3 of the vanilla milk, and repeat until all are combined. Pour half the batter into another bowl and add the cocoa powder.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of chocolate batter into the greased cake pan, followed by 1 tablespoon vanilla batter in the center. Rotate the pan after each addition to keep it evenly distributed.
Bake ...20, 35? minutes, remove from pan when partly cooled.

Chocolate Ganache
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate

Melt in a double boiler over medium-high heat, stirring until smooth. Pour over cooled cake before adding raspberry layer.

Raspberry Topping
1 pack of raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
brandy or honey bourbon

Stir all together in a sauce pot over medium-high to high heat. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. When it looks like jam, let it cool before piling into the center of the ganached cake and carefully spread it out to the edges.

Honey Bourbon Nut Pie

My super awesome uncle Greg came to New York for a couple of days recently. He's never seen me in my natural habitat before, so needless to say I was very excited and wanted to make something special for his visit. He and my also super awesome aunt Sharon are both serious nut fiends, so I decided on a nutty tart of some kind. I got the idea for this pie from this tart, but I used a lot more nuts & put the orange into the caramel itself, and added
molasses and bourbon to the mix. Unfortunately I had loaned a friend my tart pan -- though, it turns out, she had returned it and I just couldn't find it. Oh well, it was a happy mistake, becuse I like the pie version! Nice and thick, and after it's been in the fridge you can eat a slice of this sucker with your hand. When hot it's pretty deliciously gooey.

Pies & tarts are tricky, and I have gone out of my way to get a lot of practice making them lately. Ice water & cutting in cold butter is part of the key, I feel, and if you cut it into cubes or thin slices it is much easier to get the consistency right. The coldness matters! Keep your fingers out of it as much as you can.


Buttery Pie Crust
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 TBSP sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cold & cut
8+ TBSP ice water

This recipe yields 2 pie shells, or one pie w/ lattice top.
In a medium/large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Toss in the cold butter cubes and cut them in with a pastry cutter or hand mixer until it looks like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the ice water in and mix until dough forms. Shape the dough into two discs about 5" around, wrap in plastic & refrigerate or freeze for at least 1 hour.

Remove 1 dough disc from the cold. Set a piece of wax paper on top of a thin plastic cutting board, lightly dust it with flour, and set the dough on the flour. add another dash of flour, another sheet of wax paper, and roll out to a roughly 11" circle. Peel up the wax paper & dust more flour occasionally, and flip the dough so you can be sure it's not sticking to the paper. When the dough is ready to go, remove the top layer of wax paper, set the pie pan face down on top, and flip the cutting board over. It never fails me!
Gently press the dough into place & shape the edges. Freeze for 20 minutes before filling & baking.


Honey Bourbon Nut Pie
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp molasses
zest of 1 orange
2 tsp orange juice
1/3 cup honey bourbon
2 1/4-2 1/2 cups total, mix of: almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, macadamias, hazelnuts, etc. salted or not.

Preheat the oven to 350º.
Bring the cream, sugar, honey, & molasses to a boil in a sauce pan, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. (I recommend getting a heatproof rubber spatula if you don't already have one, it is very handy!) Keep stirring until the mixture thickens a little, add the orange zest, juice, bourbon & stir a little longer. Remove from heat, stir in the nuts, and pour into the pie crust. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Let cool partially before serving, and add some whipped cream - or better yet, butter pecan ice cream. You can never have too many nuts.

Buttermilk cake with Brandied Cranberries and Caramel

I made this cake for a dinner party last week and it was a total FAIL, I used too much buttermilk and it looked a lot like cobbler when it came out of the pan. I took it to the party anyway and it was devoured, the cake plate was scraped dry of any trace of caramel or brandied cranberry sauce. It was obvious I was going to have to remake it and make it more solid. (I remade it twice more; #2 had too much flour and this is #3.)

This is the one that I made for Thanksgiving this year, alongside a pumpkin tart. Thanksgiving at my house was 14 (15?) people, including some of my favorite bar friends and my best friends and some people who feel like family. We finished cooking a few hours later than expected but it was worth it to have new friends helping prepare the food while they drank and mingled, while I played queen of the kitchen and enjoyed the lively conversations just outside my tiny kitchen.

This is what it looked like when everything was done:

Buttermilk Bundt with Brandied Cranberries & Caramel

2 cups + 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1/2 batch brandied cranberries (see below)

Preheat the oven to 350º.
Sift the dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Scrape down the bowl again and beat in the buttermilk at a low speed until just combined. Add flour 1/3 at a time, beating until just combined.

Pour into a well-greased (I recommend spray) bundt pan and bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes. Let cool about 15 minutes before trying to remove the cake from the pan. Let the cake cool completely before adding this:

Brandied Cranberries
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
12-oz bag of fresh cranberries
2 tbsp corn starch

Whisk together everything but the cranberries in a sauce pot, then add the cranberries and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, for about ten minutes. Scoop some of the juice into a small bowl and stir in the corn starch until fully dissolved, then whisk the mix back into the pot. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Caramel

1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp corn syrup
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Bring the cream, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla to a boil in a sauce pot over medium heat, whisking to dissolve the sugar. Boil 12-14 minutes (yes that long), whisking frequently to prevent sticking. Add the vanilla. Pour the caramel over the cake while the caramel is still warm, but let cool before serving.

The Wedding Cakes!

CONGRATULATIONS, MOM!!

My mom got married this weekend, and these are the cakes I made for the joyous occasion. I know some of you will be relieved that my cake-fest is over, but I have bad news for you: It's not. I have started selling batches of cupcakes, and am working on getting myself some business cards....so there will still be a lot of cake recipe testing to come. You'll just have to bear with me. Meanwhile, I have a new stepdad, and that's pretty cool.

These cakes were my wedding present, and they are all cakes which have made appearances on this blog before because I worked on the recipes all summer in preparation. From top left: Carrot cake, Black Chocolate Cake, and Banana Cake with Nutella icing.


(who knew blueberries were so vivid green on the inside? I'd never noticed before!)

The chocolate cake was the most popular, and was the first to be polished off. The kids present didn't know what to make of a chocolate cake with blueberries & raspberries inside and on top, but there were a ton of tiny little Hershey's bars present so they were ok.

Chocolate Ganache
2/3 cup heavy (whipping) cream
6 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp light corn syrup

Do not make ganache until you are ready to use it, like when you have assembled the cake and the base icing is smooth, or when your donuts are already fried and cooled, etc.

Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a small sauce pot. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and corn syrup, let sit for a few minutes until chocolate is melting, then whisk until smooth. Pour over cake immediately. Smooth with an icing knife or whatever you can manage.


(sorry the photo's not more glamorous, we'd all had some really delicious white sangria by this point and I couldn't be bothered to mess with manual settings. ha!)

I added 2 layers of caramel cream to the banana cake, at the request of the groom. He approved of the result wholeheartedly. Good thing, too, cause I messed up the first batch of caramel cream so badly it was basically a weak dulce de leche. If I hadn't been so caked out, and if I hadn't had to travel with it, I would've held onto it to make tres leches cake or something. I'll just have to do it again on purpose sometime.

Caramel Cream
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon water
3 3/4 cups whole milk
6 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla

Measure out the cornstarch into a small bowl. Add 1 cup of the milk to it and whisk until smooth. Measure out the rest of the milk into another bowl. You will not have time to measure things once you have started.

Using a wooden spoon or heat-safe rubber spatula, stir the sugar and water in a small sauce pot over medium-high heat. Stir constantly until it looks like caramel. It will go through phases and will look like sand, gravel, rock candy, etc, and eventually will be liquid and dark brown. Let it get a tiny bit darker than you think it needs, because it will be paler when the milk is added. Do not, at any point, stop stirring. I mean it!
When it's nice and dark amber, remove from heat and add the whole milk (not the starch milk!) in a slow small stream while whisking constantly. Return to heat and add the starch milk while still whisking, a little faster now. When it thickens to a state just below, say, molasses, and has cooled a bit, add the butter and whisk until incorporated. Let cool almost completely before spreading it.

If using this caramel cream between layers of cakes, you will have a ton of leftover caramel, so you might want to bake a batch of brownies and swirl the caramel on top, or some cupcakes and inject it in them or something. Don't waste it!
Also, the cake will need to be refrigerated to let the caramel set before serving it.

Blueberry Lemon Tart

I've been using this crust a lot this summer, because people love it so much. I'll probably find a dozen new ways to fill it as the fall goodies come into season. This version was made for a 14-person dinner party some friends of mine and I threw at my apartment a couple of weeks ago. I thought the tart had all been eaten before anyone got a photo, and just got this photo today. Good thing, too, cause now I can share the recipe with you, internets.

Shortbread Pastry Tart Crust
1 3/4 sticks of unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon buttermilk*

In a medium or large bowl, mix the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on low. Add the egg yolk and beat in until combined, then mix in half of the flour. Add the other half of the flour, then the buttermilk. Lay a cookie-sheet-sized sheet of wax paper out and dump the dough onto the center of it. Place another sheet of wax paper on top and flatten to about 1/4" thick. Set this on a cookie sheet and freeze for about 20 minutes.
Remove the dough from the freezer and let it rest a minute before peeling off one layer of paper. Gently roll the dough around a rolling pin and remove the backing, then carefully unroll it over the tart pan. Press it into place and put it back in the freezer for an hour. Preheat the oven to 350º. Bake the tart in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden around the edges. I remove it from the oven halfway through and press a round cake pan into it to create a nice shape. (This can also be achieved with pie weights, or by lining the tart with parchment or aluminum foil and filling it with uncooked rice.) While the tart shell is baking, start the lemon curd. When the shell is lightly browned around the edges, remove from the oven but do not turn it off. Let cool 5 minutes or so before filling.

Blueberry Lemon Curd
grated zest of two lemons
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter at room temperature
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
about 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Bring about 1" of water to not-quite-simmering in a sauce pot. In a metal bowl, mix the lemon zest, sugar, and butter, blending with a hand mixer until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the lemon juice and salt, then place the bowl over the [almost] simmering water with the heat on low. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the curd has thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon, about ten minutes, then remove from heat.
Pour the curd into the tart shell and smooth it out. Cover the top entirely with blueberries. Place in the center of the oven and bake until the blueberries begin to burst and the crust browns. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving so the curd can solidify.

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

(I might have a better image on another computer, sorry for the blur!)

Another birthday, another tart. Actually, there were two birthdays in my circle last week, but the peanut butter chocolate cake has already made an appearance on this blog. There's a carrot cake coming really soon, I have promised it to someone. Good thing, too, I still don't think I've had enough practice for mom's wedding!

The tart crust is based on a basic French pastry crust, and maybe it still is that, but I switched from heavy cream to buttermilk and it turns out somewhere between pastry and shortbread. And I am pretty sure I've been slightly under-cooking it. Whatever I've been doing, it's been delicious, so you should try it - with whatever filling you want. The first time I made this shell, I filled it with caramelized thin-sliced fuji apples. I didn't get a chance to photograph that one. These things happen often when it comes to desserts...

Shortbread Pastry Tart Crust
1 3/4 sticks of unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon buttermilk*

In a medium or large bowl, mix the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on low. Add the egg yolk and beat in until combined, then mix in half of the flour. Add the other half of the flour, then the buttermilk. Lay a cookie-sheet-sized sheet of wax paper out and dump the dough onto the center of it. Place another sheet of wax paper on top and flatten to about 1/4" thick. Set this on a cookie sheet and freeze for about 20 minutes.
Remove the dough from the freezer and let it rest a minute before peeling off one layer of paper. Gently roll the dough around a rolling pin and remove the backing, then carefully unroll it over the tart pan. Press it into place and put it back in the freezer for an hour. Preheat the oven to 350º. Bake the tart in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden around the edges. I remove it from the oven halfway through and press a round cake pan into it to create a nice shape. (This can also be achieved with pie weights, or by lining the tart with parchment or aluminum foil and filling it with uncooked rice.) Let cool mostly before filling.

Chocolate Raspberry Tart Filling

8 oz baking chocolate, chopped
3/4 stick unsalted butter
pinch of salt
dash of vanilla
2 tablespoons agave nectar or corn syrup
1/3 to 1/2 cup rasbperry jam (or any other flavor)

In a double boiler with barely simmering water, melt the chocolate, butter and agave nectar.
Spread the jam around the bottom of the tart shell, then slowly, gently pour the chocolate over it as evenly as possible. It helps to pour in a circular motion and spread it with a rubber spatula.
Assemble raspberries on top.
Set in the fridge or freezer to set.

*milk + lemon juice = you don't have to buy buttermilk.

Black Forest Cake

This is all that remained of the cake after Blaine's birthday, and it was all I could do to smuggle it out of the bar to get a photo. He asks for black forest cake every year, but last year I made it with canned cherry pie filling, and this year I used fresh cherries and even bought myself a new toy for removing the pits.
If you want a darker icing, you can get fancy and melt a square or two of semisweet baking chocolate and add it to the butter *after* the chocolate has cooled to room temperature. Use a double boiler or microwave according to the package to melt it, otherwise you'll burn it! Chocolate burns easily and tastes like tree bark when it does. I have tested this theory dozens of times.

This is the same cake recipe as the chocolate mint cake a few months back, only I left out an ingredient (the milk!) on the original post. Sorry! This version of it is complete, and has the added bonus of delicious drunken cherry syrup to make it nice and moist. It got rave reviews at the bar party. :)




Drunk Cherry Syrup
4 cups fresh dark cherries, pitted and sliced in half
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp + 2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup kirschwasser or cherry vodka

In a medium bowl, coat the cherries with sugar and a sprinkle of water. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for an hour or two until there is juice in the bottom of the bowl. Set in the fridge overnight to continue juicing. The next day, while the cake is in the oven, pour the juice into a small sauce pot over medium heat. Add the water and cornstarch and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until clear and thickened. Set on a wire rack to cool. When cooled, pour about 2/3 of the glaze into a bowl and whisk in the kirschwasser. Use this, the boozed up portion, to pour into the cake layers later. The un-spiked portion of the glaze can be poured on top of the cherries on the top of the cake.

Black Chocolate Cake
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter
2 1-oz squares unsweetened baking chocolate
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling strong coffee

In a sauce pot on medium heat, melt the baking chocolate and butter, stirring often. If it starts to bubble, turn down the heat or it'll burn. Set aside and let cool.
Heat oven to 350º and grease two 9" round cake pans.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, milk, buttery chocolate, and vanilla and beat with a hand mixer on medium for about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, add the boiling coffee and stir it in. Pour into cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before removing from the pans and letting cool completely on wire racks.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) butter at room temperature
1 1/2 to 2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3 to 6 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

In a medium or large bowl, beat the butter with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. In another bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of the confectioners' sugar, the cocoa powder, and salt, then add to the butter along with the vanilla, and 2 tsp of the milk. Mix until combined. Add more confectioners' sugar, milk, or cocoa as needed to get the consistency/chocoholic level desired.

To Assemble:
Place a glob of icing on the cake plate, lay one layer of cake on it. Pour half of the drunk cherry glaze into the first layer, then cover with icing, then a layer of cherries. Place the second layer of cake on top of the cherries, pour the drunk cherry glaze, then icing, then cherries, then glaze.

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

These are even more moist and chewy than they look. When they first come out of the oven, they're still really doughy in the middle and if you eat them while they're still hot they are molten chocolate lava in the middle. As they cool it's more manageable, and by the time they've come to room temperature they're dense and brownielike. Are you drooling yet? Maybe I'll go make another batch...

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

2 slightly-overfull cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled to warm
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 cups chocolate chips

1) Preheat the oven to 325º with racks in the middle and upper-middle positions.
2) Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
3) Mix the butter and sugars in a medium bowl. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until just combined.
4) Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of flour and beat until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. (Personally I feel like less is more in these cookies.)
5) Drop lumpy tablespoonfuls on a cookie sheet, at least 2" apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until somewhat solid-looking around the edges. If the middles start to look solid, pull them from the oven immediately or you'll spoil the best part.
Let them cool on the cookie for at least 5 minutes before trying to move them, they will still be raw in the center when they come out of the oven. They will continue baking themselves as they cool. Clever little cookies!

Vanilla Pudding with Orange

When you get sick of cookies, there's a whole other world of desserts to choose from. Sometimes I forget that, but I have the good fortune of having friends around to remind me that I should make all sorts of other things for them to eat. This vanilla pudding was suggested by my friend Jen while in town for the weekend, and I had just bought a ton of particularly delicious oranges, so I figured, what the heck?

You can skip the orange juice & zest and leave the pudding at its more simple but equally delightful vanilla state, or replace the orange with lemon or lime or raspberries or [insert name of 20 more fruits here]. It's a nice base to work with. The citrus changes its texture a little, on the custardy side.

Vanilla Pudding with Orange
2 cups milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tsp orange zest

Make room in the fridge.
Heat the milk in a sauce pan over medium heat until bubbles form at the edges.
In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Pour the dry mixture into the hot milk, a little at a time, stirring to dissolve. Add the zest and continue to cook and stir until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, butter, and orange juice. Pour into serving dishes. Chill before serving. Sprinkle with ground clove for garnish if desired.

Coconut Cookies, With or Without Dark Chocolate

Both of these cookies are from the same dough. After I baked the first dozen, I added a cup of dark chocolate chips and spooned lumpy globs onto the cookie sheet. They look and taste very different, but they're rich and sweet and the kind of chewy only coconut can produce.

For extra glam, dip the cookies in shredded coconut before placing on the cookie sheet.

Coconut Cookies
1 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut extract
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 to 1 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375º.
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and shredded coconut. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon. Stir in the vanilla, coconut extract, egg and egg yolk. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add the chocolate chips if desired.

Drop in heaping teaspoonfuls two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. They will be chewier if you under-bake them a little, which I personally prefer.

Butterscotch Macadamia & Cashew Cookies

I confess! I didn't bake the cookies in the photo, nor did I take the photo. My friend Matt baked
this batch, with my recipe, and I'm pretty sure his lovely wife Brooke took the photo. They are big big fans of these cookies - Matt claims to have made variations of them 4 times recently. I believe him, and you will too once you've tried them. Yeah, I'm smug about it. They've gotten really good reviews.

These are really soft, really buttery and if you get nuts with salt on them there's a nice sweet-vs-salty kick. Walgreens has lightly salted mixed cashews & macadamias pretty cheap. I stock up when they're on sale. You can use just macadamias, or pecans, or walnuts, or no nuts at all, switch the chips to chocolate or white chocolate or peanut butter chips. Really, do anything you want as far as the add-ins go. The base of these cookies is really flavorful and I doubt there's anything you could throw in that wouldn't be good.

Butterscotch Macadamia & Cashew Cookies

1 cup butter at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup lightly chopped macadamias and cashews

Preheat the oven to 325º.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter with a hand mixer until creamy. Beat in the brown sugar, scrape down the bowl with a spatula, then beat in the granulated sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, beat it in, then beat in the yolk. Scrape down the bowl, add the vanilla, and beat again.
Add the flour and stir it in with a wooden spoon. Add the butterscotch and nuts, and stir just until evenly distributed.

Roll teaspoonfulls of dough into rough balls and place them 2" apart on a cookie sheet. Bake in the upper middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes or until browned around the edges. They will continue to bake after they are removed from the oven, so don't overbake them. Somewhat chewy centers are the key.

Lemon Tart

As I have mentioned before, I give my friends baked goods of their choice for their birthdays. This particular birthday dessert was hummed and hawed for over a month, and at the last minute, Richard decided on a simple lemon tart. Thankfully, too, because I had a plane to catch and was having trouble finding enough hazelnuts for the originally planned pastry. I have been wanting to try a vodka-based crust, having recently heard of them over beers. Yes, my friends and I talk dough when we go out drinking.

This lemon tart can also be made into mini tarts, in muffin pans or mini tart pans. Just roll the dough out to a large rectangle and cut to size. They taste like glorified lemon bars, with a more flavorful crust and a really nice consistency. If you are feeling crafty, you can make a stencil for the powdered sugar using parchment paper.

Lemon Tart

Crust:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 large egg
2 tbsp vodka
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Filling:
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350º.

In a large bowl, blend the flour, sugar, salt, butter, egg, ginger, and vodka with a hand mixer. When it starts to look evenly distributed, knead it a bit with your hands until a smooth dough forms.

Roll the dough into a ball and place it between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll out to about 1/4" thick, it should be about 14" across. Remove the top layer of parchment paper, and place the tart pan upside down on the dough. Carefully flip it over and peel the other layer of parchment off. Lightly press the dough into the pan, then roll your rolling pin around the edges to trim excess dough. Prick the bottom generously with a fork to let air bubbles out.

Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges are slightly golden. Prepare the lemon filling while it cools.

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the baking powder and flour, then stir the mixture into the eggs. Stir in the lemon juice. Pour over the crust and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.

Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Gingerbread Cookies

Sure, gingerbread is often reserved for Christmas cookies, but I don't see why. It's still cold enough in early spring to enjoy the warm sensation of all that ginger, so why not make gingerbread bunnies? I also make gingerbread fish and octopi, in the summer.

The cookie recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated baking book. The icing is so basic I have no idea where I got the recipe, it's just confectioners' sugar and milk. Wilton has a really nice pre-made cookie icing in a bottle with a tip that lets you ice your cookies without much mess, if you don't want to go to the trouble of making icing.

Iced Gingerbread Cookies
makes about 30 cookies

3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground dried ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) butter at room temperature, cut into pieces
3/4 cup molasses
2 tbsp milk

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and salt. Toss the butter pieces on top and mix in with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the molasses and milk and continue mixing until the dough forms.

Divide the dough in half. Working with one portion at a time, roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper to about 1/4" thick. Lay both rolled-out dough pieces on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm, about 25 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350º and adjust the racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions.
Remove one sheet of dough from the freezer and cut into shapes, transferring them carefully to about an inch apart on the cookie sheet with a spatula. Bake 8 to 11 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through. Let cool completely before icing.

Cookie Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk

Whisk or sift the sugar to remove any lumps. Whisk in the milk and add food coloring as desired.
Use an icing bag to decorate cookies. You can add a few drops of lemon or orange juice to the mix for a slightly more interesting flavor.

Cream Puffs with Mascarpone and Ricotta

Most cream puffs are made with a French pastry cream, but I'm a cheese lover. Also, I had a bunch of leftover ricotta from making pizza the other day, and wanted to make a fancy dessert for a potluck we hosted Saturday night. It took me two solid days to decide between cream puffs or cannoli, but I didn't have a cannoli form nor did I feel like going out in the cold to get one.

I strongly recommend that you cut or poke a hole in them to let the steam out as soon as possible when they come out of the oven, or they will deflate. These deflated, but they were still delightful. If you don't have an icing bag, you can put the dough in a plastic baggie and cut off one corner so that it's about a 1/2" opening.

Cream Puffs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
7 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs


Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Combine water, milk, butter, salt, and sugar in a small sauce pot and bring to a boil. Take it off the heat, add flour and baking powder, return to heat, and mix quickly. Lower the heat and mix for one minute. Transfer to a bowl and add two eggs. Mix with a hand mixer until incorporated, then add the other two eggs one at a time and continue mixing until the dough is silky and smooth. Put the dough into an icing bag and squeeze it out into golfball-sized globs about 1.5" apart on the cookie sheets. Bake one pan at a time in the middle of the oven about 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and immediately pierce them to let steam out.

Cheese Cream Filling:
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 to 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix the cheeses and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a small bowl. Add extra powdered sugar as needed to thicken it, then set in the fridge while the puffs cool.

Once the puffs are cool and cut in half, put a heaping teaspoon of cream inside. Dust with powdered sugar. Chill until ready to serve .

Banana Rum Tart with Chocolate Mousse

I had some bananas getting spotty on my kitchen shelf, and wanted to come up with some way of using them other than my standard banana bread. This is what I came up with, after reading a dozen recipes for banana custard and banana cream and a Cuban banana rum cake. I served it after red beans and rice with spicy chicken, and I will likely post that recipe very soon.

This recipe makes enough banana custard to fill one full size pie shell and three 4-inch mini tart shells.

Banana Rum Tart & Chocolate Mousse

Tart Shell
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
3 to 4 tbsp ice water

Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter and mix with a pastry cutter until it looks like coarse crumbs. Add 3 tbsp ice water and mix until the dough is smooth. If too dry, mix in another tablespoon of ice water.
Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper to a circle slightly larger than your pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes before removing the parchment and fitting it into the pie pan. Bake for 8 minutes at 425º before filling with banana custard.

Banana Rum Custard Pie Filling
3 overripe bananas
3 eggs
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp dark rum
1 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, mix the bananas, eggs, and brown sugar on medium until smooth and bubbly. Add the cream and rum, mix in. Pour into the partially baked crust and bake in a 350º oven for about 20 minutes, or until the custard is set.

Chocolate Mousse
1/2 cup milk
6 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 cup chocolate chips or 4 bars of baking chocolate
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp ground cinnamon

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate over low heat, stirring often. Set aside. In another sauce pan, combine the other half of the milk and sugar and heat until steaming and the sugar is dissolved. Put the egg yolk in a small bowl and gradually whisk in the hot milk. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly for about two minutes until it has thickened slightly.
Remove the pan from heat. Add the chocolate and salt and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the butter. Pour the mousse into a plastic bowl and freeze for 15-30 minutes, then whip with a hand mixer on high speed until the mousse is thick and fluffy.
Place a heaping tablespoon of mousse on each serving of banana rum tart. Top with an anise star, or chocolate shavings.

Peanut Butter And Jelly Cupcakes

My friend Eryn asked for peanut butter and jelly cake for her birthday, but she is in New York and I am in Chicago so the best I could do was bake PB&J cupcakes and send her pictures. I took these to a potluck last and they got pretty good reviews.

This recipe is from Tyler Florence on the Food network website, a lot of the reviews were 5-star but a few people there said their cupcakes came out awfully, so I was a bit hesitant to bake them for a party. I didn't bake them as instructed, but instead added the milk and flour alternating 1/3 of each at a time (which is what most cake recipes instruct you to do), and so I have given you my version below instead of the original instructions. I bet they lead to really dry, dense cake. The cake itself is probably the most basic cake I have ever eaten. It's somewhere between sponge cake and yellow cake. It's the cupcake version of white bread, for sure, and perfect for the PB&J sandwich effect.

I wonder what would happen if the jelly were put by teaspoonfuls into the cupcakes themselves before baking... If anyone wants to try that, let me know how it works out. You can use any flavor of jelly, but be sure not to use anything with big chunks in it or you won't be able to squeeze it into the cupcakes.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

White Bread Cupcakes
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs plus 2 yolks
4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 to 2 cups grape jelly

Preheat the oven to 350º. Line a cupcake pan with cups and spray them with nonstick spray. Put at least half a jar of grape jelly into an icing bag with the widest-holed tip you have, set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, yolks, and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in 1/3 of the milk and beat in, then beat in 1/3 of the flour. Repeat with remaining milk and flour, then spoon into cupcake cups. Cups should be about 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Bake until the cupcakes have grown domes and are lightly golden around the edges, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove to cooling racks. While they're baking and cooling, make the icing and chop your peanuts.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, insert a butter knife 1" deep into the middle and twist. Insert the icing tip of the grape jelly icing bag into the hole and squeeze out about 1 tsp worth. Cover with icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

Peanut Butter Icing:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 8-oz bar of cream cheese, at room temperature
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk

In a medium bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, cream cheese, salt and vanilla until very smooth and light. Mix in the confectioners' sugar half at a time, and add milk. Continue to beat for a few minutes to get it nice and whipped and fluffy.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Currants

Oatmeal cookies are so satisfying. When you think about all the oats and raisins it's almost easy to convince yourself they're healthier than other cookies, but who do you think you're kidding? I guess the oats probably do count, but there's just no such thing as a healthy cookie. Oh well!

You can use 1 cup of raisins instead of half raisins half currants, or switch them out for nuts or chocolate chips or toffee chips. Toffee chip oatmeal cookies are heavenly!

Oatmeal Raisin/Currant Cookies

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp honey (optional)
3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried currants

Preheat the oven to 350º. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl and using a hand mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and honey and beat to combine. Now add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated, then stir in the oats and raisins/currants/nuts/chocolate.

Use a tablespoon to scoop up portions of batter. Roll them into a ball in your hands before placing 2" apart on a cookie sheet. Press each cookie with the palm of your hand before baking, they should be about 1/2" thick, or a little thicker.
Bake for about 12 minutes or until browned around the edges. Let cool completely before removing from pans, or they will crumble beyond repair. If you do happen to destroy any while trying to get them off the cookie sheet, you can save them in a plastic bag in the freezer and use them as yogurt or ice cream topping. I always crumble a few.

Crustless Apple Pie

I've made a lot of different kinds of apple pie over the past few years, and this one is by far the fastest, easiest and tastiest. It's a shame it's not more elegant, but I always get over its less-than-beautiful appearance the minute people start eating it and the chorus of "mmmmm!" begins. At least two friends have told me that they love this though they hate apple pie in general, so there must be something to it. It's like a bed of sweetened apples with a snickerdoodle on top. Can't beat that!

The recipe is from the grandmother of an old friend of mine. I have since received this exact recipe from two other people, and all three originated in western Massachusetts. If anyone knows why every western-Mass grandma has the same apple pie recipe, please let me know.

Tip: If you don't let the butter cool after melting, your pie will be dripping with butter in a bad way. Yes, there is a bad way.

Crustless Apple Pie
prep time about 15 minutes, bake time 45 minutes.

5 or 6 apples, cut into wedges about 1/4" thick
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350º.
Lay the sliced apples in the pie pan - it should be about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Sprinkle the tablespoons of cinnamon and sugar on top.
In a small mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, butter, and salt. Pour onto the center of apples, it should spread itself out. Help it with a fork, if it's not spreading well enough to suit you.

Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cable-Knit Pie Crust

Ok, so I have to admit that I cheat once in a while. I was really craving cherries, which are prohibitively expensive in the off season, and bought a can of cherry pie filling. I was totally dissatisfied with the inside of the pie as a result, but the crust was yummy and definitely easier to work with than other pie dough recipes I've tried. It's also the prettiest pie I've made yet, so despite its not-from-scratch filling, I am showing it off.

The recipe is adapted from Baking Illustrated from America's Test Kitchen. The design idea for the top came from a conversation I had with one of my friends, a fellow sweater designer, just before making it. It helped that I was making it for a craft night I was hosting, so I knew the people eating it would appreciate the idea. I know the top looks really complicated, but it's not actually that hard. I'll give the best directions I can.


Two-Layer Pie Crust
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 sticks + 1 tbsp butter, cut into small chunks
10 tbsp ice water

Whisk the flour, salt, and sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter a bit at a time and mix with a pastry cutter until it looks like fine crumbs, with pieces no bigger than peas. Sprinkle the ice water over the crumbs and mix by pressing down with a rubber spatula. You can add an extra tablespoon or two of ice water if it won't come together.
Divide the dough in half. Form into 5" disks and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour.

After the dough has had time to chill, Preheat the oven to 375º. Take one piece of dough out and place between two sheets of parchment paper. With a rolling pin, roll it out to a 12" circle, then carefully roll it around the rolling pin. Hold the rolling pin just above the pan and carefully unroll the dough into place. Press down lightly to fit the dough into the pan, then cut excess off edges. Prick the bottom of the crust to reduce risk of bubbles when it bakes.

Fill the pie with whatever you're putting in it. Canned pie fillings aren't terrible, but: if you cut up 5 apples and sprinkle a few tablespoons of cinnamon and sugar over them you won't be disappointed and it's as easy as opening up cans.

Take the other piece of dough out of the fridge and roll it out to 12" too. Using a very sharp knife, cut 4 lines diagonally across the widest part of the dough. The lines should be about 1/4" apart. These three pieces will be the 'cable' down the center of the pie. Pick the 3 pieces up carefully with both hands and lay one end on the edge of the crust, pinching it down slightly. Drape them across the middle of the pie, flipping them over every 2" or so. That creates the 'cable' look. When you get to the other end, pinch it down again. You'll cut off the excess later.

Repeat the 3-strip lay-and-flip process two more times, so that there are 3 cables evenly distributed across the pie. To fill in the rest, cut a few more 1/4 strips and twist each one, creating a spiral. Lay these down in any areas that look too open. Repeat until the pie is visually balanced and pinch down the edges around the crust one more time, then cut off excess carefully with a knife. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.

Let cool mostly before serving.