Brown Sugar Cake with Butterscotch Icing

I really wanted to bake a cake the other day, and didn't have any carrots for carrot cake, nor was I in the mood to bake that same chocolate cake again (though I do love it enough to only ever make it, my friends will tire of it, and that would be a shame). I took a yellow cake recipe from a cookbook I trust and adjusted some things and am quite satisfied with the result. Yves, my darling roommate, was hanging around this morning while I was taking photos of the cake and couldn't resist taking a bite, which turned into a slice. All she said was "Oh WOW." Good enough for me!

Butterscotch is a really gross color, if you ask me. I'm glad it doesn't look that way in the photo, because let me tell you how scary the icing looked when it was about halfway made. Pinky peachy brown, yucko. Fortunately the powdered sugar eased the eyesore a bit. Besides, butterscotch tastes so good, who cares what color it is? Probably only me. But I do look at colors analytically as part of my job, so I'm allowed. There are worse eccentricities.

Brown Sugar Cake with Butterscotch Icing
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg + 2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350º. Line two 9" cake pans with parchment paper and spray with nonstick spray. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla with a hand mixer. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and beat in until smooth and shiny, then scrape down the bowl and stir by hand for a few seconds to get rid of any remaining bubbles or flour.
Pour the batter into the two cake pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before icing and assembling the layers.

Butterscotch Icing
1 bag butterscotch chips
1 cup butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
4 tbsp sour cream
3 to 4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tbsp whole milk
pinch of salt

In a sauce pot over low heat, melt the butterscotch chips. Remove from heat and mix in the butter, milk, sour cream, salt, and confectioners' sugar with a hand mixer. Add more milk or sugar as needed to get the texture you prefer.

Assemble and decorate the cake as desired. Top with chopped walnuts if you know what's good for you.

Strawberry Waffles

You can't see it, but there are about a dozen chopped strawberries in this plate of waffles. If you don't believe me, well, look really closely and you'll see some dark red bits. The recipe I based this on was the "Oh Boy" Waffles from my grandma's copy of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from 1951. I strongly recommend spraying your waffle iron with nonstick spray before each waffle is poured. The oil in the spray helps a lot with crispy edges. The ones in the photo, for example, were made with no cooking spray, and you can tell they're not very stiff if you really look close. But don't do that, kthx.

Strawberry Waffles

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 to 1 cup chopped strawberries

Heat your waffle iron.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside. In a small bowl with a wooden spoon or whisk, combine eggs, milk, vegetable oil and sugar. When the waffle iron is hot, add the wet ingredients to the dry and beat until smooth. Pour about 1/3 cup (up to 1/2 cup, depending on the size of your waffle iron) at a time onto the center of the waffle iron. Bake until lightly browned. Serve warm.

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.

Thyme Tuna Melt

If I had to pick one thing as my favorite lunch food, it would have to be a tuna melt. I make more variations of them than I've ever bothered to count, but perhaps now that I am blogging many of my meals we'll see just how creative I can get with a can of fish and some bread. It doesn't sound very appetizing when I put it that way, does it? Well, try this next time you find yourself hungry for something diner-y and you might be in for a surprise.

It's worth mentioning that garlic and onion (as opposed to sour cream and onion) chips are extra super delicious with this. The oranges go well, too, especially if you add a pint of Blue Moon. I do love having a beer with fish lunches.

Thyme Tuna Melt

1 8-oz can tuna, drained
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp mayonnaise
a pinch of kosher salt
2 pinches of freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (about 5 branches worth)
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 to 4 tbsp butter
2 slices monterey jack

Heat 1 or 2 tbsp of butter in a skillet on medium-high heat.
Combine the tuna, mayo, salt, pepper, and 1/3 of the thyme in a bowl.
Once the butter is melted and a little bubbly, sprinkle 1/3 of the thyme into it and set the slices of bread on top. Give them a minute or two to get toasty, and flip them over, adding butter and the last of the thyme to the pan before the bread goes back down. Immediately lay down the monterey jack and pile the tuna on in an even layer. Cover the skillet and turn down the heat to medium, until the cheese has made considerable progress toward melting. Uncover and put the faces of the sandwich together. Sprinkle with more thyme 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.

Back in Action, and want to hear from you!

Hi everybody! Miss me? I know you did. Several of you told me so.

While I've been on hiatus, I've received an overwhelming number of messages from friends who have been trying my recipes with great success, and I am absolutely delighted about it! If any of you would like to send me photos or anecdotes about your experiences making anything from this blog, please feel free to email them to me: filigreed@gmail.com.
And just inc ase, please use 'Made It All From Scratch' in the subject line, that will alert me that your email isn't spam so I will actually open it. :)

I am officially settled into my new apartment, complete with a well-stocked fridge (as of yesterday), and I am working on getting my hands on a tripod since I lost access to the one I was using before. It still lives in Chicago. Hopefully you don't mind if my photos are slightly blurry in the meantime.

sans frigidaire

I have successfully moved, unpacked the kitchen, found the grocery store nearest to my new apartment. I have a functioning gas stove and a full spice rack. There's one thing missing, though. A refrigerator.

My landlord assures me that within 24 hours there will be a fridge in my kitchen, seeing as he promised on Saturday that it'd be there by Monday. Ahem. It's Thursday. And now I'm busy tonight and will be out of town this weekend, so I guess I don't mind if it's another few days, as long as it's there by this Monday. Sheesh!

Thank you all for your patience, I will be back in full swing very soon!

Not Neglecting, Just Moving

The recipes have been scarce lately, I know. I'm sorry! I am in the process of moving from Chicago back to New York, which requires some serious long-distance commuting and leaves me with no time to cook, bake, or blog. And no, sadly, I don't have a stockpile of photos of dishes I've made before. Only the freshest for you! I like to type up recipes within a day of making them, so that all the details are fresh in my mind.

I assure you that after the first week of April this blog will be back in full swing, as soon as I get my kitchen gear unpacked. Perhaps I'll try to make it up to you with the array of desserts I will have made for the housewarming party.

The best I can do is show you these pretty pictures from a food market in Barcelona.

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.

Steamed Pork Buns

These are a lot easier to make than they look, but they have to rise repeatedly so I recommend making them on a weekend afternoon, just so you don't have to stress about the time. It goes like this: Make the dough, knead it forever, let it rise, fill, shape, let it rise again, and steam it. They get easier as you go, and they're really good so it's worth it.
The dough recipe is from Dim Sum by Rhoda Yee, a cookbook my mom gave me last year. (It's nice to have a mom who sends cook books!) This book is great for anyone who wants to learn how to make dim sum, it's got a ton of recipes and a glossary of Chinese ingredients in the back, as well as really lovely drawings showing how to fold the various buns and noodles around the fillings.
If you don't have a steamer (I don't), you can wing it by simmering about 1 1/2" of water in a large skillet or wok, and set a wire cookie-cooling rack on top. Place the buns on the rack, and cover the whole rack with a large mixing bowl to keep the steam in. Works like a charm.

Steamed Pork Buns
makes 1 dozen, about 1 total hour of work + up to 4 hours dough rising time.

Pork Bun Filling:
1 lb ground pork
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sherry
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp finely chopped green onions
1 tsp ginger
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Set in the fridge until ready to use.

Steamed Bun Dough:
1 1/8 tsp yeast (half a packet)
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 1/4 cup all purpose flour

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water in a large bowl. Add the baking powder right away, then mix the flour in with a pastry cutter or your hands. The dough will be firm and a little on the dry side, but if it's so dry that it cracks while kneading, add a little more water by wetting your hands and kneading some more. Knead for 20 minutes (I know, I know, but that's what makes the dough soft) until it is elastic and smooth. Place it back in the big mixing bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 1/2 hours. Punch down the dough and knead it for 5 minutes. Now it's ready to be made into buns.

Cut a dozen squares of parchment paper, about 2.5" across.
Grab a golfball sized piece of dough and roll it into a ball with your hands. Lay it between two pieces of parchment paper and roll it out to a 4" disc. Set a heaping tablespoon of pork filling on the center of the bun and fold up 4 corners, pinch them together well. Pinch the remaining edges into the center, then pinch and twist the whole closure to ensure it's well sealed. Place seam-side-down on a piece of parchment paper and set aside, 2" apart on a cookie sheet.
When all the buns are formed, cover with a towel and let rise one more hour.

Place the buns (with paper) an inch apart on the steamer rack and cover, let cook over the boiling water for about 10 minutes. The pork may still look pink when it's done due to the seasonings.

Serve with a mix of 1/4 cup hoisin sauce, 1/4 cup soy sauce, with some green onions and red pepper flakes mixed in.

The Holy Brownies

I admit it, I love box brownies. I grew up on them like most of us did, and I feel like brownies are supposed to be chewy around the edges, with a crisp little edge at the top, and a flaky lighter brown top that crumbles like the top layer of a croissant. (Is your mouth watering yet?) So a few years ago I set out to create that kind of brownie from scratch. I made brownies every night for a week (my 7 roommates at the time didn't mind taste testing), and made the Perfect brownies. Then promptly lost the recipe. Two years later I got over it and tried again, and this recipe is the result. It stands up to my roomie's brownie scrutiny, so it's gotta be pretty good.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, of course. But. These brownies will blow your mind. Well, maybe not, but they will melt in your mouth. Theyliterally dissolve on your tongue, if you eat them when they've cooled just enough not to burn you. You can leave off the coconut, or replace it with chocolate chips or peanut butter chips or marshmallow creme, or flecks of sea salt. There are so many ways to dress up a brownie, though I assure you these need no dressing up. If you don't have brown sugar handy, just use granulated sugar for all of it.

The Holy Brownies

1 1/4 sticks butter
4 1-oz squares of baking chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup coconut flakes

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a 9" pan with cooking spray or lightly butter it.
In a sauce pan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat. If it gets too hot, the brownies will be grainy and taste burnt. It should take at least 5 minutes to melt.
Remove the sauce pot from heat and whisk in the cocoa until fully blended, then whisk in the sugar, then eggs one at a time, then vanilla, and finally the flour.
Pour into the pan and sprinkle an even coating of coconut on top. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 35 minutes, or until the edges are solid and the middle is still a little gooey. In my oven, the brownies puff up a full inch but settle back down flat when they cool. Do not be alarmed if it starts to look like cake while it's baking.
Let cool at least ten minutes before cutting, longer is better.

Brown Sugar Coffeecake Muffins

Let's be honest, we all want to eat cupcakes for breakfast. These muffins look like muffins, sure, but they taste like cupcakes. The recipe makes 16 muffins or one 13"x9" cake. if you don't have any sour milk handy, measure it out and squirt a little lemon juice into it.

Brown Sugar Coffeecake

cake:
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups brown sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk

crumble:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons margarine

Preheat the oven to 350º. Line muffin pan with paper cups or grease cake pan. In a small bowl, mix the crumble ingredients with a whisk and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and butter. Add the flour and baking soda, mix in completely. Add the eggs and milk and combine, mix until smooth. Drop into muffin pan, 2 tablespoons of batter per cup. Add a heaping tablespoon of crumble mix to the top of each muffin.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or until browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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 .