Plum cake

This cake might end up a little mushy, but that's because of all the delicious plum juice leaking into it. The cornmeal/semolina gives it a really nice grainy snap that contrasts well with the plums. Another treat too awesome not to share with everyone at work.

From epicurious:

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely ground cornmeal or semolina flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of kosher salt
13 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 plums, cut in half and pitted
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Grease and lightly flour an 8 x 2-inch round cake pan or an 8-inch springform pan, tapping out any excess flour. Set aside. In a small bowl, toss the cornmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer, until pale yellow and creamy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the whole eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in the lemon zest and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and blend until just combined.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Place the plum halves, skin side down, at even intervals on top of the batter. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the fruit and batter. Bake until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Nectarine-goat cheese galette

I ended up taking this in to work yesterday, because it was too pretty not to share with a bunch of people.

And delicious! And simple. It's really just crust, nectarines, and goat cheese. It would be even more delicious with, say, some arugula and chopped nuts sprinkled over the top; or some prosciutto; or a lemon juice-butter-herb sauce; or really anything. It's more of a savory tart, so it's easy to throw some salad or prosciutto on top and call it a meal.

From Spicie Foodie:

Olive oil pastry:
2 cups all purpose flour
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil, or a light tasting one of your choice
⅓ cup cold water, plus extra if needed
pinch salt
½ tsp sugar

Filling:
whole milk or egg wash for brushing
Nectarines cut into thin wedges, I used 5 large
1 large log of goat cheese

Pastry Instructions:
Mix the flour,salt and sugar until well combined. Make a well in center and add olive oil and water. Mix and knead into a smooth dough. Use your hands to gather the dough into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap or place inside a plastic bag. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes of resting, preheat the oven to 375F, roll out dough to a large circle and to your desired thickness. Crumble and spread goat cheese around center, but leave about 1 inch or 2.5 cm of outer dough to be folded over later. Next arrange the nectarines on top of goat cheese, use as many as you like. Fold the extra outer dough over the toppings, like you see in the finished images. Brush the dough with a little whole milk or egg wash. Bake in center of oven for 20-25 minutes or until the dough feels crispy and is golden brown.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Baked apples with oatmeal crumb topping

I've made baked apples before, but these are apple halves with essentially an oatmeal cookie crumble topping. Two of these make a lovely breakfast.

From skinnytaste.com:

2 large apples, cut in half
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
4 tbsp quick oats
pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350º. Cut apples in half and remove core and seeds with a small pairing knife or spoon.

In a small bowl combine butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon. Spoon on top of the apple halves and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Nectarine and blueberry slump

Are you sensing a theme with the nectarines?

A slump is like a cobbler, but cooked in a skillet on the stovetop as opposed to the oven.

From chow.com, reprinted below:

For the dumplings:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal (fine or medium ground)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup half-and-half
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

For the filling:
5 medium nectarines, pitted and cut into eighths (about 4 cups)
3 cups blueberries (about 1 1/2 pints)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
For serving
Heavy cream

Stir together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and ginger in a large mixing bowl to combine and break up any lumps. Mix the half-and-half and melted butter together in a small bowl until evenly combined. Pour the half-and-half mixture over the flour mixture and stir until just combined (the dough will resemble a cornbread batter). Set aside.

In another large bowl, gently fold the nectarines, blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice together, then transfer the mixture to a large straight-sided skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruit starts to release some of its juice, about 6 minutes.

Drop 8 large dollops of the dumpling batter over the fruit mixture and reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer, covered, until the dumplings are cooked through and the juices are bubbling, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove the lid and continue cooking until the dumplings are springy to the touch and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes more. Serve warm, drizzled with heavy cream.

Nectarine sorbet

Ohhh, fresh ripe nectarines. Nectarines and peaches are divine this time of year: but there's nothing so disappointing as a hard, tasteless, out-of-season peach.

I got some nectarines that were super-ripe, and made this sorbet with them. It's amazing to eat cold, sweet nectarine sorbet after a long, sweaty night at work.

6 ripe nectarines
2/3 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Cut the unpeeled nectarines in chunks (discarding the pits) and cook with the water over medium heat until the fruit is soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the sugar. Let cool to room temperature and puree until smooth. Add the lemon juice. Chill thoroughly, then mix in your ice cream maker.

Individual peach cobblers

I saw this recipe posted on Facebook yesterday, and I thought, why not?

Warning: it didn't turn out so well.

I should have known better than to follow a recipe that called for canned peaches (and SO MUCH butter; I used half the amount the recipe called for and it was still way, way, too much). Fortunately, the end result was at least moderately tasty, if not pretty.

So, notes: don't use canned peaches. Use fresh. (2-3 large, peeled, chopped). Half a teaspoon or so of melted butter in each tin will be plenty. I'm not sure if it was all the butter or the peach juice or a combination, but my cobblers overflowed the muffin tins (put a cookie sheet underneath, just in case) and you may need to cook for 10-15 minutes longer than the recipe calls for. I had to cook for close to 30 minutes before the dough was cooked all the way through.

And I couldn't make the individual cobblers look pretty; eventually I just scraped everything out and lumped it together in a bowl. For all that, you might as well just make one big peach cobbler.

Still, it was a cute idea.

From tablespoon.com, original recipe reprinted below:

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 dash salt
3/4 cup milk
1 stick melted butter
2 cans diced peaches
cinnamon, to taste
brown sugar, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put 1 teaspoon of melted butter into each regular-sized muffin tin. Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk by hand. Put 2 tablespoons of batter into each regular-sized muffin tin on top of the melted butter. Next, put 1 tablespoon diced peaches on top of the batter in each tin. Sprinkle with brown sugar and then cinnamon. Bake the regular-sized muffin tins for 12 minutes. Let them cool almost completely before taking the mini peach cobblers out of the pan.

Chocolate pudding

Mmmmm, pudding.

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 2/3 cups milk
4 beaten egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch. Add milk. Cook and stir over medium heat til mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Gradually stir about 1 cup of the hot mixture into the beaten eggs. Return all of the egg mixture to the pan and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Pour pudding into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Do not stir! Chill.

Rice pudding with salted caramel

When I used to work at Cook & Brown in Providence, I would sometimes end a shift by eating a bowl of this stuff. It's addictive. I'm not usually a rice pudding person, but this stuff is amazing.

I stumbled upon the recipe recently, and decided to make it at home.

I had decidedly mixed results. The pudding was a little runny, the caramel clumped, and so I didn't even bother folding in whipped cream at the end.

But you know what? Still delicious.

Reprinted below:

Rice Pudding:
1.5 cups heavy cream + 3/4 cup heavy cream for later use
2.25 cups whole milk
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon arborio rice (or any other short grained risotto rice)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split in half and seeds scraped out

Salted Caramel:
1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (kosher salt will also work, but avoid table salt)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

For the rice pudding:

Place 1.5 cups heavy cream, milk, rice, sugar and vanilla bean and seeds in a medium sized, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Over medium-high heat bring to a boil, stirring every couple of minutes to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat to low and cook for 25-35 minutes or until the rice is cooked through and the liquid has reduced by about half. Pour into a casserole dish, remove the vanilla beans and place in the refrigerator. Every 15 minutes or so give the pudding a stir so that no clumps form while cooling.

For the caramel:

Pour the sugar in to a heavy bottomed, small to medium sized sauce pot and place over medium heat. Spread the sugar out in an even layer and wait until it begins to melt and turn a light amber color. When the edges being to caramelize, gently swirl the pan but do not stir with a spoon. When all of the sugar has turned an amber color, remove from the heat and add the butter. Once the butter is fully melted, slowly pour in the cream (Be aware that caramelized sugar is very hot. When adding the cream, the mixture may bubble up and sputter a little. Be very careful during this step.) If the sugar clumps up, simply place the pan back over low heat and stir until the caramel melts completely. Remove from the stove and stir in the salt. Set the caramel aside to cool down.

In a bowl or glass, alternate spoonfuls of the rice pudding with thin layers of caramel. Finish with a dollop of caramel on top and garnish with a few flakes of large grained sea salt.

Meanwhile, place the remaining 3/4 cup of heavy cream in a bowl or stand mixer and whisk until it forms medium peaks. Fold this into the rice pudding until the whole mixture is light and creamy.

Blueberry cobbler

From Real Simple:

2 pints blueberries
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Heat oven to 375° F. In a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish or a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate, toss the blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1 tablespoon flour. In a medium bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and the remaining flour and sugar. Add the butter and blend with your fingers or 2 knives until coarse crumbs form. Add 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cream and mix until a shaggy dough forms. Drop mounds of dough over the blueberry mixture. Bake until the berries are bubbling and the top is golden, 35 to 40 minutes.

Mint chocolate chip cookies

What an excellent way to use up mint! And the mint taste in these is pleasantly subtle.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup mint leaves
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups coarsely chopped dark chocolate

In the bowl of a mini food processor, combine mint and sugar. Process until mint is finely chopped. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, mint sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate pieces. Drop by two to three tablespoon-sized balls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for nine to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Apple blueberry pie

What do you do with three soft apples and part of a container of blueberries?

Combine them to make pie, of course.

You could also make a crisp; but I felt like pie. I used this pie crust. I peeled and chopped three apples and added a large container of blueberries. To that I added 1 cup of sugar, a few tablespoons of flour, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I stirred, I poured all that into the pie crust, added the top layer of crust, and brushed it with an egg wash. I baked at 425 for 15 minutes, lowered to 350, and baked for an additional 30 minutes.

Rhubarb pie

Oh, rhubarb. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

It's fully spring in the Pacific Northwest, which means rhubarb is here, but not quite yet strawberries. Which is fine--while strawberry-rhubarb pie is a tremendous thing, a plain ol' rhubarb pie is also tremendous.

The great thing about this pie is that the tartness of the rhubarb is still present--dulled a little by the flour and sugar, but very delicious.

Use this pie crust.

For the filling:

5 cups sliced rhubarb
1 1/4 cups sugar
5 tablespoons flour
2 pinches cinnamon (or ginger, or cardamom)

Mix together, add to bottom pie crust, and add top pie crust. Decorate/cut vents as you see fit. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower the oven to 350 and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes.

Rhubarb crisp

Rhubarb is another one of those great harbingers of spring. Usually paired with strawberries, it's also great on its own (provided you sweeten it a little, as rhubarb is pretty tart). This crisp is sweet and tart together, and trust me, it didn't last long enough to cool down. We scarfed it up hot out of the oven.

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups sliced fresh rhubarb
2 cups sliced peeled apples
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add rhubarb and apples or strawberries; toss to coat. Spoon into an 8-in. square baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until bubbly and fruit is tender. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

Earl Grey-lavender panna cotta

Lavender is tricky--too much, and it tastes like soap to me. The Earl Grey in this balances it out nicely. The final product tastes floral, not soapy.

Note: I used 1 1/2 tablespoons of lavender instead of the 2 the recipe calls for.

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup half and half
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons dried lavender
2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea leaves (you can cut a tea bag open if you need to)
1 envelope of gelatin

Sprinkle the envelope of gelatin over the water in a small, shallow dish and set aside. Combine the cream, sugar and half/half in a small pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and add in the lavender and tea leaves, allowing to steep for about 3 minutes and then strain. Mix in the gelatin. Divide into 6 ramekins, cool to room temperature, cover and chill overnight in the refrigerator.

Apple clafoutis

Things are a little up in the air right now. And money's getting tight. And what's the best way to feel like you have some control over the chaos that is your life? That's right, by cooking something.

Specifically, by turning things that are about to go bad into actual food. I spent the morning doing just that, in an effort to not feel completely powerless. I made a batch of tomato sauce with ground pork, another batch of red beans and rice, and this apple clafoutis, with some apples that were turning soft.

I used this recipe from the New York Times, reprinted below. Then I ate most of it and called it lunch.

4 large, slightly tart apples, like Pink Lady or Braeburn (2 to 2 1/4 pounds)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
1/2 vanilla bean, split, or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup low-fat milk

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 10- or 10 1/2-inch ceramic tart pan, baking dish or clafoutis dish. Peel, core and slice the apples into 16ths. Toss with the lemon juice in a large bowl.

Heat the butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apples to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until they begin to look translucent, about four minutes. Add the brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir together until the apples have softened slightly and begun to caramelize, six to eight minutes. Remove from the heat, and transfer to the baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the seeds from the vanilla bean or the vanilla extract. Add the sugar and salt, and whisk together. Slowly beat in the flour, then add the yogurt and milk. Whisk until thoroughly blended. Pour over the apples in the baking dish.

Place in the oven, and bake 35 to 40 minutes until the top is browned and the clafoutis is firm and puffed. Check by pressing lightly on the middle. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack, or serve warm.

Meyer lemon creme brulee

I had two Meyer lemons about to go bad, so I juiced them. Then I got a craving for creme brulee, so I made these. It's my basic creme brulee recipe, with the juice of two Meyer lemons added along with the cream.

The flavor is subtle, but yummy.

Salted caramel pudding

Turning caramel into a pudding is a slightly goopier process than I thought it would be. All along the way, I was convinced I was doing it wrong. First the sugar refused to caramel (so I turned the heat up), then it refused to gel with the cream and milk (I stirred faster), then the cornstarch turned it lumpy. When I finally poured it off, it didn't need straining, as there was a layer of unidentifiable lumpy goop at the bottom of the pan. Which I left on the bottom of the pan.

And you know what? These were still delicious. Despite my misgivings, they turned out perfectly, and were in fact even tastier on the next day. Definitely worth the effort.

From Edible Boston:

1½ cups sugar
¼ cup water
3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
¼ cup cornstarch
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1½ teaspoons sea salt
4 tablespoons butter

Combine sugar and water in a pot and bring to a medium brown caramel. (Cook the sugar over medium-high heat, until the sugar starts to melt and color.) Be careful that the up sides sides of the pot are clean of any sugar before cooking. Once mixture begins to show signs of caramalization, gently swirl mixture in pot. Do not stir until adding the cream and milk. Slowly pour in the cream and milk, stirring while adding. (Be careful as mixture while will vigorously bubble and is extremely hot.)

In another bowl, combine the cornstarch, eggs, egg yolks, and salt. Slowly add a little of the hot caramel mixture to your egg mixture, whisking it into the eggs to gradually warm them. Once the eggs are warmed, add them to the rest of the caramel and cook until the mixture thickens. Strain the mixture over your butter, allowing the butter to start to melt. (Again, any type of fine strainer will work.) Use an immersion blender or whisk to smooth everything together. Pour into desired vessels and chill to set.

Greek yogurt panna cotta

I've made buttermilk panna cotta before, to spectacular results. This incorporates homemade yogurt (Greek or plain yogurt would work just as well) for a tangier, slightly thicker panna cotta.

1 envelope unflavored gelatin (2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons cold water
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
One 17.6-ounce tub of Greek yogurt (2 cups)

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water; let stand until softened, 5 minutes. In a small saucepan, bring the cream, sugar and vanilla bean and seeds to a simmer. Off the heat, stir in the gelatin until melted. In a bowl, whisk the yogurt until smooth. Gradually whisk in the vanilla cream; remove the vanilla bean. Pour the mixture into six 1/2-cup ramekins and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours.

Cranberry brownies

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It's a white Christmas here in Boston. I'm getting a live stream of photos from my husband's Christmas in Missouri, and I really wish I were there right now.

Instead, I'm comforting myself with a warm batch of cranberry brownies. Rich, chocolatey, moist, with a pop of fun tart cranberry flavor. Delicious.

From Coconut & Lime:

3/4 cup butter
12 oz bittersweet chocolate chunks
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

Heat oven to 350. Grease a 8x8 baking pan very thoroughly. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. Add 3/4 cup chocolate chunks. Cook mixture over low heat, stirring constantly. Chocolate should be thoroughly melted. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until well mixed. Stir in flour and remaining chocolate chunks and stir until the flour is incorporated. Fold in the cranberries. Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with just one or two sticky crumbs. Cool on wire rack before slicing and serving.

Thanksgiving desserts

Bread pudding
Apple cobbler
Molasses cookies with lemon glaze
Nutella cookies
Almond coffee cake
Bourbon pecan pie
Whiskey cake
Dried apricot and pistachio ice cream
Pear-caramel ice cream

And the perennial favorites:

Sweet potato pie
Pumpkin pie
Yummy holiday ice creams
Carrot cake
Lemon meringue pie
Apple pie
Pound cake
Cheesecake
Cranberry coffee cake
Cranberry upside-down cake
Chocolate mousse
Creme brulee