fruit

nutty chocolately swirly sour cream bundt cake

01/24/2011 By bridget 16 Comments

I’ve got nothing against nuts and chocolate and currants, but you know what I really like best? Cake made with sour cream. For me, it always comes back to the purest form of flour plus butter plus sugar, and adding a tangy fatty dairy into the mix just makes things better. Usually that’s cream cheese, but I have nothing against sour cream either.

I’ve been doing a better job of reining in my batter-eating, but the few spoonfuls I had of this cake’s batter made me crave a bowl of the stuff, a quiet corner, and a cup of coffee. It also made me wish I had more sour cream cake. The swirl was fun, but all I really want is the cake part. Or the batter part.

Jennifer chose this for Tuesdays with Dorie, and she has the recipe posted. I actually didn’t change anything. I don’t think I even added more salt.

One year ago: Coco-Nana Muffins
Two years ago: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

Filed Under: cake, chocolate, citrus, dessert, fruit, nuts, tuesdays with dorie

lemon poppy seed muffins

01/18/2011 By bridget 18 Comments

In winter, when berries and melons aren’t even on the horizon and you’ve had all you can take of apples and pears, it’s all about citrus. What’s more, the bright flavors and colors of citrus mimic the sunshine we’re missing.

Well, the sunshine you’re missing. Here in southern New Mexico, it was 80 degrees yesterday, and I used some of that winter citrus for something quintessentially summery – a margarita.

But the occasional warm day in January doesn’t mean we have fresh-picked strawberries and peaches for sale, so lemons are still a good bet for muffins, not to mention that it’s one of my favorite flavors. Combined with the crunch of poppy seeds, these little treats will be perfect any time of the year – but maybe not as an accompaniment to that margarita.

Betsy chose this for Tuesdays with Dorie, and she has the recipe posted. I doubled the salt (as usual). I also skipped the glaze (because frosting on muffins = cupcakes). Instead, I brought a mixture of lemon juice and granulated sugar to a simmer, then brushed that on the warm muffins.

One year ago: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars
Two years ago: Berry Surprise Cake

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, citrus, fruit, quick bread, tuesdays with dorie

apple coconut family cake

12/13/2010 By bridget 10 Comments

I try to maintain a fairly open mind about desserts. I mean, if chocolate and prunes can be great together, who knows what else is out there? But you can’t deny that apples and coconut is weird.

Most pairings are based on geographical and seasonal commonalities – lime and coconut, tomatoes and basil, strawberries and rhubarb. Coconuts are grown in the tropics; apples grow in temperate regions. Apples ripen in the fall; coconuts grow where there are no seasons. You just aren’t likely to find these two trees growing next to each other.

That doesn’t mean they make a bad combination, just an odd one. I didn’t not enjoy it. In fact, the cake was so fluffy and moist that I did enjoy it. But not as much as chocolate and prunes.

Amber chose this cake for Tuesdays with Dorie, and she has the recipe posted.

One year ago: Sablés
Two years ago: Buttery Jam Cookies

Filed Under: alcohol, cake, dessert, fall, fruit, tuesdays with dorie

devilish shortcakes

11/30/2010 By bridget 7 Comments

While I’m grateful to the recent Tuesdays with Dorie recipe choosers for picking seasonal recipes, I miss chocolate. It’s been months – almost four! – since chocolate has played a starring roll in a recipe – and December isn’t looking any better. A few chips here and there in cookies just isn’t going to cut it for the long term.

After Caitlin’s warning that these are “very subtly chocolate”, I decided that the solution was to add chunks of bittersweet chocolate into the biscuit dough. I considered filling the biscuits with ganache instead of whipped cream, but decided that after a holiday weekend dedicated largely to eating, I couldn’t afford either.

Greek yogurt with pomegranate seeds made the perfect compromise. But my favorite bites are still the ones that include bits of pure chocolate. It’s just been too long.

Tania chose these chocolate shortcakes for the group, and she has the recipe posted. I made half the recipe using 1 whole egg yolk instead of ½ an egg. I split my halved recipe into 8 portions. I mixed 2 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate into the dry ingredients (but even more chocolate would have been welcome).

One year ago: All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake
Two years ago: Linzer Sablés

Filed Under: cake, chocolate, dessert, freezer friendly, fruit, quick bread, tuesdays with dorie

cranberry apple galette

11/16/2010 By bridget 12 Comments

I used to have a friend who always served steamed broccoli with her lasagna. “Everyone does salad with their lasagna”, she scoffed. But it seems to me that everyone does it because it works so well.

Cranberry and orange are another combination that is classic simply because it’s good. Cranberry and lime…well, I don’t know, because I wasn’t brave enough to try it. I do love tart foods, but since I knew I’d be sharing these, I took the safe and familiar route with cranberry and orange.

And it tasted just as good as I expected. I’m almost positive the cranberry-lime variation would have been wonderful too. Of course I can’t be sure, having taken the safe route.

The sisters of Celestial Confections chose this galette for Tuesdays with Dorie, and they have the recipe posted. Make minis at your own time-consuming risk, by cutting 3-inch circles from the rolled dough and stuffing them in muffin cups before filling. Don’t bother trying to fold the sides in. Bake until bubbling and browned, 18-20 minutes. Also, I used this galette dough, because I already had some in the freezer. I suspect its malleability helps with maneuvering the dough circles into muffin cups.

One year ago: Cran-Apple Crisps
Two years ago: Rice Pudding

Filed Under: citrus, dessert, fall, french, fruit, pie, tuesdays with dorie, winter/holidays

pomegranate-glazed salmon

10/28/2010 By bridget 8 Comments

I’m fortunate that my job doesn’t have a strict start time each morning, because I’m not the most punctual person. I pretty much get there 15 minutes after I intend to everyday. Some days I try to get there early, and those are the only days when I’m on time – but never early.

It gets worse in the kitchen, where the half an hour I expect to spend on a meal turns into an hour, or the one minute I allot to spend photographing a dish turns into five, or the five minutes I’m hoping to spend cleaning takes twenty. So when Dave and I had to leave the house at 5:30pm (about 2½ hours before our normal dinner time), and I told him I was determined to eat dinner first, he was understandably worried.

Not only is this dish simple enough so that I was able to get it made with time to spare (and “time to spare” is not a phrase I get to use often), but it was tasty enough to make again within a week. That sweet-sour glaze was a great compliment to the salmon. Plus, there’s just the tiniest bit of cooking fat in the recipe, which means I ate something healthy on the weekend! This meal was out of character for me in a lot of ways, and I think I like it.

One year ago: Stuffed Mushrooms with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Two years ago: Mulled Cider

Printer Friendly Recipe
Pomegranate-Glazed Salmon (adapted from Food and Wine via …so many recipes) (via Cara who pointed me in the direction of the recipe in the first place, and then went her own direction with it)

Mix the marinade and the glaze at the same time, since they use so many of the same ingredients. If you don’t keep agave nectar around, just use 4 teaspoons brown sugar instead, in both the marinade and the glaze.

Serves 4

For the marinade:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets

For the glaze:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
½ cup pomegranate juice
salt

1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large, shallow dish. Add the salmon fillets and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, turning a few times.

2. Make the glaze: Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix all of the glaze ingredients except the pomegranate juice. In a small saucepan, simmer the juice over medium-high heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons. Stir into the other glaze ingredients.

3. Adjust an oven rack to 4 inches below the broiler; heat the broiler. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil; arrange the salmon fillets, skin side down, on the prepared pan. Season with salt and brush with half of the glaze. Broil for about 3 minutes, until the fillets begin to brown. Brush the fillets with the remaining glaze and broil for about 3 minutes longer, until richly glazed and the fish is just cooked through. Serve immediately.

Filed Under: asian, citrus, fruit, healthy, seafood

all-american, all-delicious apple pie

10/26/2010 By bridget 10 Comments

I’ve made all manner of banana cream pies for Dave, and yet he remains convinced that nothing beats Baker’s Square’s. I have my doubts, as I don’t believe he’s been to a Baker’s Square since I started baking for him. But I keep trying.

By contrast, he declared the first apple pie I made for him the best apple pie he’d ever had. Not that that keeps me from trying new recipes. Just last month (a few days before October’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipes were announced and I realized I’d be making more apple pie soon), I made a rum raisin apple pie that sounded great, but didn’t have quite the perfection of my normal recipe.

Clearly this calls for a comparison, especially because Dorie calls for tapioca as a thickener instead of apple pie’s standard flour. My original plan was to make side-by-side versions of Dorie’s recipe and my old favorite, but, like many cooking endeavors when I’m rushed, this one went awry. I underfilled both mini-pies (although at least I underfilled them equally), forgot the breadcrumbs and butter in Dorie’s, didn’t adequately stir the zest into the filling… Because the recipes are very similar, with the same ratio of apples to sugar to spices to thickener, it really ended up being a comparison of tapioca versus flour.

I couldn’t tell a difference – not in taste, not in texture, not in soupiness. Dave really enjoyed them both as well. Now I just need to keep him from trying Baker’s Square’s apple pie. One impossible pie standard to live up to is quite enough, thank you.

Emily chose this recipe for TWD, and she has it posted. My other favorite apple pie recipe is by Cooks Illustrated. It’s very similar, with an equal amount of flour substituting for the tapioca in Dorie’s, no breadcrumbs or butter, and 1 teaspoon lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice instead of the larger amount of zest that Dorie recommends. In all photos, Dorie’s recipe is to the left (with the crimped edge, not forked).

One year ago: Allspice Crumb Muffins
Two years ago: Chocolate Cupcakes

Filed Under: dessert, fall, fruit, pie, recipe comparisons, tuesdays with dorie

fold-over pear torte

10/19/2010 By bridget 4 Comments

You didn’t think I’d miss a week of Tuesdays with Dorie, did you? I’ve been in the group for two and a half years, haven’t missed a week yet, and don’t plan to start now. Being late is, of course, a different story. Being late is what I do.

Although if I’d realized how involved this recipe was, I might have procrastinated enough to be even later – pie crust, peeled and chopped fruit, and a custard that involves a mixer. Having overzealously planned my weekend cooking (as always), I jumped in, rushed, without looking at the recipe, with the kitchen counters covered in dinner dishes.

My measurements were imprecise, my rolling was sloppy. While the tart baked, I shaped over-risen bagel dough, realizing too late that the tart and the bagels needed the same oven at the same time but at very different temperatures. The bagels won and the tart (torte?) was under-browned.

But good nonetheless. Pears and rummy custard and dough are such a great combination. Even if it was a lot of steps. It’s worth it to keep my unbroken record of not skipping a week (although not necessarily being on time).

Cakelaw chose this for TWD and has the recipe posted.

One year ago: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart
Two years ago: Lenox Almond Biscotti

Filed Under: alcohol, custard, dessert, fall, fruit, pie, tuesdays with dorie, winter/holidays

double apple bundt

10/05/2010 By bridget 21 Comments

I’m all confused about fall this year. I see bloggers baking with pumpkin. Pioneer Woman is sharing her Thanksgiving recipes. People are planning their Halloween costumes. And I just keep thinking: Isn’t it a little early?

It really isn’t. It’s October, which for years has been my official welcoming of fall. That’s when I accept that summer is over and that it’s time to bundle up, enjoy the leaves, and cook with pumpkin and apples. But in southern New Mexico, fall just means that it isn’t quite so hot all the time. It’s still hot. Just not in the morning.

Tuesdays with Dorie is going to convince me it’s fall even if the weather doesn’t, with a month of apple and pumpkin recipes. Bundt cake with apple flavor coming from both fresh grated apples and apple butter is enough to make me pretend it’s fall here. I’ll just close my eyes, enjoy this perfect cake, and imagine I’m surrounded by tall trees with fire-colored leaves.

Lynne chose this and has posted the recipe. I doubled the salt, left out the nuts and raisins, and did some complicated thing (you don’t want to know, trust me) to the glaze to make it caramelly.

One year ago: Cottage Cheese Pufflets
Two years ago: Caramel Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

Filed Under: cake, dessert, fall, fruit, tuesdays with dorie

tarte fine

09/28/2010 By bridget 12 Comments

My boss and I both teach a course at the local community college, in addition to our day job. It keeps us busy. Yesterday he said that he’s considered taking semesters off from teaching, but then he wonders what he would do with the extra time.

I’m taking next semester off, and I can tell you all sorts of things I’m going to do with that time. I’m going to work out more. I’m going to brew beer. I’m going to pay attention to my husband in the evenings. I’m going to keep in closer touch with my friends. I’m going to make petits fours again. I’m going to go to bed earlier and buy birthday presents on time and keep my house cleaner. (Okay probably none of that last stuff will happen, because I’ll be too busy making petits fours and brewing beer.)

Until then, thank goodness for easy apple tarts that can be made after a Sunday evening faculty meeting; whose flaky crust and softened apples make for a just reward for going to a work meeting on the weekend, while softening the blow of another rushed week ahead.

Leslie chose this tart for Tuesdays with Dorie, and she has the recipe posted. In between grading exams and writing blog entries on Sunday, I managed to make my own puff pastry. I’d forgotten how easy it is.

One year ago: Flaky Apple Turnovers
Two years ago: Crème Brulée

Filed Under: dessert, fall, french, fruit, tuesdays with dorie