I love making small cakes. This one is particularly moist and yummy!
Adapted from Cooking Well for the Unwell by Eileen Behan.
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup salted butter
1 C granulated sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Glaze
powder sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
Preheat oven to 325. Prepare an 8-inch square cake pan for baking.
Stir together the four and baking powder in a bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter for about 3 minutes. Add the sugar to the butter and continue beating for another 5 to 7 minutes. Successfully creaming the butter and sugar together is essential in baking.
Alternating between the flour mixture and eggs, add these ingredients to the butter/sugar. Beat well to combine. Add lemon juice and zest. Pour the beaten mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden, a cake-tester comes out clean, and the side of the cake pull slightly away from the pan.
Cool 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and onto a rack. Allow cake to continue cooling.
Juice the remaining 1/2 lemon and combine with powder sugar to make a glaze. Pour over cooled cake.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Chocolate Glaze for Cake
This recipe makes about 1 cup of chocolate glaze.
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao)
8 Tbs. softened butter
2 Tbs. Lyle's Golden Syrup
Melt the chocolate in the top pan of a double-boiler. Stir constantly while melting. When the chocolate is almost completely melted, remove the top pan and continue stirring until completely melted and smooth. Add the butter, a tablespoon at a time. Add the syrup. Cool to glazing consistency.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Quiche
The filling for this simple dish is great. Perfect for an easy summer dinner.
Prepare your pie crust in a spring form pan. Preheat the oven to 375.
Quiche filling:
4 eggs
2 cups whole milk (or half and half if you feel adventurous)
1/2 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
1 shallot finely chopped
1 Tbs. sun-dried tomato packed in olive oil, chopped
1 cup grated Swiss cheese
2 ounces crumbled goat cheese
1/4 pound cooked bacon, crumbled
Spread the bacon crumbs over the crust. Sprinkle the cheese over the bacon. In a bowl, combine the eggs, salt and pepper, shallot, and sun-dried tomato. Pour the mixture over the bacon and cheese. Dot the top of the quiche with butter.
Back for 35-40 minutes, or until the custard has puffed up and the crust is baked. Rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Easy Free-form White Bread
With this recipe for sesame white bread, adapted from Serious Eats, you can effortlessly makes a delicious loaf in an afternoon. The loaf is nice for sandwiches and toast. This recipe has so many things going for it: The bread is delicious, economical, has no added sugar and tastes great for several days. (Of course since it is homemade the loaf has no added preservatives, chemicals or unpronounceable ingredients.)
Two important tools will make this bread easy to bake: A pizza stone and a pizza peel. If you don't have a pizza peel, you aren't making enough homemade pizza! But you can substitute a rimless baking sheet or the back of a baking sheet for the peel.
You cannot buy a bread like this. Make it often! Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
11.25 ounces bread flour, divided (about 2 and 3/4 cup flour)
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbs. milk
Sesame Seeds, Poppy Seeds and Salt.
Combine warm water, yeast, and 6 ounces of flour in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 90 minutes. Set out the butter and allow it to come to room temperature.
Move racks to the lower third of the oven and place a pizza stone in the oven. Heat the oven to 350. Put a nice wide sheet of parchment paper on the pizza peel and sprinkle with corn meal or semolina flour.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour and the salt. With your hand, work the butter into the flour/salt mixture until well combined. Add this mixture to the bowl with the risen dough and combine. Let rest for five minutes.
Follow Peter Reinhart's technique for kneading wet dough. The technique is explained here.
After the last fold in kneading, place the dough on the prepared pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 20-30 minutes.
Brush the risen dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the various seeds and salt. Make one long slash in the dough lengthwise. Slide the dough, still on the parchment, onto the pizza stone and bake for 30 minutes or until the dough reaches a temperature of about 200 degrees.
Cool the bread, then enjoy!
Two important tools will make this bread easy to bake: A pizza stone and a pizza peel. If you don't have a pizza peel, you aren't making enough homemade pizza! But you can substitute a rimless baking sheet or the back of a baking sheet for the peel.
You cannot buy a bread like this. Make it often! Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
11.25 ounces bread flour, divided (about 2 and 3/4 cup flour)
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbs. milk
Sesame Seeds, Poppy Seeds and Salt.
Combine warm water, yeast, and 6 ounces of flour in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 90 minutes. Set out the butter and allow it to come to room temperature.
Move racks to the lower third of the oven and place a pizza stone in the oven. Heat the oven to 350. Put a nice wide sheet of parchment paper on the pizza peel and sprinkle with corn meal or semolina flour.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour and the salt. With your hand, work the butter into the flour/salt mixture until well combined. Add this mixture to the bowl with the risen dough and combine. Let rest for five minutes.
Follow Peter Reinhart's technique for kneading wet dough. The technique is explained here.
After the last fold in kneading, place the dough on the prepared pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 20-30 minutes.
Brush the risen dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the various seeds and salt. Make one long slash in the dough lengthwise. Slide the dough, still on the parchment, onto the pizza stone and bake for 30 minutes or until the dough reaches a temperature of about 200 degrees.
Cool the bread, then enjoy!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Easy, Delicious Marinated Asparagus
This is a simple method to prepare asparagus - and it's delicious!
The asparagus is blanched for about a minute in a large skillet of boiling water. So to begin, get an appropriately sized skillet filled with water on the stove and start bringing that to boil. Rinse the asparagus and break off the woody stems.
Next, prepare the marinade:
Marinade
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
salt and pepper
Blanche the asparagus in the boiling water for about a minute. Immediately plunge the asparagus into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking.
Place the asparagus into a large plastic zip bag, add the marinade, and put the bag into the refrigerator for about four hours.
When you are ready to serve, grate some lemon zest over the asparagus and add a bit of fresh parsley.
Fabulous!
The asparagus is blanched for about a minute in a large skillet of boiling water. So to begin, get an appropriately sized skillet filled with water on the stove and start bringing that to boil. Rinse the asparagus and break off the woody stems.
Next, prepare the marinade:
Marinade
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
salt and pepper
Blanche the asparagus in the boiling water for about a minute. Immediately plunge the asparagus into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking.
Place the asparagus into a large plastic zip bag, add the marinade, and put the bag into the refrigerator for about four hours.
When you are ready to serve, grate some lemon zest over the asparagus and add a bit of fresh parsley.
Fabulous!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Maple Candy
Maple candy is delicious to eat and easy to make. It doesn't photograph very well, however, so there is no picture here.
The maple candy we buy often comes in cute shapes. I don't own candy molds, and wanted to minimize any fussiness in the procedure, so in this recipe the candy is poured onto a prepared cookie sheet in the same manner that free-form chocolate and chocolate barks are made.
Maple Candy
Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Allow sufficient foil to hang over the two short ends of the pan to create handles. Place a piece of parchment over the foil. Tear off a second piece of parchment of equal length and set aside.
Pour 2 cups of real maple syrup into a large, heavy bottomed pan. I used an 8-quart stock pan. It sounds like overkill, but using a large pan is critical. In a smaller pan, the hot syrup will increase significantly in volume as it approaches the target temperature, threatening to spill over the top. You need to use a good-size pan.
Using a candy thermometer and stirring occasionally, heat the syrup over medium-high heat to 235 F (110 C). Remove from heat. Let cool without stirring until the temperature falls to 175 F (80 C). This takes about 10 minutes.
With a wooden spoon, stir the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes, just until the syrup thickens a bit and starts to lighten in color. DO NOT OVER STIR. And do not stir until it looks like it is the color that you think maple candy should be or you will have a mess that can't be poured.
Pour the candy onto the prepared pan. Using the second sheet of parchment paper, press the candy flat. Using the foil handles, lift the candy out of the pan and onto a rack to cool.
Enjoy!
The maple candy we buy often comes in cute shapes. I don't own candy molds, and wanted to minimize any fussiness in the procedure, so in this recipe the candy is poured onto a prepared cookie sheet in the same manner that free-form chocolate and chocolate barks are made.
Maple Candy
Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Allow sufficient foil to hang over the two short ends of the pan to create handles. Place a piece of parchment over the foil. Tear off a second piece of parchment of equal length and set aside.
Pour 2 cups of real maple syrup into a large, heavy bottomed pan. I used an 8-quart stock pan. It sounds like overkill, but using a large pan is critical. In a smaller pan, the hot syrup will increase significantly in volume as it approaches the target temperature, threatening to spill over the top. You need to use a good-size pan.
Using a candy thermometer and stirring occasionally, heat the syrup over medium-high heat to 235 F (110 C). Remove from heat. Let cool without stirring until the temperature falls to 175 F (80 C). This takes about 10 minutes.
With a wooden spoon, stir the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes, just until the syrup thickens a bit and starts to lighten in color. DO NOT OVER STIR. And do not stir until it looks like it is the color that you think maple candy should be or you will have a mess that can't be poured.
Pour the candy onto the prepared pan. Using the second sheet of parchment paper, press the candy flat. Using the foil handles, lift the candy out of the pan and onto a rack to cool.
Enjoy!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Carrot Soup
Work some delicious, orange vegetables into your diet with carrot soup. This is a simple recipe using readily available, basic ingredients.
1 lb of carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
4 celery ribs, trimmed and chopped
2 tsp curry powder
3 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
5 cups vegetable stock
1 Tbs lemon juice
black pepper
In a large stock pan, heat 3 Tbs. of vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the curry powder and saute for 2 minutes. Add the chopped carrots, celery, onion and salt. Saute for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add to the pan the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes, until carrots are tender.
Remove from heat and, using an immersion blender, carefully puree the mixture. Add lemon juice and season with pepper.
Re-heat to serve. Enjoy!
Adapted from Soup: A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka
1 lb of carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
4 celery ribs, trimmed and chopped
2 tsp curry powder
3 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
5 cups vegetable stock
1 Tbs lemon juice
black pepper
In a large stock pan, heat 3 Tbs. of vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the curry powder and saute for 2 minutes. Add the chopped carrots, celery, onion and salt. Saute for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add to the pan the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes, until carrots are tender.
Remove from heat and, using an immersion blender, carefully puree the mixture. Add lemon juice and season with pepper.
Re-heat to serve. Enjoy!
Adapted from Soup: A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka
Thursday, October 28, 2010
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