fruit — Page 15

african pineapple peanut stew

11/14/2009 By bridget

I sort of hate when I find great recipes from blogs that come from a cookbook I already own. I guess it makes sense – now it isn’t just words on a page because someone (in this case, a number of people) is actually recommending it. But man, I sure wish that I could be the person to pick out the oddball recipe from the cookbook and spread the word about how great it is! You can tell I’m not one of those people who finds good stuff at thrift shops, can’t you?

But can you really blame me; I mean, come on, pineapple, peanut butter, onions, and kale? Who would have expected that to come together into something delicious?

It did though. No one of the flavors dominated; it wasn’t like I took a bite of stew and thought, “mm, pineappley.” Everything was in balance, coming together to create a meal that was earthy and comforting. I was surprised by how tasty it was, and I’m surprised that I’m already thinking that it would be the perfect way to use up the rest of the jar of peanut butter before we move. Who knew I’d ever crave pineapple stew?

One year ago: Pumpkin Ravioli

Printer Friendly Recipe
African Pineapple Peanut Stew (adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home)

4 servings

I used natural peanut butter, which worked great. Also, I only had Frank’s hot sauce, which isn’t as spicy as some, and I would have loved a little more heat. I think a pinch of cayenne added with the garlic would be great too.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch kale or Swiss chard, large stems discarded, leaves chopped coarse
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
½ cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup peanuts, chopped
1 scallion, sliced

1. Heat the oil in a 5-quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until just browned at the edges, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

2. Add pineapple to the pot and bring to a simmer; add the greens, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until just tender. Stir in the peanut butter and hot sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes, until the flavors are blended. Stir in the cilantro just before serving and add salt if necessary. Serve over rice or couscous, garnishing each serving with the peanuts and scallions.

Filed Under: fruit, gluten free, good as leftovers, healthy, nuts, vegetables, vegetarian, weeknight meal

cran-apple crisps

11/10/2009 By bridget

It seems to me that there are bakers and there are cooks. There’s overlap, for sure, but most of us seem to be more on one side than the other. I like to cook, and I get a lot of enjoyment from it – sautéing onions, stirring pasta, pouring a bottle of beer into chili. But baking calls to me more.

I wonder why? People often say that the most important difference between baking and cooking is the precision required in baking, but I don’t think that’s why I love baking. I don’t like measuring that much. Is it because of my sweet tooth? Maybe, but lately, I crave the baking more than the eating anyway.

I think it’s just that baking is more sciencey. It always fascinates me that butter and sugar and flour turn into something totally different. When you cook, the ingredients usually don’t change form much from the beginning to the end. Onions in soup are still distinctly onions, chicken is still chicken, tomatoes are still tomatoes. In baking, the ingredients are transformed.

Crisps, though, are more like cooking. The fruit maintains its character, and the crisp topping, although it contains some flour and butter, still has some distinct elements, like oatmeal and often nuts. Perhaps that’s why I rarely make crisps, despite how easy and delicious they are.

That also means that crisps are exactly what they sound like. You don’t need to worry about it being dry or dense or tough. It’s apple and cranberries. They’re topped with something buttery and crispy. It tastes just how it sounds like it tastes – damn good.

Em chose these crisps for Tuesdays with Dorie, and she has the recipe posted.

One year ago: Kugelhopf

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

glazed lemon cookies

11/09/2009 By bridget

Earlier in the summer, I got it in my head that I could bake all I wanted as long as I just sent the treats away. Brilliant! All the swirling butter and sugar in the mixer without any of the calories! I don’t have a PhD for nothing, people.

So I put out a note on Facebook – essentially “Hey! Who wants treats!” – got a whole bunch of responses, and spent the next day baking.

The weakness in my strategy was that it’s almost never the actual baked dessert that I overeat. It’s the dough, always the dough.

Plus, I know everyone jokes about “Oh, I have to eat one, right? Just to make sure they’re good? <wink wink>.” The thing is, you do have to eat one to make sure they’re good! What if you forgot the salt and doubled the baking powder or, I don’t know, some other easily overlooked lame-brained maneuver? And you send out eight packages, all over the country, to friends and family you haven’t seen in ages, all filled with lackluster messed up “treats”?

Anyway, so after spending all day shopping, baking, packaging, eating lots of dough and (at least) one of each treat, I decided I should make myself go for a run.

Uh, it wasn’t the best run ever. It was one of those runs where puking doesn’t seem too far off. Weird that sugar and butter aren’t very good fuel for exercise. Bummer.

So I’ve mostly given up on the “I’ll just send everything away!” idea. Which is a shame, because now it’s going to be that much harder to find a reason to make these perfect lemon cookies. Sweet but tangy, super soft and tender, topped with a flavorful powdered sugar glaze that dries on top and snaps just a bit when you bite through it, these are cookies that I can’t resist in dough or baked form.

One year ago: Wheatmeal Shortbread Cookies

Printer Friendly Recipe
Glazed Lemon Cookies (from Cooks Illustrated)

Cookies:
¾ cup (5.25 ounces) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated zest plus 2 tablespoons juice from 2 lemons
1¾ cup (8.75 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 large egg yolk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze:
1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon
1½ cups (6 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

1. For the cookies: In a food processor, process the granulated sugar and lemon zest until the sugar looks damp and the zest is thoroughly incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt; pulse to combine, about ten 1-second pulses. Scatter the butter pieces over the dry ingredients; pulse until the mixture resembles fine cornmeal, about fifteen 1-second pulses. In a measuring cup or small bowl, beat together the lemon juice, egg yolk, and vanilla with a fork to combine. With the machine running, add the juice mixture in a slow, steady stream (the process should take about 10 seconds); continue processing until the dough begins to form a ball, 10 to 15 seconds longer.

2. Turn the dough and any dry bits onto a clean work surface; working quickly, gently knead to ensure that no dry bits remain and the dough is homogeneous. Roll the dough into a cylinder approximately 10 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. Center the dough on a piece of parchment. Fold the paper over the dough. Grasp one end of the parchment. With the other hand, use a bench scraper to firmly press the parchment against the dough to form a uniform cylinder. Roll the parchment and twist the ends together to form a tight seal. Chill the dough until firm and cold, about 45 minutes in the freezer or 2 hours in the refrigerator. (The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.)

3. Meanwhile, adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions; heat the oven to 375 degrees.

4. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray. Remove the dough log from its wrapper and, using a sharp chef’s knife, slice the dough into rounds 3/8 inch thick; place the rounds on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Bake until the centers of the cookies just begin to color and the edges are golden brown, 14 to 16 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 5 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before glazing.

5. For the glaze: Whisk the cream cheese and lemon juice in a medium nonreactive bowl until no lumps remain. Add the confectioners’ sugar and whisk until smooth.

6. To glaze the cookies: When the cookies have cooled, spoon a scant teaspoon of glaze onto each cookie and spread evenly with the back of the spoon. Let the cookies stand on a wire rack until the glaze is set and dry, about 1 hour. The cookies are best eaten the day they are glazed.

Filed Under: citrus, cookies, dessert, freezer friendly, fruit

buttermilk scones

11/06/2009 By bridget

Having a great, seemingly perfect recipe for something isn’t enough to stop me from trying new recipes. There’s always something to learn, you know? Even though one of the first biscotti recipes I ever made is still the best, I’ve made many many more recipes and I’ve learned some little biscotti tricks along the way. But I still haven’t found a better biscotti recipe.

The cranberry scones were one of the first scone recipes I ever made, and certainly the first to knock my socks off. Of course, cranberries aren’t in season year-round anyway, but I successfully adapted the recipe for rhubarb, and I’m sure I could have used most other fruits.

But instead, I kept trying new recipes, including this one. And this time…well, I won’t say this recipe is better, but it is definitely as good. Aargh, don’t tell me I need to do a scone comparison!

I suppose it’s okay to have two perfect scone recipes, right? And one probably isn’t better than the other anyway. One thing I’ve found from recipe comparisons is that once you have great dependable recipes, it all comes down to personal preference.

Well, my personal preference is for whatever gets me a delicious treat on a Saturday morning. This certainly qualifies. And so does this.

One year ago: Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake

Printer Friendly Recipe
Buttermilk Scones (adapted just slightly from Tartine, by Elisabeth Pruett and Chad Robertson)

The measurements are weird because this is half of the recipe in Tartine’s cookbook. But geez, who needs 5 cups of flour worth of scones? I’ve also made them slightly smaller – 8 scones for this half-recipe instead of 6, because 6 would have been huge. (Each scone would have 3 tablespoons of butter in it!)

Zante currants are just standard dried currants.

I skip the melted butter and just use milk on top of the unbaked scones.

6 tablespoons zante currants (1.75 ounces) or 3 ounces fresh berries
2¼ cups + 2 tablespoons (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup (1.75 ounces) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons butter, very cold
¾ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
large crystal sugar or granulated sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. To make the dough, first combine the currants with warm water to cover in a small bowl and set aside for about 10 minutes until the currants are plumped. Drain well. If you’re using berries instead of currants, put them in the freezer.

3. While the currants are plumping (or the berries are freezing), whisk the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl if making by hand, or into the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the sugar and salt and stir to mix with a rubber spatula. Cut the butter into ½-inch cubes and scatter the cubes over the dry ingredients. If you are using a mixer, pulse on and off so that you don’t break down the butter too much. You want to end up with a coarse mixture with pea-sized lumps of butter visible.

4. Add the buttermilk all at once along with the lemon zest and currants. (If you’re using berries, don’t add them yet.) Mix gently with a rubber spatula by hand or on low speed if using the mixer. Add the berries and continue to mix just until you have a dough that holds together. Be careful not to mash the berries into the dough, or you will color it with their juice. If the mixture seems dry, add a little more buttermilk. You still want to see some of the butter pieces at this point, which will add to the flakiness of the scones once they are baked.

5. Dust your work surface with flour, and turn the dough out onto it. Using your hands, pat the dough into a rectangle about 9 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 1½ inches thick. Brush the top with the melted butter and sprinkle with the sugar. Using a chef’s knife, cut the dough into 8 triangles. Transfer the triangles to the prepared baking sheet.

6. Bake the scones until the tops are lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, freezer friendly, fruit, quick bread

cranberry orange scones

11/05/2009 By bridget

This recipe changed the whole shape of my last year. Before making these great scones, I’d spend a large part of both weekend mornings cooking, usually something sweet one day and something savory the other. It made for a nice breakfast category here, but it wasn’t the best way to relax on the weekend.

Not anymore. I still often cook something one morning, but on the other, it’s all about scones. I make the dough early in the week and freeze it, then on a lazy weekend morning, I just have to bake them, make coffee (or, more often, wait for Dave to), and sit down to flip through a cookbook. It’s become one of my favorite times of the week.

These pictures? They’re from when I made the scones last winter, but it was way past cranberry season, so I’ve been holding onto this blog entry for months and months.

It’s time. Cranberries are showing up in stores, and there is no better way to enjoy them. These are so tender, have just the right sweetness, and make for a stress-free weekend breakfast, even with guests. Even after a year of making scones, these are still one of my favorites.

One year ago: Warm Chickpea and Butternut Squash Salad

Printer Friendly Recipe
Cranberry Orange Scones (adapted from Gourmet via Smitten Kitchen)

The recipe originally calls for (Meyer) lemon zest, but orange – or tangerine, which I’ve also used – is such a great partner for cranberry that I couldn’t resist using it instead. I also like increasing the cranberries a bit (already reflected in the recipe).

I’ve baked this recipe at high altitude (at least 5000 feet) with good results. They weren’t quite as pretty, but the taste and texture weren’t affected.

I always flash-freeze scones, then bake them straight from the freezer, adding a couple extra minutes to the baking time.

Makes 8 scones

1½ tablespoons freshly grated orange zest
2½ cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
½ cup (3.5 ounces) sugar plus 3 tablespoons
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1½ cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse (I usually do this in the food processor)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a small bowl, toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar. In another small bowl, lightly beat the egg and yolk, then stir in cream.

3. In a food processor, pulse the flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and zest until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a large bowl. (You can also just smoosh the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers instead of using a food processor.) Stir the cranberries into the flour mixture. Then gently fold the egg mixture into the flour until just combined.

4. On a well-floured surface with floured hands, pat the dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter). With a 2-inch round cutter or the rim of a glass dipped in flour, cut out as many rounds as possible, rerolling the scraps as necessary. (Or cut the circle into wedges, which is my standard method.) Arrange the scones about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet and bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden. Cool about 10 minutes, then serve.

Filed Under: breakfast, citrus, fall, freezer friendly, fruit, quick bread, winter/holidays

cherry-fudge brownie torte

10/27/2009 By bridget

Most people I know have some Thing that they are, corny and dramatic as it sounds, passionate about. For Dave it’s music. I have a friend who brews beer, another who gardens, one who is all about house renovation, one who could spend hours a day researching his next bottle of wine. I love this aspect of people.

But damn, to have your Thing be baking? When you’re small and only moderately active, it presents a challenge. I think I could more easily give up eating dessert if I wouldn’t also have to give up baking dessert. I love watching butter and sugar and flour turn into dough. I love watching the shapes the beater makes as it spins through batter, the soft peaks of heavy cream, the smooth shine of melted chocolate.

I’m not overweight and I don’t think I’m even continually gaining weight – but my pants are a lot tighter than they were a year ago, and damn it, I like those pants. I like my clothes to be flattering, and I like being comfortable wearing a bathing suit.

But something has to give, other than the buttons on my jeans, that is. I’ve said this before. Nothing has given before.

This cake is definitely not a good place to start. The base is almost flourless, largely chocolate and butter and eggs. Dried cherries are added to the cake batter after they’re plumped in water, then flambéed in kirsch. Remembering how much I liked the partially pureed, evenly dispersed prunes in the chocolate whiskey cake, I mashed up these cherries as well.

The chocolate brownie base is covered in a mixture of cream cheese, mascarpone, and cream. Yeah, Tuesdays with Dorie hasn’t made a dessert this rich is a while. It is a good one though. I love the bright tartness of the cherries in the chocolate cake, and light mousse is a nice contrast to the dense cake.

So what to do in the face of this cake when I also want to feel good about myself? Well, eat healthier during the times when I’m not eating dessert, for one thing. For another, don’t bake anything extra, at least until Thanksgiving, when I’ll re-evaluate.

So, my goal, which I present to you: From now until Thanksgiving, so for a month, I won’t bake anything other than what’s required for my blog, 100% whole wheat bread, and a batch or two of biscotti for Dave to eat at work. I’m passionate about baking and it makes me happy, but having clothes that fit makes me happy too. I have to compromise. (Please don’t be confused if you see a slew of dessert recipes here over the next month. I have a huge backlog of recipes to post.)

If you’d like to try this cake, April has it posted on her blog. I accidentally melted all of the chocolate instead of saving a portion to mix in to the batter at the end.

One year ago: Dorie’s Chocolate Cupcakes

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

roasted butternut squash salad with cider vinaigrette

10/08/2009 By bridget

It’s hard to believe that most years, I’m anti-anything fall until October 1st. Not this year. September included pumpkin breakfasts, apple desserts, and plenty of pumpkin beer. Granted, the weather was pretty warm in September and the trees were still green so it didn’t feel much like fall, but it didn’t feel like summer either.

That all changed on October 1st, when I had to turn the heat on for the first time, and our dinner complimented the cool, crisp weather – salad with roasted butternut squash, cranberries, walnuts, and dressing made from reduced apple cider, served with sweet potato biscuits.

Every ingredient in the salad is maximized. The squash, seasoned and drizzled with maple syrup, is roasted until it’s caramelized. The walnuts are toasted, and so are the cranberries, which was a trick I hadn’t seen before. The cider, reduced to less than a third of its initial volume, is mixed with acidic cider vinegar and emulsifying mustard to form the base of the dressing.

It was delicious; so good, in fact, that I made again the next day for lunch. It was sweet, but also tangy from the dressing, a bit bitter from the walnuts, and spicy from the arugula. I also like that the hot squash and dressing slightly wilt the arugula – it shrinks it a bit, so it doesn’t take so darn long to eat a nice bowl full of greens. Which is a good thing, because then I can eat more of it.

One year ago: Spinach, Artichoke, and Red Pepper Strata

Printer Friendly Recipe
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette (adapted just slightly from Barefoot Contessa)

I used less oil. I didn’t measure the amount, but I’m guessing it was ¼ cup; I only ever use enough oil to just balance the acidity. Also, I liked to let the dressing and squash cool just a few minutes before mixing them with the greens. I forgot the cheese the first time I made the salad, when I photographed it.

1 (1½-pound) butternut squash, peeled and ¾-inch) diced
good olive oil
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons dried cranberries
½ cup walnuts halves
¾ cup apple cider or apple juice
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
4 ounces baby arugula, washed and spun dry
¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.

2. Place the butternut squash on a sheet pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the maple syrup, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper and toss. Roast the squash for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once, until tender. Add the cranberries and walnuts to the pan for the last 5 minutes.

3. While the squash is roasting, combine the apple cider, vinegar, and shallots in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the cider is reduced to about ¼ cup. Off the heat, whisk in the mustard, ½ cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon of pepper.

4. Place the arugula in a large salad bowl and add the roasted squash mixture, the walnuts, and the grated Parmesan. Spoon just enough vinaigrette over the salad to moisten and toss well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Filed Under: fall, fruit, gluten free, healthy, nuts, salad, vegetables, vegetarian

applesauce snack cake

10/02/2009 By bridget

You must make this cake.

I try not to say that. I know everyone has their own preferences. Not everyone likes to bake. There is no shortage of apple cake recipes. But –

You must make this cake.

It’s the essence of fall, all in one small unassuming square of cake. It will make your house smell warm and cozy while you bake. The flavor is spot-on apple, and yet there are no chunks of fruit to break up the smooth cake. The texture is soft and moist, with just the thinnest crisp sugar coating on top.

Of course, this perfection comes at a price.

The fantastic smell of fall permeating your kitchen comes from reducing apple cider, which takes some time. Getting the chunk-free texture I appreciate so much requires a quick whiz in the food processor, dirtying several large dishwasher-hogging dishes.

But, oh, it’s worth it. It’s worth it. Really, while the cider is reducing and hydrating the dried apples, you can prepare the baking pan, measure the rest of the ingredients, and clean up after yourself as you go. Then don’t bother waiting for the hot rehydrated apples to come to room temperature like the recipe hopes you will – mix them with cold-from-the-fridge applesauce and puree them together in the food processor. From that point, the recipe is a simple quick bread, mixing the wet ingredients, then stirring in the dry ingredients and baking.

From getting out ingredients to putting the cake in the oven really took maybe 45 minutes. From cutting the cake to eating the cake – darn blog requiring pictures! – took maybe 10 minutes, and it was the longest 10 minutes of my day.

You must make this cake. Seriously.

Printer Friendly Recipe
Applesauce Snack Cake (from Cooks Illustrated)

Makes one 8-inch square cake

I never do Cooks Illustrated’s trick of lining the pan with parchment or foil; it just seems really wasteful to me, and this cake came out of the pan with no problem.

Start the cider and apples simmering before you do anything else. It seems to take longer than 15 minutes for me, so you may want to bump the heat up to just higher than medium (or use a wide pot). And like I said above, I see no reason to wait for the cider mixture to cool and the applesauce (assuming that it’s cold) to warm to room temperature, when you can just combine them and move on with the recipe.

¾ cup (2 ounces), dried apples, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 cup apple cider
1½ cups (7½ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
⅔ cup (4¾ ounces) sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; hear oven to 325 degrees. Cut 16-inch length parchment paper or aluminum foil and fold lengthwise to 7-inch width. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick spray and fit parchment into dish, pushing it into corners and up sides; allow excess to overhang edges of dish.

2. Bring dried apples and cider to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat; cook until liquid evaporates and mixture appears dry, about 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

3. Meanwhile, whisk flour and baking soda in medium bowl to combine; set aside. In second medium bowl, whisk sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Measure 2 tablespoons sugar-spice mixture into small bowl and set aside for topping.

4. In food processor, process cooled dried-apple mixture and applesauce until smooth, 20 to 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl as needed; set aside. Whisk egg and salt in large bowl to combine. Add sugar-spice mixture and whisk continuously until well combined and light colored, about 20 seconds. Add butter in three additions, whisking after each. Add applesauce mixture and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients; using rubber spatula, fold gently until just combined and even moistened.

5. Turn batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with rubber spatula. Sprinkle reserved 2 tablespoons sugar-spice mixture evenly over batter. Bake until wooden skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours. Run knife along cake edges without parchment to release. Remove cake pan by lifting parchment overhand and transfer to cutting board. Cut cake and serve.

Filed Under: cake, dessert, fall, favorites, fruit

bran muffins

09/30/2009 By bridget

Everything I eat is evaluated based on its ratio of nutrition to flavor. That sounds tedious but it isn’t. It’s really just answering one simple question that I think most of us ask before we dig in: Is it worth it?

For example, macaroni and cheese: very indulgent, but also very delicious. Definitely worth it, at least once in a while.

Raw carrots? Very healthy, but, eh, not my favorite thing to eat. I tend to ignore them unless there’s nothing else. But add some hummus, and you’ve increased the flavor significantly without decreasing the nutrition drastically, and hey, I’ll eat that.

Sometimes I forget that something can be both ridiculously good for you and ridiculously good. And something like these muffins comes along, perfect in every way, both taste and health, and I’m oh-so-pleasantly reminded. Nutrition to flavor ratio? Off the charts.

One year ago: Pain Ordinaire

Printer Friendly Recipe
Moist Bran Muffins (from the King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking)

Makes about 18

Note that this is a two-day process, as the dough needs to set overnight before baking. Fortunately, at that point it can actually wait in the refrigerator for several days.

I’ve used both raisins and dried cranberries in these, and both are good. Of course most any dried fruit would work. I’ve also used clementine juice instead of orange juice, and that worked just fine.

¾ cup boiling water
1¼ cups unprocessed wheat bran, divided
¾ cup dried fruit, chopped if large raisins
¾ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
2½ cups whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup orange juice

1. Pour boiling water over ¾ cup of the bran cereal in a small mixing bowl. Add the raisins, brown sugar and oil. While the bran mixture cools, blend together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. Beat the egg with the buttermilk and orange juice in a large measuring cup. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir in remaining ½ cup bran cereal, and then the bran-raisin mixture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.

3. The next day, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a muffin tin. Fill each cup two-thirds full. Bake the muffin until a tester comes out clean, about 23 to 26 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling, or serve warm.

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, favorites, freezer friendly, fruit, healthy, quick bread, whole grains

cottage cheese pufflets

09/22/2009 By bridget

I often write blog entries in my head while I cook. While I was rolling out the dough and forming these pufflets, I was planning to tell you that I do not recommend this recipe. That it was my least favorite Dorie Greenspan recipe so far. That the dough was impossible to work with. (I was also thinking: God [bleep] damn it, this stuff [bleep] sucks, give me a [bleep] break.)

In other words, the dough was really sticky. It’s a mixture of pureed cottage cheese, butter, flour, and just a bit of sugar. It wasn’t very sweet, and honestly, just didn’t taste all that great as dough.

After the dough is chilled, it’s rolled out, cut into squares, filled with jam, folded to enclose the jam, and baked. And this is where I was getting so frustrated, because the dough was so. darn. sticky. The whole thing was turning into a mess, so I baked the few I’d formed and threw the rest back in the fridge to worry about later.

But then when I ate one, I changed my tune entirely! They’re so good! The crust does puff up and get really light, and it’s a good thing it isn’t too sweet, because of course the jam provides plenty of sweetness.

The resulting treats are just too good to give up on this recipe because of the sticky dough. I think the best advice is just to leave yourself plenty of time while working with the dough to refrigerate it as soon as it gets sticky. Dorie doesn’t recommend a chilling time between rolling the dough flat and forming the pastries, but I really think it’s best to add one, probably about an hour long. With that in mind, I think these will be a lot easier to work with.

Jacque has the recipe posted for Tuesdays with Dorie. I didn’t make any changes, but I did find that marmalade (the same ginger zucchini marmalade I used on the brioche tart) didn’t leak nearly as much as the raspberry jam I also used.

One year ago: Pan-Seared Steak with Red Wine Pan Sauce

Filed Under: cookies, dessert, freezer friendly, fruit, tuesdays with dorie