Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

I have been AWOL this summer. I have actually spent more time traveling than in my own bed the last three months and I haven't been able to spend much time at the Farmer's Market (which is really sad) this summer. I have also ate quite a bit of food on the road that needs to be posted about on here, but I haven't had a chance to do it! I have one more trip to NYC tomorrow to end this crazy summer of travel, then my travel slows down quite a bit which means back to actually cooking and hopefully blogging again!

I did get to make this delicious buttermilk cake from Gourmet magazine with the fresh blackberries that I bought at the Farmer's Market earlier this summer. This cake isn't too sweet and it's great when it's reheated for a little bit in the microwave. I liked it as a breakfast cake, but you can use it for dessert with some ice cream if that strikes your fancy. It keeps for days (if it will last that long) and you can use all kinds of different berries.

Berry Buttermilk Cake (I used blackberries) from Gourmet Magazine

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz)

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.

Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

Strawberry Time!

I love strawberries. I had heard the rumor that the Farmer's Market had some while we were gone in Spain, but they sold out quickly (ten minutes) as soon as the market started last weekend. The lady told me that she would have more during the Tues/Thurs markets, so I ended up scoring a couple of baskets during the week. They were tender and juicy, but since they weren't treated with chemicals like some of the berries that you would buy in a grocery store, they got soft quicker than store bought ones. Since they were just soft and not rotten, I could still use them in a cooked recipe with no problem. I was reading my twitter feed list and found this great recipe from Gourmet magazine. It's basically like strawberry shortcake without all the work!

STRAWBERRY DUMPLING recipe from Ruth Cousineau at Gourmet Magazine

The dumpling after cooking.

1 qt strawberries, trimmed and thickly sliced (about 4 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup whole milk (I used 2% because that's all I had)


Accompaniment:
heavy cream (didn't have any, but I am sure that it would be divine)


Stir together strawberries and sugar in a 4-qt heavy saucepan and let stand, stirring occasionally, until juicy, about 15 minutes. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Blend in butter using a pastry blender or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Stir in milk until just blended, then add mixture to boiling berries and stir once or twice. Tightly cover saucepan and reduce heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, until dumpling looks dry on top, 15 to 18 minutes. Let stand off heat, uncovered, 5 minutes before serving.

French Apple Tart

I was watching the Barefoot Contessa on Food Network the other day and saw her making this. It looked so good that I had to make it. The recipe is in her latest cookbook, which is one of my favorites (I want to make just about all the recipes in there). Make sure that the sugar is not close to the edges or it will burn the sides. I had a little bit of burnt edges, but I just cut it off. For the glaze, I used rum instead of Calvados since it costs almost $30 for a 1/5 of the apple brandy. I am sure that the Calvados would have added a great complexity to the apples, but I thought that the rum was tasty enough and I already had it in my liquor cabinet. For a little added extra, a dollop of sweetened freshly whipped cream would be a great addition to this. She was really fancy with her cutting of the apples, but I didn't have a melon baller and didn't cut them like she did. It was still delicious, so I am not going to judge if your apples aren't perfect!

French Apple Tart from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Ingredients

For the pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water

For the apples:
4 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small diced
1/2 cup apricot jelly or warm sieved apricot jam
2 tablespoons Calvados, rum, or water

Directions
For the pastry, place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Roll the dough slightly larger than 10 by 14-inches. Using a ruler and a small knife, trim the edges. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.
Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife and a melon baler. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch thick slices. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices. (I tend not to use the apple ends in order to make the arrangement beautiful.) Sprinkle with the full 1/2 cup of sugar and dot with the butter.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. Don't worry! The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be fine! When the tart's done, heat the apricot jelly together with the Calvados and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the jelly mixture. Loosen the tart with a metal spatula so it doesn't stick to the paper. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

Cupcakes

I am not a fan of cake mix. I think that when they are made per the instructions on the box, they aren't very appetizing. But there are many recipes on how to improve cake mixes with added ingredients that will make them more tasty. While I would like to bake from scratch cupcakes all the time, it's not always possible. I found this recipe in this adorable cupcake cookbook called HELLO CUPCAKE! If you haven't seen this cookbook, it's full of really cute ideas. I just made plain vanilla cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting, but I hope that I will be able to make the Van Gogh cake one of these days (check out the cookbook---it's soooo cute)!

Perfect Cake Mix Cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake!

1 box cake mix (French vanilla, devil's food or yellow--without pudding)

1 cup buttermilk (in place of the water called for on the box)

vegetable oil (the amount on the box)

4 large eggs (in place of the number called for on the box)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Follow the box instructions, putting all the ingredients in a large bowl and using the buttermilk in place of the water specified (the box will call for more water than the mount of buttermilk that you are using), using the amount of vegetable oil that is called for, and adding the eggs. Beat with an electric mixer, until moistened, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and beat until thick, 2 minutes longer.

3. Spoon half of the batter into a ziplock bag. Snip a 1/4 inch corner from the bag and fill the paper liners two-thirds full. Repeat with remaining batter. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the baking pans, place on a wire rack and allow to cook completely.

Chocolate Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

16 oz powdered sugar

1/3 to 1/2 cup milk

1. Combine the butter and the chocolate in a small saucepan. Melt over medium heat, stirring constantly. Add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer.

2. Add the powdered sugar alternately with the milk, adding more milk, if necessary, to thin, and beat until fluffy and smooth.

Perfection Pound Cake

I really love pound cake and I have tried different recipes for this dessert (I usually use Martha Stewart's recipe which uses 4 sticks of butter!). I found this in one of my new cookbooks, Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This pound cake is less sweet than other recipes that I have tried, which would make it delicious with some ice cream and berries. Sorry that there is no pic because we ate it before I could take some! :) Enjoy!

Perfection Pound Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour or 2 1/4 cups cake flour (she suggests cake flour for a more delicate cake. I used all-purpose and it was still great)
1 teas baking powder
1/4 teas salt
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teas vanilla extract

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9x5 inch loaf pan or an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, a full 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater and reduce mixer speed to medium. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 to 2 minutes after each egg goes in. As you're working, scrape down the bowl and beater often. Mix in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it is incorporated--don't over mix. In fact, you might want to fold in the last of the flour, or even all of it, by hand with a rubber spatula. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top.

Put the cake into the oven to bake, and check on it after about 45 minutes. If it's browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. If you're using a 9x5 pan, you'll need to bake the cake for 70 to 75 minutes; the smaller pan needs about 90 minutes. The cake is properly baked when a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven, transfer the pan to a rack and let rest for 30 minutes.

Run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan and turn the cake out, then turn it right side up on the rack and cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Covered Bananas

***Here is a recipe that I forgot to post from last month. It's a great one for those of you who have kids at home!

Many years ago, I purchased two of Emeril's children's cookbook, hoping that Nathaniel would want to start cooking with me in the kitchen. While he has started helping me cook more (mostly when it comes to desserts), he was more willing to tell me what recipes he wanted me to make for him! So this is one of the recipes that he does like making with me. I am not usually a big fan of bananas (I don't like the mushy texture of it), but I do love frozen bananas!



From Emeril Lagasse's There's a Chef in My Soup! cookbook



You'll-Go-Ape For Chocolate-Covered Bananas

8 servings



4 bananas

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup lightly toasted coconut or 1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts (or 1/4 cup of each)



1) Peel bananas and cut them in half crosswise so that you now have two short pieces.

2) Insert an ice-cream stick or half of a bamboo skewer into each piece so that it has a handle.

3) Wrap each banana half in a piece of aluminum foil and place in the freezer until frozen solid, 4 to 6 hours or overnight.

4) Place the cream in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Remove from the heat.

5) Place the chocolate chips in a medium mixing bowl, then carefully pour the hot cream over the chips. Let the chocolate and cream sit undisturbed for a minute or two, then stir with a small spoon or rubber spatula until the mixture is blended and smooth and the chocolate is completely melted, about two minutes.

6) Place the coconut in a small mixing bowl. Or if using nuts, chop into small pieces and place in a small mixing bowl.

7) Remove bananas from the freezer and unwrap.

8) Cover a small baking sheet with waxed paper or foil.

9) Holding the stick or skewer, dip one banana half int he melted chocolate and cream until completely coated.

10) Sprinkle the coated banana with about 1 tbs of either the coconut or peanuts.

11) Set banana on the covered baking sheet and repeat with the remaining bananas and coatings.

12) Serve immediatedly or cover tightly and return the bananas to the freezer until ready to serve.

Giada's Panna Cotta Recipe

I love the Italian dessert Panna Cotta ("cooked cream"). You can add any kind of berries to top it. I think some mangoes would be delicious too. This time I used whole raspberries and just placed them on top. Giada's version has a very strong honey taste, so make sure that you use a good honey for this. This recipe comes from her Everyday Italian cookbook, but it's already online at Food Network. I wasn't able to get a good pic since I put it in white dishes again, but that's life!

Panna Cotta with Fresh Berries

Million Dollar Brownies

The other item that I brought to the Christmas party.

Million Dollar Brownies from Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required

14 oz bag of individually wrapped caramel candies
1/3 cup evaporated milk
8 oz German's sweet chocolate
6 tbs butter
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup sifted flour
1 teas baking powder
1/2 teas salt
2 teas vanilla
6 oz chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (if you want them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch baking pan. In a double boiler over low heat, combine unwrapped caramels and evaporated milk. Cover and simmer until caramels melt, stirring occasionally, keep warm until caramels melt, stirring occasionally, keep warm with lid askew and water barely simmering.

In a 2 quart saucepan over low heat, combine chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally, until melted. Remove from heat, let cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until slightly thickened and pale yellow.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, gradually add to the egg mixture. Mix. Blend in the cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla. Spread half of the chocolate batter into prepared pan. Bake for 6 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven.

Spread caramel mixture over baked chocolate batter. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Add half of pecans into remaining chocolate batters (if using). Spoon over caramel layer. Sprinkle remaining pecans over top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top layer of the batter is set. Let cool in baking dish. Chill for at least 2 hours in the dish.

Note: If brownies are not chilled, they will be difficult to cut.

Heath Bar Brownies

I just made these today. Nathaniel was not impressed with Heath Bars alone, but I had a feeling that he would like these brownies. I was right and he loved them.

Heath Bar Brownies adapted from Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies

6 1/2 oz Heath bars
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 oz unsalted butter (1 stick)
2 large eggs
1/2 teas vanilla
1/4 teas salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup sifted flour

Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 8 inch square pan by lining it with foil with the shiny side up, then butter it (I sprayed it instead--less work!).

To cut up the Heath bars, work on a cutting board with a sharp and heavy knife. Cut through the long sides into slices 1/4 to 1/3 inch wide (about 1 1/2 cups of cut up Heath bars). Chop a scant 1/4 cup of the cut up bars into smaller pieces (to sprinkle on top), keep these separate.

Place the unsweetened chocolate and butter in the top of a small double boiler over warm water on moderate heat. Stir occasionally until melted. Remove the top of the double boiler and set aside.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer beat the eggs, vanilla, salt and sugar until mixed. Add the chocolate mixture (which may still be warm) and beat only to mix. Then add the flour and beat only to mix. Remove bowl from mixer and add all but the 1/4 cup of the smaller Heath bar pieces.

Turn into the prepared pan and spread smooth. Sprinkle the smaller pieces of Heath bars over the top. Bake for 28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out just barely clean.

Remove the pan from the oven, let stand until cool. Cut into small pieces. Serve at room temperature or refrigerated.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

I am sure that a few of you are wondering what the heck frozen hot chocolate is. Personally, I think it's kind of weird too. If you remember from earlier posts, I don't really like chocolate but my son was having a hard day and I decided that he needed some cheering up. This recipe helped out some and he really did like it. It comes from the famous dessert place, Serendipity 3, in NYC where celebrities hob nob all the time. This makes A LOT. The cookbook just said a gigantic Serendipity-sized serving. It made easily 5 margarita sized drinks.

Frozen Hot Chocolate from Sweet Serendipity

3 oz of a variety of your favorite chocolates

2 teas store bought hot chocolate mix

1 1/2 tbs sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

3 cups ice

whipped cream

-chop chocolate into small pieces and place it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted. Add the hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 cup of the milk and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

-in a blender place the remaining cup of milk, the room temperature chocolate mixture and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Pour into a giant goblet and top with whipped cream. Enjoy with a spoon or a straw--or both!

Marshmallow-Hot Fudge Sauce

I just purchased the ice cream cookbook last night and had Nathaniel look for a recipe to make. This is the one that he picked to top our homemade ice cream.

Marshmallow-Hot Fudge Sauce from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

makes 2 cups

2/3 cup milk (whole or low-fat)

2 tbs salted butter (I used unsalted since I never have salted)

30 large marshmallows (not quite a whole bag)

8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used a 4 oz bar of each since that's what I had)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm the milk and butter in a medium saucepan. Add the marshmallows and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until they've melted. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate pieces. Let stand for 30 seconds, the stir until smooth. Add vanilla. Serve warm.

**Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Rewarm it gently in a microwave or by stirring in a saucepan over very low heat. If the sauce becomes too thick, stir in a few spoonfuls of milk.

I Am SOOOO Making This!!

I love caramel and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE caramel apples. I don't eat them much because you can't always find great caramel apples, but I came across this recipe last night and now I am going to have to make them. The apples have been plentiful at the Farmer's Market. We picked up a variety of super delicious apples (for only $1/lb!) last Saturday and they were all gone by yesterday. Since we are leaving town tomorrow, we'll miss out on the delicious apples this weekend. I am hoping that there will still be plenty the following weekend because I am going to be buying lots more, so that I can make this recipe! Yummy!!!

Caramel Apples

My Favorite Dessert

I am not a huge sweets person. I would rather eat an extra serving of dinner than have dessert. But when it comes to flan, I'll skip all dinner and eat one servings of flan, two, three, maybe four. I am not kidding. If it wasn't for the fact that we had dinner guests come over and I had to serve six flans to everyone, I probably would have eaten them all myself.

If you have never had flan, it's a Spanish dessert with an egg custard baked with caramel at the bottom. Then when served, you turn it out of the baking dish and it's served caramel side up. The caramel will melt during baking and runs down the sides of the custard. You will need to chill the flan for hours before eating, so plan according!

Flan from The Joy of Cooking

serves 8

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2) Place in a small, heavy saucepan: 3/4 cup sugar. Drizzle evenly over the top: 1/4 cup water.

Over medium heat and without stirring, very gently swirl the pan by the handle until a clear syrup forms. It is important that the syrup clarify before it boils, so slide the pan on and off the burner as necessary. Increase the heat to high and bring the syrup to a rolling boil. Cover the pan tightly and boil for 2 minutes. Uncover the pan and cook the syrup until it begins to darken. Gently swirl the pan by the handle once again and cook the syrup until it turns a deep amber. Quickly pour the caramel into eight 6-oz custard cups or ramekins or a 2 to 2 1/2-quart souffle dish. Using a potholder, immediately tilt the cups or dish to spread the caramel over the bottom.

3) Whisk just until blended: 5 eggs or 4 large eggs & 3 large egg yolks (I went with the 5 eggs because I never end up using the egg whites), 3/4 cup sugar, 1/8 teas salt.

4) Heat just until steaming: 3 cups of whole or low fat milk (I used 2%)

5) Gradually whisk the milk into the egg mixture and stir gently until the sugar is dissolved. If you wish, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl or large measuring cup. Stir in 3/4 teas vanilla.

6)Pour into the caramel-lined cups or dish. Bake in a water bath (a roasting pan that is large enough to accommodate the custards without touching each other. After arranging the custards in the pan, add enough scalding-hot tap water into the pan---I use my tea kettle for this---add enough water, so that it's 1/2 way up the sides of the custard dishes until firmly set in the center, 40 to 60 minutes for individual cups, 1 to 1 1/2 hours for a single dish. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 2 days. To unmold, loosen the edges with a knife and invert onto individual plates or a large plate. The plate for a large flan must be either broad or deep to catch all the caramel.

Granny's Effortless Lemon Pie

April sent me this recipe to try and I told her that I would be the guinea pig. Chris and I were both big fans of this pie. It's SUPER easy! On the recipe, it doesn't tell you what size of pie crust to get. I used a 9-inch one and it was too big. I'll post pics when I make this again (I got a huge bag of lemons from Costco, so I still have a lot of them) and before Chris wolfs down the entire pie.....

Ingredients:
14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
Whipped cream (for decorating the top)

Directions: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the condensed milk, egg yolks and lemon juice. Pour the mixture into the crust, then bake for 7 minutes, or until the center is set. Remove from the oven and let cool 20 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Just before serving, decorate the top with whipped cream.

Recipe from “You Want me to Bring ’A Dish?”’ Lulu.com.

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

I make this a lot in the summer whenever the strawberries are looking all so luscious. This is a bit time consuming, but worth it if you like cheesecakes. It's a great because they make little individual cheesecakes, so you don't have to pull out a big cake and feel guilty about the huge slice that you just cut yourself. If you ended up eating multiple servings of this dessert, don't worry! I won't judge :)

Mini Strawberry Swirl Cheesecakes adapted from Spago Desserts by Mary Bergin & Judy Gethers

makes 12 servings

Equipment needed: Twelve 1-cup ramekins

Baking pan with sides, large enough to hold the ramekins (you can use two pans if needed)

Strawberry Compote Ingredients

Three 1-pint baskets of strawberries, hulled and cut into thick slices

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 stick cinnamon sticks

In a medium nonreactive saucepan, combine berries, sugar and cinnamon sticks. Cook over medium-high heat until compote thickens slightly and just coats the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes. Cool. (You can do this before and leave in the fridge overnight)

Cheesecake Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs cream cheese (3 pkgs), at room temp, cut into small pieces

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 teas salt

3/4 cup sour cream

1 tbs dark rum (you can omit this if you don't have it or don't want to use it)

1 tbs lemon juice

2 teas vanilla

3 eggs

Place cream cheese, sugar and salt in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle of beaters, on medium speed, beat until smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides and under the beaters with a rubber spatula. Turn the speed to high and continue to beat until nice and cream. Stop the machine, add the sour cream, rum, lemon juice, and vanilla, then on medium speed, continue beating until well blended. Add eggs and beat just until combined.

1) Position rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat with vegetable spray each of 12 ramekins. Set aside.

2) Spoon strawberry compote into the bottom of each ramekin, then fill with cheesecake batter. Arrange the ramekins in a large baking pan and fill the baking pan with hot water, reaching about halfway up the sides of the ramekins (you don't want any more or the water will end up in your cheesecake!). Bake until the cheesecake begins to pull away from the ramekins and are almost firm to the touch, 35 to 40 minutes.

3) Remove ramekins to rack and let cool. Refrigerate, covered, overnight.

4) When ready to serve, run a sharp knife around the inside edges of each ramekin and invert the cake onto a serving plate. The compote will run down the sides of each cake.

Summer Is Coming To An End

This is one of my favorite desserts and a great way to end the summer! It's a lot of work, but I promise it's worth it.

Berry Shortcakes With Buttermilk-Almond Biscuits adapted from Richard Sax's cookbook Classic Home Desserts

serves 6

2 generous pints of fresh strawberries (hulled and sliced) or a combo of berries (I used blueberries, strawberries and raspberries)
1/3 cup sugar, preferably superfine (but you can use regular). You can use more or less depending on the berries' sweetness.

Buttermilk-Almond Biscuits
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt
6 teaspoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 to 1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
milk or cream, for glaze

1 3/4 cup heavy cream (or vanilla ice cream--easier and just as yummy)
1 teaspoon vanilla (if using heavy cream

1) Place sliced berries into a large bowl and toss them with the sugar. Use the back of the large wooden spoon to crush some of the the berries into the sugar. Let stand at room temperature for at least 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally, until the berries form a light natural syrup. Chill.

2) Buttermilk-Almond Biscuits. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter or spray a baking sheet (do not use a black steel sheet). Place the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a food processor. Pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Place 2/3 cups of the buttermilk in a measuring cup, stir in the egg yolk, vanilla and almond extracts. With the processor running, add buttermilk mixture and turn off the machine. Add enough extra buttermilk, pulsing briefly after each addition, to form a slightly sticky dough.

3) The recipe goes on to roll out the dough, but it's too much work for me! So instead, I just scoop out some dough onto the baking sheet. I have tried it both ways, but trust me unless you are a perfectionist dessert maker, there is no reason to roll it out and spend the time making perfect circles. Coat the tops with a light film of milk or cream.

4) Bake the biscuits until pale golden, 11 to 14 minutes (watch carefully and do not overbake). Transfer to a wire rack and cool for about 2 minutes. Using a serrated knife, slice biscuits horizontally in half.

5) Whip the cream with the vanilla (if you aren't eating them all, then don't make as much), until almost stiff. Spoon berries onto the bottom half of the biscuits making sure to spoon juices over too. Spoon some whipped cream over the berries and replace top half of the biscuit. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever?

Last night, I made Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe because my sweet kid asked me to. To tell the truth, he didn't ask. He begged. Was it the best chocolate sheet cake ever? I wouldn't know. I don't really love chocolate. I'll eat it, but it's not my favorite. I liked it, but I only had a couple of bites. To tell the truth, I don't even really like desserts that much (OK, don't shoot me. I like to get my extra calories from a second serving of dinner or some beers). Nathaniel did say that it was ONE of the best cakes that he had ever eaten, but not the best. Even though it wasn't the best, it didn't stop him from eating another piece with a huge glass of milk. I never did get Chris' verdict because I turned away for a second and he had already inhaled his cake.


The thing that I love about this cake is that it's super easy to make and you don't have to wait for it to cool down before frosting it. You don't have to sift the powdered sugar for the frosting if you use the pecans! A dessert recipe that is cuts out steps is always appreciated in this kitchen. Pioneer Woman rocks!

Chicken Noodle Soup for the Sick Kid and Birthday Cake

Yesterday was Angela's birthday, so I decided to make some dinner to celebrate instead of going out to a restaurant like we usually do for our birthdays. It was a stressful day because I had just gotten back from my trip and found out that the kiddo was sick (viral infection, but thank goodness not strep). Since he had been so sick, I had promised him that I would make some homemade chicken noodle soup. It turned out pretty yummy and Nathaniel ended up eating 1 1/2 bowls of it.

I ended up making Chicken Spaghetti for the adults since Angela likes pasta, chicken and cheese (and since she hadn't had it yet), but I tried out a new recipe for her birthday dessert. I didn't think that I would have enough time to make dessert for the birthday girl since I was taking care of the sick kid, but I ended up whipping it up right before they got to the house.

Molten Chocolate Cakes I found this recipe in Food & Wine magazine while I was flying back from D.C. and figured that it would make a great birthday dessert. This recipe was delicious, but I did have some issues with it because I left it out sitting while the spaghetti was cooking in the oven, which made a couple of my cake's fillings mix in with the chocolate and not be gooey in the middle. I did have one perfect cake (that the birthday girl got) and a semi-perfect one (that Blake ended up with). Even the non-perfect cakes were yummy, just not picture perfect. I am sorry to say that I forgot to take a picture of the filling oozing out of the cake. If you do make this, be sure to make it before you are going to pop it in the oven. It's not going to be the same if you let it sit out. Also, I used large muffin tins instead of the ramekins (my ramekins are pretty small and I wanted bigger cakes). Since I couldn't get 70% cacao chocolate at the grocery store, I used 60% cacao Ghiradelli chocolate (which still produced a great chocolatey cake).

The other great thing about this cake recipe is that you can change the fillings. They aren't listed on the online recipe, but I'll be nice and post them on there for my readers.

1) Caramel Filling-- Replace the peanut butter filling in each cake with 1 heaping teaspoon of cold store-bought caramel sauce and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt (I used this one, but forgot the salt. It still tasted wonderful).

2) Raspberry Filling- In a small bowl, coarsely mash 16 raspberries with 4 teaspoons of seedless raspberry preserves. Replace the peanut butter filling with the raspberry filling.

3) Marshmallow Filling- Replace the peanut butter filling in each cake with 1 tablespoon of marshmallow fluff--use a slightly moistened spoon to prevent the fluff from sticking.

Everyone loved these cakes (including Nathaniel who overcame his sore throat to eat one). This recipe is actually easier than it sounds, so give it a try! Happy Cooking!

Cupcakes, Yummy, Yummy Cupcakes!

Friends were coming over for dinner this weekend, so I needed to make some delicious dessert for them. I decided to make some Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes from Barefoot Contessa's cookbook Barefoot Contessa at Home. They were a big hit with the kiddo, who decided that he needed to eat 4 of them as soon as I finished frosting them (to make sure that they were safe for everyone to eat, of course)! These aren't super sweet (which I loved) and they made more than the recipe said.

I am lucky enough that the recipe is online at Food Network right now, so that I don't have to retype it. But if you do decide to use the recipe, you might want to print it out because (usually) her recipes are copyrighted and only posted for a short time online! Happy Baking!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chocolate-cupcakes-and-peanut-butter-icing-recipe

Breakfast, Dessert or Maybe Both

For breakfast today, I decided to try out a new recipe that I found in April 2008's issue of Gourmet magazine because it contained Nutella (which Nathaniel and I both love). When Chris and I were in Paris, we stayed in a hotel that had a great complimentary breakfast buffet. Since food (even just a simple sandwich) is sooooo expensive in the city, I would fill up on lots of Nutella and French bread. Every time I eat Nutella, I get a smile on my face and remember the good times in Paris. After I got back from that trip, I found that Costco has double packs of Nutella (it's not quite the same since it's made in the USA, but still delicious). It comes in handy because Nathaniel has grown to love the stuff as much as I do.


This recipe is super easy. It's like a crepe, but thicker and more dense. We barely made a dent in it (like a little more than a 1/4 is all we ate), but maybe it's because I am still half asleep. You could also top this with regular chocolate syrup or maple syrup. I wish that I had some berries like the recipe suggested and I forgot to add the powdered sugar (which would have just been for a pretty picture, not because it needed more sweetness). The above picture is Nathaniel's serving with extra Nutella sauce on it, but it really didn't need that much. It was wonderful for breakfast, but could be a nice dessert too. Delicious!


http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/OVEN-CRESPELLA-WITH-NUTELLA-SAUCE-241993