Apple cakes

Today ChaseKBH and I went apple picking, along with my brother who was in town for the weekend.  It's a little early for many of the apples we like best, and today's selection was Galas and Golden Delicious.  Picking was fantastic, and it was a gorgeous day to be outside (with seemingly a third of the County).  ChaseKBH decided we should make apple cakes.  Since my Dad does not care for cinnamon, but loves every sort of apple dessert out there, we started with Dorie Greenspan's French Apple Cake, from Around My French Table, and made some changes.  Individual cakes are baked here in oven-safe ramekins, and should be served hot.

Individual Apple Cakes

Ingredients:

4 heaping cups of apples that have been peeled, cored, and chopped

3/4 cup all purpose flour (do not use cake flour!)

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 large eggs, brought to room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled only slightly (if you don't have a four year old assistant, brown it)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

4 tablespoons brandy

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F - racks at center.

 Place apples in large mixing bowl.

Generously butter six 1 cup capacity ramekins.  Set aside.

Sift or whisk flour, salt, and baking powder.  Set aside.

Using stand mixer or a whisk, beat eggs until very frothy, light yellow, and increased in volume significantly. 

Whisk in sugar slowly.

Drizzle in butter while whisking vigorously.

Add brandy and vanilla, whisk well.

Add flour mixture in thirds, whisk until well combined.

Pour batter over apples.  Gently fold together.

Scoop batter into ramekins, until 2/3 to 3/4 filled.

Bake for 50 minutes (check, may need to bake 1 hour, toothpick should come out clean).

Top with ice cream if desired, and serve hot.

 

 

Apple walnut fig cake

This cake is delightfully boozy.  So boozy that I would strongly recommend not serving it to those under 21, even if you would, perhaps, love to get a small person to sleep or stop screaming from teething.  Plus you're not supposed to give little kids nuts.  I made this cake as a large bundt, but I have a lot of syrup left over so I'm planning to make some mini-bundts or mini-loafs tomorrow, with a shorter baking time, to spread around the neighborhood as fall gifts.  This is a basic buttery egg leavened cake with additions.

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar (not this is a pretty sweet cake - you can reduce to 2 1/2 cups if you like but any further is going to throw off the chemistry)
1/2 cup high-fat European style butter, softened
6 eggs, brought up to room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon salt (there is about taste, not chemistry, so this can be skipped)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
2-3 apples, peeled, cored, diced finely
6 large fresh figs, stemmed and diced finely
1 cup chopped or crushed walnuts
1 cup apple brandy (Calvados)
1/4 to 1/2 cup powdered sugar (can be omitted)

Method:
Preheat oven to 325F.
Cream together sugar and butter in a stand mixer.  You could try this some other way but it's going to be a pain.  I seriously recommend doing this with a stand mixer if at all possible.
Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  I would suggest 5 minutes at least with the paddle attachment.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs 2-3 minutes, until they develop a bit of fluff.  Add to stand mixer and beat 2 minutes.
Add cream and vanilla, beat another 2 minutes.
Sift together flour, salt, and spices.
In thirds, slowly incorporate the flour mixture.  Beat until well combined.
Gently fold in apples, figs, and walnuts.
Spray bundt pan with baking spray or grease / flour very, very well.
Bake 75 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool cake slightly, transfer to a wire rack or plate.
Mix apple brandy and powdered sugar.  Bring to just a boil, then remove from heat.  Whisk well to ensure a good mix.
Brush or drizzle on glaze while cake is still warm.
Let cake cool completely, reapply additional glaze as desired.
You can also simply drizzle on some alcohol, but the cake won't get a glaze.  The fruit is fresh, so this isn't exactly a preserved fruit cake, but alcohol without a glaze will nudge the flavor that way.

Apple cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

We're in a cupcake phase with the three year old.  He doesn't actually eat much of the cupcakes, but he loves the idea of cupcakes.  Particularly using the pastry bag and adding sprinkles to things.  We're also in the height of apple season here in central Maryland, to the extent central Maryland has an apple season.  We do have lovely farms and orchards where the kids and I can go pick apples (and raspberries and broccoli and herbs and flowers and pumpkins) and enjoy bucolic west county for a morning.  Unfortunately, we decided to go apple picking before a play date lunch with ChaseKBH's current crush (I'm not actually sure if the crush is on the 2.5 year old or the 2.5 year old's mother, but while ChaseKBH primarily plays with the just-5 year old, he spends the next couple days talking about the females in that household).  Alas, alack, ChaseKBH tripped over his two feet running in a field trying to cut flowers, resulting in a bloody nose.  He had to be contented giving his fair lady a small decorative pumpkin and a chocolate lollipop.  

Of course, ChaseKBH isn't contented with simply pursing the preschool set.  He's also in love with our next door neighbor - a wonderful lady who is about three decades too old for him.  But he's determined to win her over with baked goods.  She's still at work, but I have dutifully texted her and we're going over tomorrow morning with cupcakes.  In the interim, we're snacking on the excess.

This recipe is a bit difficult on volume - it could be 12 cupcakes, it could be 18, it depends entirely on how much volume the apple takes up.  Do yourself a favor and be sure to only full 2/3 of the way up the cupcake liners.  If you fail, as I did, tear or cut off the excess and consider it your cook's bonus.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

Pumpkin pie spice OR cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg to taste 

1 1/2 cup sugar 

1/3 cup vegetable oil 

2 eggs 

1/2 cup milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped finely

Cream cheese icing

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened

1 pound powdered sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla

2-4 tablespoons milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sift together flour, soda, powder, salt, and spices.  I think this is great with a huge amount of ginger, but really you need to know your audience.  It's pretty hard to ruin with too much spice, and its fine with no spice (if boring), so use your judgment.

Beat sugar, oil, eggs, milk, and vanilla on medium speed with a hand mixer or stand mixer.

Add sifted flour mixture into wet mixture.  Beat until well combined.

Fold in apples.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Beat together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Add 2 tablespoons milk.  Beat 2 minutes.  Add milk until desired consistency is reached.

I frost these with a pastry bag because I suck at frosting things.  

Cupcakes!

The three year old likes chocolate cupcakes.  And sprinkles.  Especially rainbow sprinkles.  I'm not really one for boxed mixes - mostly because I'm too cheap with money and storage space.  However, I'm also pretty lazy and love easy recipes.  Hands down best easy chocolate cake recipe ever is from the back of the Hershey's tin.     I prefer other cocoas, but I'll use that recipe (and the cocoa if I'm in a pinch) and have cupcakes in less than half an hour.  For the frosting, however, I made ganache - simply a cup of heavy cream, scalded, and a bag of 60% cacoa Ghiradelli chocolate chips melted and whisked into the hot cream then slightly cooled.  ChaseKBH was able to dunk the cupcakes into the ganache to easily frost them, then add the rainbow sprinkles.  Now, my floor has little multicolored balls ground into it, but what's a little floor damage in the grand scheme of creating a young baker?

Payesh

We just celebrated my younger child's Annaprasan - first feeding.  The best description of this event is a Hindu version of a christening from the social perspective, though theologically it's completely different.  The event centers around food - it takes place when the baby is ready to start on solids.  The baby is fed a small portion of food, usually rice pudding or rice, and presented with a traditional Bengali meal (fried vegetables, vegetable curry, fish curry, lamb curry, rice, yogurt, and rice pudding).  The rice pudding, or payesh, is by far the most important dish.  Bengalis make and serve payesh for all auspicious occasions.  We also really like the word auspicious.  Typically payesh is flavored with saffron and rosewater, and contains sultanas and pistachios.  However, since Beatrix Amiya (hereinafter referred to as BeaABH) is only five month's old, I wasn't about to include nuts or other add ins.  

It might make me a terrible Bengali, but I really do not care for payesh.  Its mostly a textural thing - generally too soupy and the rice grains come as an unwelcome surprise.  I also hate cooked raisins with a passion.  In my version of payesh, which I'm sure can be criticized as nontraditional, the rice is cooked in a half-and-half mixture, the liquid a bit reduced, so it comes out creamier.  The rice is also cooked so it melts into the creamy mixture.  The pudding is thickened by the starch coming off the rice.  I do a number of other things wrong, like browning the butter rather than making or using ghee, and fiddling with the temperature since I don't have the knack to push the limits and avoid burning.

Nina's version of payesh

Makes 6-8 servings, depending on how much you like the stuff

Ingredients:

1/2 cup basmati rice

1 tablespoon unsalted butter (preferably European-style high fat butter)

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups whole milk

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

2-4 teaspoons rose water

6-8 threads saffron

2 green cardamom pods

Method:

Rinse basmati rice several times in cold water - place rice in bowl, flood with water, agitate with your hand, drain, rinse, repeat until agitating the rice in the water does not produce cloudy water.

Brown butter over medium heat.  

Whisk together heavy cream, milk, salt, sugar, rose water, and saffron.  Crack cardamom pods slightly and add.  Set aside.

Add rice to butter.  Saute rice in butter, stirring regularly, for 3 minutes.

Pour in cream mixture.

Increase heat to medium high.

Stirring constantly, bring pot to a boil.  Reduce heat and stir.  Try to keep mixture just under the boiling point, stirring constantly, until the rice is cooked.  It will take about 20 minutes.  Do not let this burn - if it does, toss it and start again.

Cool and serve.

Blueberry Nectarine Crumble

I'm allergic to peaches.  This is a problem in the summer in the mid-Atlantic, as everyone tends to, well, eat a lot of peaches.  When I was a kid I could at least eat cooked peaches - it's technically a blossom allergy and not a food allergy according to my allergist.  As I get older I am less able to deal with peaches of any kind.  Somehow, I have no problem whatsoever with nectarines.  Or, for that matter, blueberries.  So I decided to make nectarine and blueberry crumble.  The kid ate raw fruit but still hasn't accepted the idea that you would cook fruit.  Truth be told I can't say that I disagree with him - raw fruit is almost always better when its fresh and in season.  But we had a glut of blueberries and nectarines, and my husband likes baked fruit desserts, so off to the kitchen.

Ingredients:
3 nectarines, washed, pits removed, sliced into 1/8 pieces
1 lb blueberries, washed, picked over, and stemmed
1/2 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit you can increase or not
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, cold, diced into pieces
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Cold water

Method:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Toss together fruit and 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Place fruit mixture in oven safe casserole dish or baking dish.
Cut butter, flour, remaining sugar, and remaining salt together until it resembles pebbles.
Splash in cold water and continue to cut until it's just slightly a sticky dough that's loose and falls apart easily.
Place on top of fruit mixture.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden and the fruit mixture is sizzling a bit through the cracks.
Cool.
Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or plain.

Fake Lady Hatt's Cake

I truly hate Thomas the Tank Engine and all his little friends.  Thomas is a moron who fails to listen, does something stupid, gets yelled at, listens, and forgets the lesson by the next installment.  Henry is whiny, Percy has an attitude, James is a snotty jerk, and Sir Topham Hatt is abusive at best.  Plus what the heck does it mean to be cross?  The three year old, however, loves Thomas and all the accouterments. I've stepped on every damn train Rev. Awdry could have ever dreamed of, and compliment ChaseKBH by calling him a Really Useful Engine. So of course for his third birthday, the Thomas obsessed child wanted Lady Hatt's Cake.  I search and searched to try and find a recipe or something that would give me a hint as to what constituted Lady Hatt's Cake.  The internet failed me, however, and I could not find a definitive recipe.   Moreover, ChaseKBH was not particularly able to articulate what on earth Lady Hatt Cake consisted of, but did babble a bit about strawberries and cream and butter and flour and Thomas getting it all wet.  It turns out that he was actually talking about the cake made for Alicia Boddy's tea, but whatever.       I told him it was Lady Hatt's Cake and he believed me.  Its one of the many things he will be in therapy for later.

We served the cake, along with chocolate cupcakes with blue icing, at Chase's third birthday party.  I'm not sure if every where is like this, but here you invite the entire preschool class and their parents.  It actually is nice to have the relationships with the other parents, but I'm far too lazy to throw a party at a party place.  Instead, I used my parents' backyard, served steak, chicken, corn, hot dogs, and Trader Joe's frozen naan, booze, and made the cakes.  Trust me, I love my kids and his friends, but the booze was necessary to deal with their screeching.  

 The adults loved the Lady Hatt Cake, and ChaseKBH was just happy he got what he (thought he) wanted.  It's a simple genoise layered with cream and strawberries. The genoise recipe is adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum, and really does require a stand mixer.  The below recipe makes about 24 parfaits.

Lady Hatt Cake for ChaseKBH

Ingredients:

3 lbs of strawberries, hulled and sliced

1/4 cup sugar

Juice of one lemon

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons of European-style butter (I used Kerrygold)

8 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup sugar

2 cups sifted cake flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 pints heavy (whipping) cream

1/4 cup sugar (increase to 1/2 cup if you like it sweet)

Method:

Prepare

- Preheat oven to 350F.

- Macerate strawberries in 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice, and a little salt.  Let sit at least 45 minutes.

- Line 2 jelly roll pans with parchment paper, with substantial overhang.

Make the genoise

- Brown butter over low heat.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

- Whisk together eggs, vanilla, and sugar in the bowl of the stand mixer.

- Place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.  Whisk, whisk, and whisk some more until the mixture has warmed and is increasing nicely in volume.  About 5-8 minutes.

-  Place bowl in stand mixer fitted with whipping whisk.  Whip the heck out of the egg mixture, until it is extremely voluminous, shiny, and just about to burst the bowl.

- Pour in butter and fold in gently.

- Sift together salt and flour.

- GENTLY fold in the flour/salt mixture.

- Pour the batter into prepared pans.

- Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

- Remove from pans and let cool.

Prepare the filling

- Whip cream and 1/4 (or 1/2) cup sugar.

- Drain strawberries, reserve liquid.

- Boil 1 cup water.  Mix in 1 cup sugar and reserved strawberry liquid.  Cool.

Assemble the parfaits

- Prepare 24 little cups.  I used the simple clear cups you can buy at any grocery or party store.

- Cut one pan of genoise into pieces about the size of the bottom of the cup with a biscuit cutter.  Do the same with a biscuit cutter the size of the top of the cup.  Split rounds in half.

- Layer cake in the cup, use a pastry brush to brush on the syrup, then layer strawberries and cream, alternating, and topping with whipped cream.

- Smooth tops with a spatula.

- Keep refrigerated until serving.

Orange Mini-Cupcakes

Last weekend was a holiday called biphota. Part of the holiday requires the eating of sweets. In addition to the usual Indian sweets, I always make brownies and something else. This year, Human # 1 told me to make orange cupcakes. So, I made mini orange cupcakes. He was surprised.
The picture sucks, it's a camera phone picture from like the day after.

Orange Mini-Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup water, orange juice, or milk

3 teaspoons orange extract

2 tablespoons orange zest

4 large eggs

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

3 teaspoons orange extract

Method:

Oven to 350 F.

Prep muffin tins, I suggest lining with mini cupcake papers.

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

Cream together butter and sugar.

Add liquids, zest, mix well.

Add eggs, one at a time.

Add flour mixture, beat well.

Pour into prepared mini-muffin tins.

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, say 12-15 minutes at the outside. BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERCOOK!

Cool.

Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, and orange extract.

Frost cupcakes. Tint orange, if desired.

Shucker's

Our favorite restaurant on the trip was Shucker's. We had our first and last meals here. As Human # 3 said on the first night, it was about the most perfect meal we had ever had. On the first night we were cranky, had just been on a plane for a day, and had a bit too much family togetherness. We were seriously concerned about the fact that it was in a hotel. Yet all three of us put our blackberries away, enjoyed the meal, loved the service, and remembered that we actually liked being around each other. All four of us returned for the last night, and it was just as good. So good, indeed, that everyone submitted to my picture taking and food blogging, even holding up their plates for the best view.



Of course we started with oysters. Everyone finally decided that I was right, and there was no such thing as too many oysters. We had four types of local oysters. We then ordered another dozen of our favorites. They were amazing. Creamy, sweet, and luscious.



We also had a shrimp cocktail. Tasty.



I had fried oysters, served on potato wedges, with some cole slaw. Best fried oysters ever. And I've had a lot of fried oysters, trust me.



My husband had a Dungeness crab cake. He erroneously believes they are better than Maryland crab cakes. They were good though. Nice grilled asparagus and buttery mashed potatoes.



Human # 3 had the steak. A fourteen ounce piece of sirloin, creamy, buttery mashed potatoes, and sweet giant carrots.



Husband and Human # 3's brother (and therefore my brother-in-law) had the fish and chips. The fish was fried halibut from the Queen Charlotte Islands. Human # 3 and Brother argued about whether these were the greatest fish and chips, or whether the fish and chips at the public market Vancouver were the greatest. Outside the Pacific Northwest, a small restaurant in Astoria, Queens and a stand in Reykjavík are suggested. I think we need to have a world-wide fish and chips tour.



For dessert my husband and I had a chocolate cake with a glass of Côtes du Rhône each.



The other two split a peanut butter ice cream pie. Which I nearly stole.

It was a great meal, and a great culinary end to the trip. This is my highest recommended restaurant we visited, no question about it.

Sky City, Seattle Space Needle

Okay, I'll be honest. It was a revolving restaurant at Seattle's biggest tourist trap. It was overpriced. But the food was decent, the ingredients local, the service very good, and the view spectacular. Would I recommend it? There's better dining. But it's not bad, especially if you want to sit and see the Space Needle view. I can recommend the halibut sandwich, as well as the Caesar salad. Just make sure you do the restaurant first, since the observation deck is included.



Here's Mt. Rainer. I think.



We ordered the Lunar Orbiter. Mainly because everyone else ordered one. It was basically just a scoop of chocolate ice cream, some chocolate sauce and a cherry, and some smoke. It did look cool.

Etta's

We met the younger siblings at Etta's, near Pike Place Market, for dinner. I managed to get us lost on the way there. My poor husband. Wait, I have a broken foot! Poor me!

One funny thing - as usual I asked for a local wine recommendation. We had a bottle that, on the front label, purported to be from Washington. On the back label, the wine purported to use grapes from California, be made in California, and bottle in California.



The siblings claimed to be oystered out. As a good Maryland girl, I know that there's no such thing as too many oysters. So I started out with some.



Also we shared a shrimp cocktail. I think there was another starter, but we can't remember. Human # 1 tried to order the salmon belly tartare, but they were out. We have a strange white blurry picture. Human # 3 and I think it was some sort of halibut crudo, but the picture sucks and as we are sure it was very tasty, I'm not going to post it.



As a main course, I had the Etta’s Rub with Love wild king salmon, shiitake relish, cornbread pudding. Excellent!



For dessert Human # 3 and I both ordered the blueberry crisp. It was just way too sweet for me, I couldn't eat it. Human # 3 liked it, though, but due to its sweetness only managed about a third.




Human # 1 had a root beer creme brulee with a mini rootbeer float. He loves root beer. He also really liked this dessert.

Anyway, Etta's was pretty darn good, but I still preferred Matt's in the Market and Shucker's to Etta's. The price point at Etta's was pretty high, and they did deliver, but I guess I'm spoiled and I preferred the seafood at Shucker's and the local market produce at Matt's. Had we done Etta's first, then Matt's and Shucker's, I think it would have rated much higher.

Vegan Blueberry Tart

Had a party last weekend. I made a bunch of things, but the only thing that I think was really different and special was the vegan blueberry tart I made.

Vegan Blueberry Tart
Ingredients:
6 cups blueberries, picked over and washed
1/3 cup sugar, or to taste based on the sweetness of the blueberries
One stick Earth Balance Butter Sticks, or similar, cut into small pieces and popped in the freezer for 10 minutes
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Cold water, enough to make the dough dough-like, usually about 4 tablespoons
If desired, powdered sugar to garnish (I don't)

Method:
Oven to 425F.
Sift together the salt, flour, and 2 tablespoons sugar
Using a pastry blender, or a food processor, cut the buttery stick pieces into the flour mixture. It should resemble pebbles.
Start slowly adding water until a dough forms.
If things are getting too melty, pop into the freezer for a few minutes.
Grab your tart pan, and pop your dough into it. Using your *clean* hands, push the dough around the pan until it's fully covered.
Place a piece of parchment paper over the crust, weigh it down with some pastry weights or beans, and bake 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350F.
Mix together the rest of the sugar with 3 cups of blueberries. Pop it into the crust, and place the pan back in the oven for 35 minutes or so, until the blueberries have turned into jam. At least once or twice, pop into the oven and stir the blueberries.
Pull the tart out of the oven, and place the rest of the blueberries on top. Really, you could place them in concentric circles. But I don't. I actually think that's slightly crazy. They're pretty enough without perfection.
If desired, sprinkle some powdered sugar to garnish.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me...

Peaches come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown....


Okay, well, peaches don't come from a can. Except when they do. Like now. Except they were put there by me, a woman, in a suburban kitchen. I assume they're delicious. I wouldn't know, because peaches make me itch. However, many people like them, including Human #1. So I'm canning some poached peaches, to be eaten later, or to be given away as holiday presents.

While Human #1 and I were in Charlottesville (Canine #1 and Human #3 stayed home), we drove up Carter Mountain, which is right by Monticello. They have fabulous fruit - they actually supply a lot of the local Whole Foods. We got half a peck of freestone peaches, and half a peck of nectarines. The latter are basically in my stomach. The half peck got a little lighter, so I added in the peaches from this week's CSA. Bad idea - the CSA peaches were clingstone, not freestone, which meant that they needed to be done separately. Oh well. Here's how you poach peaches. Get thee to one of the farmer's markets, or a local farm, or a farm stand, or the grocery store, and poach some peaches. Serve it over ice cream, or in a bowl with some cream dribbled on top, or just eat it with a spoon.

Poached peaches

Ingredients:
1/2 peck peaches
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Method:
Blanch peaches. This means take a small pot, fill 3/4 of the way with water, and boil. Grab a big mixing bowl, fill 1/4 full of ice and 1/2 full of cold water. Note both the pot and bowl are only 3/4 of the way full. Stick a peach in the boiling water for about 1.5 minutes, then pull it out with a slotted spoon, let it drip a few seconds, plunge it in the ice water. Slip off the skins.

If the peaches are freestone slice in half with a paring knife, and pull out the stone. If, on the other hand, they are clingstone, start cursing. Then ignore the whole slicing open thing and follow the steps with the pit in. And remember to get freestone peaches next time.



Take a big pot, fill with all the other listed ingredients. You can do all honey or all sugar, I just used what I had on hand. Bring to a boil. Decide whether you're a presentation kind of person. I am very much not a presentation kind of gal. Like, so totally not it's not even funny. So I just break my peaches in half and cook them. I assume you could cut them nicely. Slap the peaches into the liquid. Lower heat, let cook about 5 minutes, maybe 10 if they are big chunks.

If you have stones still in your peaches, cut the peach with a knife and fork (I swear it works), and pull out the stones. Bring to a boil for 1 minute to kill any germs introduced in this process.

Now, how to store? You can serve immediately, put them in the fridge, or can them. Basically, that just means taking hot peaches, placing them in hot sterilized jars, and processing them in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. It's easy, but I'll give better directions in another post.

These peaches are fabulous for just about anything. Be creative. And try tossing my recipe, and poach with vanilla! Or basil!

Chocolate Chewies

This is a flourless chocolate cookie, which is gorgeously crackly, chewy, and deeply chocolatey. Great for those who can't have flour for some reason. It's low fat, but does anyone really care?? It's still full of sugar and is nutritionally somewhat devoid. Except for the fact that chocolate has flavnoids and other beneficial compounds, and eating chocolate makes one happy. Happy is good.


Chocolate Chewies
Ingredients:
32 ounces powdered sugar
8 oz cocoa powder. I prefer non-dutch processed for this, since I think the flavor is more interesting in a fairly naked cookie.
1 teaspoon salt.
1 cup of egg whites - if you end at an egg under a cup, crack another, erring on too much egg white.
1 tablespoon vanilla


Method:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Put parchment paper, silpat mats, or more grease than you think reasonable on 2 big cookie sheets. Let's just realize non-stick is a figment of the imagination.
Sift together the dry ingredients.
Mix together whites and vanilla with a fork in a vessel with a spout.
Stick dry ingredients into a mixer. Start on low/medium with the paddle attachment (say 2-3 on a Kitchenaid).
Slowly, slowly, slllooooowwwwllly pour in the egg mixture. Do you remember when I said slowly?? Literally dribble it in. Every 1/4 cup stop and scrape the sides.
Mixture will look dry and just wrong until the very end.
Place about 1 tablespoon each on the the cookie sheets, about 12 per sheet.
Bake 6 minutes, then pop out, reverse top/bottom and front/back, and bake 6 more minutes.
Let cool 1-2 minutes on the cookie sheet, until they're a bit hard, then move to wire racks to finish cooling.

Voila! Low-fat, gluten free cookies. But never tell anyone that.

Strawberry sorbet

How to make strawberry sorbet.

Ingredients:
A whole lotta strawberries.
Lemon juice to taste.
Sugar to taste.




Okay, really, it's that simple, but here's what I did this time.

Ingredients:

4 cups of strawberries, cleaned and hulled.
1 cup of sugar.
1/4 cup of lemon juice (the strawberries were very sweet).


Method:

Toss together ingredients.
Puree ingredients or toss into a blender and buzz until smooth. I use a stick blender to puree. Some may try and run the mixture through a food mill or sieve, but I don't get that.
Chill the mixture well, about 6 hours.
Freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions.

Eat!

Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry Ice Cream - with nods to the many recipes I've read over the years. This is darker than the usual pink strawberry ice cream.

Ingredients:
4 cups strawberries, measured then hulled and halved / quartered
1/4 cup white sugar
pinch of kosher salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 cups half-and-half (or 2 cups whole milk and 2 cups heavy cream!)
6 egg yolks
3/4 to 1 cup white sugar (to taste)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Method:


Wash the strawberries, then hull.
Cut the strawberries into halves or quarters, depending on size.
Note, if you are using Maryland strawberries in season, you will likely need only halve the fruit.
Macerate strawberries in sugar, pinch of salt, and lemon juice.




Scald half and half
Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl, until they are well mixed, the mixture is light in color, and has increased in volume. Temper into hot half and half



Cook custard over medium to medium low until it coats back of spoon.








Meanwhile, reduce balsamic over medium heat about half (depends on your vinegar!) in big skillet
Increase heat of skillet to high, toss in strawberries, and let them bubble away!
Try not to swoon.
Now, here's the question - do you like chunks? I really prefer smooth ice creams to chunks, however, I have a strawberry loving human at home who adores chunks. So chunks it is. If you like it smooth, just puree the strawberry balsamic goodness and add to the custard base.

Strain the balsamic strawberry goodness into the custard. Push a bit. Set aside (and chill) the chunks of strawberry left.






Mix the custard base and the balsamic goodness together well.
Strain into another vessel. Unless you're a grand master, you will have some scrambled egg in there. If you never get scrambled egg, well, you're a better woman than I am.
Chill both parts 8 hours +
Prepare according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
Let harden in freezer. Don't let anyone lick the ice cream maker bowl - tongues will stick.

Mocha Angel Food Cake

This isn't local, but I had egg whites left over from the ice cream making process. Human # 3 loves angel food cake. Human # 1 hates angel food cake, but tolerates angel food cake if it's chocolate. Human # 1 thinks it fundamentally tastes low fat - though I just fix that by covering it with whipped cream.

The recipe is adapted from the Joy of Baking, another one of those things I put together years ago as an easy weekday thing.

Ingredients:
1 cup egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons hot coffee
1/2 cup sifted cake flour


Method:
Oven to 350 F
Egg whites to room temperature
Mix sugar, egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar.
Beat to soft peaks. There are lots of great ways to do this, including dividing the sugar, etc. but really, the kitchen aid takes care of it for me.
Dissolve 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder in 3 tablespoons hot coffee
Temper the chocolate / coffee mixture with the stiff peaks - add about 1/2 a cup before remixing
Mix together tempered coffee / chocolate / egg mix and stiff peaks
Fold in sifted cake flour GENTLY!
Prep a half sized angel cake / tube pan. Mine is silicone, but I still always butter and flour it, since I've had the non-stick constantly stick!
Place in half sized angel / tube pan. If silicone, place on a cookie sheet, or else disaster will result.
Bake in oven until a toothpick comes out clean - about 30 minutes.
Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Let it cool a bit, then take it out of the pan and let it finish cooling on a plate.
Serve cool or cold, with whipped cream or powdered sugar if you like.