Paleo Banana Bread Redux

Somehow I am trapped in this cycle of making the same recipes and not having a lot of new things to post about.  When we were trapped at home (in South Carolina) with snow and ice, twice, I made paleo banana bread.  Snow always has meant sweet treats but sweet can be healthier too.

I used the same paleo banana bread recipe from before, once as bread, and once as muffins with various ingredients folded in. 

I actually think the recipe shines best in loaf form, but I have always had to bake it considerably longer than the recipe states.  My bananas might be bigger than your bananas.

 

With the muffins, I made some with chocolate chips (definitely not paleo), some with blueberries (still paleo) and some with a cinnamon-splenda streusel mixture that I've been making cinnamon toast with a lot lately, like a crazy person, using sprouted grain bread.  Or should that be "bread" in quotation marks, I'm uncertain.  The biggest issue with these muffins is that in my rush to not add honey but to substitute it with splenda, I forgot to sweeten them at all.  Whoops!

Pop Tart Party

Earlier this year, a few co-workers planned a pop tart making party.  After work, we drove in a caravan over to B's home with pop tart fillings in tow.  Two people had made doughs to try, and we spent a few hours rolling out dough, filling it, baking the tarts, and tasting our concoctions. 

Some of the best fillings:
-Cinnamon sugar (recipe below)
-Prune (I based it on the apricot filling on this page but used prunes instead)
-Apricot jam
-Nutella

Some of the challenging fillings:
-Smores. Oh this sounds like SUCH a good idea right but the marshmallow burns out and leaves a gaping hole, or explodes through the dough (see below).
-Jam - in general unless it was a chunky jam (see above with apricot) more of it ended up on the cookie sheet than in the poptart.

You can find more ideas for fillings on this article about Bay Area Chefs.

My favorite dough comes from King Arthur Flour, because it was so flaky (pictured above in the hearts in the upper right)!  We also had this filling on hand, and it was tasty although bakes pretty thin inside the dough.

Pastry
2 cups (8 ½ ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 quarter-pound sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk

Cinnamon Filling
1/2 cup (3 ¾ ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 large egg, to brush on pastry before filling

Make the dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Work in the butter until the mixture holds together when you squeeze it, with pecan-sized lumps of butter still visible. Mix the egg and milk, and add it to the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive.

Divide the dough in half; each half will weigh about 10 ounces (about 280g). Shape each half into a rough 3" x 5" rectangle, smoothing the edges. Roll out immediately; or wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Make the filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

Assemble the tarts: If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8" thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9" x 12". Laying a 9" x 13" pan atop the dough will give you an idea if you’ve rolled it large enough. Trim off the edges; place the scraps on a baking sheet, and set them aside, along with the 9" x 12" rectangle of dough.

Roll the second piece of dough just as you did the first. Press the edge of a ruler into the dough you’ve just rolled, to gently score it in thirds lengthwise and widthwise; you’ll see nine 3" x 4" rectangles.

Beat the egg, and brush it over the entire surface of the dough. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each marked rectangle. Place the second sheet of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around each pocket of jam, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Cut the dough evenly in between the filling mounds to make nine tarts. Press the cut edges with your fingers to seal, then press with a fork, to seal again.

Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries. Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F.

Sprinkle the dough trimmings with cinnamon-sugar; these have nothing to do with your toaster pastries, but it’s a shame to discard them, and they make a wonderful snack. While the tarts are chilling, bake these trimmings for 13 to 15 minutes, till they’re golden brown.

Remove the tarts form the fridge, and bake them for 25 to 35 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and allow them to cool on the pan.
Yield: 9 tarts.

How to Say Welcome - Crumb Cake

We recently welcomed a new music librarian at the university where I work.  I used to be the music librarian but had moved into a new position, and found it difficult impossible to do both jobs, particularly since it involved two buildings and two offices.  I am very excited about the librarian we hired! 

In my work culture, we have a time each day where many of the staff members and maybe a few of the librarians gather for break in the main library.  On days of celebration, we have "official" breaks - welcome breaks, goodbye and good luck breaks, birthday breaks, anniversary breaks - we love to have parties and bring food in that we've made. 

In trying to decide what to make for the welcome break, I couldn't get a crumb cake picture out of my head that I'd come across on the Cakespy blog.  I decided that a crumb cake was the way I was going to say "Welcome!"  This is a great recipe, highly recommended.  The only tip I'll add is not to mound too many big crumbs in the center, because I had a harder time getting that part to bake through.

Crumb Cake

Recipe from Jessie Oleson Moore from Cakespy on Craftsy, adapted from The Food Maven.
Link to Craftsy includes photos of almost every step.

Makes one 9″ by 13″ cake

Ingredients:

For the topping

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Confectioner's sugar for dusting the top (optional)

For the cake

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon plus 1 pinch salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream

1. Prepare the topping. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon and salt. Mix with the brown sugar. Set this to the side. 
   
2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Once melted, pour on top of the dry mixture. Add the vanilla. Stir with a fork until the mixture comes together to form small crumbs (if you clump it in your hand, it should easily form crumbs). Set the crumb mixture aside in a bowl.
   
3. It’s time to make the cake. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease a 9″ by 13″ pan. Place a rack in the middle position of your oven.
   
4. In a large bowl,  whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set to the side.
   
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer,) cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, and continue mixing until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes in a stand mixer. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed using a rubber spatula.
   
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, pausing to scrape the sides of the bowl with each addition. The mixture may look somewhat curdled. That is OK. Blend in the vanilla.
   
7. Reduce the mixing speed to low. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternately with the sour cream. Start and end with the dry ingredients. Continue scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Blend only until combined and uniform in appearance. This batter will be thick.
   
8. Spoon the batter into the well-greased pan and smooth with a flat rubber spatula.
   
9. Grab a handful of the crumbs and break on top of the spreaded cake. Continue, making crumbs of your desired sizes all across the surface of the cake. You need to cover all of the surface with crumbs, or the cake may bubble over the crumb mixture. Gently pat the crumbs into the batter with your hand or a wooden spoon, but don’t press too hard.
   
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top and begins to shrink from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool. If desired, dust the top with confectioners’ sugar. Once cool or just lightly warm, slice into squares (or slabs, depending on your mood and appetite.)

Store leftovers, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Review of Martha Stewart's Cakes and Chocolate Hazelnut Meringue Cake

Martha Stewart's Cakes: 150 Recipes for Layer Cakes, Loaves, Bundts, Cheesecakes, Icebox Cakes, and More by Martha Stewart Living
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Similar in look and feel to Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts: 150 Recipes for Old-Fashioned and Modern Favorites, this cookbook will have something for everyone. There are a few updated recipes for specific diets (a sprinkling of gluten-free) but most of these recipes are solid, traditionally based cakes. There are as many recipes for bundts and loaves as there are for layer cakes, so this cookbook puts more emphasis on simplicity of form. This means plenty of recipes for bakers who don't fancy themselves as cake decorators!

I made the gingerbread loaf but because of user error had to throw it away (too much salt!). I made the Chocolate and Hazelnut Meringue Cake for New Year's Eve.

The other recipes that caught my attention in particular:

Gingerbread Cheesecake
Cranberry Upside Down Cake
Black Forest Cake

Hmm, must be the season. The nice thing is, there are recipes for every season. There is even a cake for when gardeners have an abundance of summer squash!

The one omission I am really surprised about is that the recipe for the best cake ever, the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake from Martha Stewart Living, would be left out of her first cake cookbook. It is a recipe I recommend to everyone and always hear rave reviews when I make it. I was sad not to see it here, but since the rest of these recipes come from the same editorial crew, this is a solid cookbook.

Two Turkish Drinks (Iki İçecek Türkçe)

In all my Turkish cooking and baking in 2013, there is definitely an importance placed on some of the beverages consumed on a regular basis.  Tea is what is mentioned most often, served as a sign of hospitality and consumed throughout the day.  Most people are aware of Turkish coffee served in the tiny cups, but what about sahlep? 

Since Christmas I have attempted to make Turkish coffee and sahlep, and this is the tale of the two drinks.

 

I read the directions for Turkish coffee many times before my first attempt.  Use only the most finely ground of Turkish coffees, and use the very specific pot that is wider on the bottom with a wooden handle.  (I got these for Christmas, so that was easy. Check!) Mix the coffee into the water cold. Stir in sugar and a pinch of cardamom. Let it just come to a boil and pour some of the foam into the cup.  Let it come just to a boil twice more.  Well, it never completely boiled, since I had it at such a low heat.  I let it pucker a bit and called it good.  I had no idea if I had done it right, but later that week we had "Egyptian" coffee at an Egyptian restaurant and it tasted pretty much the same.  So hooray, now I can make Turkish coffee!  

 

Sahlep is a hot drink, often consumed on snowy winter days, which is supposed to be made from the sahlep powder, from the orchid that is also used for the so-called chewy ice cream.  I was in an international market and got very excited to find sahlab powder mix. There is even a picture of an orchid on the cover!  It was not until I got it home that I realized it is just salep-flavored cornstarch.  I was so disappointed!   Plus it is from Lebanon, not Turkey, which explains the language variation.  I do not believe I have had sahlep as of yet, but am on a quest for the actual powder.  At one point, when reading about chewy ice cream in The Kitchen as Laboratory, I learned that it was illegal to export salep from Turkey.  If this is the case, I will not get to actually try this drink until I make a visit.  It seems like a warming drink, even if what I made was not authentic. If you find salep powder, the New York Times had a pretty simple recipe for it.  The box mix I picked up recommended also adding a little orange or rose water to it when serving it.

Review of Butter Baked Goods (and amazing pumpkin chocolate chip blondies)

Butter Baked Goods: Nostalgic Recipes From a Little Neighborhood Bakery
by Rosie Daykin

The gorgeous photography in this cookbook made me long for a neighborhood bakery like Butter Baked Goods. Since I don't live anywhere near Vancouver, BC, I am very lucky to have the cookbook to help me recreate their treats.

The recipes reflect what is served in the bakery and cafe - muffins and scones, cookies, bars, cakes, cupcakes, pies and tarts, and then there are the marshmallows. Butter is famous for its marshmallows, in all flavors, and also a component in several of the recipes. Several variations are contained in this cookbook, and that is what I'm looking forward to trying the most. I'm thinking of coffee flavor! I also have my eye on the Smores Bars, which look incredibly decadent, and utilize the handmade marshmallow.

Since I bake so often for other people, and bring things to work, I like recipes that are simple. I'm particularly enamored with the bar cookie chapter, which includes the very Canadian Nanaimo bar that is a must-try when baking Canadian!

Since I received a copy of this in the fall, I immediately made the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blondies, which were a huge hit!

The Best of JennyBakes in 2013

This was an interesting year of international baking experiments and further attempts to making low-sugar baking palatable.  Along the way, I made some memorable dishes!

1. The time I colored eggs using natural dye
2. The first attempt at Turkish cooking - börek (and it was delicious)
3. Frying food is always scary, but for a once-in-a-lifetime holiday of Thanksgivukkah, I made an exception for pumpkin butter sufganiyot
4. A new reading friend said I needed to bake with more poppy seeds, and sent me a recipe to try.
5. Puerto Rican comfort food becomes a breakfast favorite in my house
6. An anniversary dessert so decadent we couldn't even finish our pieces
7. A trip to a random bakery leads to a Finnish breakfast treat that we find excuses to make
8. Finding my way with coconut flour and a trusted blogging friend = decent low carb pancakes
9. Experimenting with the newest trendy food (I'm not convinced)
10. A special holiday dessert combining unexpected ingredients

Happy New Year everyone!  My only culinary resolution is to bake and post more in 2014!

Review of Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home

Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home
by Tammy Donroe Inman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher summary:

While many people think cold weather spells the end of the spectacular seasonal ingredients that make baking so exciting, Tammy Donroe Inman thinks otherwise. For Tammy, winter is the sweetest time of the year—a season that practically begs you to stay inside, fire up the oven, and produce decadent desserts from the bounty of wholesome winter ingredients like squashes and pumpkins, parsnips and carrots, pears, apples, citrus of all stripes, and feel-good ingredients like nuts, cheese, and chocolate.

The fresh and rustic recipes in Wintersweet push the envelope of traditional winter desserts like pumpkin or apple pies, with such delicacies as Pear Cranberry Clafouti, Spicy Prune Cake with Penuche Frosting, and Goat Cheese Cake with Dried Cherry Compote, plus a few surprises like Chocolate Beet Whoopie Pies, Parsnip Spice Cupcakes and for those in need of a winter pick-me-up, Coconut Sunshine Cake with Citrus Curd. These are recipes that celebrate the cozy character of winter—for when you’re snowed in and need the perfect blizzard boredom-buster, to your next family gathering around the fire.

This is a beautiful cookbook with stunning photography, and probably my favorite of 2013. The idea of building a cookbook around winter ingredients for baked goods is brilliant and much appreciated. There are chapters on nuts and squashes and citrus, to name a few. I appreciated the variety and creativity.  This is not just a book of rehashed recipes that you have made before!

Both recipes I tried were not dishes I had seen in other cookbooks, and had interesting flavor profiles. I made the butternut squash cake twice!

Butternut squash cake:


Cocoa Pomegranate Pavlova (I couldn't resist the striking color in this dish and the added ingredients of balsamic and cardamom made for a very sophisticated bite.)


Highly recommended, and would make a wonderful holiday gift!

I received a copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  I knew from first glance I'd have to try the cover recipe (the pavlova.)

Cookie Box 2013

This is my last December as the Music Librarian at Furman University (I'm still working in the library but we hired a new music librarian to start in January) and this year I made some of my old favorites for all the student workers who cycle through shifts in the music library between 8 am and midnight.  I always try to have snack bags put together by Study Day, that brief gap between classes and final exams.  I rediscovered the holiday-themed takeout boxes I'd bought last year on post-holiday super-clearance sales at World Market, and decided they would be perfect for Study Day Treats.

 

All in all, 17 students cycle through the music library on a regular basis, and I had 15 boxes.  I decided to give the two students who consistently take the 8 am shifts bigger containers with more treats.  8 am is rough! (Don't tell the others.)

Should we take a look inside?  I tried for one piece of fudge and two of each cookie.  My original plan of course included more, but at this point of the evening I had been making cookies for four hours and decided to call it good!

I posted this teaser picture to Instagram, knowing a few of my student workers follow me there.  This is the peppermint fudge, which I made by making the usual fudge recipe but substituting peppermint oil for vanilla and using the peppermint morsels instead of the chocolate.  In the end that meant half the chips were white chocolate, making the fudge milder in chocolate flavor than I would have liked, but it seemed to get better as it aged a bit.  Luckily I had made this a few days in advance.

The cookies inside included:

• Big Soft Ginger Cookies
• Peppermint Chocolate Brownie Cookies
• Orange Nutella Swirl Cookies

By the way, we found out that the ginger cookies are just as good with chocolate chips added, but that variety was not included in the boxes.  

Lower Carb Gingerbread Waffles

Sometimes the Internet can make a person feel like a stalker.  I follow Maya from the Alaska from Scratch blog in Pinterest and Instagram, and often see pictures of recipes before they end up on the blog.  (By the way, she also posts the most beautiful pictures of the Alaskan wilderness in Instagram, just breathtaking.)

I had seen the idea of gingerbread waffles and eagerly awaited the recipe, wondering if I could adapt it all all to be lower carb.  Notice that I said lower, not low, because I didn't think it could be gingerbread if I omitted the molasses; nut flours still have carbs albeit it more protein. 

The recipe of what I came up with is below.  If I did it again, I'd probably use less liquid so I didn't have to use coconut flour at all, something I added at the end of mixing everything together and having too thin of a batter.  Still, the flavor of gingerbread is strong in this waffle, and it is a delicious and almost-healthy breakfast recipe for the holiday season.

Lower-Carb Gingerbread Waffles
(Based on the recipe for Gingerbread Waffles on the Alaska from Scratch blog)

Ingredients

• 2 cups nut flour (almond, hazelnut, etc.)
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1 Splenda packet or 2 Tbsp sugar-free gingerbread syrup (if using syrup, add with wet ingredients)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 eggs
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup milk 
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
• 3 tablespoons molasses

Instructions

1. Preheat a waffle iron and prepare as directed.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flours, Splenda, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, milk, yogurt or cream cheese, and molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until completely incorporated.
3. Fill your waffle iron with batter according to the manufacturer's instructions. Cook until crisp and browned. Serve immediately. Repeat with remaining batter.

Thanksgivukkah Report

I love themed Thanksgivings!  This year I was debating between Turkish Turkey and Thanksgivukkah, but Thanksgivukkah (the first day of Hanukkah coinciding with Thanksgiving) only comes once ever 78,000 years.  That made the decision easy.  No, I'm not Jewish, and I do not cook in a certified Kosher kitchen.  It is possible that we had a non-Kosher Thanksgivukkah.  :)

I'll keep this brief, with links to the recipes and pictures of each.  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Breakfast: Pumpkin Butter Sufganiyot with Cinnamon Sugar. I used Joan Nathan's recipe from TabletMag, but made it more Thanksgivukkahish with the pumpkin butter and adding cinnamon to the sugar.

The rest is from dinner!

To drink: Pear Cinnamon cider from Trader Joes (not pictured)

Hungarian Mushroom Soup, recipe from The Artistan Jewish Deli at Home.

Sweet Potato-Rum Kugel with Browned Butter-Pecan Topping from Buzzfeed - I didn't have bourbon, so I used rum.  I decided it was close enough.

Kulebiaka from Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya Von Bremnan.  I wanted to make this recipe since I read this book.  I figure a lot of Jewish people have Russian heritage, and called it Thanksgivukkah worthy.  This is a rich pastry stuffed with fish, mushrooms, herbs, rice, and boiled eggs.  So delicious!

Cranberry Applesauce from Buzzfeed - To be honest, I'd intended to make the latkes to go with this, but just completely ran out of steam.  To be fair, we had way too much food already.  This is a nicely tart applesauce!

Pumpkin Cheesecake - Recipe from the Almost Home Tearoom Cookbook, where I used to work.  Previously featured in JennyBakes in The Curse of the Pumpkin Cheesecake, it worked out a lot better this time around!  Cheesecake has a lot of Jewish connections, so I just made a Thanksgiving flavor.

Peanut Butter Scones from Sweet Tea Revenge by Laura Childs

I don't read many mystery series, but I have a soft spot for the A Tea Shop Mystery series by Laura Childs.  They are set in one of my favorites places - Charleston, SC - and involve a little shop that sells high quality tea and delicious food.  The kind of place I would own, if I owned a tearoom!  Every volume of the mysteries has recipes in the back, so I always look forward to trying them out.  They are often the same recipes mentioned in the story.

In this book, Sweet Tea Revenge, I had to try the peanut butter scones recipe.  Imagine peanut butter cookies in scone form, and there you go.  Since Drayton had brewed darjeeling early in the book, that's what I made that morning, in my Furman mug since it was Homecoming weekend.  Find a copy of this book for that and other recipes.  There was also a delicious sounding brown sugar shortbread in there, and the peach scones mentioned in the book.

Apple Crisp Mix-In-the-Pan Bars from One Bowl Baking

Yesterday, I posted about the Mocha Valencia Cupcakes from One Bowl Baking.  I made another recipe from that cookbook about a month ago and completely forgot to blog about it - Apple Crisp Mix-in-the-Pan Bars. 

The entire concept of One Bowl Baking is that you don't use more than one bowl, targeted at making preparation and cleanup simpler.  I'm definitely guilty of destroying my entire kitchen for one recipe, so I liked the creativity Yvonne Ruperti used in developing these recipes.  This particular recipe has you do most of the mixing in the 9x13 pan the bars are going to be baked in.  While I appreciate the attempt, I am just not coordinated enough to mix in a shallow pan without getting flour everywhere, so next time I would mix them in a bowl. 

The end result was tasty, and I got to use local Mutsu apples from Flat Rock, NC.  This was my first apple recipe of the season!

Full disclosure: I did receive a copy of this cookbook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  I picked out recipes to try and posted about them here, as well as reviewing the entire cookbook in GoodReads.

Mocha Valencia Cupcakes from One Bowl Baking

Coffee + chocolate + orange has to be the best flavor combination in the world, although I might make an exception for chocolate + peanut butter or chocolate + cinnamon (I'm sensing a theme.)  Starbucks used to have a drink called a Mocha Valencia, which was this blissful combination of mocha and orange.  I had an even more favorite version at Coffee People, a place in Portland that has changed hands too many times since the time I loved it - there, they had a Cappuccino Borgia that was a similar flavor combination.

When I looked through One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti, the recipe for Mocha Valencia Cupcakes really jumped out and grabbed me.  She had a similar story - she bemoaned the loss of the Mocha Valencia at Starbucks and tried to recreate it in a cupcake.  I had to make them too.  The cupcakes are a moist chocolate cake with coffee and orange, and the topping is a rich ganache with all the same flavors.  They were a huge hit and I will make them again.

Yvonne Ruperti has worked as a recipe tester and developer at America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated, and these skills come across in the entire book.  Highly recommended!

Gluten-Free Apple Oven Pancake

The picture isn't beautiful, but I decided to blog it anyway.  I miss oven pancakes! So I decided to just wing an oven pancake using our standard pancake/crepe made from peanut butter and eggs. I sauted two sliced apples (Pink Lady!) in butter, brown sugar Splenda, and cinnamon, then poured the batter over.  I slipped the pan into the preheated 400 F oven for about 10 minutes and let the batter set.  It wasn't quite the same as white flour, but it satisfied our oven pancake cravings!! Perfect for fall.

Apple Custard Cake

I came across this Cinnamon-Apple Pie Cake recipe via Pinterest, and was intrigued.  I made it for my in-laws when they visited.  It's pretty tasty, and simply, just pile up apple slices in a pan and pour batter over it.  The batter takes on a custardy texture, so I think I would rename it as Apple Custard Cake.  The only pie-like thing is that apples are stacked on top of each other, but the batter is soft and lovely like a custard.

The recipe called for 6-8 apples but I had just gotten local apples that are huge so I used 2 Mutsu and 1 Shizuka, and that filled the springform pan to 2/3 full as directed. Definitely chill it before slicing, but I'd serve it heated back up with ice cream.  I'd also add a pinch of salt to the batter, and maybe some more cinnamon. 

Apple Custard Cake

(formerly known as Cinnamon-Apple Pie Cake from RecipeGirl)

Yield: Serves 10

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 1 hour 20 min

Ingredients:

Enough peeled and sliced apples to fill the springform pan 2/3 full
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon- sugar (1 1/4 T. sugar + 1/4 t. cinnamon)
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups superfine white sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable or canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
more cinnamon-sugar to sprinkle on top (same as above)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 1/2 to 10-inch springform pan with nonstick spray. Line the bottom with a round of parchment paper and then spray again.
2. Layer the apple slices in the pan until they come about 2/3 of the way up the side. (I went a little higher than that and it worked out fine). Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar over the apples.
3. Prepare the batter by beating the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the oil and the vanilla and beat well, then stir in the flour. Pour the batter on top of the apples, and sprinkle with additional cinnamon-sugar. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to allow the batter to sink down and around the apples.
4. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool *completely* in the pan. If you try to remove the cake from the pan while it is still warm, it will tend to break apart. I refrigerated my cake before slicing, and that worked out well. Serve slices with ice cream (warm individual slices in the microwave, if desired).

Book Review: Pomegranates & Pine Nuts by Bethany Kehdy

Pomegranates & Pine Nuts: A stunning collection of Lebanese, Moroccan and Persian recipes by Bethany Kehdy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a review copy of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm always interested to see cookbooks from bloggers, and Bethany Kehdy was known to me from her Dirty Kitchen Secrets blog. The photography alone in this cookbook makes it a worthwhile purchase, truly vibrant and enticing photos.

The cookbook is divided into very practical sections, by meal type, making it simple to use. There is a regional but varied collection of Lebanese, Moroccan, and Persian recipes, with a nice combination of basics and new spins on traditional recipes. I particularly appreciated the vegetarian section, since this area of the world has great vegetarian cuisine! The basics section in the back has a wealth of recipes that would be an asset to any kitchen, including spice mixes, bread recipes, and other staples.

What I've marked to try:

Meze
Dynamite Chili Cigars ("briwat")
Pomegranate and Cucumber Salad
Moroccan Citrus Salad

Vegetarian
Pan-fried Squares
Slow-cooked fava bean and tomato stew

Desserts
Semolina pancakes (called "beghrir" which means "1,000 holes," and ever since seeing a picture I'm so intrigued!)
Turkish Delight (the real kind, with actual flavors!)

Basic Recipes
Arabic bread (pictured above)
Thin Flatbread

"Primal" Banana Muffins (lower sugar, paleo)

Coconut flour and I aren't quite getting along yet.  When I first tried using it, I ended up with baked goods of amazing density.  As I got better at finding recipes with better ratios (coconut flour needs a LOT more liquid), I had such successes as Coconut Flour Pancakes and my own recipe for Crumble.

Then there are recipes like this one, where everything is just a little too moist, a little too soft, despite attempting to bake them longer.  I suspect one culprit may be that I adapted this paleo recipe by substituting Splenda for the honey, but I was so concerned I'd throw off that moisture balance that I added milk.  Completely unnecessary.

Not to mention that bananas are so high in carbs and sugar, it isn't like this recipe ends up being very low-carb the way that many coconut flour recipes do.  Ah well.  It wasn't awful, and I thought the coconut on top was tasty too. 

"Primal" Coconut Flour Banana Bread

(original recipe from SparkPeople, my notes in parentheses)

Ingredients

2-3 ripe, mashed bananas (I used 3, should have gone with 2.5)
1/3 c butter, melted
6 eggs
2 tbsp honey (I used brown sugar splenda and added a bit of milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/3 cup nuts (optional)

Directions

Combine bananas and melted butter. Mix well. Add eggs, [honey], and vanilla and whisk until eggs are combined.

In separate bowl stir together dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients. Add nuts if using and stir in.

Transfer batter to greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. (I made muffins and baked 23 minutes.)

Serving Size: makes 1 loaf (or 16 muffins)

Number of Servings: 8

Low-Carb Pumpkin Waffles

I adapted a few recipes I found online for low-carb pumpkin waffles to use the ingredients I had on hand.  We wanted pumpkin!  These were good; the spices really added to the flavor.  And I've made waffles with this protein powder and flaxseed trick before.

Pumpkin Waffles (low-carb)

• 4 eggs
• 2 scoops protein powder (I used vanilla)
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal
• 2 tbsp almond-coconut milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients until smooth.
2. Cook batches in pre-sprayed waffle maker on medium high temperature until bubbles form on the surface, then turn over and cook until dark golden brown.
3. Serve with sugar-free syrup.

Pumpkin Cornbread

I've been starting to think about Thanksgiving this year because we have family coming, and this pumpkin cornbread was my first recipe test success!  Not too sweet, hearty, textured - this is a winner!  When I make it again, I'll go ahead and make in muffin form like the original recipe at Sweet Pea's Kitchen gave as an option.  I think as is, it took a bit too long to finish baking in the center.

This will be so good with cinnamon-honey butter!

Pumpkin Cornbread

(recipe from Sweet Pea's Kitchen)

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup cornmeal
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon molasses

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8×8″ cake pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, spices, brown sugar, and cornmeal; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, lightly beat the eggs, and then stir in the pumpkin, oil, and molasses.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined, and then pour the batter into the pan, smoothing the top.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Recipe Note:
This recipe makes 12 cornbread muffins, reduce baking time to 10 to 12 minutes.

Cookbook Review - The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home

The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home by Nick Zukin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a review copy of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who frequents an amazing Jewish deli in my city, yet has only had partial success in making my own bagels, I thumbed through this book with awe and trepidation. The author makes it LOOK easy, but many of these recipes take quite a bit of finesse - babka, rugelach, bagels. Most of the recipes in here are very traditional, but that's completely the point.

I'm happy to keep trying to perfect these recipes, and this book makes me want to try again. Many of the recipes have seasonal variations, which I thought was a nice touch. I've had dreams of the chocolate babka french toast since I saw the picture. That may be our holiday breakfast this year!

I did adapt one recipe to a lower sugar macaroon, and although they got a bit toasty, they were still tasty!


Other recipes I want to try:

Open-faced Potato Knishes
Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Chocolate Babka (and Chocolate Babka French Toast!)
Cheese Blintzes (seasonal toppings include blackberry lavender for summer and spiced pumpkin for fall)
Classic Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Rugelach (for winter - chocolate and fig!)
Three-Strand Braided Challah (with really great picture directions)

Cookbook Review - Southern Italian Desserts

Southern Italian Desserts: The Great Undiscovered Recipes of Sicily, Campania, Puglia, and Beyond by Rosetta Costantino
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a review copy of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This cookbook is very specific, focusing solely on the desserts of Southern Italy. No breads, no main dishes, no cheeses, just desserts. As a baker, I thought this was a wonderful concept for a cookbook. What usually happens is that I will go looking for Italian desserts and I'll come across gelato, ricotta cheesecake, and those fried honey balls that are from several Meditteranean cultures. The specificity of this cookbook allows for a much deeper exploration of a regional cuisine that needs more attention!

The recipes I've marked as most likely to try are a good representation of the contents:

from Sicilia:
Biscotti Eureka (almond filled spiral cookies)
Cuccia di Santa Lucia (wheat berry pudding served on St. Lucia day)

from Campania:
Pere Mast 'Antuono Imbottite (ricotta-filled baked pears)
La Coviglia al Caffe (frozen espresso mousse)

from Calabria
Torta di Melee Ricotta (apple and ricotta cake, going to try this next weekend!)

from Puglia & Basilicata
Dolci di Noci (walnut cookies)

The only recipe I could not even fathom is the Crostata al Gelo di Mellone, which is a watermelon pudding cake. But it sounds so strange, and looks so interesting, that I just know I'll end up making it. I'm always the most interested in the recipes I can't imagine.

The cookbook is saturated with historical context, in fact more of the pictures are of scenery than of the recipes. For me, I would have liked more pictures of the finished product, but the contextual information is fascinating and makes the cookbook very readable.

Cookbook Review - Balaboosta

Balaboosta by Einat Admony
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a review copy of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Einat Admony is the chef-owner of two NYC restaurants - Balaboosta and Taïm (a falafel/smoothie vegetarian place!). While you might expect this cookbook to be a companion book to the restaurant of the same name, it really isn't, except for one chapter called "Fancy-Schmancy," which features recipes from the restaurant.

Balaboosta is a Yiddish term meaning "the perfect housewife, homemaker, wonderful mother, cook & gracious hostess. She does it all and she does it well!" (definition taken from restaurant website). The idea is that Einat Admony is the embodiment of a balaboosta, and she includes recipes that span her own heritage as well as the broader scope of Mediterranean cuisine. If that sounds a bit far-reaching, well, it is, but there are traditional recipes alongside modern takes on dishes in this book that I really appreciated.

The sections are not divided by type of dish, but rather by theme. There are chapters such as "Grown-Up Table," "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry," and "Backyard Barbecue." This makes for a more difficult quick reference, but aids in meal planning for entertaining or just making dinner.

From the "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry" section, I made shakshuka, a spicy egg-tomato dish. I've made varieties of this dish before from other cultures, but this one is more of an Israeli focus. It was good, a nice balance of vegetables and spices, although I did instinctively cut back on the salt called for (and wished I'd cut back more!)


I had also marked the Casablanca Catch and Challah from the "Grown-Up Table" section, Moroccan Carrots and Eighteen-Minute Rice from the "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry" section, and Sabich (an Iraqi eggplant sandwich), baklava, and Sambusak (Israeli empanada-ish dish) from "Thinking About Home." The "cook/bake the book" people over at Serious Eats recently made the baklava, and the recipe is available over there if you want to take a peek.

The last recipe I had a chance to try were the Space Cookies. The recipe calls for tahini and poppy seeds, and I had always wanted to try tahini in a cookie after seeing it all over Turkish baking blogs. I'm not sure what I personally thought of the recipe - there were no eggs in it so the texture was more like shortbread, very crumbly, and I thought the tahini was pretty savory for a cookie. I brought them to work and my student workers were equally torn, until two guys came in and ate the rest between the two of them. Although the verdict was mixed, I think they were definitely appreciated by those two.


The one recipe I will most definitely still make because I can't get it out of my head is the Turkish Coffee Brownies. I had to track down cardamom at the spice store downtown because none of the local grocery stores seem to be stocking it these days, and then there is the challenge of keeping chocolate in the house... but someday, it will happen. Someday soon. And that recipe is a great example of the combination of traditional ingredients presented in a new way - Turkish coffee in brownie form.

Peach Poppyseed Cake

Even after making mohnkuchen and space cookies, I still had poppyseeds to burn!  My new friend Angelika sent me a recipe for a poppyseed-nut-peach cake, and after finding local peaches at the farmers' market, I decided to give this one a go.

I'll include the recipe as converted to American measurements, although Angelika did the translating.  It should have nuts, but I was out.  It also should have a jam glaze but I didn't have any light in color, so I made a simple butter-powdered sugar-cream-rum glaze for the top.

Poppyseed-Nut-Peach Cake

Batter:
1 1/2 cups (minus 2 tbsp) flour
2/3 cup-3/4 cup poppy seeds (to taste)
2/3 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup sugar
12 tbsp soft butter
4 eggs
3 tablespoons rum
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 large peaches (3 small), peeled and sliced, with the pits removed

Glaze:
150 g Apricot jam
1 Tablespoon rum

Decoration:
Whipped cream and / or confectioners‘ sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cream soft butter with sugar until creamy. Add eggs one of the time, beating after each addition.
3. Mix in the rest of the ingredients (alternating dry and wet is a good way to go.)
4. Put batter in greased and floured Springform pan.
5. Push peach slices down into batter, smooth backs showing, in whatever pattern you desire.
6. Bake about 35 Minutes (check with wooden pick)
7. Heat jam with rum and spread it out on cake. 
8. Let it cool and decorate as desired.

My batter looked like this prior to baking

Trying a Recipe from Balaboosta: Space Cookies

One of the cookbooks I got to review from NetGalley is Balaboosta by Einat Admony.  The publisher description says it best:

Einat Admony is a 21st-century balaboosta (Yiddish for “perfect housewife”).She’s a mother and wife, but also a chef busy running three bustling New York City restaurants. Her debut cookbook features 140 of the recipes she cooks for the people she loves—her children, her husband, and the many friends she regularly entertains. Here, Einat’s mixed Israeli heritage (Yemenite, Persian) seamlessly blends with the fresh, sophisticated Mediterranean palate she honed while working in some of New York City’s most beloved kitchens.


The cookbook is organized not by meal type but in suggested meals or types of occasions.  It makes it a little hard to navigate but it would be completely flexible how a person could mix and match the recipes.

This isn't intended to be a full cookbook review, as I have two more recipes I want to try out first.  I keep seeing tahini cookies mentioned in Turkish blogs, so when I saw her recipe for "Space Cookies," I knew that would be the recipe I'd try.

Don't Google Space Cookies.  Or do, but all the mentions I can find of them are pot cookies.  That is not what this recipe is, so when I made them for my student workers, I called them "Tahini and Poppy Seed Cookies."  I won't be posting the recipe because the book isn't out yet, and there's a chance it will be tweaked before it is published.

I'm still not sure what I think of them.  I ate two the night I made the cookies, and kept stopping and asking, "Do I like this?"  Tahini is similar to peanut butter in some ways, and we use peanut butter in sweet dishes all the time.  There is enough tahini in these cookies to be noticeable, maybe a bit bitter.  The poppy seeds only added to that bitter element.  I also wasn't sold on the texture of the cookies; lacking eggs, they had more of a crumbly shortbread texture than I personally prefer.  Full disclosure: I have a bias against shortbread.  And still I'm not sure what to think of the cookies.  Maybe I need to make them again.

What I do love about this and other recipes in the cookbook is that Admony takes ingredients we think of from the Mediterranean region and uses them in different ways.  Some of the recipes are traditional, maybe slightly tweaked or improved, while recipes like this take ingredients like tahini and combine them in new ways.  Just wait until I track down some cardamom in order to test the Turkish Coffee brownies!