I made that!

I didn’t think it was possible, but I’ve found a better version of bread pudding. Think of it as bread pudding: the sequal. It’s so easy that I feel a bit slow for having not thought of it sooner. I have my new cookbook “Rustic Fruit Desserts” to thank, for showing me the light. 

First you get some lovely berries. I haven’t made anything with raspberries yet this summer, so that’s where I’m going. But I used blackberries a couple of weeks ago and it was super fabulous…

Then you toast up some rich bread. I used challah, but brioche would be tasty.

And then you make a loose pastry cream (aka: vanilla pudding).

And basically just layer it all together.

And bake it for around 20 minutes, just until the berries start to break down a bit and the edges start to set.

And then just dig in. 

Cherries are early this year and I am ON IT. And what better way to kick of cherry season than an upside down cake. An upside down cake with cornmeal and balsamic vinegar.  Oh yes.

First the bloodbath of cherry pitting. No matter how neat I try to be, I always end up with red juice all over me and the kitchen. But it’s ok, I’m excited about all the cherry stains I’m gonna get this summer.

I cooked my pitted cherries in butter, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar. I poured them in the pan to cool.

Then I made a batter.

And a meringue to lighten the batter.

I folded the meringue into the batter, and poured it over the cherries.

I baked it, cooled it, and inverted it! So pretty!

RECIPE (bon Appetit):

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

3 cups whole pitted fresh cherries (about 21 ounces whole unpitted cherries)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, separated

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

It seems the more I learn about baking, the more I appreciate the classics. Lately, I just can’t stop thinking about pound cake. I needed to make some cakes for the cafe, and had some oranges in the fridge, so orange flavored pound cakes it is! I really wanted to taste the orange, so I decided to use both the juice and the zest in my batter.

I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to pound cake. I believe in going sans leavening, letting the hyper-creamed butter and eggs do all the heavy lifting. I’ve been using the recipe my teacher gave my in pastry school, and have found it a great base to add other flavors into. So first step, I creamed my butter and sugar for about 8 minutes, until it was super white and fluffy. Since there is no baking powder or baking soda, it’s important to keep a strong emulsification in the butter, so the batter is strong and gets a lot of height. This makes temperature really important. I try to have every ingredient at room temperature, since things emulsify better when they’re not cold.

Then I slowly drizzled in my eggs and kept beating until it was all smooth.

Then I beat in the orange juice and zest, and finish by sifting in the flour, vanilla bean seeds and salt.

I poured the batter into a lined and buttered loaf pan, slicing down the middle with a spatula to reign in the future hump.

I baked it for about an hour and let it cool.

Then I made a glaze out of the orange juice and powdered sugar. I poured that over the top and let it drip down the sides.

Stop by Etiquette Lounge and have a slice!

RECIPE:

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract

8 oz butter, room temperature

8 ¾ oz sugar

7 oz cake flour

½ tsp salt

1 ½ TBSP orange zest

3 TBSP orange juice

– Butter and parchment line loaf pan.

– Cream butter and sugar for 8 minutes.

– Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each.

– Continue to beat for 1 minute.

– Add zest and juice.

– Continue to beat for 1 minute.

– Sift in the dries in 3 additions.

– Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top.

– Bake at 325 F for 50 – 80 minutes, or until baked through.

Strawberry rhubarb.

I know it’s totally obvious, but I hadn’t made a strawberry rhubarb crisp before. I’ve never thought of myself as boring, I just generally assumed that apples and pears were what went under a crispy topping. I doubt I really ever “got” rhubarb before. Now I understand. I made a strawberry rhubarb crisp last night, but of course there wasn’t enough (Is there ever?). So I made another one today. I’ll probably make another one tomorrow. It’s THAT good.

Strawberries and rhubarb make big puddles when baked, so I started by chopping them up and macerating them for 30 minutes. I strained out the liquid and tossed the fruit with sugar, cornstarch and the seeds from a vanilla bean.

As I’ve mentioned before, I keep crisp topping in the freezer. So on days when there’s a dessert emergency, or when I’m too lazy to make a pie, I make a crisp. I tossed frozen topping all over my fruit and popped it in the oven.

I baked it until the top was nice and browned. As you can see, the puddles were unavoidable. Totally worth it.

I don’t know about you, but I just learned what a buckle was like 12 hours ago. Once told, I needed to make one immediately. That would be now. It’s Monday, time for me to deliver some baked goodness to Etiquette Lounge. What better cake to go with coffee than one literally “buckling” under the weight of fresh fruit and streusel. I mean, what’s not to love?

First I needed to get my strawberries ready. I chopped them up and placed them in the freezer. Freezing them will help me later on, so that when I mix them into the batter, they won’t fall apart and turn everything pink.

Once my strawberries were tucked away in the freezer, I made my streusel topping. This one was really simple, I just mixed flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt with melted butter and stirred until it clumped together.

I set that aside while I made the batter. I creamed together butter, sugar and lemon zest. Then mixed in flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and the seeds from a vanilla bean.

I stirred in the strawberries and poured the batter into my pan.

I topped it off with my streusel and popped the cake into the oven.

Oh yes.

Luckily I now have a cafe to drop off my experiments, so John and I won’t be forced to devour this cake piece by piece throughout the day. Then again we should have a taste.

RECIPE (adapted from Carole Walter):

STREUSEL:

6 tablespoons butter

¾ cup all-purpose flour

⅓ cup sugar

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon salt

BATTER:

1 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

½ teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

¼ cup milk

2 cups berries, washed and well-dried

– Heat the oven to 350º F.  Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with a parchment circle.

– Prepare the streusel:  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Remove from the heat and cool to tepid.  In a small bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, and cinnamon, and salt and add it to the melted butter.  Stir the mixture with a fork and set aside.

– Make the Batter:  In a large bowl, thoroughly whisk together the flour, baking powder, vanilla bean seeds and salt.  Set aside.

– Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place it in the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the lemon zest, and mix on medium speed until smooth and lightened in color, 1 ½ to 2 minutes.

– Add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, taking 5 to 6 minutes to blend it in well. Scrape the side of the bowl occasionally. Add the eggs, one at a time, 1 minute apart. Beat for 1 minute longer, scraping the side of bowl as necessary.

– Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, dividing the dry ingredients into 3 parts and the liquid into 2 parts, starting and ending with the flour. Beat just until incorporated after each addition. Scrape the side of the bowl and mix for 10 seconds longer.

– Carefully fold the berries into the batter using a rubber spatula, then empty the mixture into the pan. (Note: This is a very thick batter.) Spread the batter evenly, leveling the surface as best you can.   

– Take a handful of the crumb mixture and make a fist to form a large clump.  Then break the clump into coarse crumbs and sprinkle them evenly over the filling.  Repeat until all of the crumbs have been used and the batter is completely covered.  Pat the streusel gently into the batter.

– Bake for 50-55 minutes.  The cake is done when the streusel topping is golden brown and the cake begins to pull away from the side of the pan.  A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.

– Remove the cake from the oven and let stand on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Remove the side of the pan and let cool for 30 minutes longer.

Today I’m craving cake. So I made one!

First I browned some butter.

Then I whipped some eggs and sugar until they were nice and fluffy. I whipped the browned butter into my fluffy egg mixture.

Then I folded in flour, almond meal, powdered sugar, baking powder and the seeds of a vanilla bean.

I poured that into my pan and tossed on some sliced almonds.

I baked it, cooled it, and sprinkled some powdered sugar on top.

But then I wanted something bright. So I stuffed it with some raspberry jam.

Happy happy cake day!

RECIPE (adapted from Carole Walter):

6 oz butter

1 vanilla bean

1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar

4 oz almond meal

1 cup flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

6 egg whites (3/4 cup)

2 eggs

¼ tsp salt

½ cup sugar

2 tbsp sliced almonds

– Place butter in pan and brown.

– Heat oven to 350.

– Butter 10” springform pan.

– Mix powdered sugar, flour, almond meal and baking powder.

– Scrape out the seeds from a vanilla bean and rub into dry mixture.

– Place eggs, egg whites and salt in mixer and whip on medium speed until frothy.

– Increase speed and slowly whisk in sugar.

– Continue whisking until thick and fluffy.

– Reduce speed to medium and pour in browned butter in a slow stream, scraping in browned bits.

– Fold in dry mixture.

– Pour into pan and sprinkle with sliced almonds.

– Bake 35-40 minutes.

– Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes before unmolding.