Scones from Enrico Biscotti Co.

During undergrad I took a 7:56am bus to the Strip District almost every Saturday. Now I avoid Saturday because it gets so crowded! Still, I love the Strip and I go there for different things depending on my mood and the time of year.

Right now i'm in a scone phase. While I like traditional, soft cream scones with jam or clotted cream, I'm rather partial to drop scones. These ones have particularly crusty exteriors (and i'm a sucker for anything crusty.)

I think my current favorite flavor is raspberry with lemon icing. Today I decided on lemon and chocolate chip/pecan. They were perfect with coffee. In general I love the combination of chocolate/lemon and coffee/lemon.



The Enrico Biscotti Company is one of my favorite places. You can always find good, comforting food there, and Larry Lagatutta has great stories about old italian ladies, handed-down recipes, and knife injuries. Their cafe is now open six days a week, so you can get your wood-fired-pizza fix.

Now if only the yearly supply of Bahlsen christmas cookies would arrive. Then it would really feel like fall.

Fruit and Nut Bars

Fruit and Nut Bars from Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies.

I have two roommates. One of them loved these bars and the other said, "I think they look a little too healthy for me."

I think the apple anadama coffee cake also falls into the slightly too healthy category. Personally, I love baked goods with a high percentage of "stuff" in them, whether that's nuts, grains, fruits, etc. Unfortunately, these things don't move very quickly when you try to ditch them at work or class.

Maybe it's the slightly brown, healthy color or the large chunks of fruit that throws people off. I keep thinking "if they tried it, they'd like it! It tastes good!"

The office can be a strange place. Women will devour chocolate cupcakes with three inch thick frosting if someone says it's made with splenda, but they'll ignore a perfectly nice fruit bar. Hmph.

This recipe is available here.

Apple Anadama Coffee Cake

This the sort of cake I imagine Heidi Swanson or Molly would like.

It's very hearty and seasonally appropriate. Cornmeal, whole wheat flour, semolina flour, and grated apples give the cake a dense texture that's somewhat like a bran muffin. The crunchy cornmeal streusel on top is a nice addition too.

Sometimes it's nice to enjoy something that's not overly sweet.

Apple Anadama Coffee Cake
adapted from Leslie Mackie's Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup fine whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp kosher salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
3 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 granny smith apples, peeled and grated
2/3 cup buttermilk

for the topping:
2 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled
3 tbsp cornmeal
3 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/3 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350. Oil a 9in square baking pan.

Combine flours, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon and set aside.

Place butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed for 5-8 minutes. The creamed butter will become smooth and pale in color.

In a medium bowl, combine molasses, eggs, and vanilla extract and mix with a whisk. With the stand mixer on low speed, slowly pour the molasses mixture into the creamed butter and mix with the paddle attachment for about 2 minutes. At first the butter will look like it's separating, but don't worry. Add the grated apples and continue mixing on low speed for 30 seconds.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Alternately add small amounts of the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the bowl, mixing with a wooden spoon just until the batter comes together. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Set aside.

for the topping:
Place all topping ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the paddle attachment on low speed for 1-2 minutes. The topping will become coarse and crumbly.

Spread topping evenly over the cake and bake for 40-45 mins. Test center with a skewer. It will come out clean when the cake is finished. Let cook for 20 minutes on a wire rack, then run a sharp knife around the sides of the cake to release it from the baking pan. Invert pan to remove the coffee cake, then place it, topping side up, on a serving plate. Leftovers can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temp for 3 days.

Blondies (not boring!)

Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies continues to surprise me.

I usually hate blondies. My usual reaction is too much flour, too little flavor. These were great for a few reasons: they're simple (melt the butter and mix in everything else,) they're chewy, and they're full of flavor.

Alice Medrich suggests adding a tablespoon of dark rum. Don't omit this step! You can, but I thought the rum added a fantastic and surprising depth of flavor.

Try to use good chocolate chips if you can; I used 62% Nestle Chocolatier chips. They're not the best, but they're much better than the normal tollhouse. Chopped bittersweet chocolate would work nicely too.

Please, please don't overbake these!

Blondies
adapted from Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
8 tbsp butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar, lump free
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp dark rum or bourbon
2/3 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 inch square pan, lined with parchment paper or foil

Preheat the oven to 350. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and mix together thoroughly with a wisk or fork. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the brown sugar. Use a wooden spoon to beat in the egg, vanilla, and rum, if using. Stir in the flour mixture followed by half of the walnuts. Spread the batter in the pan. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts and the chocolate chips evenly over the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the nuts look toasted, the top is golden brown, and the edges have pulled away from the sides of the pan. Cool in the pan on a rack. Lift the ends of the parchment or foil and transfer to a cutting board. Use a long, sharp knife to cut into 16 squares. May be stored, airtight, for 3-4 days.

Sweet and Spicy Nuts.

I had a library student potluck last night. The blackout cake went over well; the outer frosting got way too hard in the fridge, but the inside was very moist. I'd happily eat a bowl of the pudding filling by itself.

I also made this recipe for Sweet and Spicy Nuts from The Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook. I have no photo because everyone ate them! The cayenne pepper gives these spiced nuts a pleasant kick. They'd make a good holiday gift or holiday party contribution. Feel free to substitute other nuts; I used 2c walnuts, 1c almonds/pecans, and 1c hazelnuts.

Sweet and Spicy Nuts
1 cup whole almonds
1 cup whole peanuts
1 cup whole pecans
1 cup walnut halves
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup light corn syrup

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, then brush the top of the paper with canola oil.

Combine almonds, peanuts, pecans, and walnuts in a medium bowl.

Combine cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, ginger, pepper, cayenne and salt in a small bowl. Mix well, then pour the spice mixture over the nuts and toss together thoroughly.

Combine honey and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and place over low heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is just warm. Pour the mixture over the nuts and toss together until the nuts are evenly coated.

Pour the nuts onto the prepared baking sheet and spread them in a single layer. Bake on a center rack of oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the nuts take on a rich mahogany color. Let the nuts cool completely. At this point they will have formed a single, crispy layer in the baking sheet. Break the nuts apart with your hands and store in an airtight container. Store in a cool place, as heat will melt the syrup on the nuts and make them sticky.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

This is the Brooklyn Blackout Cake from Tish Boyle's The Cake Book.

Something is wrong. My baking has been off for a week and a half or so- about the entire time i've been ill. I decided to make this cake for a potluck, but nothing went quite right.

The cake layers were either undercooked, or over-ly moist. This could have been due to too much liquid, or the fact that valrhona cocoa powder has a higher fat content than other cocoa powders. Probably too much liquid, too little flour. My chocolate pudding filling wasn't as set as I would have liked. I think I should have used a higher percentage cocoa.

When I tried to frost the cake, the broken middle layer started sliding out with the pudding. I managed to precariously cover the mess in frosting and hide all damage with the cake crumbs.

I'm going to serve it anyway without comment and hope it tastes fine.

Flag-Raising Apple Pie

I'm practicing for the upcoming Slow Food Pittsburgh apple pie contest. It's difficult; apple pie has so many variables and i've never actually had one I really, truly liked. For me, key factors are:

1. crispy crust that has flavor (ie- plain shortening won't cut it.)
2. properly cooked apples
3. doesn't turn into a mess when you cut into it
4. doesn't have an inch of liquid in the bottom.

I've always loved my mother's apple pie. She uses gala apples and butter flavored shortening. The problem is a lot of people hate butter flavored shortening.

I don't think a fancy tart crust ala Maury Rubin or Pierre Herme suits apple pie. I like a rustic quality- something closer to a crostata.

I've had crusts made with oil or melted butter that tasted pretty good. Some suggest pre-cooking the crust and the filling. I'm starting to think this might be a good technique. There's also some interesting recipes for dutch apple pie that involve making a caramel/cooked apple mix that gets tossed with the sliced apples.

This first attempt is Flo Braker's "Flag Raising Apple Pie" from The Simple Art of Perfect Baking. The streusel recipe was so simple: butter, sugar, and flour. I thought it'd be boring, but it's fantastic.

The crust recipe was crunchy, but relatively flavorless. It contrasted well with the streusel though. Unforunately, the bottom crust was a disaster. I put too many apples in the pie and they released too much liquid. The bottom crust was beyond soggy, and the apples were undercooked.

I think cornstarch would be a better thickener this time. Flour just doesn't work as well.

Hopefully i'll find a good recipe in time. I'm going to experiment with some other crusts and apples and i'll keep you posted.

Recipe for Failure.

Failure (serves one.)
1 cake recipe
2 garbage bags
1 sponge
1 glass of water
15 spatulas

1. Decide that, despite being really sick, you'd like to bake a cake.

2. Select a cake recipe and corresponding frosting. In this instance we've used Tish Boyle's Banana Cake with Espresso-Caramel Frosting.

3. Prepare the cake according to the directions. You should end up with the most perfect nine inch cakes you've ever produced.

4. Begin the frosting and decide halfway through that you're going to try a new technique for incorporating the sugar.

5. Undercook your sugar syrup, curdle your eggs, then increase the mixer speed to high whilst thinking this will rectify all problems.

6. Attempt to spread the curdled frosting on the cake. Attempt to pipe a lovely border.

7. Refrigerate the cake for ten minutes.

8. Remove cake from fridge and watch the top layer slide off the bottom.

9. Use the sponge to clean large gobs of weeping buttercream from your drawers, countertops, and mixer. Drop the cake into one garbage bag, and once you see the corners of the cake board poking through place it in a second bag. Throw cake into the garbage chute. Pray the bag doesn't burst within the chute.

10. Get a glass of water and go back to bed. Do more grad school homework like you should have done in the first place.

Date Cake with Toffee Sauce

Yesterday I tried to make the Date Cake from Desserts from Chanterelle. I bought a bag of california dates, figuring they'd be fine; however, the recipe calls for 9oz of unpitted medjool dates and I wasn't comfortable estimating a substitution. I made the toffee sauce and decided to buy medjool dates the next day.



The medjool dates are on the right. They're moist and meaty while the california dates are slightly dry and much less flavorful. Sometimes it's worth it to spend slightly more for good ingredients.

I didn't have a 9in square pan, so I set aside one cup of the batter and baked the rest in an 8in square. I used the extra to make some mini cakes for sampling and photos, as the whole cake is going to Bloomfield for a dinner.

This Date Cake is Kate Zuckerman's version of a sticky toffee pudding. It's a great cake for fall; it's spiced with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, espresso powder and rum. The warm toffee sauce is a rich, boozy concoction of butter, cream, rum, and brown sugar.

I highly recommend this. Please don't ask me to post the recipe; I have mentioned several from this book already and I do not think it's fair to put them all online.

Nibby Nut and Raisin Cookies

These are the Nibby Nut and Raisin Cookies from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet.

I used a little too much flour. The cookies didn't spread well, so I flattened the tablespoons of dough with a glass. I felt pretty shocked and dissapointed when the first batch didn't look anything like the picture in the book.

This recipe is nice because it's loaded with currants (in place of raisins,) cocoa nibs, and chopped walnuts. It also omits the creaming step and uses melted butter.

I'd be interested to talk to anyone who's had great success with this recipe. Given my results I think dark brown sugar would work much better than light brown, and I would have liked to throw in a few pinches of cinnamon. Baking the dough without parchment or silicone made the cookies much crispier on the bottom too.