peach brown sugar cake

Posted on July 27, 2011 by hilary924

the theme of this post is: don't be like me. don't forget to bring your butter and cream cheese to room temperature. don't forget to add the peaches. and, for all that is holy, don't forget to add the flour. we are not inventing flourless peach cake around here. grody.

that said, all of those things happened to me when i made this cake. an audience of distracting girlfriends discussing vampire novels and work drama and some cocktails featuring passion fruit juice, limoncello and blackberries may have been to blame.

or i'm just a ditz.

in any event. the cake turned out just fine. there are few problems you can't solve. let's start with ice cold butter that miraculously needs to become room temp butter so you can cream it properly!

yep, that's what you do. chop it up. let it hang out in your kitchen while you have a cocktail and make dinner. know what goes great with zucchini soup? grilled cheese. nom nom.

now you're ready to cream. here's the thing about creaming butter and sugar. you aren't just combining ingredients, or it would be called mixing. what you're really trying to do is to aerate your batter – fill it up with little air bubbles that your leavener (baking soda and/or baking powder) will make bigger. That is what will create a light fluffy yummy cake.

letting your butter come to room temp is like a pre-dinner cocktail. it just makes dinner better. it creates better air bubbles. and room temp butter just gives a little when you press it. it isn't half melted cause you nuked it for a few seconds too long. not that i would judge, cause i almost forgot the flour. and the peaches. good lord.

ok, now our room temperature butter is getting to know the white and brown sugar. i used dark brown sugar, which gave the cake (and later the frosting) a lovely flavor but a relatively unappetizing uniformly brown color. don't be like me – use dark for your cake and light for your frosting.

again, i ask for your patience. cream at low speed – not above medium on your electric mixer. and you need to give the butter and sugar about 3-5 minutes. if you've never creamed before, it's going to feel like forever. pour yourself another cocktail.

eventually, the color will change. check that out! it got all light and creamy and fluffy!

these are really atrocious photos. light! i need light!

moving on. at this point, you add, in stages, all the other ingredients. seriously. ALL the other ingredients. don't be like me. i put some adorable orange polka dotted cupcake wrappers into my cupcake tin and filled them with batter. then i turned and saw the pile of chopped peaches on my cutting board. ever resourceful, i just stirred a spoonful of peaches into each cupcake. victory! into the oven!

then i noticed the bowl of sifted flour on the counter. it wasn't pretty, but we eventually ended up here:

not too shabby.

while the cake is baking, make your frosting. this is really magical frosting. a little bit of tang from the cream cheese, and true, caramely, brown sugar goodness. but it needs some time to set up in the fridge – which can happen while your cake is cooling!

check out those chunks of peach. this is a really lovely moist cake due in part to the fruit and the sour cream. the bits of peaches are small enough to infuse the cake with subtle peachiness and still give you bright pops of flavor.

there are a couple of keys to a smooth layer cake. smitten kitchen – also the authoress of this divine recipe – has a great post on it here. today, i will demonstrate how to frost a crumb-free cake!

start with a base layer. not super pretty.

but stick the ake in the fridge to firm up the base frosting layer – i gave it about 20 minutes – and then your second layer will go on smoothly and without any crumbs.

kids, this cake is BROWN. but the raspberries sort of saved the day. next time, i'd also add some raspberries as a filling. they kick up the sweet-tart of the frosting and break up the sweet-sweet of the cake.

Peach Brown Sugar Cake

From Smitten Kitchen. See this recipe baked as intended here.

Makes 24 to 28 cupcakes – or one 9 inch layer cake

3 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose, worked fine)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of nutmeg
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk, sour cream or full-fat yogurt
3 large peaches, peeled, cored, and chopped smallish

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 28 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition, and then the vanilla. Gently mix in the buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the peach chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely. The cake layers were done in about 25 to 27 minutes.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. Chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes, then spread or dollop on cooled cupcakes.

life-changing zucchini soup

Posted on July 25, 2011 by hilary924

perhaps you are asking yourself, why on god's green earth would anyone be making soup – and we are talking hot soup here, not chilled refreshing gazpacho – not only in the middle of summer, but in the middle of the worst heat wave this country has seen in a long, long time?

well, i didn't leave the house yesterday. the somm and i cranked up the ac, lowered the blinds, settled our tushes into the couch and took shelter.

i didn't even go to the gym. its getting serious.

but back to the soup. a friend sent me the recipe. i thanked her. i was close to moving on. i'm not a soup person. my mom – she is all about the soup. soup just doesn't always get it done for me.

then my friend sent a one sentence email: the zucchini soup will change your life.

talk about getting serious. i'm in!

we're going to start with some onions.

diced onion is going to get up close and personal with more butter and olive oil than i usually use (sorry honey!) and some thyme and bay. i took a picture, frankly it didn't look as appetizing as it smelled. butter. mmm.

add your chunked zucchini and chicken stock. i used some homemade stock from the freezer. the sommelier came that much closer to finding the ice cream sandwiches.

once it's all cooked up together, you blend it up. you know, in your blender. or use one of those fancy immersion blender wands. i don't have one, although some kind person did buy me one for my wedding. i had registered for it and everything. i thought it might inspire me to make soup. i had visions of sharing soup recipes with my mother. then it arrived and i looked at it and realized that, really, i'm not a soup person. i returned it and put the money towards filling out my pots and pans set. my sincere apologies. but seriously, i'm using the hell out of those pots and pans.

soup therapy session over! time for the croutons! you're going to need lots of basil.

i keep mine in a vase. with my flowers.

god, i love the woman who sells the flowers at my farmers market. she puts basil IN THE ARRANGEMENTS sometimes. purple basil – do you see it back there? love. it. so does manchego. check him out surveying his domain.

moments after this photo was taken, he started gnawing on the flower arrangements.

anyway. i saved the basil from the gatito. and let me pass along this advice: do not skip the croutons. they are buttery, basily cubes of goodness.

let them get all brown and toasty.

so good. i am that much closer to being a soup person.

and mom – you should try this soup. here's the recipe!

Zucchini Soup with Basil Croutons

from Food & Wine Magazine

SOUP

3 tbs butter
3 tbs olive oil
3 celery ribs, peeled and diced (I didn't have celery. I didn't miss it.)
1 medium onion, minced (I may have subbed extra onion for the missing celery. But I can never tell what a "medium" onion is supposed to be.)
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp chopped thyme leaves
1 1/2 lb zucchini (F&W said to use little guys, I used two big dudes. Eh.)
3 cups chicken stock
Salt & Pepper
More basil

In a large heavy saucepan, melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the celery, onion, bay leaf and thyme and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 20 minutes. Increase the heat to moderate. Stir in the zucchini and stock, season with salt and pepper and simmer the soup until the zucchini is soft, about 10 minutes. Discard the bay leaf.

CROUTONS

2 tbs butter
1/3 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
2 cups-ish country bread, cut into 1/2 ince dice
Salt & Pepper

In a large skillet, melt the butter over moderately high heat. Stir in the chopped basil, then add the bread cubes and toss to coat with the butter. Season the bread cubes with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes, or until the bread cubes are lightly toasted and crispy. Transfer to a plate.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. This is important – soup expand when it gets hot and blended. Leave a little air hole at the top of your blender. Enough for steam, not enough to splatter soup everywhere. You'll be sad.

Return the soup to the saucepan and reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, top with the croutons and basil leaves and serve.

more. cherries.

Posted on July 22, 2011 by hilary924

i did manage to pit and freeze a good pound of sour cherries this week. remember these?

some day, god willing, i'll live in a house with a separate freezer for crazy things like summer cherries, and chicken stock, and, well, everything i want in a freezer that otherwise drives the sommelier crazy. because when there are frozen chicken breasts and cookie dough and leftover adorable little individual servings of browned onion kugel that i just couldn't eat or throw away and that are just AMAZING still if you just microwave them and then you don't have to cook for just yourself on an average wednesday, it can be awfully hard to find the cherry garcia frozen yogurt. that is really all the sommelier wants out of his freezer. can't say i blame him.

BUT, if he ever does make it back to the sweatbox known as dc, now that i have frozen the cherries, i'll be able to recreate this for him:

cherry clafouti! continuing on this week's theme of summer food that is fun to say. clafouti! rhymes with booty! another yummy french dish.

in addition to being a very yummy, custardy dessert, clafouti has an entertaining wikipedia entry:

"The dish's name derives from Occitan clafotís (Occitan pronunciation: [klafuˈti]), from the verb clafir, meaning "to fill" (implied: "the batter with cherries"). Clafoutis apparently spread throughout France during the 19th century."

clafouti: to fill one's batter with cherries.

i also filled my batter with lemony goodness.

i trew in some vanilla and almond extract too. and left the cherry pits in. apparently that is the "authentic" way to do so, and i'd already thumbed my nose at julia over the ratatouille this week, plus it's supposed to taste almondy-er. it worked out ok for me. just be sure to warn your dinner guests!

Cherry Clafouti

Largeish handful of cherries – tart or sweet, with or without pits.
1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup white sugar (maybe less for sweet cherries)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 lemon's worth of zest
Turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Warm your milk in a saucepan – bring to a simmer but don't boil. If you boil it start over. No one likes burnt milk. Unless it's for dulche de leche. But that's not what we're doing here.

Whisk together the rest of the ingredients. It'll be a little sticky. SUPER DUPER slowly, whisk in the milk. Don't scramble your eggs!

Cover the bottom of four ramekins with one layer of cherries (fill ramekin with cherries!). Pour custard batter over cherries (fill cherry-filled ramekin with custard!).

Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes. Then sprinkle with turbinado sugar and keep baking for another 5-10 minutes until set and golden brown.

freestyle ratatouille

Posted on July 21, 2011 by hilary924

there are two veggie dishes that just scream summer to me. they are also two dishes that are super fun to say. ratatouille! succotash!

today, we're talking ratatouille.

everyone in america now knows what ratatouille is thanks to this adorable mouse.

both ratatouille and succotash make excellent use of the veggies that are at their prime in summer. for ratatouille, this means tomatoes. eggplants. squash. sweet peppers. basil and other herbs.

you can't really see it, but there's a super pretty purple and white striped eggplant in that pile. remember when that pile was bigger?

there's that eggplant! and a very uncharacteristically curious cat.

some people (ahem julia child) have lots of rules about ratatouille. sauteing the various vegetable separately to maintain their vegetal integrity. that just sounds like a lot of cleaning for this servantless chef. and while thomas keller's perfectly composed little dish of ratatouille for said movie looked delectable, i just can't be bothered on a weeknight. i like my ratatouille peasant style, stewy and infused with the taste of summer.

so, here goes some freestyle ratatouille. i'm not even going to give you a real recipe. first. chop your veggies. you know what you like. i like more tomato than sweet pepper. i like lots of garlic and a nice big onion. i like a 1:1ish ratio of eggplant and zucchini.

heat some oil. sweat out your onions. add your garlic. add your tomatoes. let it hang out and get a little mushy. then add your eggplant and zucchini. hit it with some salt and pepper, and some chopped herbs – i like basil and thyme. cover and let it melt together. melt it at much as you like. want your veggies to have a bit of bite? add them in stages. or be all julia child and sear them in a separate pan and then add to your tomato. i won't judge. too much.

this is what last night's ratatouille looked like:

don't judge these knife skills. it's all going to come together. what will bring it together? red wine vinegar.

there are a couple of things that i've learned that have made me a better cook. 1) salt your food. think you've added enough? add another pinch. do it. 2) acid. acid does amazing things for food. a squeeze of lemon, a squirt of vinegar, will brighten up most dishes. professional chefs know how to use acid. home cooks usually don't. red wine vinegar will bring your ratatouille together.

but, a little goat cheese wouldn't hurt. some more basil. maybe some french bread? red wine?

yum.

and what's better than a plate of ratatouille? ratatouille on pizza.

whole wheat crust, mozzarella, more of that goat cheese, maybe some chicken sausage. layer on some more summer veggies.

(please note that the farmer's market was not harmed in the addition of vegetables to this pizza, they were kindly donated by friends who then helped consume the results. unlike my sad underacheivers, their deck garden is going gangbusters. something about watering and fertilizing? sigh.)

bake it up.

mmm. need to feel more virtuous? add some kale salad. dinner's on!

Ratatouille

Saute onions and garlic. Add chopped tomatoes. Add chopped eggplant, zucchini, bell pepers, basil and thyme. Simmer until it reaches the desired consistency. Add a few splashes of red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Maybe some red pepper flakes if you're feeling spicy.

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar (or honey!)
1 tsp yeast.
1 cup cold water

Mix flours, salt, sugar, and yeast. Add cold water and stir/knead until it forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Oil a clean bowl. Let the dough hang out in the oiled bowl, tightly covered. At least 2-4 hours, but all day is good too if you're like me and can't wait to eat until 10 pm on a work night and thus must make dough in the morning as a part of a losing battle to being on time for work. When you get home, knead it a couple of times with more flour, then let it rest under a clean dish towel. This recipe makes a LOT of dough. But whatever you don't use will keep in the fridge for a day or two.

Kale Salad

This one is just chopped kale with a TON of feta and a simple dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. It was inspired by the marginally fancier Dinner: A Love Story recipe here.

cherry crumble bars

Posted on July 18, 2011 by hilary924

we are hitting that point of summer where i start to get into real trouble at the farmers market. everything looks so good! i want it all!

it’s a double whammy when the sommelier goes out of town on the weekend. there is no one to check the madness. no one to question whether we really need TWO QUARTS of sour cherries.

i mean, isn’t the answer to that always YES at the end of cherry season?

but it didn’t stop at the cherries. while you check out my haul, try to guess the number of humans i’ll be feeding this week.

the answer? me. just me.

dear sommelier: please come home. yes, i miss you. but also i bought a bunch of kale larger than a small child.

lordy.

didja see rio lurking amidst the produce? let’s see a close up.

can haz fahmarz mahket! (hat tip jaime)

this is the point where she runs back and hides under the bed.

back to the cherries. i bought a cherry pitter!

file that under other things i purchase when the sommelier is gone: excessive amounts of produce, single-use kitchen implements, shoes . . . .

let me tell you though, that cherry pitter is unbelievable. so much fun. i had purple fingers for so many years for no good reason.

i have many plans for these cherries. luckily i bought TWO QUARTS. the first round went into these:

yeah, cherry crumble bars. top notch.

sour cherries + lemon + butter + brown sugar + oaty crumbly goodness = winning.

plus, this recipe – itself a bastardization of several other recipes – is a great basis for all kinds of fruity, crumbly goodness. i really liked the tartness of the sour cherries, but any other type of summer fruit would be good. reduce the brown sugar and oats for a blueberry crumb bar like smitten kitchen’s original. or swap the lemon for some ginger for a peachy crumble bar. or add almonds and apricots!

Cherry Crumble Bars

adapted primarily from Smitten Kitchen

1/2 cup white sugar (3 1/2 oz)
1/2 cup brown sugar (3 3/4 oz)
3 cups all-purpose flour (12 3/4 oz)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces) cubed
1 egg
1/2 to 1 cup oats
4 cups fresh sour cherrys – pitted and halved or not as you like it
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375.

Stir the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt and zest together. Add butter and work into flour with a fork, pastry cutter or your fingers until mostly incorporated, then add egg and finish incorporating. It should look kind of like coarse meal, but a little shaggier.

Press half of mixture into bottom of a 13 by 9 in pan. Add oats to the remaining half for topping.

Mix cherries with lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar and corn starch. Pour over bottom crust.

Sprinkle reserved oats mixture on top. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the cherries are bubbling. It shouldn’t be too wiggly in the middle – it’ll firm up a bit. But mine stayed a bit gooey. Which I love. But not everyone does, so just watch it, ok?

strawberry coconut scones

Posted on July 14, 2011 by hilary924

summer means strawberries, right? check out these bad boys.

i do have a confession. i bought these strawberries at the tarjay. and we are just on the wrong side of strawberry season. they looked so red and yummy. but check out the inside:

yeah. sadness. but nothing that can't be solved by sugar and butter. into scones they go!

scones are one of those baked goods that people have very particular feelings about. and by that, i mean extreme animosity towards scones sold by certain omnipresent coffee shops with green signage. i have no such prejudices against dessert masquerading as a breakfast item.

these scones, however, may also cause some heart burn. they aren't super flakey or biscuity. although they have just the right hint of sweetness for proper breakfast food. and they are profoundly cakey and soft in texture. this, i think, is because they don't have buttermilk? i really like me a tangy buttermilk scone. i know you can make buttermilk out of regular milk. but i didn't. i just made these:

what? i forgot to mention my last minute brilliant idea to add coconut? toasted coconut. makes everything better. let's get started. lazy scones for subpar strawberries. aren't you glad you kept scrolling?

chop your strawberries. weigh your dry ingredients.

add cold, cold butter (another victory . . . someday i'll remember to presoften butter, someday). get your hands in there until it looks like this.

then eggs, then milk (whole if you've got it!) and STRAWBERRIES. don't they look so much better all chopped up?

no, you can still tell. sigh.

ah, but this is much better.

and better. milk wash action shot!

coconut. pre-toasted.

yum.

what are you talking about a missing scone? there's no missing scone. just go make these already.

Strawberry Coconut Scones

Largely based on this recipe from Gourmet

2 1/2 cup or 10 5/8 oz all purpose flour
1/4 cup or 1 3/4 oz white sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, chopped in largish chunks
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup whole milk, plus a little extra for the wash
1 cup chopped strawberries
1/4 cup shredded coconut, give or take

Preheat your oven to 425°F. If you don't have lovely silpat, grease up your baking sheet.

Whisk together your dry ingredients – flour through salt. Add the butter and mix in with your fingers until it looks like coarse meal. Stir in eggs and 1/4 cup milk until just combined, then carefully fold in strawberries.

Flour your work surface. If you want big scones, dump out all your dough. If you're taking it to work, like I did, start with half the dough. Knead lightly and shape into a round. Use your rolling pin if you like thinner scone. Cut into slices, like pie. Or pizza!

Transfer your scones to the baking sheet. Brush with milk. Sprinkle with coconut! Or turbinado sugar! Whatever your heart desires.

Bake about 10-12 minutes for smaller scones, or closer to 15 for larger. Eat warm with salted butter straight off the baking sheet. Best the same day.

Manchego's Kitchen

it's his kitchen. i just cook here.

Monthly Archives: July 2011