What's Next?

I've been getting this question a lot lately. So much so that I just might scream. Obviously the thing to ask someone when they graduate college is what next? If I had a concrete answer, I may not dislike the question so much, but rambling on about lifeguarding, and wishful thinking about a move to Brooklyn in the near further doesn't really make a fantastic impression on people. Never the less, I'm sure you are all wondering the same thing and since Kate asked me the other day anyway, I might as well put the question to rest.

In June, I'll be traveling for 3 weeks through South Caucasus with a quick weekend in Hungary on my way home. After that, I'll be back in New York lifeguarding for the summer (hello tan) and looking for a real job - something with the (sustainable?) food industry, maybe a magazine or something developing/writing about recipes, basically whatever I can find. I'm also taking a web design class because there are so many things I want to do with this blog and I just have no idea how to do any of them.

Anyway, back to June and traveling because it's way more exciting than my lack of a job. I've been thinking for a little while how I'm going to handle this blog while I'm away. I will not have my computer with me, but my friend Jocelyn will. Internet, however, will be spotty. I also don't want to get too bogged down with it, so my posts will be sporadic. They will probably change from recipes to something more like a food review and of course pictures whenever I can. They may be cell phone pictures published directly from flickr, but hey, I do what I can.
Even though I have 2 memory cards, I'm going to have to dump the pictures off my camera at least once, so hopefully I'll have internet at that time and I'll post a few real pictures.

I've also added this neat little Current Location widget on the left side of this page so that you can see what city I'm in and follow my trip. I should be able to update this as well as twitter from my blackberry but, again, I'm not sure how much network coverage I will have. I guess what I'm trying to say is those three weeks will be a bit up in the air so just bare with me okay? Once thing I can promise is I will take a ton of pictures, eat lots of delicious things and share both with you when I return.
Now back to May, I have a completely unrelated recipe to share. I made this raspberry fruit tart last Saturday and it was quite a hit.

Before you write this off as a complicated tart with a fussy dough just read it through, I promise its so much quicker and simpler than you think.
I used my favorite french tart dough because it's beyond easy (read: no food processor, chilling, or rolling pin) and reliably delicious. It's recipe adapted from Paule Caillat of Promenades Gourmandes via David Lebovitz. I followed David's version exactly so I won't rewrite it, instead you can just click here. 

The most complicated part was the pastry cream, but really, even that was easy. I don't know why people make such a fuss about pastry cream. I did have a small panic attack when the I added the tempered egg mixture back to the heat and it became lumpy but, as soon as I took a whisk to it, it smoothed out nicely.


For the fruit you can really use any berry that you like or a combination of berries and kiwi. No apples or melon - that might be a little weird. I planned on doing mixed berries but at the last second decided on just red raspberries.
Lucky me, I had exactly 1/2 cup left of homemade red currant jelly that a friend (hi Sandy!) gave me earlier in the year. I used that for the glaze - don't you just love when things work out like that? I swear it makes my whole day.The pastry cream can be made a day or two in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Make sure to place saran-wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream to keep a skin from forming. The tart shell can also be baked the day before, I stored mine in the tart pan, wrapped in saran-wrap, inside my covered cake platter. Whatever you do, do not fill and glaze the tart until you are ready to serve it. I had to put mine together about 3 hours ahead of time and it turned out fine, but I wouldn't suggest too much longer than that.

Raspberry Fruit Tart

Makes 1 9-inch tart

1 pre-baked french tart shell

1 batch pastry cream (see below)

2-3 pints red raspberries

1/2 cup red currant jelly

To assemble the tart: 

 Spread cold pastry cream over bottom of the cooled tart shell, using offset spatula or large spoon. Arrange fruit on top of the cream following a design if you like. I just filled every possible space with a raspberry.

To glaze the tart:

Bring jelly to boil in small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to smooth out lumps. When boiling and completely melted, apply by dabbing and flicking onto fruit with pastry brush; add 1 teaspoon water and return jelly to boil if it becomes too thick to drizzle. (Tart can be refrigerated, uncovered up to 3 or 4 hours). Remove outer metal ring of tart pan, slide thin metal spatula between bottom of crust and tart pan bottom to release, then slip tart onto cardboard round or serving platter; serve.

Pastry Cream

From Cooks Illustrated / Makes enough for 1 9-inch tart.

Chalazae are cordlike strands of egg white protein that are attached to the yolks—removing them with your fingers is easy and eliminates the need to strain the pastry cream after cooking. 

2 cups half-and-half

1/2 cup granulated sugar

pinch table salt

5 large egg yolks , chalazae removed (see headnote)

3 tablespoons cornstarch

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 4 pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat half-and-half, 6 tablespoons sugar, and salt in medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.

Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and whisk until sugar has begun to dissolve and mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in cornstarch until combined and mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds.

When half-and-half mixture reaches full simmer, gradually whisk simmering half-and-half into yolk mixture to temper. Return mixture to saucepan, scraping bowl with rubber spatula; return to simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on surface, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 48 hours.

That's right, there's cereal in my cookies.

When you're moving cities it's important to eat all the things you are going to miss when you're gone. 

Wings from the Dugout... 

Ice Cream and Chicken from the Big Dipper...

It's important to go with friends... 

It's important to use up all the stray baking ingredients hiding in your kitchen...

It's important to do so by making absolutely delicious compost cookies... 

I'm a little late jumping on the compost cookie bandwagon but better late than never, right? I threw in chocolate, white chocolate, dried fruit, and cereal. That's right, there's cereal in my cookies. I also threw in cornmeal in place of some of the flour just because I could. Basically, if a cowboy cookie and a Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie had a child, it would turn out like this. I called them compostin' cowboy cookies because of their mixed breed but really, all that matters is how they taste.

I actually wasn't expecting such a delicious result, because I usually like my cookies simpler, but I was pleasantly surprised. The crispy brown rice cereal gives an unexpected chewy crunch and you really can't go wrong with both dark and white chocolate. The raisins and dried cherries are good but you could easily replace them with nuts if dried fruit isn't your thing. 

Compostin' Cowboy Cookies 

Typically compost cookies have potato chips in them but I don't think potato chips really have much place in this world outside bars, BBQs and football games - plus I didn't have any at home. Pretzels on the other hand would definitely go over well because salty and sweet might just be the best combination out there. Feel free to throw in whatever you have on hand, salty, sweet, crunchy, chewy, whatever. I listed a few variations at the bottom. 

Makes about 27 large cookies 

225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

250g turbinado sugar 

180g sucanat 

1 tbsp honey 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

2 eggs 

300g whole wheat pastry flour 

115g stone ground cornmeal 

2 tsp kosher salt 

1 tsk baking soda 

2 tsp baking powder 

200g dark chocolate chips 

200g white chocolate chips 

150g crispy brown rice cereal 

200g mixed raisins and dried cherries 

Stand mixer or electric hand mixer is must for these cookies. 

Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and syrup for three minutes until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and beat for ten minutes. It will be very thick, and fluffy. 

Mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a separate bowl, and add this to the cookie batter. 

Stir as little as possible to combine them. 

Add your mix-ins and stir just to combine. 

Shape large balls -I used my 3 tablespoon cookie scoop - and place on greased baking sheets, leaving a lot of room in between. I fit five cookies per sheet. 

Bake immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. 

Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes. 

Important note: Let them cool completely on the sheet or they will fall apart. 

Other Variations: 

-Replace the cornmeal with additional whole wheat pastry flour 

-Replace the cornmeal with rye flour 

-Replace the sucanat with dark or light brown sugar (cookies will be sweeter with dark) 

-Replace the sucanat with dark or light muscovado sugar (cookies will be sweeter with dark) 

-Replace the turbinado sugar with white sugar or another refined or unrefined sugar 

-Replace the chocolate, white chocolate, cereal and dried fruit with 500-600g of whatever mix-ins you have on hand. Traditional Momofuku Compost cookies have some combination of potato chips, pretzels, and chocolate. Pecans, walnuts and/or mac nuts would be good. 

-Add 100-200g of shredded unsweetened coconut 

-More mix-in suggestions: Peanut butter chips, heath bar bits, m&m's, peanut m&m's, butterscotch chips, mini Rolos, mini peanut butter cups

Black and Blue Berry Crisp

Well, it's over.

Graduation weekend came and went in a flurry of activity and far too much food. We had multiple BBQs some with family some without and I'm pretty sure I haven't cooked a proper meal in almost two weeks. I also can't remember the last time I ate anything leafy, healthy or salad-like. Instead I seem to have replaced my usual vegetable intake with large quantities of dessert. 

At least this one has fruit in it.

This crisp actually started out as strawberry-rhubarb pie, but it seems as though rhubarb is everywhere except Binghamton right now. That's okay because this was a lot less work and turned out to be quite popular at the BBQ I brought it to. In fact, I also made mini cannolis and a raspberry custard tart but the recipe most people asked for was this crisp. It's funny how different people can have such different opinions; personally I thought this was just okay, if not a bit boring, but I received so many compliments that eventually I promised to post the recipe. 

The top is similar to granola in flavor but I think part of my issue with it was the lack of crunch. I wanted crisp and flaky but instead it was softer and crumbly. Don't get me wrong it's good the way it is, but if you are after a crunchier result like I am, try replacing half of the flour with more oats. I can't promise that will solve it but that would be my next step. It probably wouldn't hurt to bake it a bit longer as well.

Black and Blue Berry Crisp

Taste your berries, if they are particularly tart toss them with a tablespoon of sugar. Mine were pretty sweet and I like them on the tart side anyway so I didn't bother.

You could easily leave the nuts out if you don't like them but I highly recommend keeping them. I used sucanat because it's what I had at home but I think dark muscovado sugar would work the best. If you don't have either of those you could easily replace it with dark brown sugar. I served it with fresh whipped cream because there was no freezer to store ice  cream. Either is delicious but we all know I prefer ice cream any day. If you serve it warm, you could also serve a pitcher of cold cream along side to drizzle over the top. 

If you plan to add the coconut, as I suggested in the body of this post, toss it together with all the dry ingredients - I would suggest about a 1/2 cup. Serves 12.

9 cups blackberries

5 cups blueberries

scant 2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour

2/3 cup chopped toasted pecans

2/3 cups slice almonds

1 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup sucanat or muscovado sugar

3 tablespoons raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Toast the nuts for 6 minutes, let cool and then chop course.

Mix the chopped nuts, oats, flour, both sugars, cinnamon, and salt.

Using a pastry blender, your fingers or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, work the butter in just until the mixture comes together in a crumbly texture. Keep chilled until ready to use. You could even make it ahead and store it in the fridge (up to a week) or freezer (up to 2 months).

When ready to bake the crisp, butter  (or spray with olive oil) a 9x13x2in baking dish and set aside. Toss the berries with 2 tablespoons flour and 1 tablespoon sugar if using. Pour into baking dish and spread out evenly. Cover with crumb topping and bake 50-60 minutes or until crisp is golden and fruit is bubbling. Best if served warm but still delicious at room temperature. You could also make the whole thing the morning you wish to serve it and reheat it in the oven right before serving. 

Of course, being the rowing obsessed bunch that we are; the BBQ took place at our boathouse, where we taught our families to row. To see more pictures from the weekend click here.

In the meantime

I know I've been a little absent lately, you'll have to excuse me it's graduation week and I'm overwhelmingly busy. I have been baking my butt off though, and I'll have plenty of delicious things to share when I return. In the meantime I'll leave you with this almond cake from 17 and baking. I made it a few weeks ago for Jason's birthday and I have to say, the frosting was really the star of the show - it's mostly mascarpone and it tastes like a cannoli. (Have I told you about my obsession with mascarpone? It's getting a little out of control).

This cake is exactly everything I could ever want in an everyday cake; simple yet impressive, downright elegant with a generous layer of wonderfully light mascarpone frosting on top and a sprinkling of soft blueberries nestled inside. It's similar to a coffee cake in that it's a little dense and definitely needs a good cup of coffee to go with it, but it's perfect for a quick everyday breakfast cake. Best of all, it takes about 40 minutes from the time I roll out my mixer to the moment I pull it out of the oven.

Blueberry Almond Mascarpone Cake

From 17 and Baking

If you don't have buttermilk you can replace it with a 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 tablespoon the white vinegar or lemon juice. Just combine the milk and lemon juice or vinegar and let sit 5 minutes until a bit foamy. If you use frozen blueberries, do not defrost them first or they will dye the whole cake cake bluish-purple.
Makes one 9" cake. 

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup almond meal (click here to read about almond meal)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup + 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
2 tsp whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Butter a 9″ round pan, and then flour the pan.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar at medium-high speed for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Mix in the extracts and lemon zest, then beat in the egg. Working on low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then 1/2 the buttermilk mixture, then another 1/3 of the flour, the last of the buttermilk, then the last of the flour. Mix until just combined.
Toss the blueberries with the remaining 2 tsp flour and stir them gently into the batter.
Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting. If frosting the cake with mascarpone frosting, store the cake in the refrigerator.

Lemon Mascarpone Frosting
From 17 and Baking
Makes enough to frost one 9″ round cake

3/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Zest of half a lemon
1/4 tsp vanilla

Beat cheese and cream together until smooth and creamy and slight peaks begin to form. Sift in the powdered sugar and zest and beat until smooth. Mix in the vanilla extract and spread on cooled cake.

In Under 5 Minutes

I love hot yoga. Nothing makes you feel better than an hour and a half of stretching, bending, twisting, and contorting yourself into seemingly unnatural-pretzel like shapes in a 111 degree room. It can make bad day seem insignificant, a good day seem better and easily detox the excess sugar from too much cookie dough (Me, eat too much cookie dough?? Never.) The only downfall is that I don’t make it to as many classes as I would like. The schedule tends to interfere with my classes and my dinnertime. Most of the classes are 5:30 to 6:30 or 7 and by the time I get home I'm cold, ready for a shower, and starving. On a night like this there is no overlooking the value of a meal that can come together in under 5 minutes. Especially a warm, healthy one like this. Feel free to increase the vegetables and leave out the pasta for less carbs. Spinach would also make a great addition here.

Parmesan Butter Bean Bow-Ties

It helped that I already had cooked pasta in my fridge but even if you have to boil some this still comes together in no time. Serves 1

½-¾ cup cooked butter beans

1 cup cooked whole wheat bow-tie pasta

½ cup frozen green peas

1 cup broccoli (I used frozen)

½ cup chicken stock (I used homemade)

A pinch of red pepper flakes

A pinch of dried rosemary

Parmesan cheese to taste (grated coarsely)

Salt and pepper to taste

Ready? This is really complicated. Put everything except the parmesan, salt and pepper in a pot. Cooked until heated through and most of the broth is absorbed. Add salt and pepper to taste, pour into a bowl and garnish with a generous amount of coarsely grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy with a piece of fresh crusty bread.

Gluten-Free Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think I need to take a computer course. Isn’t that ridiculous? Isn’t my generation supposed to be naturally computer savvy?

Unfortunately I seem to have missed out on the “computer genius” gene and I’ve been struggling with uploading pictures off my camera (among other things). The program just shuts down every time I plug in the camera. I feel like I spend at least 75% of my day troubleshooting cursing at my computer and it makes me want to unplug it, toss it out the window, and move to the country. 

Am I crazy or are there other people out there who feel like technology is sometimes frequently more trouble than it's worth? I feel really old and crabby saying that but it's true, I hate computers.

I'm very frustrated because I had this great post planned for you guys; with some pictures from my race on Saturday (my boat placed second), a few scenes from opening day at the farmer’s market (I bought 5lbs of honey), and these delicious cookies I made for my rowers. I've been putting off posting about these things since Saturday because I can't seem to get the pictures off my camera. At this point I didn't want to wait any longer to share these cookies with you, so I've decided to post without pictures and update when I'm finally able to load them.
Edit: I was able to get pictures of the cookies off my camera but now I'm having trouble again so no market pictures.

Gluten-Free Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Elana's Pantry. Yields about 24 Cookies.

I'm not allergic to gluten, nor are any of the guys who I made these cookies for but I’ve been wanting to try baking almond meal for a while. Unfortunately, the only company available in Binghamton is Bob’s Red Mill and I’ve read only bad reviews about it (dry, crumbly etc) – plus it’s about  $10 a pound. The Trader Joe’s* brand, however, is significantly cheaper and has a much better texture. It is a meal and not a flour so its not very finely ground but it adds great texture to cookies or a sturdier cake – just don’t try to make angel food cake with it.

These have a softer chewier texture, more like an oatmeal cookie. I received nothing but positive feedback on them but I want to cut down on the fat content - 10g per cookie is a bit high for me but that's due to the almonds. Since I'm not concerned with keeping them gluten-free, I'm going to try replacing a small portion of the almond meal with whole wheat flour. If you want to maintain the gluten-free properties but still want to cut down on fat, I suspect oat flour would do the trick nicely. However, If you want to replace more than 1 cup of the almond meal, you'll also need to increase the oil to replace the fat lost from the almonds.

These cookies are only slightly sweet so if you prefer yours sweeter I would suggest using maple syrup instead of honey or even half syrup, half honey. The syrup will add a slightly different almost caramelized flavor.

2 ½ cups almond meal**

1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1/2 teaspoon salt


1/2 cup honey (see headnotes)

1/2 cup light olive oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract


1/2 cup extra dark chocolate chips***

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine all ingredients, except the chocolate chips, in a medium bowl. Mix well. Mix in chocolate chips and refrigerate for 20 minutes. On parchment-lined baking sheet, drop round (generous) tablespoonfuls of dough, spacing 2 inches apart. If dough seems dry and rigid, flatten a bit. If you like ultra chewy cookies, flatten dough into discs before baking.

Bake for 7-9 minutes, until lightly golden (If you like crisper cookies, bake 9-10 minutes.). It's important to let them cool on baking sheet for a full 10-20 minutes to set, otherwise they will just fall apart.

Notes

*The last time I was on Long Island I got a little carried away at Trader Joe's since we don't have one in Binghamton - I think I bought something like 9 pounds of almond meal. Oops.

**Be sure to store an opened bag of almond meal in the fridge or even the freezer so that it does not go rancid from the fat.

***I've been hearing a lot of good reviews on Guittard chocolate so I bought a bag of their extra dark chocolate chips. The result? They were good, but i prefer the larger size and flatter shape of my usual Ghirardelli 60% Dark chips.

Drunken Kirsch Brownies

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that like fudge-y brownies, those that like cake-y brownies, and those who would rather just have the ice cream that the brownies are usually served with - I fall into the third. It's not that I don't like brownies, I just find them boring. To make matters worse, one small brownie is like a caloric bomb laden with saturated fat. I'd so much rather have a bowl of berries with a fluffy mountain of fresh whipped cream and call it a day.

For all the ways I talk myself out of making brownies; Not worth it, I don't like them that much, just eat a piece of fruit, this other super sophisticated, impressive-looking dessert sounds so much more exciting - I always come back to my desire to have a good recipe for everything. That way when someone requests a batch of brownies, as they inevitably will, I'll have no problem throwing together the best brownies they've ever eaten. Then I'll serve them directly out of the oven with vanilla ice cream because, if you're going to eat a brownie, you might as well do it right.

In case you are wondering why there are no pictures in this post you can chalk it up to the fact that I'm an idiot and dropped my camera in the middle of taking them - and by dropped I really mean it went crashing down onto the tile floor in the most horrific thud I've ever heard leaving me standing there for the better part of 30 seconds afraid to pick it up or acknowledge what had transpired. When I finally picked it up and assessed the damage (small crack in the lower left corner of the body) I decided it was time to put it away even though I had yet to take a picture that I was happy with.

 

Drunken Kirsch Brownies

Brownies have but a few ingredients and they will only taste as good as the ingredients you use. Basically this is not the place to use cheap chocolate. In fact if there is ever an argument to use chocolate that cost a dollar an ounce, this is it. Over the past three weeks I've been playing around with recipes and different chocolates and ultimately I like Scharffen-Berger 99% Cacao Unsweetened Chocolate the best. It lends a deep, complex flavor to the final product and is worth every penny.

Over the past few weeks I've played with different recipes and variations. The base of this brownie is my favorite basic brownie so far. They're cake-y but not too thick with a crackly top. I've made them plain, with walnuts and with a cheesecake swirl (so good). I also tried a different brownie base the first time I made these but I wasn't as happy with the taste or texture - not to mention they fell apart no matter how long I froze them before cutting.

The next time I used my basic brownie recipe but added dried unsweetened, unsulphured cherries that I first soaked in Kirschwasser for the day. If you prefer more traditional brownies just leave out the cherries and kirsh or replace them with chocolate chips or nuts. Adapted loosely from Smitten Kitchen and 101 Cookbooks.

8 tablespoons Unsalted butter

3oz. Good Quality Unsweetened chocolate

1 cup Turbinado sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

2/3 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

6oz Dried Unsweetened, Unsulphured Cherries

100ml Kirschwasser

About 1 day in advance, pour the Kirsch and the cherries into a bowl or jar and leave at room temperature until the liquid is absorbed. Shake it up every once in a while especially during the first few hours - just to make sure all the cherries get a fair chance to drink up the alcohol. 

Preheat the oven to 350

Drain any remaining liquid from the cherries and set aside

Heat butter and chocolate in a metal mixing bowl (I like using the one from my stand mixer) and place bowl in simmering water over moderately low heat, to create a double boiler. Stir it occasionally just until melted. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and a pinch of salt until well combined. Whisk in flour until just combined, add cherries and spread in an 8x8 baking dish (I used pyrex). Bake until edges are slightly puffed and center is just set, about 25-35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. I like them best straight out of the oven with a generous amount of vanilla ice cream. 

Note: If you have trouble cutting them, throw the pan in the freezer until very very cold, this will make it easier to get a clean slice.

Side note: I love that these only make one dirty bowl.