Peanut Butter Mini Cupcakes

These were a slow, sweet waltz in my mouth. The cake has a tender crumb, and the frosting has a rich, deep chocolate flavor. I found them in Bite-Size Desserts by Carole Bloom, and I highly recommend you make a batch of your own. I dare you to still have some left two days later.

Daring Bakers: Strudel

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was a strudel. Being of German descent, this was right up my alley. The recipe came out of a new book that I just acquired called Kaffeehaus, with all sorts of goodies you would find at little cafes and coffee shops in the Germanic areas of Europe.

I decided to make a sweet strudel, with apples and walnuts in the filling. The dough was actually pretty easy to make, and the filling was even easier, but I missed the part that called for bread crumbs, so I had to go without. I also left out the raisins since I dislike them quite a bit. It took about ten minutes longer than the recipe said for my strudel to brown, and the bottom of the dough turned out a little tough when I tried it, but overall very good.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Nutty Polka Dot Brownies

I was in desperate need of sugar and chocolate this evening, so I pulled out my "to-bake-later" binder and ran through my options. I settled on Peanut Butter & Nutella Brownies. I originally ran across the recipe while viewing food porn on Foodgawker. Noble Pig's blog was where I saw them first, but the recipe originally came from Culinary in the Country. Delicious, with subtle nutty flavors. And I couldn't resist using up my Ghirardelli chocolate chips, making them polka dot brownies.

Sun in a Crust

Pretty sad, but only a couple weeks after returning from Florida, I'm already wishing I hadn't come back. I really need the everyday sunshine to re-charge my batteries. And all the fabulous seafood and citrus isn't bad either.

Luckily for me, I brought back a bottle of key lime juice so I could make a nice little pie. I wasn't sure of a recipe until I purchased a book called Pie. Every pie you can imagine. No, really. Even some I couldn't imagine. Like ricotta and raisin. I swear it's really a pie. But the best part is that the Key Lime Pie recipe comes from Joe's Stone Crab of Miami, Florida. How's that for authentic?

Before I get to the pie baking, I should probably mention that Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, has basically scared me into not eating. His descriptions of what is in our food is horrifying. So when I went to the store for a graham cracker pie crust, I reluctantly looked at the ingredient list, already knowing what I would find. High fructose corn syrup? Check. Weird chemicals? Check. All sorts of strange corn derivatives? Check. And no, the regular graham crackers weren't any better. Good to know my pie would probably kill me. But at least I would enjoy dying slowly, right?

With really only three filling ingredients, this pie can't get much easier. Everything came together very quickly, and I poured the filling into my premade chemical-filled fake graham cracker crust. I baked the pie for the exact 10 minutes called for in the recipe and then refrigerated it.

I cheated and ate some the same night. It was little soft, so I forced myself to wait until tonight to try another piece. The pie had weeped overnight, but I was able to clean it up and cut off the soggy portions, and it was much better. There was a small portion at the very center that was still a little soft, so I'm not sure if I'm a believer in the only-cook-it-for-10-minutes-or-you'll-ruin-it line. Next time I'll probably do 12.

Other than the overnight refrigeration thing, the pie was delicious, nice and tart and refreshing. I highly recommend it.

A Pint of Blueberries

This week my grocery store had a special on pints of blueberries. They looked pretty fresh, so I bought a package. It was only after I returned home that I realized I had no idea what to make them into, except that I didn't want the standard muffin. After much internet browsing, I decided on a cake from Epicurious.com.

I am posting the recipe below since I did make some changes to the recipe. Posters on the site mentioned that the cake wasn't lemony enough, so I have altered that portion. Also, the 8" pan originally called for had to be a deep dish pan, which I didn't have. I found that a 9" pan works just as well, with a baking sheet to catch any spillover. The cake turns out deliciously moist and not too sweet, with the blueberries adding most of the sugar. It's delicious hot, with whipped cream, cold, or any other way you can think of to eat it.

Lemon and Blueberry Upside Down Cake

Adopted from Epicurious.com

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided use

1 1/2 cups blueberries

3/4 cup cake flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces almond paste

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel

1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh squeezed

3 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a small saucepan, heat brown sugar and 1 stick of unsalted butter until butter melts and the sugar is incorporated. When mixture bubbles, pour into the bottom of a 9" round cake pan. Drop blueberries evenly over the top and press into the sugar mixture slightly.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, use a fork to break up the almond paste. Add the sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until almond paste is mostly broken down, and the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the remaining 1 stick of butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, still beating. When mixture is creamy and fully combined, add eggs, one at a time. Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and ensure everything is combined.

Add flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Use the spatula to scrape the sides again and ensure the batter is uniform. Scoop the batter over the blueberry mixture in the pan, and then even off the top of the batter. Put the cake pan on a baking sheet, and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cake rest for approximately a minute before inverting onto a large plate. Wait 15-20 minutes before serving.

Beautiful Blondies

I've tried many different recipes for blondies, but they never seem to live up to my perfect ideal: soft, chewy, and sweet, with a flaky top. Basically a vanilla brownie. Because isn't that what a blondie is supposed to be? And I never mind the addition of white chocolate and macadamia nuts.

Well, I finally found a good recipe. And, perhaps not so surprisingly, it's very heavily based on the Tollhouse cookie recipe. It's from the Emeril's website, but I actually found it through several blogs: The Crepes of Wrath, which linked to Erin's Food Files, which linked to Lovestoeat, which finally admitted where the recipe originated!

The recipe was exactly what I was looking for, although I will admit that trying to stir 3 cups of flour into a resistant batter by hand was NO FUN. Gosh, I miss my KitchenAid stand mixer! One major change I think I'll implement next time: Use a bigger pan. The 9x9" pan makes very tall blondies, almost cakelike in their stature. I think a 13x9" pan would make a more brownie-like blondie.

Daring Bakers: Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to make a lasagne with fresh spinach pasta. I was intrigued when I first read the challenge, but also a little scared. I mean, I had never made pasta before. And my history with lasagne always involved no-boil dried noodles and plastic tubs of ricotta cheese. This lasagne had neither. So in order to cut down a little on the stress, I ordered a Marcato Atlas 150 pasta machine and a motor to go on the side.

For the ragu and bechamel, I went with the recipes that Mario Batali has in his book, Molto Italiano. The ragu was the first I had ever made, and I cheated and made it two days before I assembled the lasagne, hoping the flavor would continue to develop in the refrigerator. Then, this evening, I finally hunkered down and made the pasta dough. It actually wasn't that bad (except for the kneading thing), but next time I'm going to use my new breadmaker to make the dough. The pasta roller was super easy to use, especially since it was motorized, which made it much easier to thread the pasta through and catch it out of the bottom when you're single in the kitchen.

Everything came together really well, and even though I don't like pasta, I took a large helping to try. The pasta was amazing...soft, tender, and nothing like the reconstituted dried noodles that I normally use. The rest of the sauces I wasn't a huge fan of. I'm more of a ricotta and tomato sauce girl. But it was definitely a fun experience, and I'm looking forward to using my pasta machine again, maybe for fettuccine this time.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.