The Picky Apple

I’ve been on a real granola kick lately.  Granola for breakfast, snacks, and dessert.  I love to eat it with yogurt and fresh fruit, like cereal with milk poured over it, or straight out of the bag, and up until recently, I was relying on the store bought kind.  I have seen so many recipes for homemade granola floating around in the blogosphere, and finally decided it was time to try my hand at making granola at home.  I used food blogger turned Bon Appetit contributor Molly of Orangette’s recipe, which is based on granola she ate while in Paris recently.  In the last 4 weeks, I’ve made about 4 or 5 batches of this granola.  The first time, I included the chocolate called for in the recipe (okay, maybe a little MORE than what was called for in the recipe).  The chocolate makes it extremely decadent, especially delicious eaten with yogurt and strawberries.  But it seemed a little too sinful to be eating chocolate for breakfast (I’m sure some of you will say that’s crazy talk), and the chocolate seemed to overpower the granola itself (likely because I was heavy handed when adding the chocolate).  Since then, I’ve been making it without the chocolate, and I still can’t get enough of this granola!  It is super simple to make, especially if you use buy slivered almonds instead of chopping your own.  Take Molly’s advice though, and consider doubling the recipe (especially if you have to share!)

French Chocolate Granola

from Orangette

3 cups rolled oats
½ cup raw almonds, chopped
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
6 Tbsp. mild honey
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
½ cup, or more, finely chopped bittersweet chocolate

Picky Apple Notes: I used slivered almonds and sweetened coconut, and don’t always include the chocolate.
Preheat the oven to 300°F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, almonds, coconut, sugar, and salt. Stir well to blend.

In a small saucepan, warm the honey and oil over low heat, whisking occasionally – watch out! the oil will want to splash - until the honey is loose. Pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to combine well.

Spread the mixture evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden. Set a timer to go off halfway through the baking time, so that you can give the granola a good stir; this helps it to cook evenly. When it’s ready, remove the pan from the oven, stir well – this will keep it from cooling into a hard, solid sheet – and cool completely.

When cool, transfer the granola to a large bowl, storage jar, or zipper-lock plastic bag. Add the chocolate, and stir (or shake, if using a jar or bag) to mix.

Store in an airtight container. Serve with plain milk; soy milk and plain yogurt overwhelm the chocolate flavor.

Yield: about 5 cups

Filed under: breakfast on April 20th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Hello, readers!  I’ve been feeling all kinds of guilty for not updating my blog more this past week.  Just wanted to let you know why:  Our family is dealing with some new food allergies:  eggs (diagnosed) and gluten (suspected, but not yet diagnosed).  Obviously, those are having an impact on my baking, and I haven’t really been cooking anything too exciting for dinner this week either.  Most of my dinner experiments have gone horribly wrong lately….just ask The Picky Apple about the Macadamia Crusted Mahi I made last week (sounds good, right?  It was a disaster.)  I’m not giving up baking, so fear not!  I’m usually baking for others anyway, so I’ll be back in business in a few days.  I just have some things to sort out first.

Filed under: Uncategorized on April 18th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

The Picky Apple doesn’t really care for soup.  Me?  When I was younger, I used to take soup to school for lunch almost every single day.  In my quest to find a soup that The Picky Apple will eat, we focused on “taco” soups, similar to one he gets in the cafeteria at work.  We’ve been through at least five different taco soup recipes in search of one that he likes, and this recipe was one of the more successful recipes of the bunch.  This recipe makes lots of soup and freezes well.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 (12 ounce) beer  (I used Shiner Bock)
• 2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
• 1 package taco seasoning
• 3 whole boneless chicken breasts

Directions:  Place the chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker.  Add taco seasoning and stir to blend.  Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients.  Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.  Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled.  Shred chicken.  Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours.  Serve topped with cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and tortilla chips, if desired.

Filed under: chicken, freezer friendly, main dish, soup on April 11th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was selected by Mary of Starting From Scratch.  Even though I don’t like lemon desserts, I knew The Picky Apple would want to try this, and I got to brush up on several techniques that I don’t use regularly.  This recipe made me realize just how incomplete my kitchen is.  I do not have a thermometer, metal whisk (only a useless large plastic one), tart pan, or large food processor (only a mini processor I’m borrowing from my mom).  Thankfully, my tart still turned out ok.  The hardest part was whisking the cream in a double boiler without a thermometer.  It took a long time-20 ro 30 minutes-whisking continuously, but it finally came together the way it was supposed to, and I managed not to burn it or scramble the eggs.  Looking forward to next week’s recipe!

The Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart (from Dorie Greenspan’s From My Home To Yours)

The filling in this tart is everything. It is the lemon cream I learned to make from Pierre Hermé, and it is the ne plus ultra of the lemon world. The tart is basic-a great crust, velvety lemon cream-and profoundly satisfying. It is also profoundly play-aroundable. You can add a fruit topping (circlets of fresh rasp-berries are spectacular with this tart) or a layer of fruit at the bottom; you can finish the tart with meringue; or you can serve it with anything from whipped cream to raspberry coulis.

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough, fully baked and cooled
1 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
½ cup fresh lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons (10½ ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size
pieces, at room temperature

Getting Ready: Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender (first choice) or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F. As you whisk-you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling-you’ll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point-the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don’t stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience-depending on how much heat you’re giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest. Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going-to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. (The cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days and, or tightly sealed, in the freezer for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.)

When you are ready to assemble the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell. Serve the tart, or refrigerate ‘until needed.

Serving: It’s a particular pleasure to have this tart when the cream is cold and the crust is at room temperature. A raspberry or other fruit coulis is nice, but not necessary; so is a little crème fraîche. I know it sounds odd to offer something as rich as crème fraîche with a tart like this, but it works because the lemon cream is so light and so intensely citric, it doesn’t taste or feel rich.

Storing: While you can make the lemon cream ahead, once the tart is constructed, it’s best to eat it the day it is made.

Sweet Tart Dough:
Makes enough for one 9-inch crust

Storing: Well wrapped, the dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, I prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer-it has a fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.

In French, this dough is called pâte sablée because it is buttery, tender and sandy (that’s what sablée means). It’s much like shortbread, and it’s ideal for filling with fruit, custard or chocolate.

The simplest way to make a tart shell with this dough is to press it into the pan. You can roll out the dough, but the high proportion of butter to flour and the inclusion of confectioners’ sugar makes it finicky to roll. I always press it into the pan, but if you want to roll it, I suggest you do so between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper or inside a rolling slipcover.

1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup (2 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in-you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses-about 10 seconds each-until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change-heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

To press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don’t be too heavy-handed-press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon.

Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. (I dislike lightly baked crusts, so I often keep the crust in the oven just a little longer. If you do that, just make sure to keep a close eye on the crust’s progress-it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash.) Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

To patch a partially or fully baked crust, if necessary: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch.

Filed under: Tuesdays With Dorie, dessert on April 8th, 2008 | 22 Comments »

This recipe for Buffalo Chicken Nuggets was a favorite at our house growing up, and it is still one of my favorites today.  My mom clipped the original recipe from Parents Magazine back in 1988, so it is officially 20 years old this year.  I love everything about wings except, well, the wings themselves.  I don’t like eating the meat off the bone, and I prefer chicken breast to wings.  This recipe uses boneless skinless chicken breast cut in to chunks.  The chicken is marinated in your hot sauce of choice, then breaded.

My favorite hot sauce is Tabasco Sauce.  Having lived in Lafayette, Louisiana until 7th grade, we grew up with Tabasco sauce.  In fact, Avery Island, the home of Tabasco Sauce, was not that far from Lafayette, and we visited quite a few times.  There is much more to Avery Island than just the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory.  There are also beautiful gardens and huge old oak trees with enormous branches trailing back down to the ground, covered with moss.  One particular visit to Avery Island stands out in my memory.  I don’t remember the specifics of the visit…perhaps my Dad’s company picnic?  On this particular visit, around the time my mom started making this recipe for Buffalo Chicken, I was playing in the big old oak trees with the other kids.  I was hanging down from a large tree branch, waiting for my mom to turn around to see me goofing off.  Of course, as soon as she turned, I lost my grip and fell and broke my wrist.  Instead of taking me to the emergency room at the tiny hospital in the little town closest to Avery Island, my parents fashioned a splint for me out of some gauze and an old license plate from the trunk of the car, and drove me all the way back to Lafayette, over an hour away, over bumpy backwoods Louisiana roads.  Now whenever I think of Tabasco Sauce, which remains my favorite hot sauce, I think of Avery Island and this story.

Buffalo Chicken Nuggets

adapted from Parents Magazine, 1988

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1″ cubes
• 1/3 cup of Tabasco sauce
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp. butter

Directions: In a large bowl or zip-top bag, combine chicken cubes and Tabasco sauce.  Let marinate for at least 1 hour, then drain.  In a shallow bowl or pan, combine flour, salt and papkrika.  Add chicken, and toss until well coated.  Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick skilled over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, stirring frequently, until golden and cooked through.  With a slotted spoon, remove chicken to plate and cover to keep warm.

Picky Apple Notes:

• I like to serve this with apples, carrots, and blue cheese dressing for dipping.
• This recipe is always a big hit whenever I make it for parties and company.  I prepared five pounds like this for a party the week before my son was born, and it all got eaten quickly.  However, it is pretty time consuming to cook it in big batches….not to mention that you and your house will smell like a fast food restaurant when you’re done, so plan accordingly.
• If you do happen to wind up with any leftovers of the chicken, it makes a great buffalo chicken salad for lunch the next day.

Filed under: appetizer, chicken, main dish on April 7th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

This is my first week participating in Tuesdays with Dorie, the group dedicated to baking its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours.  This week’s recipe, Chocolate Gooey Cakes, was selected by Leigh of Lemon Tartlet.  I’ve always had a weakness for molten chocolate cakes like this, so I was super excited to see that Leigh selected this recipe.  If there is a molten chocolate cake on the menu at a restaurant, you can guarantee I’ll order it.  One of the best molten chocolate cakes I’ve had in recent memory was last May at The Beach House Restaurant in Kauai, Hawaii.  Because they prepare each cake to order, you had to place your order for the molten chocolate cake at the same time you ordered your entree.  Though the salad and entree were excellent, I remember looking forward to this dessert throughout the meal.  What could be better than enjoying a delicious melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake topped with vanilla bean ice cream while watching the sun set over the ocean in Hawaii with your loved ones?

This cake lacked some of that ambiance that made the Kauai cake so special, as this one I made and tasted on an overcast Monday afternoon at home accompanied by a cranky seven month old who didn’t take a proper nap.  But it tasted delicious! It wasn’t quite as gooey as I would have liked (and looks completely un-gooey in the photo below, taken several hours later), so when I make it again, I’ll cook for a little less time to ensure maximum gooeyness and serve it with vanilla ice cream.  I absolutely love that this recipe is baked in muffin cups instead of ramekins!  No special bakeware required–somehow we wound up with only 1 of the ramekins from our wedding registry, and I’ve yet to purchase more of them (4 years later).  I actually had one of those 6-cup disposable aluminum muffin tins mentioned in the recipe.  If you’re a chocolate lover, you definitely need to try this recipe.  Perfect single size servings for a dinner party.

Gooey Chocolate Cakes

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (4 ounces coarsely chopped, 1 ounce very finely chopped)
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons of sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. butter (or spray – it’s easier) 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, preferably a disposable aluminum foil pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Put the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.
Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted – you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates.  Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogenous.  Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes.  Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don’t beat) them into the eggs.  Little by little, and using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate and butter.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the batter.
Bake the cakes for 13 minutes.  Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. (There is no way to test that these cakes are properly baked, because the inside remains liquid.)
Line a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or parchment or wax paper, and, after the 3-minute rest, unmold the cakes onto the board.  Use a wide metal spatula to lift the cakes onto dessert plates.

Filed under: Tuesdays With Dorie, cake, chocolate, dessert, restaurants on April 1st, 2008 | 16 Comments »

I’ve been reading about Meyer Lemons for months now but never could find any at my local grocery store.  Every single Tuesday, I would scour the produce section with high hopes of spotting these special lemons, and every single Tuesday, I would pout a little as I moved on with the rest of my shopping, Meyer Lemon-less.  Everyone else was able to find them, why not me?  Well last Tuesday, my persistence paid off, and I snagged a bag of Meyer Lemons.  Meyer Lemons are slightly sweeter than regular lemons and more orange in color.   Since it took me so long to actually get my hands on some of these beauties, it took me almost all week to decide what to make with them.  I’m not a huge fan of lemony baked goods.  (Then why the search for the Meyer lemons, you ask?  Well, the fact that I couldn’t find them them only made me want them more….).  I narrowed down a few recipes and let The Picky Apple decide.  He wanted lemon poppy seed muffins.  I opted to go with Dorie Greenspan’s recipe.  Yes, I know, my blog is quickly becoming a shrine to Dorie, what with the Perfect Party Cake and Allspice Crumb Muffins I’ve posted recently.  And there’ll be more recipes from her soon, since I’m now a part of Tuesdays With Dorie.  They’re that good though, so if you had to buy one baking book right now, it should be Dorie’s.  You won’t be sorry.   I certainly wasn’t sorry I used my Meyer Lemons in her recipe.  They turned out great, and I don’t even like lemon poppy seed.  The icing on top really makes them standout, so don’t even think about skipping it, as I almost did.  My one teeny tiny complaint about the recipe was that it called for the zest and juice of one lemon.  I’ve voiced this complaint before–I never know quite how much to use.  The Meyer Lemons were small, so I used two of them.  I probably could have added a little more, but the lemon-y icing solved that problem somewhat.  I sent them off to work this morning with The Picky Apple, and I’ve already received some good reviews.

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Makes 12 Muffins

For the Muffins:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• Grated zest and juice of 2 Meyer Lemons
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sour cream (Picky Apple Note: I was running low on sour cream, so I used 1/4 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.  Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups.  Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong.  Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted buter together until well blended.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.  Don’t worry about being thorough– a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter.  Stir in the poppy seeds.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.  Cool the muffins completely on the rack before icing them.

To make the icing: Put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon juice.  Stir with a spoon to moisten the sugar, then add enough lemon juice, a dribble at a time, to get an icing that is then enough to drizzle from the tip of the spoon.  You can then drizzle lines of icing over the tops of the muffins or coat the tops entirely, the btter to get an extra zap of lemon.

Filed under: breakfast, muffins on March 31st, 2008 | 1 Comment »

This month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge, hosted by Morven, was Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake.  I made this cake for Easter dinner with my husband’s family.  One of the neat things about this recipe is its flexibility because this basic recipe can be adapted with many different fillings, fresh berries, and other toppings.  I opted to make the recipe exactly as written for my first attempt, with the lemon in the cake and buttercream, raspberry preserves, and coconut topping.  Although I have some experience with layer cakes (though clearly need more practice, as you will see from the pictures), this was my first time making a buttercream containing egg whites.  I was definitely a little leery of this step, not only because I wanted to make sure the egg whites were cooked sufficiently, but also because I’ve never had very good luck beating egg whites into “stiff peaks.”  Turns out my KitchenAid mixer was all I needed to beat those egg whites into submission-no more hand mixer for me!  I was only able to take one teensy bite of the cake–I can’t eat eggs for the next few months (long story), and this recipe calls for 8 egg whites.  The lemon flavor was much stronger than I cared for, though my husband and his family all seemed to like it.  I’m also not a big fan of raspberry preserves, but I think some fresh strawberries would be delicious!  I think my taste-testers probably would have preferred no coconut…or at least less of it.  This recipe is a great basic layer cake recipe, and I look forward to playing around with it again in the future.  Check out all the other beautiful cakes at the Daring Bakers blogroll!

Perfect Party Cake

Words From Dorie

Stick a bright-coloured Post-it to this page, so you’ll always know where to turn for a just-right cake for any celebration. The original recipe was given to me by my great dear friend Nick Malgieri, of baking fame, and since getting it, I’ve found endless opportunities to make it – you will too. The cake is snow white, with an elegant tight crumb and an easygoing nature: it always bakes up perfectly; it is delicate on the tongue but sturdy in the kitchen – no fussing when it comes to slicing the layers in half or cutting tall, beautiful wedges for serving; and, it tastes just as you’d want a party cake to taste – special. The base recipe is for a cake flavoured with lemon, layered with a little raspberry jam and filled and frosted with a classic (and so simple) pure white lemony hot-meringue buttercream but, because the elements are so fundamental, they lend themselves to variation (see Playing Around), making the cake not just perfect, but also versatile.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

Buttercream:

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing:

• 2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
• About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Directions:

Getting Ready: Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.  Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.  Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.  Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.  Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.  Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.  Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.  Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.  Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream: Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.  The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.  Remove the bowl from the heat.  Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.  Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.  Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.  During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.   You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake: Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.  Spread it with one third of the preserves.  Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.  Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).  Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.  Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving: The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing: The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around: Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake: If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Filed under: Daring Bakers, cake, dessert on March 30th, 2008 | 7 Comments »

This recipe is based on a dish that used to be on the menu at P.F. Chang’s.  The Picky Apple ordered this dish every single time we went to P.F. Chang’s until one day last year, it was no longer on the menu.  It was a sad day for him, and he was forced to try something new and different.  He’s found some new dishes he likes, but none are quite the same as that Szechwan Chicken Chow Fun.  We’ve tried our best to recreate this dish at home, and this is a decent replica.  We usually double the recipe and eat the leftovers for lunch for the next few days.

Szechwan Chicken Chow Fun

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces ground chicken (cooked)
• 8 ounces chow fun noodles (wide rice noodles….can be hard to find, so just use the widest rice noodles available)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons chili paste (this makes it pretty spicy…if you don’t like spicy, then use less chili paste or increase the vinegar to offset the spice a little)
• 2 tablespoons shredded black fungus mushrooms (optional)
• Sesame oil (optional)

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon mushroom soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions:  Cook chow fun noodles according to package directions, and set aside.  Heat wok and add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil.  Stir fry garlic and chili paste for 5 to 7 seconds.  Add ground chicken and sear with garlic and chili paste.  Add black fungus mushrooms if using, and stir fry briefly.  Separate the noodles, and drop into the wok while you are mixing a handful at a time.  Continue cooking until the noodles have absorbed all the flavors and are hot.  Finish with sesame oil.

Filed under: chicken, main dish, restaurants on March 28th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

The Cupcake Hero theme for March was Marshmallow.  Last month, for the liquor theme, I made Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes, but felt like they were kind of boring.  This month, I spent hours pouring over recipes and cupcake descriptions, agonizing over the “perfect” recipe, one that would really stand out in what I figured would be a sea of s’mores and rocky road cupcakes.  My entry, the S’murtle Cupcake, was inspired by the S’murtle Cupcake I found online on the menu at Jilly’s Cupcake Bar in St. Louis.  I’m in Houston, so I’ve never heard of nor visited this bakery, but the cupcakes look amazing!  Anybody out there ever visited this bakery and seen or tasted the S’murtle Cupcake?  I’d love to hear about it!  My S’murtle Cupcake consists of a chocolate devil’s food cake stuffed with marshmallow fluff and topped with chocolate ganache, drizzled with dulce de leche, praline pecans, a toasted marshmallow pretzel stick and a chocolate dipped graham cracker.  Whew!  That made me tired just typing it out!  Clearly, this cupcake is not for the faint of heart-in terms of baking or eating it because there is a lot going on. It’s pretty gimmicky, but a real show-stopper in my opinion.  My taste-testers gobbled them down, so apparently the cupcakes are tasty too.  I prepared the various parts of this cupcake over several days, so I’m just squeaking in under the deadline!

Devil’s Food Cupcake

from 500 Cupcakes, by Fergal Connolloy

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
• 2 separated eggs
• 3 1/2 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Place 18 paper baking cups into muffin pans.  Sift the flour and baking powder and set aside.  In a medium bowl, cream the sugar and buter.  Add the egg yolks and beat well.  Add the melted chocolate and vanilla, mixing well.  Add the flour and milk alternately, beating well with each addition.  Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form, and gently fold them into the batter.  Spoon the batter into the cups.  Bake fro 20 minutes.  Remove pans from teh oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.  

Marshmallow Filling

Transfer 1 jar of Marshmallow Fluff to piping bag.  Once cupcakes have cooled, cut a cone shaped piece out of the center of each cupcake and discard (or eat!).  Using the piping bag, fill the hole you’ve created with marshmallow fluff until level with top of cupcake (approximately 1 tbsp. of marshmallow per cupcake).

Chocolate Ganache

• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
• 10 ounces good semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Melt butter in a 3-quart saucepan.  Remove from heat, add chocolate and corn syrup, and whisk until chocolate is melted.  Refrigerate ganache in bowl, stirring occasionally, until thickened and spreadable, about 1 hour.

Frost each cupcake, making the top flat (or even with a little indention), to allow for the dulce de leche.

Dulce de Leche

from The Pastry Queen, by Rebecca Rather

• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Remove the paper wrapper from the can of sweetened condensed milk.  Use a can opener to make two small punctures in the top of the can on opposite sides.  Set the can of milk in a medium saucepan, puncture side up.  Fill the saucepan with water to reach two-thirds of the way up the sides of the can.  Cover the saucepan and bring the water to a boil over high heat.  Decrease the heat until the water simmers and simmer about 1 hour.  (Picky Apple Note: It usually takes around 2 hours, not 1).  Check the sauce pan periodically, adding water to ensure that the level does not drop below halfway.  A bit of milk may seep out of the small holes in the can.  Cook until the milk pooled on top of the can has turned a deep golden brown.  (You may have heard that boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk unopened is a shortcut.  Do not attempt this.  The milk expands when heated and may erupt with explosive results.)

Allow dulce de leche to cool.  Spoon about a tablespoon on top of each cupcake.

Praline Pecans:

adapted from this Southern Living Recipe

• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup butter 
• 1/4 cup milk 
• 1 tablespoons corn syrup 
• 2 1/2 cups toasted pecan halves

Stir together first 5 ingredients in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, 7 to 8 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 234°.  Remove from heat, and vigorously stir in pecans. Spoon pecan mixture onto wax paper, spreading in an even layer. Let stand 20 minutes or until firm. Break praline-coated pecans apart into pieces.

Chop praline pecan pieces, and sprinkle each cupcake with about a tablespoon of chopped praline pecans.

Toasted Marshmallow Pretzel Sticks

• Pretzel sticks (I used “Old Fashioned Dipping Style” pretzel sticks)
• Mini marshmallow

Toast mini marshmallows on a cookie sheet under the broiler until browned.  Working quickly, put a toasted marshmallow or two on the end of each pretzel stick.  Insert bare end of pretzel stick into cupcake.  (Depending on the length of your pretzel sticks, you may only need half a stick).
Chocolate Dipped Graham Crackers

•  at least 3 whole graham crackers
• 2 cups of dipping chocolate (or chocolate chips with a little bit of butter)

Break each graham cracker into 4 pieces.  Heat chocolate until runny.  Dip each graham cracker in chocolate, and set on a rack to cool and harden.  Once the chocolate has cooled and hardened, insert a graham cracker into each cupcake.

Filed under: Cupcake Hero, chocolate, cupcakes, dessert, dulce de leche, pecans on March 27th, 2008 | 5 Comments »