Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Black Raspberry Swirl

Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Black Raspberry Swirl, 1-2-3 Bake, Dorie Greenspan

Coffee Break Muffins

Simple, plain even, and not too sweet. Very tender and quite delicious. I sprinkled with coarse decorating sugar to dress them up just a bit. A definite repeat.

Coffee Break Muffins, Baking From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan.

Oatmeal Raisin Bar Cookies

To go with afternoon coffee. And who knows, maybe morning coffee.

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

"Uh oh..."

Blueberry Crumb Muffins, The Modern Baker, Nick Malgieri

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Tart

Since everyone seems to want it but me, I've been trying harder to make dessert a part of Sunday dinner. Kinda funny is that the past three weeks have been Rose Levy Beranbaum recipes. Well, not so funny when you consider how reliable they are. In fact, this one was chosen by Food & Wine to be included in their Best of the Best cookbook.

If you want to see Rose herself making this dessert and giving helpful hints, you can watch a video here.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Tart, The Pie & Pastry Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum

MeatyCheesyGoodness

I often try to send something home with my boy when he comes for Sunday dinner. Love that boy. Tomorrow he gets "breakfast to go" for the week. Couple of those and a piece of fruit and he'll be set.

Can't say I followed this recipe exactly, but here ya go:

Sausage Cheese Biscuits, King Arthur Flour

Draw That Line Again!

Cappuccino

My Bialetti treated me well. I think it was a sign that I'd have a perfectly lovely morning. And I have.

Boo!

Gingerbread Skeletons, epicurious.com

Red Peppers Stuffed with Feta, Orzo, Lemon & Oregano

Not much is making me happy today. I do own every Fine Cooking magazine ever published. That makes me happy. Oh! and happy Meat Free Monday.

Red Peppers Stuffed with Feta, Orzo, Lemon & Oregano, Fine Cooking #23

Apple Upside-Down Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

With travel to Oregon and Michigan, I've been anxious for my routines, patterns, and habits. Unfortunately, the most sorely missed ones are like the best laid plans of mice and men. However, I did bake today.


Apple Upside-Down Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Rose Levy Beranbaum

Banana-Macadamia Nut Muffins

Shortly after the Portland Marathon, I received a perfectly worded text message from a friend who knew exactly what I was feeling. At the time, I didn't have the right words to reply with. Days later, I received another text: "Okay. Your 72 hours of anger, disappointment, weeping, mourning, post-marathon depression is over. You better respond to me or I will track you down."

We exchanged a couple of emails and he advised: "Rest up. Bake. Sleep. Eat. Sleep. Drink. Sleep. And then get back out there."

Eat? Sleep? Not so much. Bake? What a brilliant idea! He was rewarded with a stack of highly addictive Salty-Sweets and I've been baking like a madwoman ever since.

That draws to a close with today's goodies, baked to use up ripe bananas before I leave town to join my husband, whose dad passed away yesterday. We knew it was coming, and we're grateful that Gary could be there in the days leading up to it.

Banana-Macadamia Nut Muffins, Bon Appetit

Pumpkin Muffins

I know there are people who don't care for pumpkin. Can't say I like pumpkin pie myself. Detest the stuff. My husband adores it, though, and these muffins (along with two mini-loaves) are for him.

While we were in Oregon, he not only dealt with my weepy emotional self following a disappointing race, worse was learning that his father had been hospitalized. We hoped it might be a short stay, until he was stable enough to travel here, where we can take better care of him. However last night Gary's mother suggested that he and his sister hurry home.

He'll leave in the morning and I'll send pumpkin muffins along, so that he knows I'm with him in spirit.

Cocoa Banana Muffins

This time last year I was the same number of days away from a marathon that I am right now.

Except that last year, there was a baking ban in effect. This year, there've been no baking ban proclamations, and as a workout -- as training -- I ran 24 miles, 20 of which were at 2008 race pace, got up the next morning and ran some more. Whereas after last year's event, I got up the next morning and could hardly move.

So I'm thinking that baking bans are a bunch of hooey. Despite having been teased for demolishing that apple spice cake, it's clear that baked goods are making me speedier.

Cocoa Banana Muffins, The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri

Grilled Vegetable Panino

Even though I don't enjoy eating alone, I suppose it's a good thing that our whacked schedules mean that my vegetable-averse husband and my mostly-meatless self share surprisingly few meals. I almost invariably stick to my Friday Fish and Meat Free Monday habits, just two of the many food patterns I have.

Photographed pre-press hoping it would be more attractive than post-squoosh. Squooshed is good, though, don't get me wrong. Grilled squashes, onions, roasted red pepper and whole milk mozzarella, with homemade pesto thanks to Mike's prolifically rebounding basil, on fresh homemade focaccia. YUM.

Apple Spice Cake

It was a breezy, cool morning. Even though my feet were cold, I was ridiculously happy. I knew I wanted to bake something autumnish, but anything "pumpkin" was promptly vetoed. Since whatever I'd be baking would be for the weekend, I was leaning toward either honey- or apple-based things for Rosh Hashana. After far too much deliberation, this is what I finally chose.

Shana Tova!

Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

Lavash Crackers

Thanks for the warning, Sally! Yes, these are addictive.

Notes:

• Even though it's a small ball of dough, I think it's easier to work with half at a time.
• I rolled it on my silpat and then lifted that onto the baking sheet.
• I used cyprus flake salt, minced rosemary, smoked paprika, poppy seeds and sesame seeds. Your toppings may vary.

Lavash Crackers, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Peter Reinhart

Big Fat Cookies

Whoah. These turned out to be some attractive cookies. They're big, they're fat, they didn't spread much, nearly perfectly matched in size and shape. Sellable-looking, even. I hope they taste as good as they look.

Ingredients
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup oats

4 oz. butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg

1/2 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup m&ms
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


350 degrees for... um, until they look as done as you want them to look.

Note to self: a half recipe, using my large scoop as a measure, makes a perfect dozen.

Another note to self: If I make them again, I'll probably use raisins instead of the chips. As soon as I say that, someone is going to say "there's no such thing as too much chocolate". Still, I wish I'd added raisins.

Strawberry Buttercream

Notes on today's buttercream:

1. It makes me silly happy when other people like "real" buttercream. Not that American Buttercream isn't real, but it isn't. Ha.
   
   
2. I made a half recipe of Kaye's buttercream, an Italian meringue buttercream. A half recipe is about 6 egg whites, a little over a cup of sugar, and 3/4 pound of butter, in case you wondered. A half recipe makes about 4 cups of frosting, which is still a lot of frosting.
   
   
3. I took approximately one cup of that and added strawberry puree at the suggested ratio, resulting in a mildly strawberry flavored frosting. I was afraid to add more puree, because buttercream is an emulsion, and if the proportions get too far off, it will break. I decided it would taste more strawberry-ish if I tinted it pink. It might be too pink. Deal with it.
   
   
4. That leaves about 3 cups of plain buttercream left for me to freeze and play with later. Yay.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream, The Whimsical Bakehouse

Salty-Sweet

Salty-Sweet Butter Pecan Cookies

Little Card, Big Smile

The doorbell rang. A man in brown uniform. That right there was enough to make me smile.

I smiled again when I opened the card. And then I gasped out loud when I opened the box: a most thoughtful friend sent me a book. Not just any book. THE book that RLB fans have been waiting for in a state of suspenseful anticipation.

For once, I do believe I am speechless.

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes, Food & Wine, May 2008

Just Plain Good Cupcakes

After dinner tonight, Gary asked what he could have for dessert. Uh. Uh. Uh. We rarely have dessert after dinner. And we never have dessert on Friday night. However, at any given time, I do have a stash of sweets in the freezer. Except that, uh, uh, uh, at the moment they're all spoken for. I have plans for them.

Small Batch Baking to the rescue. "Just Plain Good Cupcakes" uses one yolk (ha! hey Sheri, I added yet another white to my collection!), two tablespoons of butter, half a cup of flour and a few other things, to make four cupcakes. As it just so happens, I had a ridiculously small amount of chocolate cream glaze left over from Valentine's Day (where does the time go?) that I couldn't bear to throw out then, but never found a reason to use either. I sprinkled on some cute little hearts and there you go: dessert.

Sourdough Country Loaves

No oven-spring. Did I overproof them?

I know, I know... no matter what, they will be better than store-bought. But still :(

Sourdough Country Loaves, Breads from the La Brea Bakery

Edit to show interior, in case you are interested:

Chocolate Bundt Cake

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze

Fresh Herb Tart

Dinner. Probably tomorrow's breakfast and lunch as well.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Oh Toni... good call, girl.

Peach Jam

I grew up in Georgia, where summertime meant homemade peach ice cream on the patio. For eating out of hand, I'd have to say that nothing beats a fresh warm peach from Twinland. Now I live in Texas, a fine peach growing state too, but with a mostly disappointing crop this year. Nevertheless, I now have some right good homemade jam.

Small Batch Peach Jam
2 1/2 pounds peaches - pitted, cut into wedges, peeled, and then cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

In a 3 qt. saucepan, toss the peaches with the sugar. Let them stand for about an hour, until they're juicy and the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice and cinnamon.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, and let simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally at first and more frequently the thicker it becomes. Eventually it will be thick enough that you can see the bottom of your pan when you drag your spatula across it to stir. If by that time the peaches haven't fallen apart enough to satisfy you, feel free to give them a little help with a potato masher.

Spoon the hot jam into 3 half-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space at the top. Put the lids on the jars and let them cool at room temperature. Then refrigerate one jar to eat straight away and give the others to friends freeze the rest.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

4 oz (1 stick) butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1 (6.5 ounce) jar macadamia nuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Be sure that the baking soda and salt are evenly distributed, because once you add this mixture to the butter-sugar mixture, you're only going to stir until it becomes a cohesive dough. If the baking soda and salt aren't evenly distributed first, you're going to end up with areas of dough that don't have any.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour, and mix on low speed only until it's barely combined. Stir in the white chocolate and nuts by hand.

Drop heaping spoonfuls of the dough onto baking sheet(s), and leave room for it to spread as the cookies bake. Bake until lightly browned, which might be 8 minutes or might be 12, depending on the size of your "heaping spoonfuls" and the accuracy of your oven temperature.

Let the cookies firm up for a minute before removing them from the baking sheet to cool on a wire rack.

Bran Muffins

These muffins are a Nancy Silverton recipe, by way of David Lebovitz's blog. He says that they are "...quite different than other muffins. For one thing, they're much, much lighter in texture. And for another, they're not very sweet." He's right. [of course he's right! he's David Lebovitz!]

Based on Jess's suggestion, I upped the orange zest. I was just about to say that I think these'd be great with marmalade, but then who am I kidding? I think almost everything would be great with marmalade.

Nancy Silverton's Bran Muffins

Raspberry Jam Thumbprints

Ever found yourself desperate for an afternoon snack, staring vacantly at a vending machine and somehow ending up with these in your hand?

Today's cookies remind me of those, only a million times better. In case you want to do a taste test, here's the recipe, adapted from an adaptation. Or you could skip the taste test and trust me on this one.

Jam Thumbprints
1/2 cup raspberry jam
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

Put the jam in a pastry bag, or in a heavy duty ziplock if you don't have a pastry bag. Ok, you don't even have to do that if you don't want to. But if you're going to fill trays and trays of cookies with jam, it's going to be quicker and neater if you use the pastry bag or ziplock, instead of a spoon. Don't say I didn't warn you.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, egg & vanilla, and mix well. Be sure to scrape down the bowl occasionally.

Add the flour mixture and mix on "low" only until it forms a cohesive dough. Don't over-mix or you won't end up with tender cookies.

Roll the dough into little balls and make an indentation in the center of each one with your thumb, the end of a wooden spoon, or the bottom of a small (I used 1/2 tsp) measuring spoon.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until they are just beginning to set and are lightly browned around the edges, maybe 8 minutes. Take the cookie sheet from the oven and gently reshape the indentations.

Fill each indentation with a little squirt of jam and be grateful that you listened to me and didn't use a spoon to do it. Put the cookies back in the oven and continue baking until lightly golden -- oh, I don't know, probably 10 or 11 minutes, maybe 12? This is not a cookie to underbake.

Leave them on the cookie sheet for a few minutes to firm up before you try to transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Then enjoy them with your afternoon cherry blossoms.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

A busy day of baking. A key lime pie. Then, to use the whites that were left from the yolks in the pie, an italian meringue buttercream, which I put on top of a small batch of cupcakes and sprinkled with chopped up Skor. Finally, Mexican Wedding Cookies. Except that they turned out flat, and I have never seen a flat Mexican Wedding Cookie. Huh.

As I said, a busy day of baking. One thing I learned last season is that my legs and feet are not happy standing on a tile-on-concrete-slab kitchen floor for hours at a time, after 60 miles a week of running. Today I wore a new [clean] pair of running shoes, and that seems to have made a big difference.