Posts Tagged ‘baking’

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Orange almond cake

28 January 2012

It’s a tantalizing cake. It has taunted me since Malou posted the recipe in a comment last April; the season of oranges had passed.

As winter came again the cake was on my mind. I meant to bake it for a skiing weekend; then didn’t. This week, finally, I did.

It is a cake for snowy days. When the light is low, the trees are bare, and the cold air breathtaking. The cake, by contrast, is light, spongy, melting. The sunny flavor of oranges with more than a hint of bitter from the pith.

It’s surprising, addictive, and leaves you wondering how the score might be played a dozen other, slightly different ways.

I love it. With tea.

***

With many thanks to Malou for the recipe

Update: I have since discovered that this is a famous Claudia Roden recipe !

2 large untreated oranges

6 large eggs

1 1/4 cups (250 g) sugar

2 generous cups (250 g) ground almonds

2 tsps baking powder

Candied orange slices for decoration (optional):

1 untreated orange

1 cup (200 g) sugar

*

Place 2 oranges in a small saucepan, cover with water, and simmer slowly for 2 hours, adding water if necessary.

Remove the oranges from the water and let cool. Cut the oranges in half, then each half again in two. Remove pips if necessary. Purée the oranges in a food processor. (The orange purée can be made a day in advance.)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a 9 inch (24 cm) baking tin with parchment paper that should be buttered generously.

In a large bowl, mix the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the orange purée, the ground almonds, and the baking powder, and mix well until thoroughly combined.

Pour the batter into the tin, slide into to oven, and bake for 1 hour, until a knife or skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

For the candied orange slices:

In a small saucepan, make a sugar syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.

Slice the orange as thinly as possible. Add the slices to the syrup, and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the slices carefully one by one, and place them on a rack or parchment paper to dry for about half an hour. Return the orange slices to the syrup, and simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. Let the slices dry for at least 1/2 hour. Reduce the syrup until it thickens and reserve.

When ready to serve, place a few orange slices on top and drizzle with a little syrup. **The cake gets even better after a day or two, so it should ideally be made in advance.**

Note: The candied orange was not in the original recipe, but I thought they looked nice and added a little something. However, the cake being very soft it is difficult to cut through the candied orange on top of the cake, so it is best cut on the side as the cake is served.

*

Related posts

Poppy seed and almond cake

Cake with pear and toasted hazelnuts

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Posted in Baking, Dessert, Winter | 18 Comments »

Christmas cookies | Swiss aniseed Chräbeli

21 December 2011

While I don’t shy away from de-veining a foie gras or beating the heavy dough of the yearly Stollen for 10 solid minutes, the idea of forming sticky wet dough into dozens of tiny elaborately shaped cookies never particularly appealed to me. I used to find cookies too fiddly.

But time passes, I change, and how else to have lots of homemade cookies at Christmas time? So last year I embraced cookies, and I must admit I’m enjoying making them — a lot.

There is a strong Christmas cookie making tradition in Germany, where my grandmother came from, and Switzerland, where my grandparents lived and where we spent every Christmas until I was 9. So the cookies I crave at Christmas are Lebkuchen and Zimtsterne, Linzer and Chräbeli.

Chräbeli are scented with anis. They have a very specific shape that reminds me of a branch, though the Swiss refer to them as ‘feet.’

***

Makes about 40 cookies. Translated and very slightly adapted from La Mia Cucina, with thanks to Jennifer for pointing me in its direction.

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups (200 g) powdered sugar

2.5 flat Tbsps aniseeds

1 tsp Kirsch

1/4 lemon zest

1 pinch salt

2 cups (250 g) flour

***

With a whisk, beat the eggs and powdered sugar for a good 10 minutes.

Optionally, heat a small pan, remove from heat, and add the aniseeds just to warm them up.

Combine the aniseeds, Kirsch, and lemon zest with the egg/sugar mixture.

Add the flour little by little. Once all the flour has disappeared, cover the bowl and let rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. **The dough must be sticky but not runny. If it doesn’t hold together in a loosely shaped ball in the bowl, add just enough flour before setting to rest.**

Prepare a cookie sheet with buttered parchment paper.

Divide the still slightly sticky dough into 2 parts, and form into a thick roll; divide each of these into 4 pieces, and roll each piece into an even, long stick about 1/2 inch (1 cm) in diameter. Form each of the four sticks into 4 cookies and place them onto the buttered parchment paper. To form the cookies: cut the stick into 4 pieces 1 3/4 in (4 cm) long, then with a clean, sharp knife, cut 3 angled incisions halfway into the cookie to form the ‘branches,’ then bend slightly into a half-moon shape.

Let the cookies rest for at least 10 hours (and up to 24h) in a cool place with an even temperature and no draft.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C).

Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes, until the top is slightly hard to the touch, but not yet turning brown. **Do not open the oven for the first 10 minutes.**

Store the cookies in a tin in a cool place for up to a few weeks.

*

Related posts

Stollen

Christmas cookies | Almond and currant (Corinth raisin) cookies

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Posted in Christmas, Dessert, Holidays | 8 Comments »

Plum cake

10 October 2011

Geese are heading South over Manhattan this morning.

So briefly, before it’s too late, before the plums are all gone, here is Nigel Slater‘s “Wonderfully moist, fresh plum cake.” It is exactly that, at the very least.

It is autumnal and luscious. With a crunch from the chopped walnuts and a hint of spice, which I couldn’t resist adding to the recipe.

***

Recipe very slightly adapted from Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries

I have doubled the recipe and I doubt anyone would mind. However if it is just for one or two, the recipe can easily be halved. The cooking time would then be 40 – 45 minutes at an oven temperature of 350°F (180°C).

32 plums

1 1/2 cups (300 g) butter

1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar

6 eggs

1 1/4 cups (150 g) flour

3 tsps baking powder

2 cups (200 g) ground almonds (1 1/2 cups whole almonds yields 2 cups once ground)

1 cup (100 g) walnuts

Zest from 1 lemon

2 Tbsps muscovado (dark brown) sugar

2 tsps powdered ginger

***

Preheat oven to 375°F (200°C).

Line the base of a cake tin 10 1/2 inch (27 cm) in diameter with parchment paper. Butter the paper and the sides of the tin.

Wash the plums, halve them, remove the stones, and cut each half again in two. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar thoroughly until light and fluffy.

In a small bowl, break the eggs and beat them slightly with a fork. Then add them little by little to the butter/sugar mixture.

Sift the flour together with the baking powder and fold in gently with a spatula or wooden spoon. Gently add the lemon zest and ground almonds.

Roughly chop the walnuts and add them too.

Sprinkle the muscovado sugar and ginger onto the plums and toss carefully, preferably with bare hands in order not to squash the plums.

Scrape the batter into the cake tin and place the plums on top, pushing them into the batter ever so slightly (they will sink in more as the cake cooks).

Bake the cake for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a knife or skewer into the cake, which should come out clean. But also gently move the cake tin. If the center jiggles it needs a little more time.

Let the cake cool a little before removing from the tin.

*

Related posts

Cake with pear and toasted hazelnuts

Orange almond cake

Plum jam with candied ginger

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Posted in Baking, Dessert, Fall, Seasonal, Summer | 4 Comments »

Busy-day cupcakes

22 June 2011

I’ve made this recipe so often in the past month it’s not even funny.

I was looking for a simple vanilla cake for a friend’s sixth birthday and remembered reading about this cake when I first came across a mean-sounding poppy seed cake on Lottie + Doof. The busy-day cake caught my eye because of the name, and because it came from Edna Lewis, a Southern cook whom I know through the lovely cookbooks she has written. I own one, The Taste of Country Cooking, which I read as I would a collection of short stories. Each recipe recalls a memory, a way of life, a moment in time.

The book is organized by seasons and menus. There were many lovely excerpts to choose from, but I liked this one because of a personal memory – the first time I had shad roe in Portland, Maine. The menu is called A Spring Breakfast When the Shad Were Running. The introduction begins: “Because shad was practically the only fish we ever ate and spring was the only time it was ever seen, we were always much too excited to wait for dinner, so we’d cook it for breakfast whenever it was caught…”

A “busy-day cake” sounded just like Edna Lewis. It is very easy to make and delicious – light and moist, simply scented with vanilla and nutmeg. And it lends itself very well to cupcakes.

Both Leo and Balthasar were born in June, so I made these cupcakes twice, for each of their birthdays. And one more time because a fierce summer storm hit New York and postponed the party. I’ve lost count – it was a lot of baking and (cup)cakes in one month. I have promised to bake a marble cake for a picnic on Saturday but at this point all I really want to do is roast chicken and make rhubarb ice cream.

***

Barely adapted from the Busy-Day Cake on Lottie + Doof. The recipe is doubled and makes about twenty-eight 2 1/2 inch (6.35 cm) cupcakes.

1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups (400 g) sugar

6 eggs

4 cups (400 g) flour

1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk*

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

3 tsps pure vanilla extract

4 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

*

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

With a wooden spoon beat the butter and sugar thoroughly, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring to incorporate each one before adding the next. Then add, alternately, about a third of the flour, half of the buttermilk, another third of flour, the second half of the buttermilk, and the last part flour, stirring to combine the ingredient every time. Finally add the salt, vanilla extract, baking powder, and nutmeg.

Scoop a large spoonful of batter into each cupcake cup (the batter should barely reach the top of the cup – it will rise.).

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until the batter is just set and as soon as a toothpick comes out clean.

* An easy substitute for buttermilk is to stir 1 Tbsp lemon juice into 1 cup of milk and let sit for 5 minutes

I made mascarpone lemon icing for the cupcakes:

2 cups (500 g) mascarpone

1/2 cup (40 g) icing (confectioner’s) sugar

1 or 2 untreated lemons, depending on the yield of your grater

Mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar, grate one lemon and blend the zest into the mascarpone. Taste, add some zest if you want a stronger lemon flavor. Ice the cupcakes just before serving and add a thin strip of lemon rind or a raspberry for decoration.

*

Related posts

Poppy seed and almond cake

Oatmeal raisin walnut cookies

Banana cake

Orange almond cake

 

 

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Posted in Children, Dessert, Easy, Year-round | Leave a Comment »

Oatmeal raisin walnut cookies

25 May 2011

I’m in a baking state of mind, and a bit perplexed by it.

As much as I love to cook, I don’t bake very often. Except when I want to make dessert for dinner with friends, and even then I usually manage to devise a non-baked sweet. But these days I’ve been baking walnut tarts and banana cakes, and, most surprisingly, the other day at 10 pm I felt compelled to try to recreate my childhood memory of a seriously addictive chewy almond macaroon. (It was an improvisation and not an entirely terrible first attempt. To be continued.)

This weekend I baked oatmeal raisin walnut cookies, for no particular reason.

The recipe is very slightly adapted from the Once Upon a Tart… cookbook. It has less sugar, fewer raisins, and leaves out the cinnamon. I wanted something subtle and understated.

When I first tasted one, straight out of the oven, I was worried it lacked something: some spice perhaps, or some sugar — why am I always compelled to tinker with recipes? But the next day I felt vindicated. They were exactly as I wanted. These cookies don’t wow into submission at first bite; they seduce stealthily, enticing, unwittingly, to reach for another, and another, and another…

Resist the temptation to eat the cookies straight off the rack. Wait a few hours and they will be exactly what you were hoping for.

***

Slightly adapted from the Once Upon a Tart… cookbook

1 cup (225 g) butter
1 1/4 cup (250 g) sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup (100 ml) liquid honey
1 1/2 cups (175 g) flour
4 cups (400 g) rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups (175 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup (125 g) raisins

***

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

Take the butter out of the refrigerator to soften.

In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. **It’s important here to beat the ingredients thoroughly, for 5 to 10 minutes.** Add the eggs, one at a time, beating with a whisk to combine well. Add the honey and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, the oats, and the salt.

Combine  the butter/sugar/egg/honey mixture with the flour/oats/salt. Mix until the flour has disappeared.

Stir in the walnuts and raisins.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Butter the paper. With a large spoon or ice cream scoop, transfer small balls of dough to the baking sheet, flatten and shape them with your fingers, making sure to leave about 1 in (2.5 cm) between each cookie.

In the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies start turning brown at the edge. The cookies will still feel soft to the touch but will harden as they cool.  [12-13 minutes works for 2 in (5 cm) cookies. Adjust time according to the size of the cookies.]

Wait until tomorrow. Store in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

*

Related posts

Banana cake

Busy-day cupcakes

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Posted in Children, Dessert, Homemade and preserves, Year-round | 4 Comments »

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