Mmm Cake!

Inspired by seasonal, local ingredients we made a Chocolate Beet Cake. Now, just because it has beets in it doesn’t mean it tastes like beets. The beets add body and depth to the batter. Made with dark chocolate, the cake is not too sweet, and is great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Beet Cake
makes one bundt cake

Chocolate Butter Glaze – optional

• 4 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 8 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Cake Batter

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup vegetable oil (or other mild-flavored oil; do not use olive)
  • divided in recipe
• 3 eggs
• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 2 cups pureed cooked beets (3 medium beets)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat over to 375°F

Steam the beets for about 30 minutes; then puree them if you haven’t already.

Lightly coat a 10-cup Bundt pan with oil and dust it with flour. Put the chocolate and ¼ cup of the oil in bowl on top of a double boiler. Heat just until the chocolate melts; remove from heat and stir to combined. Return to heat as needed until chocolate and oil are well integrated.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a bowl for an electric mixer and beat with the beater attachment until fluffy. Slowly beat in the remaining ¾ cup of oil, chocolate mixture, beets, and vanilla. Sift the dry ingredients together and gently stir the flour mixture into the egg and chocolate mixture just until flour is mixed in.

Be careful when working with beets; they stain.

Pour the batter into your prepared bundt pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. It depends on what kind of pan you use and your oven. Everyone is different. Bake until done.

Cool for about 20 minutes before inverting from pan.

While your cake is cooling prepare the Chocolate Butter Glaze. You can skip this step and just dust your cake with powdered sugar.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate. Remove from heat when the chocolate is nearly melted and stir until smooth. Add the softened butter. slowly stir with a rubber spatula until no visible traces of butter remain.

The glaze should be glossy and smooth with a temperature of 80-85 degrees. (I didn’t temp my glaze.) When stirred, it will hold a line on the surface for about 10 seconds before disappearing.

If the glaze is too hot it will all run off your cake; If the glaze is too cool it will not run smoothly down the sides. You can test it on a spoon until you are comfortable with the consistency. Pour over you cake, let the glaze cool a few minutes before cutting.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.

adapted from Peterson, John, and Angelic Organics. Farmer John’s Cookbook. Gibbs Smith: Salt Lake City, 2006.

Spring has Arrived

We went to the Farmer’s Market like we do every Saturday. Picked up some asparagus, fingerling potatoes, salad greens, and rhubarb.

We grabbed the puppies and were off to visit my parents. The weather was perfect. A great day. Wednesday and Schuman had soooo much fun running around and jumping in the muddy swamp that sits near the house that they had to get baths before they could come inside.

Now, I’ve never been a rhubarb fan. Probably because I’ve always been such a picky eater, and wouldn’t branch out and try new things. Well…

Today was The Day of Rhubarb. Joe made a Rhubarb Upside-down Cake [Recipe below], and my mom made a Rhubarb Pie. Both were glorious.

AND dinner was just as fabulous. Herbed chicken, grilled asparagus, steamed and statued potatoes, micro-green salad, and sourdough bread from Eugene City Bakery.

We also had a chance to watch Juno again. My parents hadn’t seen it yet. I’m going to try and watch it with the commentary before we have to return it. It is such a great movie!

A day well spent.

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
makes one 9″ cake

Topping:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ¾ cups brown sugar
• 2 ½ cups small, diced rhubarb (about 3-4 medium stalks)

Batter:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup whole milk
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter

Preheat over to 325-350°F.

Over low heat, melt the butter in a saucepan stirring in the brown sugar until it dissolves. Pour into a greased 9″ cake pan and form to coat the bottom. Toss the chopped rhubarb with about 2 TBS sugar before arranging it neatly over the brown sugar mixture, covering the bottom completely. This is going to be the TOP of the cake when you flip it. Set the pan aside while you prepare the cake batter.

With an electric mixer, in a very clean bowl, whisk the eggs whites with the cream of tartar until they are stiff enough to hold a slight shape. Set aside. (You can dump them in a glass bowl and wipe our the mixer bowl for the rest of the batter).

With the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar until pale, light, and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, and egg yolks. One at a time, scraping the bowl to make sure all the butter in incorporated. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add them to the batter alternately with the milk. Begin and end with the dry ingredients.

Fold by hand the egg whites into the batter a third at a time.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly over the rhubarb. Make sure not to disturb the rhubarb too much. Bake for 20-35 minutes, until the top is browned and the cake pulls away slightly from the edges of the pan. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes before turning it out. Serve with whipped cream, or even better Ice Cream!

You can do this same cake with pears, plums, peaches, cranberries, or any berry or stone fruit really.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: Fleming, Claudia. The Last Course: Desserts of the Gramercy Tavern. Random House, New York: 2001.

Squeeze Me

Everyone needs a sweet treat! Lemon and Poppy seeds are one of my favorite combinations!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
makes 12~24 depending on size

Dough
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel (about 2 lemons)
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon slat
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Coating
You will roll the dough in this mixture before baking. Exact amounts depend on the size of your cookies.
about 1/2 cup sanding sugar (raw sugar)
a few tablespoons of poppy seeds

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

Prepare your oven by preheating it to 350°F.

Start the dough by beating the granulated sugar and softened butter in an electric mixer on medium until creamy. Beat in the egg and lemon peel. Mix until combined. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt). Gradually add this to the butter and egg mixture. Once combined add 1 tablespoon of the poppy seeds. Mix on low until firm and completely combined.

Mix together the sanding sugar and some poppy seeds in a small bowl. Using your hands or two spoons create balls of dough about 1-2 tablespoons in size. Roll in the sanding sugar to coat. Bake about 2 inches apart for 11-12 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand on cookies sheets for a minute, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Something I learned from Betty Crocker is to bake a test cookie. If you have the time (and you should, never bake in a rush) bake just one cookie. All by it’s lonesome. Take it out and let it cool. Eat it! You will be able to tell if you need to add a minute or subtract a minute. This is a life saver and can save you ruining 8 cookies instead of just one.

For the glaze, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. Mix well and drizzle over the cookies. The glaze takes about 20 minutes to set.

Enjoy!!

Craving!

One part boredom, plus ne part left over chips, plus two parts hunger equals Butterscotch Chip Cookies. I’ve wanted to try Alexis Stewart’s Brown-Sugar Chocolate-Chip Cookies for as long as I’ve know about it. They are supposed to be flatter and less cakey than normal chocolate chip cookies.

After using all the chocolate chips in the house, and having half a bag left of butterscotch chips, I just had to make them. You can find the recipe here. NOTE: The image shown on the website is in actuality not the actual recipe (per Alexis Stewart on Whatever Radio)

I halved it as 50 cookies is quite a lot! Plus I didn’t have enough chips. After baking the first batch I saw that I made the drops too large, and there wasn’t enough flour in the batter. I added about 4 tablespoons more flour and reduced the size and voila! Yummy golden brown buttery goodness.

Let’s Get Baking!

Baking an Onion and Potato Tart. I don’t know what got into me. I had fun yesterday making cookies and we’ve had these onions sitting on the counter forever! Joe was doing dishes when I got home so the kitchen was nice and clean for me to make a mess Sorry, hon.

I dried the dishes and got to it.

First thing was finding a Pâte Brisée recipe. Pâte Brisée is just basic pie dough. I say Pâte Brisée because I think it makes me look fancy. teehee. First, the recipe in Joe’s school book was for 5lbs of dough! I didn’t want to convert it. The one in Chez Panisse Desserts was a little too complicated, and I didn’t want to think that hard. Plus the pages kept turning on me and I didn’t want to get the cook book holder down. So I decided on an adapted recipe from a Season Baking Class hand out by Julie Fether. (I did have to half it, the exact recipe I used tonight below) I adapted it to fit my own style.

Pâte Brisée
enough for one 11″ tart, plus extra

1 cup AP Flour
1 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3~3/4 cup cold water
8 oz. cold butter

Sift flour, add salt. Cube cold butter. Working quickly use your finger tips to work the butter into the flour until you reach an oatmeal/cornmeal consistency. Don’t over work the butter as it will melt. Cold flakes of butter = Flaky dough. If needed you can toss the mixture back in the fridge.

Quickly and all at once, add the water and mix until incorporated. Always err on the side of less water. It’s easier to add water than take it out.

Once the dough has gathered, turn it out on a lightly floured surface and knead it gently. Don’t overwork the dough. There should still be “marbled” butter batches visible. Once the dough is smooth and firm shape it into a disc and wrap it in plastic, chill completely.

Lasts 3-4 days; 2 months in freezer.
Take the dough out a few minutes before working with it. Always work with a cold dough. If it begins to warm up too much, toss it back in the fridge.

Once I had the dough made and in the fridge I moved on to the filling. I was searching for Caramelized Onion Tarts in our cook books and online. This is the one I based my recipe on. There are many many variations all over the place. The filling isn’t an exact science – mix and match fillings and spices to your hearts content. Experiment!

Caramelized Onion & Potato Tart
enough for one 11″ Tart

5 small yellow onions (red would probably be great too, more sweet)
2~3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
salt, pepper
celery seed (you can use any herb or spice you like. keep it simple.)
3/4 cup swiss cheese (Gruyère would have been great, but we didn’t have any)
3~4 small red potatoes

Peel and slice the onions. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large sauté pan. Once the butter has melted, add the onions and sprinkle a little salt over them. Cook on high for at least 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent. Just as they start to brown, reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. The onions should be cooked completely, not burnt, and when you taste them – there should be no crunch.

While the onions are cooking steam your potatoes for about 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the water level in your steamer (I ran out, and almost scorched my pot). You could probably microwave, or bake these.Preheat your oven to 450°F. Grate or chop the cheese, set aside. Take your Potatoes off the stove to cool. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand for 5 minutes before rolling it out. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 13-inch diameter. Lift and lay in your tart pan. Trim the edges and dock the dough with a fort (poke some holes in the bottom). If you can, stick it back in the fridge to chill up.You are going to Blind Bake the shell before filling. Line the tart dough with some tin foil. Fill with some dried beans, or in my case some brown rice. This will simulate filling, and par bake (pre bake) the dough. Since the filling will be fully cooked before going in the tart blind baking will allow the crust to cook completely without burning the filling.

Bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes. Remove the tin foil and rice/beans. Layer in your filling. Half of the cheese, slices of steamed potato, salt and pepper, celery seed or other seasonings, caramelized onions, and the rest of the cheese. Continue to bake at 450 for 10-15 more minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F for 20-25 minutes. The cheese should be bubbly and the crust should be golden.

Remove and let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

So Yummy! Serve with some crème fraîche, or sour cream. Best warm.

~ Mike