Bakery – Page 5 – KellyintheKitchen

Naked Apple Tart.

Published on October 1, 2012September 30, 2012 by KellyInTheKitchen7 Comments

Crinkly leaves, still attached to the tress, bristling as the wind moves. Staggering your gait so that each footstep crunches an acorn. A season of transition: from breezy summer to homey fall warmth. At this time of year, I have an uncontrollable urge to bake—and thank goodness my mother and sister are nearby to help me with the eating! This hybrid tart-galette, inspired by a similar smitten kitchen recipe, is a rustic apple and nut dessert that I’ve gussied up a bit. A brush of butter, a sprinkle of sugar, and a coating of pink spiced apple syrup—this on top of melt-in-your-mouth apples, nestled on a bed of sweet ground nuts. It’s a “naked tart” because the apples are the centerpiece here, with very little dough. For me, galettes tend to be too crust-heavy, so this tart is my compromise. And whether you’re describing or eating it, that’s quite a mouthful.

INGREDIENTS

crust:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
3 tbsp cold butter, cubed
2 tbsp cold water

filling:
2-3 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (save the peels and cores)
squeeze of lemon juice
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup almonds
1 tsp all-purpose flour
2 heaping tbsp sugar, divided
1 tbsp butter, melted

glaze:
the reserved peels and cores from the apples
1/4 cup sugar
pinch ground ginger
pinch nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

First, the apples. In a mixing bowl, toss the slices with lemon juice and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Add the cold butter to the bowl and combine using the tips of your fingers. Little lumps are okay.

Stir in the cold water, little by little, until the dough just holds together. Form it into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour.

To make the almond filling base, pulse nuts, flour, and sugar in a food processor until finely ground.

Preheat oven at 400 F. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit for 5 minutes, to bring the temperature down a bit so that you can work with it. Place it on a floured surface and roll it out to a thin thin circle, slightly larger than the size of the pan you’re using. Lay it in the pan.

Spread the nut mixture over the bottom of the crust.

Now, lay the apples in an overlapping spiral. I suggest putting the less-asthetically-pleasing slices on the bottom layer, quietly tucked out of sight. Fold any extra dough up and over the sides of the apples (there won’t be much–this is a naked galette, after all). Brush crust and apples with 1 tbsp melted butter, sprinkle with sugar, and pop in the oven. Cook about 45 minutes, rotating every 15 or so. If you find that the slices of apple are browning too quickly (I did!), cover the pan with a sheet of foil, and just remove the foil 10 minutes or so before you take the pie out, so it can finish browning up.

While the tart cooks, prepare the syrup topping. In a saucepan, combine apple peels and cores, sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and just enough water to cover them. Simmer for about 25 minutes, then remove from heat and strain out the pieces.

When the crust is golden brown, remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes. Then brush all over with the spiced apple syrup.

Serve as is, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yummy.

One final note: it’s never too early to start baking in your Christmas apron.

Maple and Orange Marmalade Cookies.

Published on September 9, 2012September 9, 2012 by KellyInTheKitchen4 Comments

Yesterday I posted a goodbye-to-summer cocktail. Today I’m posting a hello-to-fall cookie. Now that I’m thinking about it, apple pie would probably be the most appropriate late summer/early fall baked good, but to me, maple syrup and fall just go together. Why is that? Maybe it’s the tree connection, I’m not sure. But I do know that these cookies, from a sweet beet & green bean recipe, make me want to cuddle up with a warm blanket and a hot cup of tea and watch the leaves change. Fall is cozy and comforting and so are these cookies, so get excited – my favorite season is on its way!

INGREDIENTS

for cookies:
1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 generous tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup, plus 3 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
healthy pinch of salt

for glaze:
2 tbsp orange marmalade
1/3 generous cup powdered sugar
splash or two of water

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Stir together butter, brown sugar, syrup, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla in a mixing bowl until combined. If you’re as impatient as I am and your butter hasn’t softened all the way, no worries. Then gently mix in the egg.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 batches, stirring to full incorporate between each addition.

Using a spoon, scoop the dough in small knobs onto a cookie sheet, either floured or lined with parchment paper. They’ll spread out a bit, so leave some room between each one.

Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the pans around for the final 2-4 minutes of bake time. They’re done with the outsides have just barely started to brown.

While the cookies cool, mix up the glaze. First combine the marmalade and powdered sugar. Then slowly add water until it’s thin but still spreadable.

When the cookies have completely cooled, spread or brush the glaze over each one. Let the glaze harden a bit before packing them up. Share them and get ready for a change in the seasons!

Unemployed Shepherd’s Pie.

Published on August 25, 2012August 25, 2012 by KellyInTheKitchen3 Comments

A shepherd without a flock, a shepherd’s pie without any meat. This is an “unemployed shepherd’s pie” because there are no animals being shepherded into it! A little twist on a previous recipe, my vegetable pot pie, this yummy baked veggie and quinoa dish crowned with creamy mashed sweet potatoes is a meatless, gluten-free, almost guilt-free indulgence (there’s a cup of half and half in it, which adds some fat and keeps it from being vegan). A creamy, savory, and super filling dish, it’s also totally versatile, so play around with the veggies. Carrots and celery are always welcome, spinach or leeks would be a great addition, and maybe add a little bit of hot sauce right into the quinoa to provide a bit of a kick. It’s meant to be a flexible, peasant-food-y kind of meal for a chilly, hungry night. Vegetarian comfort food at its best!

INGREDIENTS

2 large sweet potatoes, thoroughly washed
1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 medium onion, medium dice
1 small shallot, minced
1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
1/4 tsp hot paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen broccoli, cut up
1 cup frozen peas
1 tbsp potato starch or corn starch
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp white wine
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup half and half, divided
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Pierce each potato a few times and place on a baking sheet. Bake until soft, about an hour. Set aside.

Add quinoa and vegetable broth to a small pan. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed. Set aside.

Add olive oil to a pan over medium and cook onions, shallots, paprika, cumin, rosemary, salt, and pepper until the onions have softened.

Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute. Then add broccoli and cook until starting to soften.

Add peas and stir, cook for 30 seconds, and stir in the starch. Turn down the heat to medium low and cook for one minute.

Now add the soy sauce, wine, and lemon juice. Cook for another minute.

Stir in 3/4 cup of half and half and simmer until it becomes like a thick sauce. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine quinoa, vegetable mixture, and parsley.

In another bowl, mash the sweet potatoes, skins on, with the remaining 1/4 cup of half and half.

Spread quinoa mixture into a greased pan and top with the mashed sweet potatoes (mashed if you’re more patient than I was–I just kind of roughed them up a bit and spread them over). Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper if you like.

Bake 1 hour or until the top starts to get crunchy in places. Cool a bit before serving and dig in!

Olympic Cherry Crisp.

Published on August 2, 2012August 2, 2012 by KellyInTheKitchen3 Comments

Happy Olympics! It’s that time again, and I might as well quit my job because all I want to do is stay home and watch all this awesome competitive action. There’s just so much emotion, history, and pride, and I’m a sucker for those emotional moments. Of course I root root root for the home team (the USA) but as I may have mentioned before, Russia has always had special place in my heart, so I cheer for Россию as well. This dessert is my way of reconciling my conflicting Olympic loyalties and satisfying my sweet tooth at the same time. Cherry desserts have long been a favorite in Russia, and summer fruit crisps are an American classic, so I combined them to make one mega-patriotic Russo-American Olympic loyalty-blurring all-inclusive fruit dessert extravaganza. Eat some, and then get your exercise by jumping up and down cheering for your team. Go world!

INGREDIENTS

1 heaping cup cherries, pitted
2 tbsp sugar, divided
1/2 tbsp potato starch or corn starch
2 tbsp water
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup oats
squeeze of honey
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 tbsp butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine cherries and 1 tbsp sugar in a saucepan and soften over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes.

Dissolve potato starch in water and stir into cherries. Cook another minute or so, until the cherries are soft and the mixture is thickened.

Remove from heat and spoon into greased ramekins.

Combine all remaining ingredients.

Sprinkle over the cherries in your ramekins…

…and bake until the tops start to brown, about 15 minutes. If you’re going for the gold medal in this dessert-off, serve these hot, topped with a scoop of ice cream.

An Award! and, Brown Butter Pecan Cake with Chocolate Ganache.

Published on July 9, 2012July 10, 2012 by KellyInTheKitchen2 Comments

I arrived home from a fun weekend in New York to find a nice surprise—I’d been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Laurie from A Taste of Morning! Laurie is a fellow philosopher who writes a beautiful blog from her bed & breakfast in Kansas. In particular, I love her photography of flowers and plants. Thanks for thinking of me, Laurie!

Nominees share 7 things about themselves and then nominate 15 of their favorites blogs for the award in return. Here are my 7 things:

1. I majored in philosophy in college. Ethics is my favorite.
2. I’ve lived in St. Louis, Chicago, Massachusetts, Ireland, and Moscow. I was only in Moscow 2 months, but I love that city so much that I just have to count it!
3. My favorite TV shows are Arrested Development and The Simpsons.
4. I’m a crazy Cubs fan. I’ve been to more than 50 Cubs games in my life and don’t plan on slowing down any time soon!
5. My favorite foods are baklava, quesadillas, grapefruit, Wienerschnitzel, and raspberries.
6. Every time I pass someone walking a Siberian Husky on the street, I have to stop and give that puppy some love!
7. I refused to eat seafood of any kind until 2009. Now I love it.

And here are my 15 nominations, in no particular order, for the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Hungry Hinny
2. Grown in Texas
3. We Call Him “Yes! Chef!”
4. Fiona Grows Food
5. The Soulsby Farm
6. The Patterned Plate
7. Natalie’s Daily Crave
8. The Sprout Diaries
9. The Budget Cooking Blog
10. With the Grains
11. Natasha’s Kitchen
12. Charles and Kimberly’s Recipes
13. Hungry Foodie Pharmacy
14. Toy Kitchen Chef
15. Czech That Out

To all my nominees, I love your blogs and I’m happy to give you a shout-out for your great work!

…….

And now, the recipe:

Some recipes are born of utility, and this is one of those. Or, more simply said, a few days ago I wanted dessert. The things I had in the house were: pecans, Greek yogurt, and standard baker’s materials. No fruit, just a tiny bit of chocolate, and in general, nothing particularly interesting, and that meant not a lot of options. But I nosed around a few of my favorite cooking blogs and found some inspiration that sent me down the path of cake-making. If you’re a cake maker, and you’ve never tried this method of preparing your wet ingredients, I highly highly recommend it. It’s the same method I used in Drunken Squirrel’s Cake, and I love the way it makes the cake so airy and fluffy, but dense at the same time. And the chocolate ganache…just make this cake already!

INGREDIENTS

Cake:
1 cup pecans
1/2 stick (4 oz.) butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 cup minus 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
squeeze of lemon
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Ganache:
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 oz. unsweetened bakers chocolate
3/4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp powdered sugar, plus more to taste

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large sauce pan, toast your pecans until they’re fragrant and slightly browned. Let them cool, then blitz them in a food processor to the consistency of wet sand.

In a saucepan over medium high heat, melt and brown your butter, stirring occasionally. When little brown bits are bubbling to the surface and the butter itself is brown, remove from heat and set aside to cool (you’ll know it’s done because it will smell amazinggg).

Now, the eggs. Separate the whites and the yolks. Put the yolks in a metal bowl and add the sugar.

Place the bowl over a pot of gently simmering water and whisk like crazy. At first, the yolk and sugar seize together and stick inside your whisk, but keep beating them and they’ll eventually turn into a thick, pale yellow cream.

Remove yolks from heat and gently stir in the ground pecans, yogurt, milk, lemon juice, and cooled brown butter.

Meanwhile, beat the whites until they form stiff peaks.

Take a scoop of the whites and gently stir it into the yolk mixture, to even out the textures a bit. Then fold in the rest of the whites.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift into the wet ingredients, and gently fold together until combined.

Pour batter into a greased spring-form pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top just starts to turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow your cake to cool completely before you cover it with the ganache.

Now, the chocolate glaze. Gently heat the cream in a pan over medium heat. Just when it reaches the boiling point, remove from heat and pour over the chocolate and butter.

Add the powdered sugar and stir well until all the chocolate has melted and you’re left with a smooth ganache. Taste and add more powdered sugar as necessary to reach desired sweetness.

Pour evenly over the cake.

Place your cake in the fridge to firm up a bit. That’s it!

Fresh Peach Crisp.

Published on July 6, 2012July 25, 2012 by KellyInTheKitchen2 Comments

I always really enjoy shopping at farmers’ markets; I’m a sucker for food porn, and it’s hard for me to say no to an open-air market with rows of tables, piled with picture-perfect produce. I always go home with some nice fruits and veggies, but every once in a while the farmers’ market comes through with a big win. This week, it was fresh-picked Michigan peaches. I can definitely say I’ve never had a better peach than these, and I might even go as far as to say that they were some of the best fruit I’ve ever had! Perfect texture, amazing flavor, and a juicy, drip-down-your-chin sweetness that I’m sure makes me look cartoony as I lick my lips and dab at my chin. I ate a few of them in their natural state, but I made sure to save 4 peaches so that I could make this dessert, inspired by seven spoons. And it was totally worth the wait!

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp sugar, divided
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick cold butter, cubed
2/3 cup sour cream
1 overflowing tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp honey
4 fresh Michigan peaches (or regular peaches…obviously), cut into eighths

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine flours, oats, brown sugar, 2 tbsp sugar, and salt in a bowl.

Then add cold cubes of butter to the dry ingredients and work butter into the mix, rubbing everything together with your fingers. Place topping in the fridge until you’re ready for the final step.

In another bowl, stir together the remaining 2 tbsp sugar, sour cream, vanilla, and honey.

Now, take a handful of the crumb topping and pat it loosely on the bottom of your pie pan, almost like a crust. Spread the yogurt mixture over it, on top of the crumb crust.