Kat on Thyme

Got Crust

Four weeks of Craig’s List, one job fair, dozens of emailed resumes, a few interviews, and still, no job.

Actually, I was already offered perfect employment. My first week here, I stumbled into a cooking shop on a beer buying errand in Pacific Beach. The shop was well stocked with all the good kitchen toys and had a beautiful, state of the art cooking school facility in the back third of the store. I picked up a course schedule which offered a huge array of classes taught by talented local chefs. Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drop off a resume at the shop, which I did later in the week. The retail manager never returned any of my phone calls, but eventually I did hear back from the cooking school director, who called me in for an interview. The interview went well so the following week, I observed a class on entertaining, which was a great class, expertly taught. The whole operation was smooth and professional, and the people were friendly and welcoming. I would loved to have been a part of it all. The director offered me a job assisting guest instructors with their classes which would have been a great opportunity to get paid to learn. I didn’t take it. I left two really good jobs in Seattle to move to San Diego to make a go of a relationship. I wasn’t about to be working nights and weekends so that I could spend all day by myself wondering what Nick was doing at work. I need to find myself a day job. Or at least a job that pays well enough to warrant a few late evenings in exchange for spending time with Nick on the weekends.

The experience wasn’t a total loss, however. I got crust. The menu for the class I observed was tasty, although not terribly exciting. The instructor made the class worthwhile, though, with her tips and tales of catering experiences. The dessert she chose is one of my favorites- fresh fruit galette, a sort of free-form rustic pie. She chose to use apple which she expertly peeled with a paring knife, the green skin falling to the cutting board in one elegant strip. She sliced the apples thinly and arranged them in a barely overlapping pattern from the outside to the center. It looked lovely, but to me, defied the rustic nature of a galette. And there just wasn’t enough apple flavor in the final product, with such thinly layered fruit. It’s a good thing the crust was so darned delicious. She made the dough in a matter of minutes, pressing the butter into the flour with her fingers and then tipping ice water from a cup until the dough began to hold its shape. It’s the easiest technique and the results were fabulous- a flaky, tender, buttery crust.

Here’s my version of the galette, with more apples! You could use other fruit as well or a combination of fruits. Just be sure to sprinkle a few tablespoons of flour onto the dough after it’s rolled out, if you are working with very juicy fruit. The flour will help thicken any fruit syrup.

Rustic Apple Galette

For the crust: (you can double the recipe and freeze one)
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks and cold
a few pinches of salt (I like a bit of salt, she used none)
1/3 or so cup ice water

Measure the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the salt. With your fingers, press the chunks of butter into the flour. Leave some visible pieces of butter in the flour (they will be flattish but don’t make them too small). Add enough ice water just to pull the dough into a ball. You can always sprinkle a bit more so don’t over do it. The dough should come together nicely. Flatten it into a round and put it in a clean Ziploc bag, gallon size. Flatten it some more while it’s in the bag and the refrigerate the dough at least one hour.

For the filling:
5-6 apples (I used two largish Granny Smiths and 4 small Galas)
¼ cup of sugar- more or less to taste
Cinnamon to taste
A sprinkle of lemon juice

Peel, core and slice the apples into ¼ inch slices. Toss with the other ingredients.

To assemble and bake the galette:

More butter – 2 or so tablespoons
Sugar for sprinkling
Apricot or apple preserves, warmed (you can also add a splash of Cognac or Calvados)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough about 1/8 inch thick. Pile the apples in the center (you can arrange them if you have the patience) and leave the outside few inches free from filling. Fold the sides casually up onto the apples, letting it crease naturally, every few inches. (I rolled the dough on a square Silpat baking liner so I didn’t have to transfer it.) Slide the Silpat onto a baking sheet or pizza stone and readjust the folds if you need to. (If you’ve rolled on the counter, transfer the dough to a parchment lined cookie sheet BEFORE filling it.) Sprinkle the crust with sugar and then dot the extra butter around the top of the fruit. Bake at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the crust is golden and flaky.

Brush the fruit part of the galette with the warmed preserves to give it a nice sheen. In a pinch you could use honey or maple syrup too.

Serves 6 to 8.

The Pound Cake Test

I felt very official when the email arrived--  I was sent a recipe to test for Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Although anyone with a subscription to their website can participate in the testing program, I was excited to be chosen to actually do it. So just at the height of our short lived heat wave here in Seattle, I received a recipe for a pound cake that needed to bake for 60 to 70 minutes. I had figured I would test the recipes at work, where there are always willing tasters of sweets. The 3 year old there usually cuts right to the chase. “What are you making for dessert?” she asks, not seeming to care what sort of meal she needs to slog through before it. But I couldn’t bear to run the oven in their already overheated kitchen, so I decided to do my recipe testing at home, at night. Gretchen came over to help and she made brownies to send to Nick in Kuwait, while I worked on the pound cake.

As a cook, I tend to use a recipe as a guideline, adding and subtracting as I see fit, and measuring by eye rather than by cup and spoon. As a baker, however, I am much more precise, although still one to improvise within the parameters that I know will work. So as an official C.I. Recipe Tester, I had to be on my best behavior. First I read the recipe thoroughly (a novel idea) and then assembled my ingredients. I also read through the evaluation sheet so I would know what kinds of questions I’d have to answer about the final product. And so I began, carefully measuring and mixing, according to the instructions. I weighed some ingredients and measured others with a cup. Having the ingredients at the right temperature is key to getting the proper texture, so I even measured those with a metal stem thermometer from the health department. My only deviation was that I forgot to keep track of the exact active preparation time, but I figured the assembly took about a half of an hour, which is really pretty quick for a cake.

And the results? It turned out splendidly. It had a fine crumb that was dense but light in texture. The flavor was buttery with just a hint of vanilla. And if the recipe didn’t take an hour to bake, I would say that it is the perfect accompaniment to summer berries.

I brought some of the pound cake to work the following day for my official tasters to try. Coincidentally, they were looking for a good pound cake recipe to add chocolate chips to for a special birthday. We looked the Best Recipe cookbook by Cook’s Illustrated, and to my surprise, there was the recipe I “tested,” in print, for everyone to make. Now I would never scoop Cook’s Illustrated on a new recipe that they would be working on and sharing with their magazine readers, but since the recipe I tested is the one from their book, I thought I’d pass it along. Make this at midnight in the cool of your summer kitchen.

Cook’s Illustrated Classic Pound Cake

1 cup unsalted butter  (2 sticks), softened (8 ounces) 
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar  (9 ounces) 
3 large eggs  (5.25 ounces, without the shells) 
3 large egg yolks  (2 ounces) 
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract   
1 ½ teaspoons water   
½ teaspoon table salt   
1 ½  cups cake flour  (6 ounces) 
 
Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-by-3 1/2-inch loaf pan (7 1/2-inch capacity) with vegetable shortening or spray. Line the bottom and sides of pan with parchment paper or foil.

Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer set at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 15 seconds. With machine still on, take about 30 seconds to sprinkle in sugar. Beat mixture until light, fluffy and almost white, 4 to 5 minutes, stopping mixer once or twice to scrape down sides of bowl.

Mix eggs, yolks, vanilla and water in a 2 cup glass measure with a pour spout, set in a pan of tepid water until mixture is about 70 degrees. With mixer set at medium-high speed, take 3 to 5 minutes to add egg mixture to butter/sugar mixture in a very slow, thin stream. Finally, beat in salt.

Remove bowl from mixer stand. Turn 1/2 cup flour into sieve or shaker; sprinkle it over batter. Fold gently with rubber spatula, scraping up from bottom of the bowl, until flour is incorporated. Repeat twice more, adding flour in 1/2-cup increments.

Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with a spatula or wooden spoon. Bake until cake needle or tester inserted into crack running along top comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cake rest in pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto wire rack. Place second wire rack on cake bottom, then turn cake top side up. Cool to room temperature, remove and discard parchment, wrap cake in plastic, then in foil. Store cake at room temperature.

Serves about 10.

So Simple the Syrup

Summer has arrived in Seattle on the fast train. I was doing some laundry this weekend and in my laundry basket was a crazy mix of polypropylene long underwear, fleecy things, tank tops, and shorts. It’s June in Seattle!

Being from Sacramento, and spending much of the last 15 years in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, one would think I should be accustomed to hot weather. A few years in Seattle and I’m melting in the mid-80 degree heat. Most of the year, I shun iced drinks in favor of room temperature beverages, but on Friday night, I dumped the igloo that had formed in my ice bin and got a whole new batch of ice going to cool my summer drinks. Ice ice, baby.

I’ve been seeing in the gourmet stores lately big, expensive bottles of simple syrup for making summer drinks. Simple syrup is just that, though. Simple. No need to buy it. I’ve been experimenting with steeping herbs in the syrup to make my own flavored syrups. But there’s no reason to stop at herbs, syrups can be infused with anything! Tea, spices, roots like ginger, citrus zest, reduced fruit juices, flowers, and there is no limit to the combinations you could create.

Simple syrups are handy to have around in the summer (they should be kept in the fridge) because they work better than granulated sugar for sweetening cold beverages. For sweetening hot coffee, granulated sugar works just fine because the heat from the coffee dissolves the sugar. But in an iced coffee drink, granulated sugar just falls to the bottom and doesn’t do much to sweeten the bulk of the liquid. (Although I love the sugary ice cube crystals left in the glass!) Simple syrups can be used to make cocktails, iced coffee drinks, lemon and limeades, and Italian sodas. In addition, they can be used for all sorts of summer preparations- syrups can sweeten sorbets and granitas, they can be mixed with fruit and drizzled over desserts, or colored syrups could be dabbled onto white plates for a simple plate garnish. It’s easy to get creative with flavored syrups if you have them made and chilled in your fridge.

Herb Infused Simple Syrup

Equal parts sugar and water (I used 2/3 cup of each)
Sprigs of fresh herbs- I used 4 large sprigs of lemon verbena. I also made one with mint and one with rose geranium leaves.

Dissolve the sugar in the water over medium heat in a small saucepan on the stove. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn off the heat and add the herbs, crushing them in your hands to release their oils. Submerge them into the liquid and cover. Let them steep for about 30 minutes. Drain into bottles pushing on the herbs to extract a bit more flavor. Cap and refrigerate.

Herban Lemonade

1 ounce citron Vodka
½ ounce lemon verbena syrup (more if you like sweeter drinks)
Sprig of verbena for garnish
Ice to fill glass
4 ounces soda water
Wedge of lemon

Mix the vodka and syrup in a glass with the ice. Add the verbena and crush lightly with a spoon or muddler. Add soda water and stir to blend. Squeeze the lemon into the drink and then drop it into the mix. Stir again and adjust taste to suit your preferences.

The Return of the Sunday Night Dinner

My old house mate, Chuck, and I used to host Sunday night dinners at least a couple of times a month. Chuck would sit on the barstool and commentate while I chopped and sautéed and grilled. He was the appetizer man. Olives, fig bread, manchego. Chuck could always be counted on to purchase a fine spread of apps. It’s been a while since Chuck bought his own place, took on his own house mate, and hauled a grill up to his own patio. At least now he’s eating his own peanut butter, and drinking his own wine ;)

Last Sunday I stopped by my friend Gretchen’s house to pick strawberries. She has an amazing patch of strawberries that spiral around the outskirts of her back yard. She also gave me some rhubarb that she had picked from her plot in the P-patch the day before. With such an amazing bounty, I decided to have people over for dessert. I called Gretchen first but she couldn’t make it so I called a few more friends. What began as an invitation to dessert ended up as a Sunday Dinner Reunion. Matthew was cooking Mexican food, and there is no better time to be invited for dinner. He fixed a phenomenal fajita spread, with all of the extras, and his wife, Amy assembled some delicious salads. I knew dessert was going to have to be sensational.

I scoured my vast assortment of cookbooks for something fun to do with rhubarb and strawberries. I decided to just wing it and headed to Larry’s Market with the old dog, Baci, to gather some ingredients. Cobbler always sounds good to me, so I decided to do some version of that. I began with my favorite Cream Scone recipe and adapted it to become the topping for the cobbler. The fruit part I wanted to keep simple since I had such beautiful raw ingredients to work with. I looked into using Minute Tapioca to thicken the fruit mixture (as recommended in Cooks Illustrated) but the cost was $4.00, I only needed a tablespoon, and I had cornstarch at home. Settled.

Pinched for time, I worked quickly, but even so, I was thankful that Sunday dinners are on ultimate time. Ultimate Frisbee players are notoriously late for everything and Sunday dinner is no different. So I stuffed the steaming hot cobbler into the trunk of my car and zoomed to Wallingford. I could smell how delicious it was going to be all the way there.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Coconut Vanilla Scone Topping

6 cups of mixed strawberries and rhubarb (strawberries sliced or halved if they’re small, rhubarb cut into ½ inch pieces)
¾ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the fruit, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla together and tip into a 9 inch deep dish glass pie plate. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the filling is quite hot. By adding the topping to already hot fruit, one eliminates the soggy topping problem that many cobblers have. Meanwhile, prepare the topping…

Coconut Vanilla Scone Topping

1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder   
3 tablespoons sugar   
1/2 teaspoon table salt   
5 tablespoons unsalted butter , chilled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces 
½ cup unsweetened coconut, toasted until golden 
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (not the light kind)
1 tablespoon vanilla

sanding sugar and extra coconut milk for topping (brush and sprinkle)

Place flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt the food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse to blend. Remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse until butter is broken into pieces and distributed throughout the flour mixture. It should look like very coarse breadcrumbs. Transfer dough to large bowl. Stir in the coconut. Stir the vanilla into the coconut milk and stir that mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.

Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrape up dough and lightly flour the counter underneath. Roll out the dough to the size of your pie plate and transfer it onto the hot fruit. Try to crimp the edges but be careful, since the pie plate is hot. Slice and open some vents atop the cobbler. You have to really separate the dough if you want the vents to stay open. Brush with some extra coconut milk and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until the top is light brown, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, with whipped cream, ice cream, yogurt, or just plain.

Serves 8 generously.

Solstice in Seattle

I’ve been remiss. Last week the Seattle summer finally caught up with me. It’s not exactly the midnight sun, but Seattle’s extended daylight hours have a similar effect on me. I get up early, work all day, have dinner at 10 o’clock, stay up way too late and then do it again. Until Thursday, when I finally crashed.

But there’s nothing like the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade to start the cycle all over again! For the most part, Seattle is a little stuffy when it comes to celebrations. Our attitude seems to be, “Fine idea for a party, but not in MY neighborhood!” But not Fremont. Fremont opens its arms to Seattle for the annual Solstice Festival, and renews my faith that Seattleites can indeed, shake it. Any event that starts with hundreds of nude cyclists in all manors of exotic body paint cannot, by definition, be stuffy. And the parade continued on from there with great music, dancing, humor, costumes, creativity, political commentary, and the occasional strange spiritual displays that I couldn’t figure out. Fremont in a nutshell.

Every year my friend, John, hosts his annual pre-parade brunch. It begins with his own parade of furniture down to the parade route to stake a claim of sidewalk, this year under the shade of a big tree. Each year I expect John, an avid cyclist, to disappear before the start of the parade only to reappear beautifully painted and peddling by. Perhaps next year. But this year, his house was the staging ground for the fabulous costuming efforts of the “Fantasia Girls” who danced with a samba group. He’s going to be sweeping up feathers and glitter, with a smile on his face, for weeks to come. While we were eating a fabulous brunch, we had our own little parade of peacock feathered and bejeweled beauties swooping in and out for mimosas.

As usual, John hosts a mean brunch. There were lots of delicious homemade treats- James’ salsa and feta eggs, John’s garlic and goodies eggs, some vegan scrambled tofu with mixed greens, Gretchen’s gluten free banana muffins and garden grown strawberries, some lovely fruit salads, and my contribution, a raspberry breakfast cake. I got the recipe from Alanna's blog, a few weeks ago and have made it twice, it’s so delicious. I changed a few ingredients to make it a bit more breakfast friendly, but it’s a great recipe as is, and could be served for dessert as well. I changed the all-purpose flour to a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flours, and oat bran. And I cut down the sugar to a scant 1 cup. I also bumped up the buttermilk to accommodate the hardier flours and omitted the glaze. The first time I made it, it came out of the pan beautifully, but the second time, part of it stuck and it had to be puzzle-pieced back together again. A quick garnish of powdered sugar, with a tiny bouquet of roses, lavender, and mint in the center, fixed it right up again. With the berries beginning to ripen here in Seattle, I’ll be sure to make this again before the season’s over.

This would make a great breakfast with a dollop of yogurt.

Raspberry Breakfast Cake

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
scant 1 cup sugar
Zest from 1 orange, or 2 limes or lemons
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs at room temperature
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup oat bran
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
scant 1 cup buttermilk

12 ounces frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed. Add zest and vanilla. One at a time, beat in eggs.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, oat bran, baking powder and salt.

On the lowest speed of the mixer, gently add 1/3 of the buttermilk, ½ of the flour mixture, 1/3 of the buttermilk, ½ of the flour mixture, 1/3 of the buttermilk. (Begin and end with the buttermilk and scrape down the mixer after each addition.)

Separately, stir together berries and 1 tablespoon flour. By hand, stir berries into batter.

Transfer batter to well-greased and sugared Bundt pan. Bake for 60 – 75 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 30 minutes, gently turn onto serving plate. Let cool another 30 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Serves 12

2 for 1 Ginger Desserts

It’s Sugar High Friday and the theme today is Ginger! I was scrolling through my imagination to think of ginger desserts that I love. I couldn’t come up with one single ginger dessert that I don’t love! Gingersnaps, gingerbread, ginger anything appeals to me, in both sweet and savory styles. And the dessert ingredients that accompany ginger are some of my favorites as well- apples, pears, baking spices, and molasses. Somehow those deep, dark, homey comfort desserts never fail to entice me. I’d choose gingerbread over any cake any day.

But since this was a special event, I wanted to make something a little more interesting than basic gingerbread, so I decided to combine two of my favorite old fashioned desserts into one very delicious Pineapple Upside Down Gingerbread. Whole Foods has had pineapples on sale all week and they’ve been really delicious, which inspired me to include them in my dessert. Just a quick little aside about choosing pineapples- I look for ones with good golden color that shows through the brown of the rind. (In between the diamond like shapes on the skin.) I feel it- it should give slightly when you squeeze it but it shouldn’t have any soft spots. Then I smell it. It should smell like, well, like a pineapple. I’ve heard that if leaves pull out easily from the center of the top of the pineapple, it’s ripe, but I haven’t found that a reliable method. Look, touch, smell, buy. It works for me.

So I started with two recipes from Cooks Illustrated that I combined into one- a gingerbread recipe and a pineapple upside down cake recipe. And I think this dessert is better than the sum of its parts…

Pineapple Upside Down Gingerbread

The Pineapple Topping (which would be delicious over ice cream)

1 medium fresh pineapple (about 4 cups prepared fruit) peeled, cored, and made into small chunks
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (Microplane grater works great here)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter   
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract   

For the pineapple topping: Combine pineapple, brown sugar, and ginger in 10-inch cast iron skillet; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally during first 5 minutes, until pineapple is translucent and has light brown hue, another 6-7 minutes. Empty fruit and juices into mesh strainer or colander set over medium bowl. Return juices to skillet, leaving pineapple in strainer (you should have about 2 cups cooked fruit). Simmer juices over medium heat until thickened, beginning to darken, and mixture forms large bubbles, 6 to 8 minutes, adding any more juices released by fruit to skillet after about 4 minutes. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla; let the syrup cool in the pan. Set aside while preparing cake. (Pineapple will continue to release liquid as it sits; do not add this liquid to already-reduced juice mixture.)

The Gingerbread (which is great on its own as well)

2 ¼ cups sifted unbleached flour
½ teaspoon baking soda   
½ teaspoon table salt   
2 teaspoons ground ginger or 3 Tablespoons fresh ginger, minced or grated
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon   
½ teaspoon ground cloves   
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg   
½ teaspoon ground allspice   
1 teaspoon Dutch-processed cocoa powder   
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)  melted, then cooled to room temperature 
3/4 cup molasses   
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg   
1 cup buttermilk   
 
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and cocoa in medium bowl.

Beat butter, molasses, and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in egg until incorporated. Gradually add buttermilk until combined.

Add dry ingredients to liquid; beat on low speed until batter is smooth, about 1 minute, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Do not over-mix. If using fresh ginger, batter will be lumpy.

Add pineapple to the caramel in the skillet and distribute the chunks evenly. Scrape batter over the pineapple spreading it to the sides. I found that the caramel oozed a bit from the skillet, so put the skilled onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place in the center of the preheated oven.

Bake until top springs back when lightly touched, and edges have pulled away from the pan sides, about 35- 40 minutes. Set pan on wire cake rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Place a serving plate over the top of the skillet and invert onto the serving plate. Replace any pineapple that may have stuck to the skillet. Serve warm, or at room temperature. (Gingerbread can be wrapped in plastic, then foil, and refrigerated up to 5 days.)

Serves 8 to 10.

Breakfast Brownie

The great thing about being an adult is that you get to eat whatever you want. I don’t have to finish my broccoli, eat two more bites of chicken, or at least taste the split pea soup. And if I really want to, I can eat brownies for breakfast. And the truth is, there is little that tastes better in the morning with a cup of strong coffee than a brownie. And indeed, that’s what I’m having right now. Just one.

We all are at liberty to make our own choices about food. I try to buy organic and seasonal, I avoid trans fats, and only occasionally do I eat brownies for breakfast. Living in Seattle makes  these choices easy to accommodate. We are blessed with farmer’s markets, great natural foods stores, organic bakeries, community supported agriculture programs, and a populace who is willing to support them. I’d have a hard time giving up all of that good food freedom.

Poor Nick, my boyfriend who is deployed right now with the Marine Corps, for he has little freedom of choice about the foods he is eating. A choice between overcooked, canned corn, beans, or peas isn’t really a choice I’d like to be making. If you think about it, the choice of what foods you put into your body is one of the most important and personal of all choices. And it seems so very wrong to me to not be given the option of choosing a healthy diet- it’s like saying that I’m not important enough to fuel properly. And rather ironically, fuel is the root of the conflict for which Nick and so many other Americans are risking their lives. Most people pay more attention to what they are putting into their vehicles than what they are putting into their bodies. And perhaps a brownie for breakfast seems an irresponsible choice, but one brownie breakfast, once in a while is my choice to make.

And if it’s going to be a brownie, it’s going to be a good one. This recipe is adapted from the one on the Cook’s Illustrated website.

Chocolate x 3 Brownies

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I like Callebaut)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped 
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into quarters 
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (I like Dutch processed cocoa)
3 large eggs   
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar   
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract   
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt   
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 
1 cup toasted nuts, chopped (I used sliced almonds)

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13-inch rectangular brownie pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Line it with a piece of parchment folded in half to cover the bottom and two of the sides of the pan. It should fit perfectly across the width of the pan. Spray parchment with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium microwavable bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the chocolates and microwave at 50% power for about 2 minutes or until chocolates are melted. Stir occasionally until mixture is smooth. Whisk in cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk warm chocolate mixture into egg mixture; then stir in flour and nuts with a rubber spatula until just combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan, spread into corners, and level surface.

Bake until slightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, 18 to 24 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 1 hour, then remove brownies from pan by sliding them out with the parchment paper as a handle. You may need to loosen the short sides of the pan by running a knife along the edge. Cut into squares and serve. (Do not cut brownies until ready to serve; brownies can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated up to 5 days.) 

Makes one 9 x 13 inch tray of brownies.

The Wisdom of Pearls

It’s a texture thing. You either love it or you hate it. I haven’t met too many people who are indifferent to tapioca. I find the texture appealing, the swirl of tiny little jellied pearls over my tongue. To those who find tapioca less alluring, the mouth feel resembles something more akin to tiny fish eyes or the salmon eggs that are pressed into little jars and dyed pink for bait. Even though eating tapioca pudding is largely a tactile experience, there’s no reason it can’t be a delicious one too.

I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of flavor combos for sweet tapioca puddings. It’s such a fun food to play with since there are so many possibilities for varying the taste. Tapioca pudding, in its simplest form, has few ingredients. Tapioca pearls, which are tasteless, provide the texture and thickening agent for the pudding. Sugar, of course, provides the sweetness. You can vary the sugar flavor by using dark or light brown sugars, or any of the fancy new sugars on the baking aisle. Eggs, another essential ingredient, provide thickening power, nutrition, and if you separate the whites and whip them separately, they provide an airy texture as well. Milk and water make up the liquid portion of the pudding and they set up into a custard sort of consistency. I have varied the milk to make lactose-free versions by using soy milk or a combination of light coconut milk and soy milk. And then the flavoring agents provide the greatest room for creativity as far as creating interesting new puddings. Traditional flavorings include vanilla, lemon zest, cinnamon, and nutmeg. But the possibilities are endless! You can make herbal infusions (mint, lemon verbena, anise hyssop) in the milk, or use aromatics like ginger or lemongrass. Any dried fruits are great additions, like raisins, cranberries, blueberries, or cherries. Splashes of liquors are fun- Frangelico, Limoncello, spiced rum or bourbon. Citrus zest of any color adds zing. Toasted nuts or coconut add another layer of texture and flavor. Unsweetened cocoa powder can be stirred into the tapioca as it cooks for chocolate tapioca pudding. Tea could be used instead of water- a jasmine green tea and ginger pudding would be lovely! Fruits can be added either raw, like strawberries, or cooked, like sautéed apples. And you can layer tapioca with fruit purees to make beautiful parfaits. With the resurgence of comfort foods to the American culinary scene, I’m surprised tapioca pudding isn’t on more restaurant menus. Perhaps it’s a hard sell, but I doubt you’ll be disappointed with this recipe. I’ve made tapioca lovers out of many suspicious souls.

I use Bob’s Red Mill brand of small tapioca pearls. It comes in 24 ounce bags. The recipe on the back is great! This is that recipe with a few minor changes…

Old Fashioned Tapioca Pudding
1/3 cup small pearl tapioca
¾ cup water
2 ¼ cups milk, or soy milk
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
Zest of one lemon or orange

Soak tapioca in water for 30 minutes in a medium saucepan. Add milk, salt, and egg yolks and whisk to blend. Over medium heat, continue to stir the mixture until it comes to a boil. Turn the heat all the way down and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until tapioca softens. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until they are foamy, add the sugar gradually and beat until soft peaks form. Fold in about ¾ cup of the hot tapioca mixture to the egg whites to temper them and then fold the egg whites back into the tapioca in the saucepan. Whisk over medium heat for 3 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes and then add the vanilla and citrus zest. Serve warm or chilled.

See above for some variations. Makes 3 1/2 cups.

Sweet Polenta Birthday Cake

Called Polenta Dolce in Italian, it seemed the perfect birthday cake for Kendall, who will be spending her junior year abroad in Florence this year. Not an overly sweet cake, Polenta Dolce can be dressed up in countless ways depending on the season. I’ve made it in the fall, accompanied by pear and apple compotes, in the winter, filled with marmalade and cream,  and in the summer with fresh peaches or blueberries macerated in Prosecco. May brings the beginning of strawberry season, so I chose fresh berries to adorn Kendall’s simple cake.

The cake itself is quick to make but does require separating eggs. I’ve found the easiest method for this is simply cracking the egg into a small bowl and then scooping the yolk out with my fingers. I use three bowls, one for the egg yolks, one for the whites, and one for the separating. That way if I bungle one egg, I’ve only ruined that one, not the whole batch of whites. Eggs separate most easily when they are cold, but they whip up best at room temperature. So to accommodate this quirky egg characteristic, I separate the eggs first and then preheat the oven, prepare my pan, and then gather and measure the other ingredients.

The only other even slightly tricky part of the recipe is making sure the bowl and beater are completely clean after beating the egg yolks. If there is any residual fat from the yolks left in the bowl, or traces of yolks in the whites, the egg whites will not beat up properly. So I use soap and hot water on the bowl, the beater, and the mixer itself. Then I dry everything completely before going on to whipping the whites.

Happy Birthday, Kendall! Oh, to be 20 and spending a year in Italia…

Polenta Dolce

¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup polenta or stone ground yellow cornmeal
4 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
Grated zest of one orange
Grated zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sugar for dusting the pan

Separate the eggs and place the yolks in the bowl of a standing mixer. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make a parchment circle the size of the bottom of an 8-inch cake pan. (Just draw around it and cut.) Spray the pan with non-stick spray and line with the parchment. Lightly spray the parchment. Dust the pan with sugar and shake out.

Stir together the flour and cornmeal in a small bowl and set aside. In the mixer, beat the egg yolks with the whip attachment on low speed. Gradually add 1 /2 cup of the sugar and increase the speed to high. Beat until the yolks are thick and light yellow, about 3 minutes. Add the zests and vanilla. Transfer to a large bowl.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add the last ¼ cup of sugar, beating until the whites are stiff and glossy. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the flour mixture. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the center is puffed and springs back when you touch it. Place on a cooling rack to cool. After about 10 minutes, unmold the cake onto a plate, peel off the parchment and then turn the cake back right side up on the cooling rack. Let cool completely.

With a long serrated knife, cut the cake horizontally and set the bottom of the cake on a serving platter. Spread with the filling and replace the top layer. Dust with powdered sugar and garnish with fresh fruit.

The filling:
About 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
Honey to taste

Mix the ricotta with honey to taste and use it as a filling in the center of the cake.

The topping
1 to 2 pint baskets of strawberries, sliced
Sugar to taste
A splash of lemon juice

Slice the berries and toss with sugar to coat. Let them sit at room temperature to macerate. The berries should make a light syrup. Use this to top the finished cake.

Serves 8.

Pretty in Pinks

Dirt is precious. My nursery ambitions have probably outgrown what little dirt I own, and it’s only May. I have two small flats of vegetables and flowers, still unplanted, in my entry hall, and I haven’t even gotten to buying the tender annuals, like basil. I live in a townhouse, and my yard is not small, by townhouse standards. Yet every year I find myself uprooting what little remains of the original low-maintenance (boring) landscaping that came with the house, and planting things I can eat. Why grow it if you can’t eat it? Well, surely if you have the luxury of an expansive yard, by all means, grow whatever suits your fancy. But as a townhouse dweller (dirt challenged) one has to be particular. My little yard is full of culinary herbs, as well as some medicinal ones. The flowers of all of these plants are edible, and beautiful. They make lovely garnishes and can be tossed into salads for added texture and color. I will often sprinkle the lavender colored spring rosemary flowers atop dishes seasoned with rosemary. Likewise with chive blossoms, sage flowers, or lavender. But why stop at herbs when so many flowers are edible? I browse the nursery aisles looking for exotically colored and textured plants and flowers to add to my salads, sprinkle over pastas, or adorn summer desserts. Here is a list of a few flowers that make lovely landscapes, both in the garden and on the table.

• Anise Hyssop (sweet, anise-like, licorice, pink to purple flowers) Leaves pictured above.
• Arugula (nutty, spicy, peppery flavor, white flowers)
• Bee Balm (pungent, variety of colors, pinks and reds are striking)
• Borage (light cucumber flavor, incredibly beautiful purple blossom) Pictured at right.
• Calendula (spicy, tangy, peppery, adds a golden hue to foods, oranges and yellows)
• Chamomile (faint apple flavor, good as a tea, little white daisy-like flowers)
• Chrysanthemum (slightly bitter flavor, pungent, many colors)
• Citrus Blossoms (waxy, pronounced flavor, use sparingly as an edible garnish, white)
• Cornflower (“Bachelor's Buttons”- sweet to spicy, clove-like, blue blossoms)
• Dianthus (spicy, peppery, clove-like- also called “Pinks”) Pictured above.
• Gardenia (light, sweet flavor, white blossoms)
• Hyssop (pungent, use sparingly, blue is striking)
• Jasmine (delicate sweet flavor, used for teas, white to light pink)
• Johnny-Jump-Up/Viola (bland flavor but lovely, many colors) Pictured above.
• Mallow (sweet, delicate flavor, pink to purple flowers)
• Marigold (spicy to bitter, oranges and yellows)
• Nasturtium (buds can be pickled and used like capers- tastes peppery, warm colors)
• Pansy (very mild sweet to tart flavor, many color choices)
• Rose (sweet, aromatic flavor, stronger fragrance produces a stronger flavor. Be sure to remove the bitter white portion of the petals. Rose hips are also edible. Wide color variety
• Scented Geranium (varies with differing varieties from lemon to mint- the citronella scented ones are not good to eat, white to pink)
• Violet (sweet- purple, blue, pink)

Sugared Edible Flowers for Garnishing

This is a great way to preserve your flowers. It will help prevent wilting on warm days.

1 small container pasteurized egg whites (they have them at Trader Joe’s)
Edible flowers
Super-fine sugar
A small paintbrush

Whisk the egg whites to lighten them. With a soft paintbrush, paint the flowers with egg white and dust with super-fine granulated sugar. After painting flowers with egg whites, allow the flowers to dry. Store preserved flowers in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. They’ll last a week or two.

Happy gardening!