Cinnamon-Blondie-Surprise Bundt

July 1, 2015Leave a comment

Birthdays are some of the best reasons to bake, especially when such a simple act can create real happiness. Truly, I’ve witnessed unfiltered joy while watching friends and family enjoy a warm slice of pie, or their favorite batch of cookies. And a homemade birthday cake is a pretty timeless way to show someone they are LOVED. This stunning bundt is a re-take on Model Bakery’s espresso bundt cake, featuring a cinnamon layer that went absolutely haywire while baking and made the most amazing and unexpected swirling patterns throughout the cake.

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The Model Bakery is based in St. Helena, CA, and is famous for their english muffins. They are tall, stately, buttery, and not to be missed.

The crumb of this cake is insanely tender and the cinnamon layer is another great option to pair with the blonde cake. The original recipe for the Model Bakery’s espresso bundt can be found here. The substitutions we made were to dissolve cinnamon in almond milk, rather than using the cold espresso + water recommended in their recipe, and instead of an espresso glaze this bundt features a maple-spiked glaze. This cake is even better on day two, so don’t feel like you have to gobble it all up at once (or, go ahead, that’s what birthdays are for).

Dayum dessert bars (Chocolate peanut butter crispies)

December 16, 20133 Comments

When I first read the recipe for these multi-layered chocolate peanut-butter crispy bars over on the Smitten Kitchen blog, my first response muttered over my keyboard was Damn…Damn. Dayum.

So I’ve renamed these the Dayum Bars and they are destined for my company’s annual bakesale tomorrow. It’s a simple yet swoon-worthy dessert that I can take no credit for, as Nick was really at the helm guiding these bars to existence — heating the water, sugar, and corn syrup to a candied state and melting chocolate and peanut butter together — while I was baking cookies (peanut butter-chocolate chip-oatmeal cookies!) for a birthday party.

A whole afternoon spent baking is a pretty fantastic thing, especially when it involves sampling various kinds of peanut butter and chocolate at all different stages of meltiness. Again, re: previous post, life is hard.

How we deviated from the recipe: by using two kinds of rice crispies (one generic and one fancy mix with a rounder shape and darker toasted color) and two kinds of peanut butter, then tweaking the chocolate-peanut-butter layer to taste and adding more chocolate until we reached the perfect combination.

The feedback so far on these bars is that they taste like Reese’s peanut butter cups with a crispy bottom, but I say Reese’s wishes they’d had the foresight to come up with this. My take? They are incredible at any state — slightly chilled and straight from the refrigerator, or sticky, gooey, and melting a bit after sitting out on the counter.

To all the chocolate-peanut butter lovers out there: good golly, proceed with caution.

Apple Slab Pie and wintery dessert dreams

December 12, 20133 Comments

Yes, I’m starting off with a gratuitous Dynamo Donuts shot. Go ahead. Be jealous. The lineup on a recent Saturday morning included pumpkin chocolate chip, meyer lemon-huckleberry (the pink one), an apple fritter, and the much-talked-about bacon-maple-apple.

But back to the topic at hand. My company’s bakesale is next week and there are serious things to consider. Really. Serious. Things. I spent maybe an hour (hours) a few weeks ago drooling over recipes at the National Baking Society blog, which I linked to as a follower of Matt Lewis of Baked in Brooklyn, NY. His cakes make my heart soar.

So the question is, do I make these…or this. A bundt cake that is a genuine hallmark of the ’80s, or a crispy dessert bar that is the holy trinity of sweet flavors — caramel, chocolate, peanut butter. I know, life is hard when the biggest dilemma is what treat to make next. I blame Lady Holiday for turning my head, so all I want to do is bake cookies, make mulled wine, and dive into a series of crafty projects, but it seems I can hardly find time to stop and smell the pine trees — this little guy in particular.

While that decision is set to simmer, I’m also going to revisit the apple slab pie I made for Thanksgiving this year. A creation looking like a giant pop tart (if we’re being honest), but the spices added to the filling are right on in my book — a little heavy on the cinnamon, which I love. And while the dough is difficult to roll out in such large scale, it’s worth the effort and satisfying to have LOTS of leftover pie to go around. Because who doesn’t want leftover pie? Right?

If you look closely, you’ll see I had to patch/mend the bottom corner of the crust as my rolling technique was not spot on. If this happens to you too, not to worry — all looks and tastes fine in the end.

Iced up and ready to serve!

And, a photo of me holding the behemoth:

Many thanks to Smitten Kitchen for her slab pie inspirations, and a few more Thanksgiving photos below.

Banana bread experiment

October 15, 2012Leave a comment

Question: How old can bananas be when baking banana bread?
Answer: Pretty dang old.

Question: Can you bake banana bread in something other than a standard-sized loaf pan?
Answer: Yes. Yes, you can.

There are not many hard-and-fast rules I abide by in the kitchen. I attribute this to the fact that I am not afraid to fail or ruin a meal. With baking, I do reign myself in some as baking measurements are precise for good reason. Some kitchen rules of my own design? 1. Cook with music. 2. A glass of beer or wine often helps things run quite smoothly in the kitchen. 3. Cook for people you love, or just because you love it.

I haven’t baked banana bread in a long time. For some reason I had a memory of it being very difficult. I can’t imagine now what recipe I used that would make baking banana bread seem like a hard task—the food network recipe I used today couldn’t have been simpler. Mix some dry ingredients, mash bananas with milk and cinnamon, cream butter, sugar, and egg, add the dry to wet ingredients, and you’re done.

I don’t have a loaf pan in my house at the moment, so I used a shallow roasting dish and cut the recipe amounts by half. Serving with honey, as the recipe suggests, is delicious.

I am curious about just how ripe/overripe the bananas should be. The peels of my bananas were completely blackened—the older the banana, the sweeter the bread? Thoughts?

Pressed-crust pear tart

November 24, 2011July 1, 2015Leave a comment

This is me wearing my special handmade apron from my dear friend erin that only comes out on very special cooking occasions: Thanksgiving being one of those occasions. It has fabric bird and flower appliqués and a fantastic hem with these puffy little pom-poms. I love it.

I thought I’d share my cooking soundtrack tonight since it was pretty rockin’: I started off with El Capitan and Bush and moved into Cake and the Pixies.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas last year I made a hazelnut chocolate tart that was absolutely to-die-for—everyone who tried it raved and wanted the recipe. I thought about making it again this year since it was such a winner, but I branched out into something fruity and neglected pie since my mom is making a sweet potato pie tomorrow.

This tart could not have been easier and it incorporates beautiful Bosc pears that I got at the farmers’ market last weekend. To start, peel and core the pears and grease your tart pan with butter. The recipe calls for a rectangular tart pan, but since I only have a round one I went ahead and improvised with a different shape.

Mix flour and baking powder in a medium bowl, then cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add an egg, mix thoroughly. Slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl with butter, sugar, and egg, and beat until the dough is combined. That’s it.

Press the dough into the tart pan with floured fingers, arrange the pears on top, sprinkle with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, and you’re set! Find the full recipe here.

This is the end result:

Tomorrow I’ll warm apricot jam and lemon in a saucepan to brush over the top, and serve with whipped cream. I hope it tastes good. It is such a challenge doing this each year…baking desserts the night before and keeping my grubby paws off them!

Happy cooking tomorrow to all who partake in the holiday.

xo,

Your Town Bakes Kitchen