Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Cranberry Blondies

After watching a blondie throwdown (no Ed, it's not what you think) on Throwdown with Bobby Flay, I've developed a hankering for buttery, brown-sugary blondies. The only thing I sometimes don't like about them is that they're very sweet and can often be doughy. I like these because the cranberry adds a nice tang and the almonds give a good texture. The almond is backed up with a shot of almond extract, which I love.

Cranberry Almond White Chocolate Blondies
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temp.
1 2/3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temp.
1 t. vanilla
a few drops of almond extract
1 cup sliced almonds, (3 ounces), toasted
3/4 c. cup dried cranberries (soak in a few T. hot water if needed to plump up; could also use fresh cranberries, sliced)
1 c. white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, allowing 2 inches to hang over sides. Butter lining (excluding overhang); set pan aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined, scraping down bowl as needed. Reserving some of each to sprinkle on top, stir in almonds, cranberries, and white chocolate chips into the batter.
Pour into prepared pan; spread with a rubber spatula. Scatter remaining nuts, cranberries and white chocolate over batter in pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted into blondies (avoid center and edges) comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, 30-40 minutes (don't overbake!). Dust with confectioners’ sugar before cutting into squares.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Salsa Week


Who knew that my piddly side yard could produce so many tomatoes? And why oh why does canning season seemingly coincide with the busiest time of the year? And why does canning make me so tired?

I have my friend Alison to thank for the salsa recipe. She was the one that first showed me the ropes when I started baking bread, and she is quite the homemaker. If she can make cookies from bean flour, then I would imagine that her salsa recipe would be pretty good. I was right.

Alison's Homemade Salsa for bottling

24 large tomatoes
4 large green peppers (I used a mix of different colored peppers, and threw in a few jalapenos as well)
4 large onions
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar (I used part lime juice b/c I happened to have some)
3 tsp salt
1/4 cup taco seasoning (I used the "hot" variety)
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
3 4 ounce cans green chilies
Dash garlic powder (I used 6 fresh garlic cloves, minced)

Prepare tomatoes, remove skins and cores. (At this point I put them in the stockpot and blitzed the tomatoes with my immersion blender.)Chop onions and green peppers. Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Place in pint jars and process for 25 minutes. Makes about 14 pints.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Italian Plum Crumb Cake

My sweet neighbor brought me a bag of Italian plums, and I was immediately thrown back to my childhood. I think my Grandma Clark must have had these kind of plums: dark purple with the light blue smudges on the skin, with the yellowish-green flesh. I remember eating them straight off the tree, one after another. And if Grandma Clark had them then we know there had to be something truly redeeming about them. 

Grandma Clark, queen of spice cake, applesauce cookies and low-sugar jam, never had much much use for candy. There was a story circulated that she would insist on not adding the recommended amount of sugar to the batch of homemade jam. Not convinced, grandpa snuck in a whole cup of sugar to the batch and quickly stirred it in before it could be discovered. Upon tasting the finished jam, she would declare, "You see, Ellsworth, it tastes just fine without it."

Once, grandma was babysitting me. I must have been desperate for some candy, because I scaled the countertop, along it and somehow opened the tall cupboard without falling off. I discovered, much to my delight, a teacup with a few small, round candies inside. Just then, grandma entered the kitchen as I was about to pop them in my mouth. "Oh, no!", she cried. "Those are my heart pills!". Dang.

So grandma, I'm sorry for not being able to eat all these plums myself, but rather attaching them to a rather rich cake. I'm sorry I did not halve the sugar, nor did I swap out the butter for applesauce. But I'd like to think you'd like this anyway.

This recipe is adapted from Nick Malgieri's How to Bake.


Italian Plum Crumb Cake
Cake
1 stick unsalted butter, room temp.
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg plus 3 egg yolks
1 t. lemon zest
1 t. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
pinch of salt

Topping
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. cinnamon
6 T. butter
about 12 Italian plums, quartered and pitted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a 10-inch springform pan by buttering it and lining it with a disc of parchment paper.

For the cake, cream the butter in large mixing bowl until soft and light. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating for about 5 minutes, until very light. Add the egg and continue beating until lighter. Add the yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping the bowl occasionally. Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together, and gradually mix in, just until blended.

For the topping, mix the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Melt the butter and stir it in evenly. Rub the mixture to coarse crumbs by hand.

Rinse, halve, and pit the plums. Cut into quarters. Spread cake batter into prepared pan. 

Arrange plums on top.

Add crumb topping.

Bake the cake for 50 t0 60 minutes, until crumbs are well-colored and batter is no longer liquid. Cool the cake in the pan and then run a knife around the edge to loosen it. Remove pan side and slide from base to a platter. Dust lightly with confectioners sugar.

Recipe notes:
Mine was done between 45 and 50 minutes. Don't let it go to long or else it will be dry. If your plums are on the dry side and not juicy, consider soaking them or adding a little more liquid to the batter - perhaps a tablespoon or so of the plum soaking liquid.