baked goods – Page 8 – Trust in Kim: an ad-free recipe blog!

Cheddar-Scallion Biscuits

I made a batch of these up quickly the other morning before bringing them to a great big brunch celebration. If I had brought my camera there might be a better picture posted here – oops – but I think you get the idea. Cheesy and salty biscuits with nice crispy edges.

My favourite coffee shop makes a cheddar scone that is the best I’ve ever tried. They are almost always sold out when I go in for one, so in order to feed my craving I tried to find a recipe that approximates the coffee shop ones. Mine aren’t as pretty, but they taste pretty close to the real thing. This recipe is from Gourmet Magazine, but it seems to be a really common one that comes up in a web search.

Makes 12 biscuits

What you need:

2 & 1/4 cups flour
2 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter
1 & 1/2 cups aged white cheddar, grated
3 scallions, chopped
1 cup buttermilk (I used soured milk – add 1 tablespoon vinegar to milk)

What you do:

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Preheat the oven to 450F and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cut the cold butter up and then blend it into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the butter is about the size of small peas. Add the cheddar and scallions to combine.
Add the buttermilk and stir only until it is combined.
Scoop onto the cookie sheets (I used an ice-cream scoop) into 12 mounds. Add a touch of salt to the top if you wish.
Bake 18-20 minutes, one tray at a time, in the middle of the oven. Mine baked really fast, so they came out a little earlier. They look nice and browned when they are done, thanks to the cheese.
Eat ASAP so they are still warm, or let them cool. Yummy either way! Some people might want a little butter to slather on them, but I think they have enough flavour without.

Chocolate Shortbread with Cinnamon and Spice

A few years ago a friend gave me some of these chocolate shortbread, along with some of her other holiday baking. I absolutely loved these! They are chocolatey, but not too sweet, and there’s just a taste of cinnamon, plus a warming hint of cayenne. It makes me think of a Mexican cookie.

The recipe is from Canadian Living Holiday Cookie Collection 2010. They put bittersweet chocolate on the top, but I didn’t do that.

I was happy to be able to take a photo featuring the Christmas angel we used to have on our tree when I was a kid.

What you need:

3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 & 1/4 flour
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne

What you do:

Place the chocolate in a bowl above a small pot of hot water on the stove. Stir occasionally until melted. Set aside to cool.
Beat the sugar and butter until fluffy, then add the melted chocolate and vanilla, and beat until smooth.
Sift the flour, cocoa, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, pepper and cayenne into the butter mixture. Stir to make a smooth dough.
Divide the dough into four pieces and roll out between sheets of wax paper (I used parchment, and it was fine but a little sticky) to about 5mm thick. Cut into shapes and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Refrigerate for about 20 minutes.
Bake for 20 minutes in a 325F oven. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before placing the cookies on a cooling rack.

Pistachio Cheese Shortbread

A little while ago I attended my friend Megan’s baby shower. There was an enormous amount of awesome food, and her mom Cheri had made these savoury shortbread. She served them with a delicious olive tapenade, and they were my favourite thing on the table. So of course I had to ask for the recipe. I brought them to a Christmas party recently, to rave reviews. With or without olive tapenade they are delicious, but I do recommend a glass of red wine to go with them.

The recipe is from Everyone Can Cook Appetizers by Eric Akis, and makes about 4 dozen cookies which can be frozen or consumed within days of eating. They are great to have in the freezer and pull out if you need a few for a last minute appie or a small bite with a glass of wine.

They require refrigerating the dough for a few hours, so you do have to plan ahead, or make the dough up to a few days ahead of time. Makes life simpler on the day of a party if you do this.

What you need:

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 & 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped unsalted pistachios
1/2 cup shredded aged white cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

What you do:

Beat the butter until very light.
In another bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cayenne and salt. Stir in the cheddar, Parmesan and pistachios. Add this to the butter and mix with your hands until you have formed a soft dough.
Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a solidly packed roll of about 4 cm in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, or longer.
Preheat the oven to 300F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the logs into 5mm slices and place them on the baking sheets about 2 & 1/2 cm apart. Bake one sheet at a time for 18-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Store in an airtight container. You can freeze them too.

Lovely Lemon Loaf

Mmmm, I love a good lemon loaf! I’ve made a few before: lemon olive oil cake, and a few that I am just now discovering I haven’t actually posted before… more to come! But this is definitely the first cake I’ve ever made in a blender! Okay, so you need bowls and stuff too, but I liked how quick it was to blend up the liquid ingredients.

Anyways, this one wins points because of the lemon drizzle that adds a nice lemony kick to balance the sweetness of the cake.

The original name, in the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook, is Easy Lemon Pound Cake. And it is easy, and lemony, but there’s only 1/2 pound of butter in there!

What you need for the cake:

1 cup unsalted butter
1 & 1/2 cups cake flour OR see instruction #2 below if you don’t have cake flour, as I did not
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

What you need for the lemon glaze:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 350F and place the rack in the centre of the oven. Grease and flour an 8 & 1/2 by 4 & 1/2 inch loaf pan. I use the wrapper for the butter to grease the pan, then shake some flour around in it.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. (If you don’t have cake flour: measure 1.5 cups of flour, then remove 3 tablespoons. Add 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. Now sift 5 times; yes, you have to do this to get the right consistency.)
Melt the butter, then whisk it to combine any separation.
Place the sugar and lemon zest in the blender (or food processor) and pulse about 5 times. Add the lemon juice, eggs and vanilla, then blend until combined. With the blender running, add the butter. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.
Sift the flour mixture into the batter in 3 steps, whisking gently each time until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 325F. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until the loaf is a deep golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. This should take about 35 minutes, although mine took much longer.
Let the loaf cool for 10 minutes then turn it onto a wire cooling rack. Poke the top and sides all over with a toothpick. I used a chopstick, which is why the holes are so visible. Cool the loaf for at least one hour.
While the loaf is cooling begin making the glaze. Bring the lemon juice and sugar to a boil and stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat and simmer until it has thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.
Brush the top and sides of the loaf with the glaze.

This loaf will keep at room temperature for about 5 days. It will probably be gone before that, but it won’t go bad if you hang on to it.

Tarte Tatin-French Caramelized Apple Upside-Down Pie

Tarte tatin is a traditional French dessert. It is like an upside-down apple pie with the apples coated in buttery caramel. It isn’t too difficult to make this dessert that will be a crowd-pleaser.

I had never eaten a tart tatin before, but loving French food I took it upon myself to make one for a Thanksgiving dinner dessert last weekend. I found many recipes that used puff pastry, but I really wanted to make my own buttery pastry – and this one is awesome.

The tartness of the granny smith apples works well to balance the sweetness of the caramel. I took a little bit of the caramel out of the pan before adding the apples because I was worried that it would be too sweet, but in the end we agreed that even though it was really delicious, it would have been also been good if I had left all of the caramel in.

I found this recipe in the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook – it is so easy to follow, and they even have diagrams to help you figure out how to lay out the apples. And best of all – this was delicious! I will absolutely be making it again one day. Soon, maybe.

By the way, it does taste way better than it looks in this photo. I forgot my camera at home the day I made this, so I hope to make it again one day and take a more appetizing photo.

What you need for the dough:

1 & 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup icing sugar (confectioner’s)
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1 cm pieces and chilled
1 large egg, lightly beaten

What you need for the apples:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 pounds granny smith apples – peeled, cored and quartered

What you do:

Combine the flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl, or the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and process, or use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal. Add the egg and mix until it just comes together. Pull the dough into a ball, then place it on plastic wrap. Flatten it into a disk, then wrap tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a 12-inch nonstick or cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. With a wooden spoon stir in the sugar and cook until light golden, about 2-4 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat, then add the apple quarters cut-side down, filling the skillet tightly. You may need to cut the apple pieces in half again to fill the centre. Cook the apples over medium heat for about 3 minutes, then flip them cut-side up and cook for another 3 minutes – the apples should be lightly golden, and the caramel should be darkly coloured.
While this is cooking, lightly flour your countertop, then roll the dough into a 35cm/14 inch circle. Place the dough on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate if you will not be using it immediately.
When the apples are ready slide the dough circle over the top. Work carefully, making sure you don’t burn your fingers on the pan or hot caramel. Fold the edge of the dough back so it fits snugly into the pan. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes; rotate the pan halfway through baking.
Remove the hot pan from the oven and let it cool for about 30 minutes before attempting to release from the pan.
Run a knife around the edge of the pan, then place an inverted serving plate over the top of the pan. Using oven mitts, carefully flip it to release the tarte onto the serving plate. Some apples may stay in the pan; you can just place these carefully on top to make it look intact.
Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche, or whipping cream.

Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

These chocolate cheesecake brownies are from an old handwritten recipe in a book I started over twenty years ago to store my recipes. All I have is the recipe with no reference, so I can’t give proper credit to whomever created this one. But it was always a crowd pleaser, and it made a lot of people very happy when I brought it to work yesterday. I like the cream cheese part, but for me the brownie is the shining star – it is dense and rich and chocolatey.

Although the recipe has two steps, it is really easy and quite quick to whip up. I like recipes that don’t require softening the butter before beginning, because I always forget to take it out of the fridge ahead of time and then have to wait a long time for it to soften. In this one you melt the butter, so no need to soften. You do, however, need to soften the cream cheese – but I cheated by putting it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Instead of regular cream cheese I used Tofutti. It turned out fine, but I think it is better with the real thing. Tofutti is a great product, but in this case it ended up being a little thinner than I would have liked.

What you need for the cream cheese layer:

250 grams cream cheese (not the spreadable kind)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

What you need for the brownie layer:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

What you do:

Grease a 9-inch baking pan with a little butter.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a mixing bowl beat the cream cheese, then gradually add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
To make the brownie layer melt the butter, then pour it into another mixing bowl. Stir in the cocoa.
Beat in the sugar, vanilla and 2 eggs. I use the same beaters that still have a little bit of the cream cheese mixture on them to beat this – no need to wash in between, speeds things up!
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together (in reality I don’t do this very often, but you can do it if you want.) Mix until combined.
Pour the brownie mixture into the pan and smooth it down. Then pour the cream cheese mixture over top of it. I like to run a knife through it to mix the two up a little.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. I like to go with the shorter amount of time because I really like them when they are moist. Everybody else seems to agree!

Bocconcini, Cherry Tomato and Pesto Pizza

Time again for making pizza in the brick oven up at the cabin. My Opa built it over 30 years ago, in the same style as the one they used when they lived in Paraguay. Of course, those of you without a Paraguayan brick oven are welcome to use a regular oven, and this is the process I will describe here.

The dough, which needs to be started the day before, and the sauce recipes are from A16 Food and Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren. This is my favourite pizza crust and I believe it is worth the extra effort, but I hear there is also some really good ready-made pizza dough out there, like the one at Trader Joe’s.

This recipe makes enough for 3-4 medium-sized pizzas with a thin crust. Of course you can make yours with any toppings you like, but I recommend that more is less. I’ve only included toppings for one pizza here, so you can come up with a few other ideas for toppings for the other ones. Our favourite combination of toppings this time around was the prosciutto and mushroom one, but I didn’t manage to get a picture of that one.

What you need for the crust:

1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 & 1/2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups “oo” flour or all-purpose (I used all-purpose)

What you need for the tomato sauce and toppings for one pizza:

one 28-ounce can of tomatoes (San Marzano if you can find them)
1-2 teaspoons salt
7-8 baby bocconcini, sliced
10-12 cherry tomatoes, halved and seeds removed
a few tablespoons of pesto, store-bought or this recipe
about 1/2 cup grated smoked gruyere, or cheese of your choice

What you do:

1. Begin preparing the dough a day before you want to make the pizza. You can do this by hand, but it’s just a bit more work. Pour the warm (not hot – just body temperature) water into a mixer fitted with a dough hook and then sprinkle the yeast on top. Leave it for about 10 minutes and it should become foamy – if it doesn’t your water was the wrong temperature, or the yeast is dead. Stir in the olive oil and salt. Add the flour and mix on low for 2 minutes. Knead on medium-low for about 10 minutes – it will pull away from the bowl and begin to look smoother. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it rest for 5 minutes. Knead once more on medium-low for 10 minutes – it will be smooth and quite soft. If it seems much too sticky you can add a little more flour. Coat a bowl with a little olive oil and then coat both sides of the dough with olive oil, placing the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge over night.

2. In the morning remove the dough from the fridge and punch it down. Fold the sides of the dough under and put it back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it sit in a warm (not hot) place until about 2 hours before you are going to use it.

3. Punch the dough down and divide it into 4 pieces. Form them into balls and cover them with a damp towel for about 2 hours. By this time the dough should have doubled in volume. If it starts to get a skin on it you can spray it with a little water.

4. To prepare the sauce, just put the tomatoes and juice into a bowl and squish them into little bits with your hands. Add the salt.

5. Preheat the oven to 500-550 F.

6. To form the crusts, shape the dough into a disk with your hands. Push down in the center with your palm and pull the dough out gently with your other hand, rotating slightly until you have a crust that is about 10-12 inches/25-30 cm in diameter with a slightly raised edge. (or you can use a rolling-pin) Dust your baking pan generously with flour and place the crust on it. I don’t have a proper pizza stone or pan, and the baking tray I used worked just fine.

7. Spread some tomato sauce onto the crust, then the tomatoes, dollops of pesto, bocconcini slices, and the gruyere on top.

8. Bake for 6-7 minutes, until the crust is crisp and golden, and the top is bubbling.

Summer Cake

If speed of consumption is any indication, then this cake is a favourite – it disappeared in 5 minutes flat at the potluck I brought it to this afternoon. And I can see why (although I didn’t get to try it) – a light almond cake with apricots and raspberries; how could that not be good? Perfect served still warm from the oven, and might even be nice with a little vanilla ice cream.
I found the recipe on lottieanddoof, and the original recipe comes from Ripe by Nigel Slater, which I am now going to have to get my hands on.

What you need:

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 & 1/3 cup self-rising flour (see below for a method if you don’t have any)
1 scant cup ground almonds (almond meal)
2 tablespoons milk
4 or 5 ripe apricots (2 peaches might be nice too)
1 to 1 & 1/2 cups raspberries

If you have no self-raising flour you could do this, which is what I did, with success:

measure 1 & 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour and take out 2 & 1/2 teaspoons
add 1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
add 1/2 teaspoon salt

What you do:

Line a 8-inch/20 cm springform pan with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Halve and seed the apricots and chop them into bite-sized pieces.
Cream the butter, then add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
Combine the flour and ground almonds, then add 1/3 of it to the batter, mixing until just about combined, and do this twice more with the rest of the flour/almonds. Add the milk and mix briefly, just until combined.
Gently fold in the fruit. I folded in the apricots and put the raspberries on top, but I think it might look prettier if there are raspberries mixed in.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top down a little. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, testing for doneness with a toothpick – if any batter sticks to it, put it back in the oven for a few more minutes.
Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the edge before removing the ring. Stand back and watch it disappear. This one is probably best the day it is baked.

Fruit Piroschki – Mennonite Fruit-Filled Hand Pies

My childhood was filled with these beautiful little pies, made by my Mom, Oma and Aunts, filled with various fruits and sometimes even meat. So I figured it’s about time I made them myself. Instead of using my Tante Kantja’s recipe (see below), which is the only one I had access to at the moment, I opted for the pastry recipe from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. So while it’s not the traditional Ukrainian piroschki I grew up eating, it’s the same idea: a square pastry filled with fruit. Yum! My favourite result was the apricot/nectarine combination, but the blueberries were pretty good too.

I made the whole recipe, then baked a few and put the rest in the freezer. They were just as good when I pulled a few straight out of the freezer and baked them up for just a little longer than the pre-frozen version. I like them best when they are freshly baked, but they will keep for a few days.

This is a great picnic food!

What you need:

2 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup very cold butter
1/2 cup ice-cold water
about a pound of apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums or apples, or a combination of those
1 egg

What you do:

Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut the cold butter into medium-sized dice and add it to the flour. Use a pastry blender or your hands (better if they aren’t too hot) and break the butter up, combining it with the flour mixture, into pieces the size of tiny peas.
If it is a very warm day put the bowl in the fridge for a while to let the butter get cold again before rolling it out.
Drizzle most of the water over the mixture and stir it in, adding more as you need it. Use floured hands to knead the dough briefly until it comes together in a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Before you are going to roll out the dough, chop up the fruit and sprinkle it with a little bit of flour or cornstarch and stir that together gently.
Dust the countertop and rolling-pin (or wine bottle if you don’t have a rolling-pin) with a little flour. Cut the dough ball in half and roll out one half. Cut the dough into 15cm/6 inch squares and fill each with some fruit (pictured below). Run a wet finger along each of the edges of the pastry, then bring two corners together to and press them together; do this with each corner until they all meet in the middle. (See picture at the top of the page) Do the same thing with the rest of the dough.
Put the piroschki into the fridge for about 30 minutes. While they are chilling preheat the oven to 375 F and line a baking sheet with some parchment paper (optional – I didn’t have any and they didn’t stick to the pan).
Crack the egg into a bowl add a teaspoon of water; mix with a fork. Use a pastry brush to glaze the pastry with the egg.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until they are a beautiful golden brown. Let cool only slightly before devouring.

If you are not baking for a large crowd I advise that you freeze part of the batch for a later date. Just put the baking sheet into the freezer until they are solid, then but them into a freezer bag. To bake just take a few out of the freezer and place them on a pan and into a preheated oven, 375 F for 35-45 minutes. Just as yummy as the first batch!

Coconut Carrot Cake with Creamcheese White Chocolate Icing

I can’t really believe I haven’t posted this one before. I’ve been making it for years, and it is a favourite for many people. The recipe comes from the Rebar Cookbook, which was put out by a great little vegetarian restaurant in Victoria, BC. There is a bit of work involved in this cake, but just chopping and grating a few things, nothing too technical. It also makes nice cupcakes or a 9 x 13 cake.

What you need:

1 & 1/2 cups grated carrots
3/4 cup (180 mL) crushed pineapple
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dates
3 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 & 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 & 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice

What you need for the icing:

9 oz ( 270 grams) cream cheese (firm block, not spreadable) room temperature – very important
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 oz (90 grams) white chocolate
3 cups icing sugar, sifted (could cut back to 2 & 1/2 cups)

What you do:

Butter and flour two 8″ round cake pans. I like to cut out circles of parchment paper to fit into the bottom of the pans for easy removal. Preheat the oven to 350F.
Combine the grated carrot, pineapple, coconut, dates and chopped walnuts in a large bowl.
In a mixing bowl beat the sugars with the eggs. Add the vanilla and beat on high-speed until the volume has tripled. With the beater on low-speed, pour the oil in slowly to blend it in.
Combine the remaining dry ingredients and gently stir them into the egg mixture. Fold in the carrot mixture. Divide the batter among the cake pans and smooth the tops.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes sit in the pan for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert onto cooling racks.
After the cakes have cooled, prepare the icing. Begin by melting the white chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat and set aside to cool a little while you do the next part.
Beat the room temperature cream cheese on high-speed until smooth and fluffy, then blend in the vanilla and butter. Add the melted chocolate to the cream cheese mixture and mix on high until smooth and fluffy (I added the chocolate when it was too warm, and I couldn’t get to the fluffy stage. I put it in the fridge for 10 minutes and that solved the problem). Slowly add the icing sugar, stopping to scrape down the sides now and then. Beat on high until the icing is light and fluffy; about 3 minutes.
Spread the bottom layer of the cake with one-third of the icing, smoothing it evenly to the edges. Chill for 10 minutes. Place the top cake layer on and frost the top and sides. I garnished it with white chocolate curls, but my next choice was to make a border of chopped walnuts around the edge. Toasted coconut or a decorative piped border are other options.
Store refrigerated where it will keep for up to 4 days.

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