Blackberry Tart

Yesterday when we were in Trader Joe's, I noticed they had double containers (12oz) of blackberries for only $3.69 - a huge deal, especially looking as good they did! I snapped them up, along with a big carton of strawberries that was only $3.29. I thought I would make a quick fold over tart (where you lay a pie crust out on a baking sheet, place your fruit in the middle, and fold the edges up over it - See my Cranberry Pear Tart entry) with my goodies. However, when I got home and saw my muffin pan on the kitchen island, I decided to try making mini tarts instead, with just the blackberries. I guess I will have to bake something else with the strawberries; maybe my early summer tradition, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

I have made pies before, and mushroom tarts, but not mini fruit tarts. So, I decided to use my knowledge from the others and try to come up with my own recipe.

First, I cut circles out of a pie crust using a biscuit cutter. I only got 10 circles, so I had to roll out the remnants to get 2 more. After the circles were cut, I pressed each circle as evenly as I could into the bottom of the muffin pan.


I took butter, brown sugar, vanilla, brandy and walnuts and heated them in a sauce pan. Then, I whisked in flour. I then added the (washed) berries.

Next, I poured the berry mixture into each crust, arranging them so there were 6 berries in each - just enough so the pie crust were full, but not overflowing. Finally, I baked them.

The tarts came out tasting awesome, if I can say so myself! The berry mixture expanded a little into each tart and was just sweet and gooey enough. The crusts provided just enough to cup it all. My husband said the only thing that could've made them better was some custard on top. Pretty good for an experiment, and a wonderful treat when you don't want to put too much effort into making something! Also, a very good use for those summer berries which will soon be in abundance.

When I was making this, I didn't measure everything exactly, and I don't think you have to with such a recipe. However, I tried to estimate the measurements of each ingredient so I could provide a recipe here. Hope you find it as enjoyable and easy as I did!

Recipe

1 tbsp butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp brandy

1/4 cup flour

12 oz blackberries, or 72 berries - 6 for each tart

1 pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Heat the butter, brown sugar, walnuts, vanilla and brandy in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally

When the above mixture is melted and well combined, whisk in the flour

Stir in the berries

Cut the pie crust into 12 circles and press each one evenly into the bottom of each cup in a muffin pan

Pour the berry mixture into each cup

Bake for 20 -25 minutes, until you can smell the berries baking, and they look a bit gooey

Margarita Cake

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. For Mexicans, it represents the celebration of a battle victory, though I recently found out it is more an American holiday (reason to drink and party) than anything. However, why not use the opportunity for a little celebration and a bit of baking?

What is more recognizable as part of a Mexican meal or celebration than margaritas? Well, it seems it is for us Americans, anyway. So, what better thing to incorporate into baking than that great drink? I have been wanting to make a cake, and set out to find recipes that incorporated margaritas into cake. I found a Betty Crocker recipe for margarita cake online today that called for a crushed pretzel crust, white boxed cake, a cool whip frosting and some margarita fixings added in. Since we are going to be out to dinner with friends tomorrow night (yes, at a Mexican restaurant), I decided to take the cake to work for a change.

As tonight was to be the only night this week that Nick and I had alone, at home, I actually considered getting the boxed mix the recipe called for. However, when Nick found this out, he scoffed. The Sendiks by our house didn't have any white boxed mixes, so that was that. I found a recipe for simple white cake mix on AllRecipes.com and decided to try that. What was going to be a quick and easy cake turned into one of my couple hour baking projects, but I think it was worth it!

First, I pounded the pretzels to mash them into little pieces and crumbs. Then, I mixed them with sugar and butter as directed in the first recipe.


Next, I creamed the butter, made a margarita and mixed the dry ingredients. Then, I mixed them all together, alternating dry and wet ingredients.


The batter turned out frothy, almost like meringue, and it sure tasted good - like margaritas!

I made a couple of cupcakes, as well as the cake, since I was making the cake for work, and knew Nick might not be able to try it otherwise. I doubled the cake recipe so it would fit into my 9x13 pan (rather than the 9x9 pan called for), and had more than enough batter to make a few cupcakes. Nick, being the mathematician, did the numbers and figured out that I could have made 7 cupcakes and still had enough batter for the cake. I didn't feel we needed 7 cupcakes though!

The cupcakes turned out pretty well, the pretzels sticking well in the cupcake. However, the cake was a little dense and the pretzels overtook the margarita taste. The pre-made whipped frosting I used to ice them (so I didn't have to break into the cool whip and not have enough for the cake) did not do them justice; I can't wait to try the cake with the cool whip tomorrow!

*Update* The cake turned out much better than the cupcakes, with the pretzels and the cake being a good combination. The cake is not quite as dense as the cupcakes, and there is much more of it compared to in the cupcakes. You can also taste the margarita more in the cake. The cool whip frosting is light and a nice, airy, sweet, compliment to the slightly salty cake.

I got to work at 10 a.m. and by 11 a.m. most of the cake was gone; I would say that is a successful recipe! If I were to make it entirely as cupcakes, I think I would do something different, like making the pretzels more powdery (Nick's suggestion), or putting more batter into each cup, but I don't think I will mess with the cake version!

Overall, I would say this turned out very well!

There was just enough cake leftover after work so that I could cut a good peice for a picture:

Though I combined two recipes into one, I wound up changing many of the ingredients. Here is my final recipe:

Margarita Cake

pretzel mixture (3 cups smashed pretzels, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 stick melted butter)

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, at room temperature

4 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

3 cups flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups margarita (1 cup tequila, a dash of orange liquor (or triple sec), lime juice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Butter a 9x13 baking dish

Press the pretzel mixture into the baking dish

Cream the butter and sugar together and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

Beat in the vanilla

Sift the flour and baking powder into another bowl

Make the margarita mixture

Beat in the dry ingredients and the margarita mixture, alternating, in 4 additions each

Pour batter into baking dish and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

German Apple Cake

This morning, I woke up at 7:30. That's early for a Saturday, I know, but I was promised lots of relaxing fun time with Nick today so I didn't linger in bed. However, I didn't so much as get breakfast with him due to the large amount of work he has had recently, and had to work on this morning. So, I cleaned the house and finished the book I had been reading. Then, while standing in the kitchen wondering what I was going to do next, my new cookbook, Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson, stared at me from its shelf. I had made no plans to bake today, so I wasn't sure if I had enough ingreditents to make anything. I glanced through the cupboards and fridge and then read through the book for a recipe that fit those.

As it turned out, only one recipe fit what I had, so that is the one I made. It is Mimi's German Apple Cake (page 124) and it was yummy. The cake was crumbly like a coffee cake, it was sweet, light and fruity. However, I don't think it looked as nice as it could have, and certainly didn't come out looking like the picture. Since taste is more important than looks, I feel it still made for a nice treat, and a good spring one though it was listed under the Fall recipes in the book.

I used Pink Lady apples, rather than the Macintosh the recipe suggested. I figured they were similar enough to be ok.

The batter seemed a bit thick, as you can see from the big glob in the middle of the pan.

With the batter how it was, I was a bit worried it wouldn't flow under the apples.

The brown sugar didn'tlook as nice as I am sure the turbinado would've. But, I didn't know what turbinado sugar was, let alone have any in my pantry.

I was excited to use the vanilla I just made with a recipe Katie gave me: Soak about 5 vanilla pods in brandy or vodka (I used brandy, but think vodka might be a better choice as it just tastes like vanilla brandy to me, compared to the stuff she served me - made with vodka) in a sealed container for a couple of weeks. If there is not enough vanilla flavor, place more (new) pods in a soak for a couple more weeks. However, be sure to remove the pods after a few weeks though because they will start to break down.

By the time I was done baking, Nick was just about done working. So, we did get to have some fun time going out to lunch and the zoo. We made sure to eat a peice of cake before we left though, and ate one as soon as we got home too :)

Picture Day: Banana Cream Pie

I have many pictures I keep meaning to post blogs about, but just haven't gotten around to. Yesterday, when I told my friend Katie - who is involved in some of the baking I have un-posted pictures of - this, she suggested that maybe I just post the pictures, without trying to write a full blog entry about them. That way, my friend Claire said, "others can see that you are baking and learning, etc. more than just once a week, even though that (and sometimes less) is how often you post." So, here are pictures from one, and in the future, I will post more so I have something a bit more regular for my readers. And, let me take this opportunity to thank my readers for encouraging me to keep at it - Thank You!

Banana Cream Pie With Chocolate (late Jan. 2010)

Making the pie crust:

Making the bananas:

And the custard:

Putting it all together (see the chocolate in the bottom?):

Katie provided the recipe (from her newly acquired Williams Sonoma cook book) and a lot of the knowledge on this one. It was the first time I made a homemade crust, the first time I attempted custard, and the first time I'd used gelatin in anything other than Jello. We added our own little touch by melting some chocolate chips in the bottom of the crust before adding the rest of the pie filling. The crust was not very hard to make, and neither was the custard. I am not sure I liked the consistency of the chocolate, as it was much harder than the rest of the pie components once it cooled. But, the pie turned out very well, and was a nice addition to our weekend in the country get-away (thank you in-laws for having us house sit!). This was mine and Katie's first attempt at baking together, and it has lead to more great baking adventures so stay tuned!

Spring Lemon Cake

Last week Monday night I was really feeling spring. It had been in the mid 40s and sunny, and most of the snow had melted away. I was willing to overlook the black muck that was everywhere as a result of this and think flowers, pastel colors, light and lightly sweet spring time recipes...

So, even though my friend Claire was coming over and I had a dinner of ravioli and asparagus rolled in pancetta and cheese to cook for us, I decided I was going to bake us a cake as well. I found a Paula Deen recipe for Lemon Cake that sounded good, but the Joy of Baking's Lemon Cake recipe I found sounded a bit easier and just as good. Plus, I felt I somehow owed it to the Joy of Baking to finally make one of its recipes.

The recipe went much as expected: cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then the vanilla and lemon zest, sift the other dry ingredients and add them, along with the lemon juice, to the mixture, pour into pan and bake. There were, however, two things about this recipe I had never done before: line the bottom of the pan with parchment, and use a spring form pan.

I compared the frosting from each recipe and found that The Joy of Baking's frosting recipe sounded a bit boring and not quite like what I wanted. This is where I got a bit adventurous (not adventurous as in making my own recipe, but adventurous by using two recipes to come up with one cake). I decided to use the frosting from Paula Deen's recipe, which contained sugar, egg whites, water, vanilla, and cream of tartar rather than The Joy of Baking's confectioner's sugar and lemon juice.

The frosting was bit more work that I normally put into such a thing, taking 8 full minutes of beating, in a make shift double boiler no less! It was 1 minute of mixing in the bowl on the counter and then 7 minutes of mixing over the double boiler. When I told people about this frosting recipe, everyone came back at me with "that's the 7 minute frosting my mom (or grandmother) used to make!" I guess it's pretty popular. It did turn out very yummy, very light and fluffy - like "marshmallow creme" to quote Claire. I made one more addition to the cake though, on top of the frosting (and this was my own idea): coconut flakes.

After a few hours in the kitchen, we finally got to sit down and enjoy a piece of the cake, which I thought turned out very well, and was just the right spring-time kind of dessert I was looking for. Claire agreed, but stated that she thought we should have put more frosting on it. My husband later reported that though the cake was very good, he thought it needed a bit more lemon flavor. I thought the spring form pan and the parchment paper worked great, making a beautifully shaped cake. The last time I tried to bake a cake in a round pan, most of it stuck and I had a very lopsided and falling apart cake. When I told my step-mom about this she said it was more the parchment than the spring form that made the cake come out nicely. I plan on testing this theory on future cakes, and am not so afraid to attempt another layer cake now.

The next day, when going for leftovers, I noticed the frosting had acquired a slight crust to it. By day 3, it was so dried up that it was almost nonexistent. This seemed weird to me. Should I have refrigerated the cake, or would that have made it even worse? I can only guess it has something to do with the whipped egg whites and some reaction they have after sitting for a while. I know I will go back to the cake recipe, but am not sure I would use this frosting again, at least not until I talk to someone who has had more experience with it.

While baking that night, Claire asked me, "So, what happens to all of the things you bake; do you take them to work and share them with others, or do you and Nick (my husband) eat them all?" Though I shared cake with Claire that night, and sent her home with a couple pieces, I guiltily admit that we normally eat them all. I enjoy the act of baking, the joy of seeing something I put effort into turn into something so delicious, and of course, the savoring of each and every piece of that baked good, that I just don't mind eating it all by ourselves. I guess that is being selfish, and maybe that is why I am not benefiting from the gym as much as I could be, but we sure are enjoying it...

Red Currant Cherry Pecan Pie

I have been sick with a bad head cold for a two weeks now, and have not really felt like doing anything, let alone baking. However, today, on a day where we had nothing to do, where I could rest and watch movies all day, I felt like baking again. More so, I wanted pie and the only way I was going to get pie was to make some myself as I am feeling a bit better, but not good enough to go to the store. Also, since I didn't feel like going to the store, I had to scrounge my cupboards, fridge and freezer for ingredients to make said pie. Thankfully, we have a garden in summer that produces enough so that we can freeze a few fruits and vegetables. I found blueberries, cherries, currants in the freezer, and a ready-made pie crust in the fridge. I then set out to find a recipe that fit these ingredients. I found a perfect sounding one on the Canadian Living website for Red Currant Cherry Almond Pie.

I had issues from the start though...

I opened the pie crust and noticed it looked funny (grayish) and smelled a little funny (musty). What I thought was going to be a quick and easy pie suddenly was not quite so easy. Luckily, the recipe I chose had a link to a flaky pie crust recipe. I had watched my husband make pie crust before and helped a friend make one for a banana cream pie a few weeks ago, but I had never made one on my own. I got to use the new rolling pin my step-mother gave us. Since my husband was aware of my inexperience with pie crust, he checked in on me every few minutes. He once again instructed me not to "over handle the dough". This seems to be the ever present, most important rule in everything I bake!

I made the bottom crust with no problems, except for not really knowing how much was the right amount of water to add, and I froze the second on a cookie sheet, as directed.



I thawed the berries while making the crust, though they required a bit of rinsing to speed the process up. I mixed the fruit with the flour and sugar, which made a thick, goopy, and almost unnatural looking pink mixture. I did not have the almond extract the recipe calls for, so I used vanilla extract instead. The recipe also called for blanched almonds to be laid in the bottom pie crust, which I did not have. I used chopped up pecans instead. I then poured the mixture into the bottom pie crust and got the top one out of the freezer. The crust that was in the freezer had become so hard that I couldn't work with it. I tried picking it up and feared it would break. There was no way it was going to mold to the bottom crust/pie the way it was, so I let it sit out for a bit to soften up. Once it did, it attached to the other pretty well, especially when pinched together with the other.



I cut the slits in the pie, brushed the pie with the specified milk and sugar mixture and put in the oven. The pie did not brown in the recipe specified baking time, so I left it in the over longer (an extra 20 minutes!). I assumed this pie was supposed to brown, since every other pie I have made has browned at least a little bit. Granted, those were always made with pre-made pie crusts... Also, the milk and sugar mixture pooled around the edges of the pie so much I worried it would be soggy. So, halfway through baking I tried to soak some up with a paper towel.

The pie looked good, but when I cut a piece, there was a very sticky film (from the milk and sugar mixture I assume) on top of the crust and it was very hard. I don't know if it was that sticky film, or the fact I left the pie in longer so it would brown, that made the crust so hard to cut through. The crust is also not as light and flaky as I would have thought. Maybe I over handled the dough, or again, maybe I overcooked it.

After we both tried a piece, I asked my husband for his opinion. He said the pie was very sweet, more so than he likes. I thought it tasted good, but I would agree with him on the sweetness - not what I would expect from tart currents and tart cherries. Overall, I would say this pie was pretty good - a decent turnout from what I had around the house, and for my first time making my own pie crust. Maybe the next one will go better.

Strawberry Lemon Vodka Cupcakes

I think I had my first fail.

A couple weeks before this Valentine's Day, a holiday we don't normally do anything for but have dinner just us, my husband and I both mentioned we wanted to do something more. I enlisted a friend to help make decorations, I borrowed a friend's Le Creuset so I could make Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon, and I set out to find the perfect dessert. I thought I had found it when I saw Strawberry Vodka Lemon Cupcakes on the Baking Bites Blog.

The morning of the holiday, 2 hours before we were to be at a reservations only brunch, I started the cupcakes. I made the recipe just as directed and, while mixing in the flour and milk, I noticed it was becoming almost taffy-like. After the third alternating mixture, the batter started wrapping itself around the mixers and got worse the more I tried to mix. With that consistency, I did not believe it would make anything worth eating. I called in my husband in for a "baking consult". He suggested that I either mixed too much or packed the flour too tightly so the mix was too dry.

Since I really wanted to have cupcakes for my guests (and lets face it, for me), I decided to give it a second go. I made sure to not pack the flour tightly and mixed each alteration much less than I did previously. The same thing happened, but not quite to the extent of the first batch. I was still worried it would not make anything worth eating, but as I had 45 minutes to shower, dress and get to brunch, I decided to bake them and see what happened. They came out looking like a dense, doughy muffin or biscuit. They tasted good, but were not light and fluffy or cake-like; they were kind of like the consistency of a buttermilk biscuit.

I was at a loss. I wanted a light, fluffy, cake-like cupcake that I could put a pink whipped cream frosting and chocolate hearts on. I wanted something that felt more like Valentine's Day, and these sort-of-muffin things were not it. When we got back from brunch, I scoured the net for an easy recipe, since I had to make it between dinner preparations. It also had to fit the ingredients I had on hand. I still had some strawberries and just enough flour and sugar for another try. I used up all the zest, lemon juice and vodka in the first two batches so I had to make do without those. But, there was still hope.

I found an Easy Strawberry Cupcake recipe that claimed to be "delicious and loved by everyone". They proved to be all that. The batter for those went just like I expected, though I made a few changes: I mashed the strawberries in a bowl with a potato masher and substituted some of the vanilla extract with lemon extract. I made a whipped cream frosting with red food coloring to turn it pink and just a touch of lemon juice for flavor. My husband melted down the rest of the dark baking chocolate we had and made chocolate hearts to top them with. They were beautiful, delicious, and a great end to my cupcakes trials of the day.

Unfortunately, with all the problems and other cooking going on, I neglected to take pictures of the whole process, except the taffy-like dough (above). However, we did get some good ones of the finished product, and even a rare picture of me posing with my baking.

I was glad to have some cupcakes to serve our guests, but I really wanted to know why the first recipe didn't work. Did I somehow mess up the recipe twice, was there a typo in the recipe, or was that just how they were supposed to turn out? I went to the blog and read some of the comments. I found that others thought the recipe turned out more like muffins as well. So, maybe it wasn't my fault they turned out that way after all.

Though early on I felt like I was having my first failure, in the end, I don't think I can call it a total failure. I had to make three different batches of cupcake mix to get one to turn out like cupcakes, but the second batch I mixed made for nice muffins and the third was great for dessert. I ran out of vodka and lemon zest. However, I didn't need the vodka to make a good dessert, and I had lemon extract to substitute for the zest. Finally, I feel like I learned a little about what consistency and ingredients, including how much of each, makes different kinds of baked goods. This whole baking adventure as I like to call it started as a way to get me off the couch, but has turned into so much more, and learning is part of that.

Happy Valentine's!