Sophie Gee's Sticky Toffee Pudding

 Sophie Gee's Sticky Toffee Pudding 

Sophie - Madame Superstar! - is Camille's bestie and she joined us for Thanksgiving this year.  The night before she left, Sophie made us her favorite dessert.  We devoured it!  Soooo good.  Her mom got this recipe while living in England years ago.  

Pudding: 

1 C water

3/4 C chopped dates 

2 tsp baking soda

4 T butter

3/4 C sugar

2 eggs

3/4 C flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Butter a 9" square pan.  

In a saucepan, bring the water and chopped dates to a boil, then remove from heat.  Stir in the baking soda and set aside. 

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one by one, beating after each one. 

Gently fold in flour and salt, then stir in the dates and vanilla. 

Pour into the prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes, until cake is done.  The cake will be very dark. 

SAUCE: 

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C heavy cream

4 T butter

1/2 tsp vanilla 

Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer 3 minutes.   Keep warm. 

Serve the cake over a bed of the warm sauce, and topped with whipped cream.  YUM.  

Kenji Lopez-Alt's Pie Crust - mostly butter - so easy and good

 Pie Crust - mostly butter - so easy and good. 

Use your kitchen scale!! 

This is from Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats and the full article is here, very very detailed with pictures and explanations of "why" this and that.  

This is the third or fourth pie crust I've tried in my lifetime, and it is the easiest and best (!). 

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups (12.5 ounces; 350g) all-purpose flour, divided

• 2 tablespoons (25g) sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons (5g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use same weight or half as much by volume

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

• 4 T Crisco, cut into four pieces
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces; 85ml) cold water

Combine 2/3 of the flour with sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse twice to incorporate. Spread butter slices evenly over surface. Pulse until no dry flour remains and dough just begins to collect in clumps (25+ pulses, maybe a lot more). Use a rubber spatula to spread the dough evenly around the bowl of the food processor. Sprinkle with remaining flour and pulse (5+ pulses) until dough is just barely broken up. 

Transfer dough to a large mixing bowl.

Sprinkle with the cold water. Use a rubber spatula to fold and press dough until it comes together into a ball. Divide ball in half. Form each half into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and baking.  (the first time I made this, I didn't have time to refrigerate and it worked great anyway). 

Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp - serves 4-6 

Modified from  The Best Recipe- page 503.    It is really so good.  Until recently I made it by hand but now I do have a food processor. You can easily double it (just cook it a bit longer). 

For the crisp: 

6 T flour 

1/4 C brown sugar 

1/4 C sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

5 T butter, chilled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

3/4 C coarsely chopped pecans

Pulse dry ingredients in food processor, add butter and pulse about 10 times, then add nuts and pulse a few times ("topping should look like slightly clumpy wet sand").  Refrigerate at least 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile,  prepare apples and scrape apple mixture into an 8-inch square pan, or a deep dish pie plate, or cast iron skillet.

4-5 apples (I use Granny Smith) - (cut into quarters and then cut each quarter into thirds) 

1/4 C sugar 

zest and juice of one lemon (more or less) 

Sprinkle topping over the fruit.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes or until topping is deeply golden brown, and apples are tender but not mushy.  

Serve warm with GOOD icecream! 

(If you need your oven to make dinner, you can actually make this crisp earlier in the day, set aside at room temp, and reheat in your still warm oven while you eat dinner)  

Batter Fruit Cobbler

Batter Fruit Cobbler 

serves 4 or 5 

This is from The Perfect Recipe by Pam Anderson, and it is adapted from a recipe from Nathalie DuPree, a very well known southern cook from the 80's.  

4 T butter

3/4 C flour

3/4 C sugar (reserve 1 T for sprinkling) 

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 C milk

2 C fresh or frozen cut fruit or berries (not sweetened or thickened) 

1.  Preheat oven to 350.   While oven is preheating, put butter into the dish (8 inch square, or 9 inch round, or deep dish pie plate, or cast iron skillet) in the oven to melt.  

2.  Meanwhile in a small mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients together, and then add the milk.  Whisk just long enough to incorporate the ingredients. 

3.  Remove hot pan from the oven.  Poor batter into the pan over the butter (don't stir).  Arrange or sprinkle fruit over the batter.  Sprinkle with the 1T sugar.   Do all of this quickly and get the pan right back into the oven. 

4.  Bake until batter browns, 40-50 min.  Cool slightly and serve with vanilla ice cream.  YUM. 

I started making this in 1999 and make it every summer.  It is so easy, and so good.  It bakes for a long time but it goes together so fast and is always such a big hit, warm out of the oven served with vanilla ice cream.  I usually use peaches - so good - and yesterday I used blueberries and blackberries for Father's Day.  

Creme Caramel for Two

From America's Test Kitchen .  David loves creme caramel and I make it for him for Valentines Day, Father's Day, etc.   This is a smaller recipe I just found and will try next time.

Need two 4-ounce ramekins

2 T water
6 T sugar
2 T lightly beaten egg, plus one large yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
3/4 C half and half

1.  Oven to 350 degrees.  Bring kettle of water to boil.  Place dish towel in bottom of 8 inch square baking pan.  Grease two 4-ounce ramekins and place on towel.

2.  Small saucepan - combine water and sugar in center of pan, gently stir.  Medium high heat, bring to boil.  3 to 4 minutes, to 300 degrees.  Reduce heat to low, stir occasionally.  Dark in color, 1-2 minutes more, til 350 degrees.  Divide into ramekins and let cool.  Caramel will harden.

3.  Whisk remaining 2 T sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt together in large bowl.  Heat half and half til steaming, and whisk into egg mixture.

4.  Strain custard through fine mesh sieve into liquid measuring cup.  Pour custard evenly into ramekins on top of caramel.

5.  Place baking pan into oven.  Carefully pour boiling water into pan to reach halfway up sides of ramekins.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean.

6.  Remove ramekins (careful!) and let cool to room temp, 1-2 hours.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours.

7.  Run small knife around ramekin to loosen custard.  Invert onto serving plate.

Rich and Tender Yellow Cake

Rich and Tender Yellow Cake 

This is simplified from Cook's Illustrated Best Recipe cookbook, page 471.

4 large eggs, room temp
1/2 C whole milk, room temp
2 tsp vanilla 
2 1/4 C cake flour
1 1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, softened, each stick cut into 8 pieces

1.  Preheat oven 350.  Grease 2 9" cake pans with Crisco, and cover the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.  Grease the paper, dust pans with flour, and tap out excess.  (This is tedious but important!).  If making mini cupcakes, just swirl a little butter or Crisco into each cup.

2.  Beat eggs, milk, and vanilla with a fork in a large pyrex ball.   

3.  In mixer, combine dry ingredients.  With mixer running low, add the butter one piece at a time to "cut in" the butter.  Mix about 30 seconds after all butter has been added, until the mixture looks "sandy and pebbly."

Add the egg mixture, all but about 1/2 C, and mix on low til incorporated.  Then increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.   Scrape sides and bottom of bowl.  Add remaining egg mixture in slow steady stream.  Scrape sides of bowl, beat again briefly until batter is thoroughly combined.  Mixture may look curdled and this is OK.  

4.  Divide batter into pans and smooth out with spatula. Bake until light golden and skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.   Cool on rack 10 minutes.  Run a knife around the edges to loosen cake.  Invert cake onto cooling rack.  Cool completely and then frost and enjoy!