Happy (late) Cinco De Mayo! Let's eat cake!

So, I made this cake last year around Cinco De Mayo, and just never got around to taking pictures or posting anything about it. I definitely didn't want to let the same thing happen this year!

Years ago, at an old office job, we used to get a layer cake for people's birthdays which I loved! It was super moist and had a whipped cream frosting. I remember going to the actual bakery once and asking the staff about it and they said it was their Tres Leches Cake, or Three Milks Cake. I was intrigued when I looked up that type of cake on the web, since I had never heard of it before. All the recipes I could find were for a sheet cake that you pretty much keep in the pan....no layer cakes....and what was with this pouring a cream mixture over the top and letting it soak overnight? That had to become a disaster, right? Sounded too risky to me, but after years and years of thinking of that one delicious cake we used to get at my old job, I finally decided to try my hand at it, and also relented and used a recipe that called for the sheet cake pan....no layers here. As I was making this cake last year, I thought it was interesting that there is no butter or shortening in the cake, pretty much just eggs, sugar, flour and milk. Don't get me wrong here, the cream mixture that you pour over the cake more than makes up for the fat, but I am used to cakes starting with sugar and butter. Anyway, I made the cake exactly as printed and it is wonderful! It is not overly sweet, which I love! It is incredibly moist, but not mushy, like some tres leches cakes can become....and it's easy! The cake comes together quickly, and bakes quickly too, and the cream mixture is easily whipped up in the blender.

Some notes I have are that I had trouble beating the egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks....mine never got to stiff peaks, but it didn't seem to cause any problems with the cake in the end. Also, once the cake is removed from the oven, it will pull away from the sides of the cake a lot, even more so when you start pouring the cream over, so don't panic. Also, it may seem like you have way too much cream going over the cake, but trust me, it will all absorb into the cake, as the pictures show below.

I like making this cake for Cinco De Mayo, but it truly can be made anytime. Enjoy!!!

TRES LECHES CAKE

For the Cake:

6 large eggs, separated

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the Cream Mixture:

1 14 ounce can of evaporated milk

1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup whipping cream

For the Whipped Cream:

1 cup whipping cream

1/8 cup granulated sugar

To Make the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan and set aside. Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl and set aside. Pour the whole milk into a measuring cup and add the vanilla and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on low speed until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually with the mixer running and beat to stiff peaks. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Take the sifted flour mixture and add to the egg mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla mixture. Do this quickly, as you do not want the batter to lose it's volume. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

While the cake is nearing the end of it's baking time, prepare the cream topping mixture. Simply combine the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and the whipping cream in a blender and blend on high speed.

Remove the cake from the oven, and while it is still warm, slowly and evenly pour the cream mixture over the entire cake. Let cake sit and cool to room temperature. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refridgerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours, but best overnight.

Once the cake is chilled, whip the cream and sugar and frost the top of the cake as desired.

Back to the Blog....for now....

It's been almost a year since I've posted anything to my blog. I know I always say that I'm going to be better about blogging and then fail miserably, so I'm only going to say that I am going to post whenever I can.

So, while we're on the subject of repeat failure, I thought I could talk about what I'm posting about today. I love banana bread. Like, really, really, really LOVE banana bread. The only problem is that all the recipes I've tried, for one reason or another, have not been great. Some have been okay, some have been really bad, some didn't work although the reviews and comments raved and raved about it....it's been disheartening to say the least. Well, I had some bananas that were getting too ripe and I didn't have the time to make the Hummingbird Cake/Cupcakes that I like making with bananas, so I thought I would give banana bread another shot. I went to my favorite recipe site, Epicurious.com, and started a search. The recipe I found seemed like a sure thing. Easy, had all the ingredients on hand, apparently amazingly delicious and....with chocolate chips? That made me balk. I had never had or made banana bread with chocolate chips. I know of it, and have friends who like it, but that never really appealed to me, since I am not the biggest fan of chocolate. However, I was determined to make a good banana bread. A recipe that could become an old standby....so I made the bread with the chocolate....and it was everything the recipe seemed and said to be. The prep couldn't have been easier, and the bread came out perfectly moist and absolutely delicious! I added a teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon of cinnamon to the recipe and also drizzled some melted chocolate over the top of the finished bread. This recipe as printed is very rich and very decadent, which don't get me wrong, is wonderful, but I'm looking forward to making this bread without the chocolate and crossing my fingers that I've found my new standby banana bread recipe. Enjoy!

Original recipe can be found here.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

For the Bread:

4 ripe bananas

1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

To Make the Bread:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 6 cup loaf pan and set aside. Mash the bananas in a large bowl. Add all the remaining ingredients in order and mix well with a wooden spoon. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake 60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, you may invert the loaf out of the pan and drizzle with melted chocolate, or simply just slice and serve as is.

Summer Blackberry Muffins

I love the summer. Not only do I love the hot weather, but there are lots of things that go along with summer that I can't get enough of, like it's luscious fruit. I've been inspired a lot lately to bake with these ripe summer treasures and there is a fantastic organic produce store on the corner that I depend on for the best fruit you can find outside of a fresh farmer's market. Summer berries are some of my most favorite, and I really love blackberries, one because they are a sturdier berry, so therefore easier to work with than say, a tender and delicate raspberry, and because they have such an amazing flavor. I wanted to make something that highlighted the blackberry and didn't overpower it, instead letting it shine on it's own. I found a beautiful looking recipe at Williams-Sonoma's website and got to work.

The recipe was extremely easy to assemble, although I added a bit more flour and sugar to the topping recipe, as I love a sugary, crumbly topping. I also lined my muffin tin with paper liners, because I feel like they are just easier to deal with in every aspect, especially since these muffins were extremely dense with fruit....without the liners, it would have been very tricky to get them out of the wells of the pan. And of course I picked the muffin with the entire center made up of blackberries to take a picture of! But these were delicious and moist and the batter let the blackberries be the star of the show. Like the recipe says, you could substitute any berry you like, but I think I'll stick to blackberry. Enjoy!

Blackberry Muffins

Original recipe can be found here.

For the Topping:

1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbs. all-purpose flour
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
2 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

For the Muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
5 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups fresh blackberries or 2 1/2 cups frozen unsweetened blackberries, unthawed

To Make the Muffins:

Preheat an oven to 375°F. Grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray, or put paper liners in muffin pan. To make the topping, in a small bowl, stir together the sugar, flour and lemon zest. Stir in the melted butter until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

To make the muffins, in a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt. Make a well in the center and add the egg, melted butter and buttermilk. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Sprinkle with the blackberries and gently fold in with a large rubber spatula just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Take care not to break up the fruit. Do not overmix. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each to a bit above the rim of the cup. Top each muffin with the topping, dividing it evenly. Bake until the muffins are golden, dry and springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 muffins.

Rustic Apple Galette

I have been wanting to make a rustic fruit galette or free form tart for a long time. Something about the baked fruit, wrapped up in a flaky, browned crust without the perfect edges of a tart pan or pie dish appeals to me alot, but for some reason or another, other desserts always got made instead. Finally, I decided to try my hand at it, armed with a 100% 'would make it again' and 4 fork rated recipe (with a photo!) from one of my most favorite websites, Epicurious.com.

The dough came together very easily and was a perfect consistancy with no additional water added. I use a mandoline or food slicer to get perfectly uniform apple slices, and highly recommend them. I have this one, which is wonderful, and I definitely believe that a good mandoline is an essential tool to have in your kitchen. I had a bit of difficulty rolling out the dough between two pieces of parchment, with it sliding around a lot, but once it rolled out a bit, it became easier. My crust had a bit more overlap than in the recipe picture, but I have always loved that look anyway, so it was perfect. As a tip, I would wait to slice your apples until you put your rolled out crust back in the fridge to chill, to minimize the chance of your apples browning. I had quite a few apple slices left, but they were a delicious snack while I was watching TV, waiting for the galette to be done. The galette was done exactly as timed in the recipe and I have to say that it was just as gorgeous as the picture! I always love that feeling of pride when the things I bake turn out beautifully....it's a great sense of accomplishment, especially when it tastes as good as it looks, which I am told, it did. That's right, I didn't even get a slice after bringing in to work, although I take that as a very big compliment!

This is a simple, homey, and delicious dessert that would be wonderful for breakfast or dessert or any time of day! Enjoy!

Apple Galette

Original recipe can be found here.

For the Galette:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices
4 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1/4 cup apricot preserves
Whole milk

To Make the Galette:

Blend flour and salt in processor. Add butter and blend, using on/off turns, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and blend just until dough begins to clump together, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.

Roll out dough between sheets of parchment paper to 1/8-inch-thick round, 14 inches in diameter. Remove top sheet of parchment. Using bottom sheet as aid, transfer dough on parchment to large unrimmed baking sheet. Chill 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Combine apple slices, 2 tablespoons sugar, and lemon peel in medium bowl; toss to blend. Spread preserves over crust, leaving 1 1/2-inch plain border. Arrange apple slices in concentric circles atop preserves, overlapping slightly. Using parchment as aid, fold plain crust border up over apples, pinching any cracks in crust. Brush crust with milk. Sprinkle crust edges and apples with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake galette 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue baking until crust is golden, about 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven. Slide long thin knife between parchment and galette. Let stand at least 10 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Amended Lemon Cornmeal Cookies

A few years ago, my roommate Chris gave me a beautiful little cookbook called 'Luscious Lemon Desserts' by Lori Longbotham. It is a gorgeous book, with wonderful photography and lots of amazing looking desserts. The other day, I was looking through it for recipes that I could make with things that I already had in my kitchen, when her Lemon-Black Pepper Cornmeal Cookies caught my eye. Well, truth be told, it caught my eye because I was a little taken aback at the combination, and read a bit more. She goes on to promise that you don't really pick up on the black pepper flavor, but feel a nice warmth from it instead, but if you wanted, you could substitue ground ginger instead of the pepper. I was sold.

The dough was simple to make, but be warned, it is very soft and sticky, so much so that I though I might have not added all the flour or cornmeal I was supposed to! Another problem I had was that I chilled the dough for too long and tried to cut slices right after I took the dough out of the fridge, which resulted in the dough crumbling. I would say the perfect consistency for cutting the dough is when it slightly gives to a medium firm press of your finger, with it softer around the edges than in the middle. The good thing about the dough, even if it's too firm or too soft, is that it's very forgiving, and when it thaws a bit, it's easily molded into the shape you need. My dough, when formed into the wax paper logs, was not perfectly round, due to the softness of it when first made, so after I sliced the dough, it was easy to shape any edges into a perfect circle with my fingertips. The cookies bake up perfect and crisp in the stated time and are beautiful! I would have liked to taste a bit more of the ginger, so instead of the recommended 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, I might add 1 teaspoon next time, or omit the ginger in the cookie dough and roll the slightly thawed logs in crushed crystallized ginger, to make a border of ginger surrounding the crunchy lemon cookie. Even without the modifications, they are delicious and addicting, rich and crunchy and sure to be a hit! Enjoy!

Lemon-Ginger Cornmeal Cookies

For the Cookies:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
Pinch of salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely grated lemon zest
2 large egg yolks

To Make the Cookies:

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, ginger, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside. Beat the butter, sugar, and zest in another medium bowl with an electric mixer, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat to combine well. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture, and beat on low speed just until blended.

Press the dough together with your hands and divide it in half. Place each half on a sheet of wax paper and form each piece into a 10-by-1 1/4-inch log. Smooth each log with dampened fingers. Chill the logs, wrapped in wax paper, for at least 3 hours, or until firm.

At least 25 minutes before baking, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Butter 2 large nonstick baking sheets or line with parchment or silicone liners.

Cut each log into 1/4-inch-thick rounds and arrange the rounds 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

'Wedding' Biscotti

Biscotti has always been interesting to me, but something I never tried, because almost all of the biscotti available has some sort of nuts in it, which I don't eat. I have also always been interested in the way that it is baked twice, but just like tasting it, when searching for recipes, 99% of them call for almonds/pistachios/hazelnuts, etc. So I was excited when I found a recipe by Katie Lee Joel on the Food Network website that not only didn't call for nuts, but put interesting and contrasting flavors together! Now, I'm not positive why it's called 'Wedding Biscotti', and a Google search came up with nothing, but I think it's safe to guess that it was either whipped up for someone particular's wedding (possibly to Billy Joel? Although that's ending soon, so maybe this biscotti isn't such a good omen?!?! Yikes!) or it's a traditional Italian biscotti served at special events. All I know is that for the first time baking biscotti, I was quite happy with the result. I'm not sure that it was as crunchy as it's supposed to be, but it did have a nice snap and I really loved the flavors. It was rich without being overwhelming. I also used a little less rosemary than the recipe called for, because I didn't want it's strong flavor overwhelming the cookie. I think the biscotti dough would be a good base or starting point to add any ingredients that you like, if you aren't into the fruit and herb flavors. So, get experimenting and enjoy!

Wedding Biscotti

Original recipe can be found here.

For the Biscotti:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried currants

To Make the Biscotti:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and rosemary. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer and a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, incorporating each egg fully before adding the next. Add the vanilla. and gently stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in currants.

Cut dough in half and shape into 2 logs. They should be about a 12-inches long; and 1-inch thick.
Bake until just starting to brown at the edges, about 35 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets. While the biscotti logs are still warm, cut each log into 1/2-inch wide slices on the diagonal. Place the slices back on the baking sheet (using 2 baking sheets if necessary to fit all the slices). Bake for 7 to 8 minutes. Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Turn the biscotti over and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, until the biscotti are crisp.
Let the biscotti cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet(s). Serve when cooled to room temperature, or store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Hungarian Shortbread

I have always been a fan of really good shortbread. I also am a fan of interesting techniques in baking (even if sometimes I'm very intimidated by them!). So, when I was browsing through the Saveur website, I came across a recipe that caught my eye for what was called 'Hungarian Shortbread'. It's made by making a soft shortbread dough, then dividing it in half and freezing the two balls of dough. After an hour or two, you take the dough out, and grate one ball into your pan, top with a good jam, and then grate the other half onto it and bake. It promised a light, crumbly texture and I couldn't wait to try it. The recipe came together very simply and the results were divine. I also love that you could easily interchange your favorite flavor of jam into the recipe, however, I think a jam that's not overly sweet would work the best, to offset the richness of the shortbread. A few tips I have are to only remove one ball of dough from the freezer at a time and to grate each dough ball onto wax paper and then spread evenly into the pan. Also, the recipe calls for uncultured butter, but I've always used plain, unsalted butter and it turns out beautifully. It would seem hard to mess up this simple and delicious recipe, so give it a try today! Enjoy!

Hungarian Shortbread

Original recipe can be found here.

For the Shortbread:

2 cups flour, plus more as needed

1 tsp. baking powder

1⁄8 tsp. fine salt

1⁄2 lb. unsalted, uncultured butter (like Straus), plus more for pan, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

3⁄4 cup raspberry jam

To Make the Shortbread:

Using a sieve over a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Cream butter in a large bowl, using a hand mixer on high speed, until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and egg yolks; mix until sugar is dissolved and mixture is light, about 4 minutes. With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture; mix until dough just begins to come together, about 1 minute.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; bring it together with your hands. Divide dough in half and form 2 balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap; freeze for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 hours.

Arrange an oven rack in center of oven; heat to 350°. Grease a 10" springform pan with butter. Remove a ball of dough from freezer, unwrap, and grate, using the large holes of a box grater, directly into prepared pan. Gently pat grated dough to even it out. Spread jam evenly over dough, leaving about a 1⁄2" border around edges. Grate remaining dough over jam layer; pat gently until surface is even. Bake until light golden brown, about 25–35 minutes. Let cool completely in pan, on a rack, before cutting into wedges.