back to the books.

I started reading food blogs about two years ago, prompted in large part by other food-blogging friends. I'm grateful for my regular round-up of these blogs; they give me a great deal of relaxation and inspiration. However, I've realized recently that - as my growing "To Try" bookmark folder suggests - I've been doing a lot of cooking from the internet. Nothing wrong with that. However, to pull up a recipe while simultaneously keeping an eye on my email, perhaps popping into a different tab to check on the weather, The Sartorialist, or miscellaneous cute furry creatures, then continually reference the laptop screen (still checking my email periodically) while cooking is not a wholly focused experience, at least for me.

So yesterday morning, looking forward to cooking dinner for friends in the evening, I decided that I would restrict myself to my cookbooks. I made a pot of tea, grabbed a stack of my neglected favorites from the cookbook shelf, and settled down to page through them.


Here's what I ended up with:

Asparagus Tart {an experiment of my very own, using Breakfast, Lunch, Tea and How to Be a Domestic Goddess for reference}

Pasta all'Amatriciana (aka Pasta with Onion and Bacon) {How to Cook Everything}
Garlic Bread {Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics}

Deluxe Double-Chocolate Cookies {Tartine}

So fun! So relaxed! And so tasty.


Asparagus Tart
{Cobbled together as an excuse to use asparagus + the beautiful rectangular tart pan I received for Christmas. This worked wonderfully as an appetizer because it's relatively light; the minimal filling highlights the asparagus nicely, too. Success!}


Crust:
Use ever-reliable Orangette savory crust and prepare as detailed previously.

Filling:
1 bunch of asparagus
1/2 c. light cream
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Ground pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese (for sprinkling)

Prep and bake tart shell (a 9" round tart pan would also work here); let cool while you make the filling. Adjust oven to 350F.

Whisk together egg, egg yolk, and cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.


Trim asparagus to preferred length; I measured them to fit horizontally in the shell, but they could easily have been arranged lengthwise or, for a round tart, in a spoke pattern.


Sprinkle grated Parmesan (about 2 tbsp.) onto bottom of baked tart shell. Arrange asparagus on top, then gently pour in enough filling to cover the asparagus nearly all the way. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan.


Bake at 350F for 25 mins. (probably more for a larger tart). Let cool 5 mins. in pan, then remove base. Serve warm or at room temp.



Pasta all'Amatriciana
from How to Cook Everything


2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 c. chopped pancetta (or bacon)
1 small onion, minced
1 can (28 oz.) whole plum tomatoes, drained
1 lb. long pasta (*I used bucatini - the hole in the middle of each strand soaked up the sauce quite nicely)
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan
Fresh parsley, minced (for garnish)

In large skillet, cook pancetta in olive oil over med. heat for about 10 mins., stirring frequently, until crisp. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan.

Add onion to pan and cook, stirring frequently, until browned - about 5 mins. Turn off heat.

Crush tomatoes by hand (fun!) or with a fork (less fun) and add them to the pan. Return the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens - about 15 mins.

Meanwhile, cook and drain pasta. Toss it with finished sauce; top with reserved pancetta, Parmesan, and parsley.



Garlic Bread
adapted very slightly from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics


6 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 c. fresh parsley
2 tbsp. fresh oregano leaves
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
scant 1/3 c. olive oil
2 tbsp. butter, room temp.
1 large loaf of ciabatta or similar bread (*I used a "pain rustique" - large, flat, holey, perfect)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place garlic, parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper in food processor bowl; process until finely minced.


Heat olive oil in med. skillet over low heat; add garlic mixture and cook for 3 mins., until garlic is tender but not browned. Remove from heat and set aside.

Cut bread in half horizontally. Spoon garlic mixture evenly onto bottom half; spread butter on top half; sandwich together. Wrap the loaf in foil and place on baking sheet.

Bake for 5 mins., then unwrap foil and bake for another 5 mins. Slice crosswise, serve warm.



Deluxe Double-Chocolate Cookies
from Tartine


8 oz. bittersweet, chopped roughly
1 c. + 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. + 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.
scant 1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. whole milk (*I initially typed "mink," which might produce a rather different result!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

Melt chocolate in double-boiler or (carefully) in microwave. Remove from heat and let cool.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in small bowl. Set aside.

Using stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter on med-high speed until creamy. Slowly add sugar and mix until completely smooth and soft. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one. Beat in salt and vanilla, then add melted chocolate and beat until incorporated. Add milk and beat until combined. Then add flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. (*The dough will look like dense chocolate mousse - YUM.)

Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1" apart. Bake until just barely firm on top, about 7 mins. (They'll get firmer as they cool.) Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Makes 3-4 dozen.

s'more pie; or, adventures with the broiler.

If I don't see a saltine again for about 18 months, that would be fine. I spent last week with a beast of a stomach flu. It was bad. Reading-my-favorite-food-blogs-was-too-much-for-me-to-handle bad.

Thankfully, though, I'm on the mend and gleefully returning to my kitchen. Starting with this: S'more Pie from SmittenKitchen, adapted in turn from Gourmet. I glumly tucked this recipe away in my bookmarks back in the summer, knowing that I'd need a far cooler kitchen to attempt made-from-scratch marshmallow topping. Fall weather, you are so very welcome.

This pie was quite tasty. It was also perhaps the most pathetic-looking dessert I've ever produced. You see, the recipe called for the pie to be browned in the broiler, but I've always been intimidated by the broiler drawer of my oven (I had the same model in my old apartment, too). That's why I own a culinary torch. Alas, my torch was out of gas. I really wanted an authentic browned topping on the pie, though, so I decided to brave the dreaded broiler drawer. How bad could it really be? Well ... behold:


That's right. My beautiful pristine marshmallow topping turned into THAT. It went something like this:

[After the pie has been in the broiler drawer for about a minute.]

A. sniffs. "Hmm, it smells like maybe it's browning too quickly." Casually strolls to oven; slides out drawer and sees disaster; wails. Remembers over-active smoke detector and runs into bathroom [knows from experience that this is the only room without a smoke detector] clutching pie and calling out, "Trivet! Trivet!" Slams door and turns on bathroom fan.

K. knocks on bathroom door with a trivet. A. and K. leave pie on bathroom floor with fan running, emerge to find M. standing on armchair waving a pack of mailing envelopes in front of smoke detector and D. vigorously swinging apartment door back and forth in an effort to clear the air. [A.'s wonderful friends are experienced at smoke-alarm evasion.] Alarm averted. Pie is still served up in the bathroom.


As it turned out, the blackened topping was kind of delicious - burnt marshmallow! Very authentic. And although I'm never ever attempting to use my broiler in the future, I'll be making this again. Or should I say, s'more?

Blue sky reflected in shiny chocolate filling. Mmm.

S'more Pie
adapted very slightly from smittenkitchen, adapted from Gourmet (Nov. 2006)

Crust:
5 tbsp. butter, melted
10 graham crackers, finely ground (~1 1/2 c.)
1/8 tsp. salt

Chocolate filling:
7 oz. bittersweet or dark chocolate, chopped finely
1 c. heavy cream
1 egg at room temp.
pinch of salt

Marshmallow topping:
1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
1/2 c. cold water
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Make crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly butter a 9" or 9.5" pie plate. Stir together crust ingredients in bowl, then press evenly over bottom and up sides of pie plate. (*I find that a small bowl with roughly parallel lines helps to make the sides secure.) Bake until crisp, 12 to 15 mins., then cool to room temp., about 45 mins.

Make filling:
2. Bring cream just to a boil in heavy saucepan, then remove from heat, add chocolate to pan and let stand for 1 min. Gently whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Gently whisk in egg and salt until combined, then pour into cooled crust. Cover edges with foil and bake about 25 mins., until mostly set but center wobbles slightly when shaken. (It will firm up as it cools.) Cool pie on rack until room temp., about 1 hour.

Make marshmallow topping:
3. Stir together sugar, corn syrup, pinch of salt, and 1/4 c. water in heavy saucepan. Bring to boil over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil for about 6 mins. or until candy thermometer reaches 260F. (*I don't have a candy thermometer, so I boiled it for about 6 mins. This may not have been quite enough for entirely firm marshmallows but it worked out fine.)

4. Sprinkle gelatin over remaining 1/4 c. water in bowl of KitchenAid mixer with whisk attachment; let stand 1 min. Then, with mixer running at medium speed, slowly and carefully (!) pour in hot syrup, avoiding whisk. When all of syrup is added, increase speed to high and beat until mixture is tripled in volume and thick, about 5 mins. Add vanilla and beat until combined.

5. Immediately spoon topping onto cooled pie; it will slowly spread out. Chill uncovered for 1 hour, then lightly cover with greased plastic wrap and chill 3 hours more.

6. Brown topping in broiler for 3 mins. (*at your own risk!) or with culinary torch. Rinse knife between cuts if necessary.

*Note: Before browning, pie can be chilled for up to one day.

chocolate pistachio torte.

Along with the not-pretty-but-still-yummy apple cake, I wanted something a little bit special for C.'s party. So I hunted around on various websites and through my cookbooks and eventually settled on this: chocolate pistachio torte. It's from Martha Stewart but doesn't fall prey to the fussiness that her recipes sometimes do. I did halve the sugar, which turned out to be a good decision. For the most part, though, this is fairly straightforward and quite delicious. It's one of those desserts whose presentation is more impressive than the prep work that went into it; it also got a good reception from a choosy crowd, so I'd make it again.

Dessert paparazzi.

I made the cake in the morning before we went apple-picking and then made the ganache and assembled the whole thing at M.'s. (I didn't want to get foil imprints in the pretty shiny ganache surface! I've become adept at dessert transportation on the SEPTA bus, but still.) You could probably make the cake the day before, too, and wrap it tightly.


Chocolate Pistachio Torte
adapted slightly from Everyday Food (December 2008)

Cake:
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 c. buttermilk (*skim milk + a glug of vinegar, as usual, worked fine)
3/4 c. shelled, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

Ganache + Decoration:
1/2 c. heavy cream
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 c. shelled, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped


Make cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and lightly flour an 8" cake pan; line bottom with parchment.

2. Combine flour, salt, and b.p. in small bowl; set aside.

3. In a double boiler (*or, carefully, in the microwave), melt the chocolate and butter together until smooth, stirring frequently. Pour into bowl of electric mixer (if you're using one) and let cool slightly.

4. Whisk sugar and vanilla into chocolate mixture, then eggs and buttermilk. Stir in pistachios, then fold in flour mixture until just combined.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 60-70 mins., until tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Let cool in pan 5 mins., then run knife around edges and invert onto wire rack. Remove parchment and let cake cool completely, about 3 hours. (To store, wrap tightly in plastic after cool.)

Make ganache:
6. In small saucepan, bring cream to a simmer, then remove from heat and stir in chocolate. Let stand 5 mins., then whisk until smooth and shiny. Let mixture cool until it thickens slightly. (*Martha suggests this will take 2-6 mins., but I found it closer to 20.)

Assemble torte:
7. Set cake on flat plate or platter and slip strips of parchment under the edges to prevent ganache from pooling on the plate. Pour ganache onto center of cake, then use a table knife to smooth it so that it droops over the sides. (*This part is so fun! And so pretty!) Let sit about 30 mins. (*I only left it for about 10), then sprinkle pistachios on top and serve.

So shiny! Reflecting the fruits (pun entirely intended) of that morning's labor.

chocolate chip muffins.

Sometimes, I just want to be able to throw something together 1) in one or two bowls; 2) with ingredients I already have on hand; 3) in under 10 minutes. This recipe? Check, check, check. I was curious to try it after it was billed on smittenkitchen as "Perfect Blueberry Muffins." And they are pretty close to perfect. I particularly like that the recipe only makes 10 muffins, so, especially if you're sharing, you're not stuck with too many muffins that never taste quite as good the next day. Also, I'll take any opportunity, even if premature, to use my fun muffin liners with autumn leaves on them. (Thanks, Mom!)

I was enjoying eating my fresh blueberries by themselves too much to sacrifice them to muffins, so I threw chocolate chips in here. If you use blueberries or any other berry, a little lemon zest would be nice.



Chocolate Chip Muffins
adapted from smittenkitchen

5 tbsp. butter, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg
3/4 c. sour cream or plain yogurt
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

2. Beat butter and sugar in electric mixer on med. speed until fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then sour cream/yogurt.

3. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Add half to mixer and mix until combined. Stir in the rest just until flour disappears. (*Overmixing = tough muffins.) Fold in chocolate chips.

4. Distribute batter among muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 mins., until tops are golden and a knife comes out clean; let cool on rack.

birthday surprise ii: boozy brownies.

And the second part of B.'s birthday baking: boozy chocolate cherry brownies. This recipe popped up on 101 Cookbooks back in the spring and making it became a matter of not if but when. And while I think they would make a great dead-of-winter dessert, these port-soaked-cherry-studded brownies made a nice addition to our themed menu.

I made a few adjustments, mostly cutting back on both the sugar and chocolate. I know, cut back on the chocolate? Was I not myself? But these are more than rich enough even without the extra cup of chocolate chips in the batter. I also chopped the cherries roughly to distribute them more evenly - both my hands and my kitchen smelled strongly of port for an hour afterwards. Yum.

As the recipe warns, these are messy: chill them first, rinse your knife in warm water between each cut, and you'll still end up prying squidgy, sticky squares out of the pan. But no one will mind uneven edges or fudgy fingers, because these are deliciously intense. Intensely delicious. Yes.


Chocolate Cherry Brownies
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

2 c. (10.5 oz.) dried cherries (*I used tart rather than sweet)
scant 1 c. port wine
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
10.5 oz. dark chocolate
5 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
4 eggs
scant 1/2 c. sour cream

1. A day or two before you want to bake the brownies, combine the cherries and port in a med. bowl or container; cover and let sit, stirring every 12 hours, until almost all of the port has been absorbed. (*If you'd like, you can then chop the cherries before adding them to the batter.)


2. Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly butter and line a 9x13" pan with parchment paper in both directions - you'll need this sling to lift out the brownies later.

3. Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder; set aside.

4. Heat chocolate, butter, and sugar in double boiler until chocolate has just melted. Transfer to bowl of electric mixer and allow to cool enough so that it won't cook the eggs. (*I turned the mixer on "stir" and let it go for a few minutes to let out some of the heat.)

5. Mixing on slow, add the eggs one at a time, letting the first get incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down bowl as necessary.

6. Add flour mixture and stir by hand until combined, then add sour cream and cherries, stirring again until just combined.


7. Spoon into the pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until just set. Allow to cool completely in pan. Chilling the brownies will help to slice them; rinsing off your knife between each cut helps too. Bring to room temp. for serving.

birthday surprise i: tiramisu cake.

Last week, B. had a birthday. And so we celebrated. The actual birth-day included mid-morning kir royales at Parc, sipped at a sidewalk table, followed later by dinner at Stella. Pistachio and red onion pizza; black truffle and egg pizza; margherita pizza; broccolini and garlic pizza. All-around pizza goodness, capped off with ice cream at the Franklin Fountain.


Impossible to top, right? Wrong. Even more yumminess ensued the next day. Surprise yumminess!

We plotted a boozy birthday party complete with multiple kinds of cocktails and alcohol-infused desserts. C. and I baked, M. and T. went on a hunt for cheese so that we didn't all go into sugar shock, and M. tended bar despite her jet-lag. We schemed, we decorated, we waited eagerly for the surprise moment, and then we celebrated. The final menu:

DRINKS
Ginger lemonade
M.'s concoction, with fresh mint and honey - yum!
*
Gin & tonic
Made with Fever Tree tonic water; impressive.
*
Old-fashioned
Potent.
*

DESSERTS
Tiramisu cake
See below.
*
Peach and blackberry trifle
Joint desserting effort with C. - wonderful.
*
Bourbon pecan pie
C.'s. Oh. My.
*
Chocolate cherry brownies
Details soon.

C. made an official menu. It was beautiful. In fact, thanks to lovely friends, the whole evening was beautiful:

Before the party, though, there was baking. Much baking. Wish-I-had-two-ovens-or-at-least-more-counterspace-so-that-I'm-not-balancing-bowls-on-the-edge-of-the-sink baking.

I love to cook and bake for people - especially to bake. Being able to present someone with a pretty treat lets me say, "Hey, I care about you." It's not the only way to do so, of course, and yes, I realize that I'll have to seriously revise this strategy before I someday have children and inadvertently turn them into little butterballs of baked-good love, but it works for me.

First up? Tiramisu cake. Tiramisu was a no-brainer for this boozy bash, but we needed a cake for candles! Enter this recipe from smittenkitchen. The final product was delicious. Getting there was ... tricky. This is something of a fiddly recipe, and it wasn't helped by the significant heat/humidity going on that day. The frosting was particularly troublesome; I ended up whipping an extra 3/4 c. of heavy cream and folding it in so that I would have enough to cover the entire cake, and it was decidedly lumpy-looking. Still, though, the cake turned out well, and I would make this recipe again, perhaps with a bit more experimentation and a bit less summer ickiness.

Tiramisu Cake
from smittenkitchen

Cake layers:
2 c. cake flour (*hint: you can substitute for 1 c. of cake flour with 7/8 c. all-purpose flour and 1/8 c. cornstarch; easier than keeping cake flour around)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
10 tbsp. butter, at room temp.
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. buttermilk

Espresso extract:
2 tbsp. instant espresso powder
2 tbsp. boiling water

Espresso syrup:
1/2 c. water
1/3 c. sugar
1 tbsp. amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (*I used rum)

Filling and frosting:
8 oz. mascarpone
1/2 c. confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (*again, I used rum)
1 c. heavy cream
bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (*finely chopped, chips, or grated from a large bar, as I did)

Make the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and lightly flour two 9" cake pans, then line bottoms with parchment paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

2. Combine dry ingredients (except sugar) in a bowl. In a stand mixer, beat butter on med. speed until soft and creamy. Add sugar and beat for another 3 mins. Add eggs one by one and then yolk, beating for 1 min. after each one. Beat in vanilla.

3. Reduce mixer speed to low and add dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk - add dry ingredients in 3 parts and buttermilk in 2, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until all ingredients disappear into the batter.

4. Divide batter evenly between two pans and smooth down tops with spatula. Bake for 28-30 mins., rotating the pans halfway through. Cakes are done when golden and springy and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer cakes to a rack and cool for 5 mins., then run a knife around the sides, invert them, remove paper liners, turn them back onto rack and cool right-side up.

Make extract:
1. Combine boiling water with espresso powder in small bowl; stir and set aside.

Make syrup:
1. Stir water and sugar together in small saucepan until barely boiling; pour into heatproof bowl, stir in liquor of choice plus 1 tbsp. espresso extract, then set aside.

Make filling/frosting:
1. Whisk mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and liquor in med. bowl until combined. Set aside.

2. In stand mixer, whip heavy cream until it holds firm peaks. With rubber spatula, stir 1/4 whipped cream into mascarpone mixture; fold in the rest lightly.

Assemble cake:
1. Place one layer right-side-up on a cardboard round or cake stand (protected with strips of parchment paper slid under the edge of the cake so that you won't get frosting everywhere). Using pastry brush or small spoon, soak layer evenly with about 1/3 of espresso syrup. (*I found that the cake soaked up the syrup really, really quickly. Next time, I'm using a pastry brush instead of a spoon. Once I buy a pastry brush.) Smooth some of the mascarpone over the layer - about 1 1/4 c., or enough to cover. Sprinkle/grate your chocolate of choice on top.

2. Invert the second cake layer on a plate/counter and soak the bottom with half the remaining syrup, then turn it over and position it, syrup side down, over the filling. Soak the top with the rest of the syrup.

3. For the frosting, whisk 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp. remaining espresso extract into remaining mascarpone filling. (*This is where I ran into trouble: there wasn't nearly enough mascarpone mixture to cover the cake, so I whipped an additional 3/4 c. of cream with a dash of vanilla and a sprinkle of instant espresso tossed in so it wouldn't be too bland and folded it into the mascarpone mixture along with the espresso extract. It did increase the volume of the frosting and certainly tasted good, but the texture was a bit off.) Taste frosting as you go to decide how much espresso flavor you want. If the icing looks a bit too soft to spread, press plastic wrap on top and refrigerate for 15 mins.

4. With metal icing spatula, smooth frosting around sides of cake and over top. Decorate with chocolate-covered espresso beans or cocoa powder.

5. Refrigerate cake for at least 3 hours (or up to 1 day) before serving to let the flavors set.


A word about decorating the cake: Deb at smittenkitchen cut out a wax-paper star stencil and grated dark chocolate over top, which looked great. It inspired me to break out of my usual piping bag routine and try a (slightly more ambitious/compulsive) stencil of my own. I wrote my happy birthday message on a legal pad, using the lines to get the letters even, and then traced on either side of each stroke to create thicker letters. Then I glued each word to wax paper and cut them out for my makeshift stencils, then pressed them lightly onto the cake (wax-paper side down).


Then I microplaned dark chocolate on top:


And, after giving a light puff to the chocolate and thereby scattering it all over my counter and myself, carefully removed them. Cool trick!

chocolate zucchini cake.

When I was growing up - and still, really - desserts in my family meant chocolate. My mom is the baker, and if a dessert isn't chocolate, she's not really interested. (I come by my chocolate addiction honestly.) This is one of our old stand-bys: a not-too-sweet, wonderfully moist, easily-thrown-together chocolate zucchini cake that Mom has been making for as long as I can remember. Today, it marked the celebratory official end of a two-semester-long Samuel Richardson immersion. In fact, this hefty cake probably weighs almost as much as the unabridged Clarissa. Almost.


Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Adapted from Mom

8 tbsp. butter, softened
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 c. coarsely-grated zucchini (about 3 small or 2 large)
2 1/2 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg


1. Oven to 350F. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla, orange, and buttermilk, and mix until well blended.

3. Stir in zucchini.

4. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir into zucchini mixture until combined.


5. Pour batter into bundt pan; bake for ~40 min. or until inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on rack before removing cake from pan. (*Trust me: let it cool. I rushed things today and, well, the cake looked like I'd dug in ahead of time. Oops.)

almond macaroon torte.

This is not simple to whip up, nor is it a particularly light dessert. [Pats stomach gingerly at memory of over-fullness.] Because really, anything that uses over a pound (!) of chocolate in the frosting isn't going to leave you feeling peckish. But if sometimes, like me, you're in the mood for both a culinary project and a decadent dessert, this almond macaroon torte fits the bill perfectly.

It did cause me some kitchen-distress. A large part of the pleasure of baking lies, for me, in the presentation. That's what initially drew me to this cake, after all. (Besides the aforementioned pound of chocolate.) All went smoothly through trimming the edges of the macaroons with a ruler to regain their straight edges. But then I found, to my dismay, that the frosting had stiffened up much more quickly than I'd expected, leaving me not to spread it as planned but to pat on a bit at a time, using the heat of my hands to melt it together. Not quite the effect I'd hoped for. But it worked out in the end, thanks to some patching help from M. The moral of this story: frost quickly! Or you end up with chocolate playdough.

Almond Macaroon Torte
from smitten kitchen

Macaroons
2 1/2 c. (10.5 oz. or 300 g.) slivered almonds (or an equivalent weight of blanched, sliced, or already-ground almonds)
1 c. plus 3 tbsp. sugar
2 large pinches kosher salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 egg whites

Chocolate Frosting
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar
Flavoring of your choice, such as 1/2 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (*I was hurrying a bit and so forgot this step; next time - and, oh, there will be a next time - I might try a glug of Grand Marnier)
20 oz. dark or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 c. sliced almonds (*I didn't toast mine, though you certainly could)

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Draw two 12" x 4" rectangles on a piece of parchment paper, leaving at least an inch or two in between them. Repeat with another sheet of parchment. Place on baking sheets, turning the parchment over so that your pencil marks don't seep into the macaroons. (Ick.)

2. Blend almonds, 1 c. sugar, and salt in food processor until finely ground.

3. Using electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Drizzle in vanilla and then slowly add remaining 3 tbsp. sugar. Beat until stiff but not dry. Fold nut mixture into egg whites.


4. Spoon 1/4 of macaroon batter into each rectangle, smoothly gently to fill the outline completely. Bake until golden and almost firm to the touch, rotating the sheets at least once, for about 23 minutes. Cool.


5. For frosting, simmer water and sugar in medium saucepan until sugar dissolves. Measure 10 tbsp. and discard the rest or save it for another use. Put back in saucepan and add flavoring of your choice; bring to a boil, then add chocolate. Remove from heat and let sit 1 min., then stir until smooth.

6. To assemble, use a sharp knife and a ruler to trim your macaroons back to their original shape. (*This step also means yummy macaroon scraps!) Place one macaroon on a long platter (*see my note), sliding a thin strip of parchment under each side to create a clean edge when you're finished. Spread about 1/2 c. of frosting, then top with another macaroon. Repeat twice, placing the last macaroon on top with its flat side up. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of torte; press sliced almonds onto all 4 sides. Store at room temp.


*Note about the platter: I don't have a rectangular platter, so I cut two flaps off a shipping box that was waiting to be recycled, taped them together, than covered the top first with a scrap of wrapping paper and then with plastic wrap. Makeshift pretty platter! (And not my first; this also comes in handy if you're going to a party and don't want to worry about getting your tart/cake pan back at the end of the evening.) Just don't let it bend!