Lemon Meringue Pie

Isn't it great how nature provides plentiful amounts of lemons just when most of us are in need of some bright, colorful tartness in our lives? I, personally, love lemony things in the chilly days of late winter and early spring, and one of my all-time favorite lemon applications is lemon meringue pie. I find that February's grey skies aren't so bad when some of this pie is in my world.

As I'm sure you gathered from the above paragraph, I love love love lemon meringue pie. I actually love any pie (except pecan), but this one is definitely in the top 3. It has the tasty, flaky crust, accompanied by a silken layer of tart lemonyness, all crowned with a fluffy, foamy meringue. I love to put a piece in my mouth and savor the way the little meringue bubbles pop all over my tongue, while the lemon curd and pie pastry make all of my other tastebuds explode. It's like you not only have the fireworks, you have the world-class symphony orchestra playing John Philip Sousa in the background.

I think that this is a great recipe for lemon meringue pie, and honestly, I've never felt the need to try another. Cook's Illustrated recipes tend to have science on their side, which is particularly helpful when you're dealing with potentially flavorless crust, melting lemon curd, and deflating meringue.

This recipe uses some special ingredients to keep the lemon in its place, and to prevent the meringue from melting in to a pool of separated egg whites. As long as you don't cut in to the pie before it's cooled (like I did, because I'm impatient), you'll have a perfect lemon meringue pie on your hands.

Lemon Meringue Pie

(Adapted a Teeny Bit from Cook's Illustrated)

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
• 4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon (packed) grated lemon zest (from about 3 large lemons)
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 3 large lemons)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Meringue

• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Process the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Scatter the shortening over the top and continue to process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 5 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over top and, using short pulses, process the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 5 pulses. Transfer to a large bowl.

Sprinkle 4 tablespoons ice water over the mixture. Stir and press the dough together using a stiff rubber spatula, until the dough sticks together. If the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does. Try your best not to over-handle the dough. Form the dough into a 4-inch disk , wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it into a 12-inch circle and fitting it into a pie plate. Trim, fold, and crimp the edges and freeze the unbaked pie crust until firm, about 30 minutes. Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the chilled crust with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights (beans or rice work). 

Bake until the pie dough looks dry and is light in color, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the pie weights and foil and continue to bake until the crust is a deep golden brown, about 12 minutes longer. Set the pie on a wire rack to cool.

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.

For the filling: Combine the water, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer while whisking constantly. When the mixture starts to turn translucent, whisk in the egg yolks, 2 at a time. Whisk in the zest, then the lemon juice, and finally the butter. 

Return the mixture to a full simmer, then remove the pan from the heat. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap flush to the surface of the filling to keep it hot while making the meringue.

For the meringue: Bring the water and cornstarch to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, whisking frequently. When the mixture turns translucent and begins to bubble, remove it from the heat.

Whip the egg whites and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until frothy. Mix the sugar and cream of tartar together, then add it to the egg whites, 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to medium and whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. 

Add the cooked cornstarch mixture to the whipped egg whites, 1 tablespoon at a time, and contunue to whip the egg whites until they are glossy and form stiff peaks. Remove the plastic wrap from the lemon filling and return to very low heat to rewarm, for about a minute.

Pour the hot filling into the baked, cooled pie crust. Dollop and spread the meringue over the top of the pie, making sure to adhere the meringue to the crust. Using the back of a spoon, make attractive peaks in the meringue.

Bake until the meringue is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

Crescent Cheese Cookies

Although I bought The Gourmet Cookie Book exclusively for the bourbon balls, I ended up bookmarking pretty much the whole book. It looked a little silly bristling with a million little post-its, not to mention the fact that it's not very helpful to bookmark every page. So I separated the bookmarks into vertically-facing ones that signified 'must make,' and horizontally-facing ones that meant, 'must make really soon.'

These little beauties were on a 'must make really soon' page, and I suggest that you make them really soon as well. They're really more like little tiny pastries because of their flaky, flaky dough, but that's not in any way a bad thing. In fact, it's pretty amazing that a dough that literally comes together in about 2 minutes can be so flaky and light--it's the kind of thing one would think must be labored over for hours.

The dough contains no sugar, but the jam and powdered sugar make the cookie sweet enough. In fact, it becomes a perfectly balanced kind of sweetness that would appeal to adults and children alike. They actually kind of remind me of some of the cookies my Italian grandmother used to make.

I used black cherry jam, which I thought worked perfectly. And don't be scared off by the mention of farmer's cheese--it's a cheese that is similar to cottage cheese, and because I didn't feel like going to the store, I used plain old cottage cheese and thought that it worked perfectly well.

My best piece of advice, though, is to carefully check for doneness before pulling these little guys out of the oven. My oven temperature might have been a bit too high, or the suggested temperature might be too hot, or maybe I was just deceived by the effect the milk has on the browning of the cookies, because the outsides were beautifully golden while the insides were still half raw. Even undercooked, these cookies were amazingly flaky, so properly cooked, they must be simply dreamy.

I apologize for just showing you pictures of the cookies broken in half, rather than the whole cookie. I didn't like the way I styled the shoot when I photographed the whole cookies, and they didn't look all that awesome, anyway. My crescent-rolling skills aren't quite up to par, and a lot of my cookies looked like something the cookie fairy would have pooped out.

Crescent Cheese Cookies

From The Gourmet Cookie Book

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies

• About 6 ounces farmer cheese, or low-fat cottage cheese
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• About 10 ounces of your favorite jam or jelly
• Milk for brushing the cookies
• Powdered sugar for dusting (About 1/4 cup)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Force enough cheese through a sieve into a dish to measure 1 cup. In a bowl, cream the butter until it's smooth. Stir in the cheese, the sour cream, and the vanilla, and mix until well combined.

In another bowl, sift together the flour and the salt. Gradually blend the flour mixture into the cheese mixture. Wrap the dough in parchment paper and chill for at least 3 hours.

Roll one fourth of the dough out very thinly (about 1/8 inch) on a lightly floured surface and chill the remaining dough until it is to be used. Cut the dough into 3-inch squares and put about 1/2 teaspoon jam or preserves in the center of each. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Fold the squares tightly into triangles and roll them into crescents, starting at the wide end. Arrange the crescents on a baking sheet, brushing them lightly with milk, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are golden. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and dust them with sifted confectioners' sugar. (I actually just dumped some sugar into a sifter and used the sifter to dust the cookies.)

These cookies don't keep very well, and are best on the day they're made.

Pita Bread

When I was making a recipe based on the New York Times' Greek Nachos, I decided that I was going to be all super-motivated and make my own pita bread. Now, when I'm looking for a recipe, I might look on Epicurious or another recipe website, or I might look in my cookbooks, or I might look to another blogger for inspiration. In a case like this, when I don't want to wade through a million recipes and attempt to figure out which one is going to work, I turn to another blogger.


I suspected that Deb from Smitten Kitchen could provide me with a reliable pita recipe, and I was right. Her website is really worth checking out, so I won't reprint the recipe, I'll just direct you here so you can check it out for yourself. And I just want to mention that my pitas really were beautifully puffed when I first made them, before I smashed them all by piling them together. Really. They were.

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting

Those are some manly-looking cupcakes, aren't they? Plus, they're far more interesting than the usual chocolate cake with chocolate or vanilla icing--the icing is a salted caramel buttercream. I made these for my brother's birthday, and although he hasn't had much of a sweet tooth since the age of 7, he ate two of them and took a few more home. That's high praise.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

(From Cupcakeblog.com)

• 2 sticks butter
• 8 ounces or 1 package of Philly cream cheese
• 5 to 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup salted caramel (Below)

Bring butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours. 

Sift 3 cups of powdered sugar into the butter/cream cheese mixture and beat to combine. Add 1 cup of the salted caramel and beat to combine.

Sift 2-3 cups of powder sugar, in 1 cup increments and beating between each, until you arrive at the thickness and sweetness you desire.

Salted Caramel

(From Smitten Kitchen)

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) salted butter, the better you can get, the better it will taste
• 1/2 cup plus two tablespoons heavy cream, at room temperature
• If you only have unsalted butter, a pinch of salt.

Melt the sugar over medium to moderately high heat in a larger pot than you think you’ll need–at least three quarts (I used six), whisking or stirring the sugar as it melts to ensure it heats evenly. Cook the liquefied sugar to a nice, dark copper color. Add the butter all at once and stir it in. Before turning off the stove pour in the heavy cream (and salt if you're adding it) and turn off the heat (the sauce will foam up quite a bit when you add it; this is why you want the larger pot.), whisking it until you get a smooth sauce.

Use it right away or pour it into a jar and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. When you take it out, the caramel will likely have thickened a bit but a few seconds in the microwave brings it right back to pouring consistency. We microwaved it covered, in 10 second increments.

Molasses Crinkles

If you have time to make only one batch of cookies this year, I would highly recommend that it be these molasses crinkles. Forget chocolate chip and sugar cookies, these cookies are the essence of Christmas. Like eggnog and bourbon balls, these cookies will wrap you in a holiday glow, and the warm spiciness of the cinnamon, cloves, ginger and allspice will make your house feel like the best place on Earth. Add a roaring fire and a fragrant, glowing Christmas tree, and you've got holiday magic.

These chewy, sophisticated cookies are so awesome that the first year Nick brought them to work, people came within a hair of getting in a fistfight over them. The next year, they didn't come to blows, but they resorted to stealing the unattended cookies and hiding them in their desks. That's why I always make at least a double batch these days--I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt.

My coworkers are not quite so dramatic, but when I mention that I've brought in a batch, their eyes light up and they ask, Those cookies from last year? Those are awesome! A lot of us can barely remember yesterday, so for these cookies to be remembered a year later is really saying something.

If that's not enough to convince you to make these, how about the fact that they're fun and easy to make? And, after you've made these once, you'll have the ingredients on hand for future batches. I'm sure you can see why they're a holiday staple in our house.

Molasses Crinkles

(From Epicurious)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup molasses (not robust or blackstrap)
• About 1/3 cup sanding or granulated sugar* (I used Sugar in the Raw) for tops of cookies

Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and salt in a bowl until combined.

 

Beat together shortening, butter, and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle attachment) or 6 minutes with a handheld. Add egg and molasses, beating until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in flour mixture until combined.

 

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.

 

Roll 1 heaping teaspoon of dough into a 1-inch ball with wet hands, then dip 1 end of ball in sanding sugar. Make more cookies in same manner, arranging them, sugared side up, 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

 

Bake cookies for 8 minutes, then cool on sheets 1 minute. The original recipe calls for the cookies to be baked for 10 to 12 minutes, but I found, as did a lot of the reviewers on Epicurious, that 10 minutes is too long. You want to take the cookies out when they still look almost raw--they should just be developing cracks on the surface, and they should not have taken on any color. The edges will have started to set, but the middles will still be puffy and almost wobbly. You have to trust me on this one--if you overcook these cookies, they're still tasty, but they end up being more like gingerbread and that certain something is gone. Don't worry if the cookies don't look as dark as they do in the pictures--they get darker and more crinkly as they cool.

Transfer to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies with remaining dough on cooled baking sheets.

 

 

 

Mocha Chocolate Cookies

I bought the Gourmet cookie book soley for the bourbon balls recipe, but I ended up bookmarking almost every page in the book. The first recipe I tried ended up being a massive failure, and it was all scraped into the trash. It made me very sad, so I was determined to immediately make another recipe.

Because I had all of the ingredients on hand, I decided to make these mocha chocolate cookies, and while they were technically a success, these cookies did not appeal to everyone. All of the people at my work loved them, but it was 2 a.m. and everything tastes pretty good at 2 a.m. Some of the people at Nick's work, however, found them to be too rich.

And they are rich. They're intense. Basically, if you took fudgy, fudgy brownies and turned them into cookies, you would get these guys; they even have the crinkly tops that make me so happy. So if you're a chocolate lover or know someone who is, I would recommend whipping up a batch of these cookies in time for the holidays.

Mocha Chocolate Cookies

(From The Gourmet Cookie Book)

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into bits
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

In a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the unsweetened chocolate, 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips, and the butter, stirring until the mixture is smooth, and remove the bowl from the heat.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, the baking powder, and the salt. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is thick and pale, and beat in the espresso powder and the vanilla.

Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, fold in the flour mixture, and stir in the remaining chocolate chips. Let the batter stand for 15 minutes. I found that chilled batter worked better, so you might want to let it rest in the fridge.

Drop the batter by heaping teaspoons onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper and bake the cookies in the middle of a preheated 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are puffed and shiny and cracked on top. Err on the side of undercooking these cookies--they are meant to be soft and rich. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets, transfer them to racks, and let them cool completely.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's almost time for the holidays, and for me, the holidays mean cookies. In fact, one year I made so many cookies that I lived on a Starbucks and cookie diet. I actually lost weight that year, but I think it's because I was working in a very busy restaurant; when I tried the same experiment as a nurse, it had the effect one would anticipate.

While a cookie diet is not advisable unless you're burning about 3,000 calories per day, making cookies with wheat flour might make one feel a little less guilty about eating a few here and there. There's still a lot of butter and sugar in these bad boys, so they're by no means healthy, and that's not the point, really. The point of using wheat flour is that it lends the cookies a nice toasty depth of flavor, and it tames the sometimes cloying sweetness of the timeless treat. Once cooked, the wheat in the dough is not really noticeable, but it makes these cookies just a tiny bit more interesting than your standard chocolate chip (not that there's anything wrong with the standard chocolate chip).

Here's the difference between these cookies and your 'normal' chocolate chip cookies: when I bring a tray of normal cookies in to work, they get eaten through the course of the night, and people tell me that they're good. When a tray of these cookies are placed on the counter and I disappear into triage for a while, I return to the floor to be greeted by cries of "Leah! Yay!", and an empty plate. I would say that's a wholehearted endorsement, wouldn't you?

I made these cookies because Molly from Orangette highly recommended them, and even said that she might like them better than the famous New York Times recipe, which is quite a recommendation. Like the New York Times recipe, I find that chilling the dough in the fridge overnight makes for a more complex flavor, but it's certainly not necessary. In her post, Molly discusses whether it's best to use whole wheat flour, or white whole wheat flour. I decided to go with a combination of the two, and I thought it worked nicely. Feel free to play with the ratios, though. Just be sure to use bittersweet chocolate as opposed to milk chocolate, as the wheat would overwhelm the generally underwhelming milk chocolate.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Adapted from Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce, and Molly from Orangette)

• 3 cups whole wheat flour (see note above)
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
• 2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes (see note above)
• 1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into ¼- and ½-inch pieces, or bittersweet chips

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. (If you have no parchment, you can butter the sheets.)

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, and whisk to blend.

Put the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. 

Gradually add the flour mixture to the bowl, and blend on low speed until the flour is just incorporated. Add the chocolate, and mix on low speed until evenly combined. (If you have no stand mixer, you can do all of this with handheld electric beaters and/or a large, sturdy spoon.) 

Using an ice cream scoop (not a huge one, though), scoop mounds of dough onto the baking sheets, leaving enough space for the cookies to expand a bit.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly browned. I found that the cookies are perfectly cooked when the middle parts are still very soft and fluffy and look almost raw, and the edges are getting a little bit firm, a little bit golden, and a little bit drier than the rest of the cookie. Transfer the cookies, still on parchment, to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

Pumpkin Bread

Here's a nice little seasonal treat that you can whip up in almost no time at all. Is that why quick breads are called 'quick breads,' do you think?

Pumpkin Bread

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup mildly flavored walnut oil
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple butter or apple sauce
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• Scant 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 
• About 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter (or use non-stick cooking spray) and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs, vanilla and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and ginger into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Sprinkle the walnuts in a line down the length of the loaves. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the top. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Apple Crumb Bars

This summer, I stumbled upon a recipe for blueberry crumb bars. Little did I know, they would become a problem. A problem as in, I felt the need to make a double batch the second time I made them, because I knew that I was probably going to eat all of one batch by myself.

The blueberry bars were so good that they became known by the code name 'crack.' As in, "Hey, I'm making some crack. I'll bring some over." And then blueberry season was a thing of the past, and I had frozen no berries; blueberry bars would have to wait until next June.

However, inspiration struck during a standard 5 a.m. bout of insomnia--how about some apple crumb bars?

The resulting bars are delicious and seasonally satisfying, but as a friend said, they're 'crack-like,' as in not-quite-crack. I think they're worth making, though, and it may even be a good thing that they're just super-delicious, as opposed to insanely delicious.

Apple Crumb Bars

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup sliced or chopped almonds
• 3 Granny Smith apples
• 1 Fuji apple
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• Pinch ground ginger
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons apple butter (made with no added sugar)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, and spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.

Add flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon to the bowl of a food processor and process until combined, about 3 seconds. Add the butter and pulse (about 5 times) until pea-size lumps are all that remain of the butter. Transfer to a large bowl and add the oats, stir to combine.

Transfer 2 cups of this mixture to another bowl, and stir in the almonds. Set aside.

Press the almond-less crumb mixture evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake crust until golden and just firm to touch, about 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.

While the crust cooks and cools, peel and core the apples. Cut them into thin slices, about 1/8 inch thick. Place the slices in a large bowl and toss them with the lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger.

When the crust has cooled a bit, spread the apple butter over the top; it will be a rather thin coating. Fan the apple slices out in an overlapping pattern along one long side of the pan. Lay out another line of slices next to the first one, and continue to do this until the pan is full. You're basically laying out the slices the way you would lay out potato slices for a potato gratin, but working in the other direction. It may seem a bit fussy to do it this way, but if the apples are just dumped into the pan, they will not cook properly.

Spread the almond crumb topping over the apples. Cover with foil and cook 55 minutes in the center of the oven. Remove the foil and cook 10 more minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the apples are very tender and just starting to bubble.

Allow to cool, and cut into bar shapes to serve. This dessert is generally better the day after it's made, and keeps well for about 3 days.

Salt, Pepper and Sesame Crackers

I have a cracker problem. Unlike the zucchini problem and the corn problem, the cracker problem is pan-seasonal, and it knows no limits. Specifically, I really really love Kashi's crackers (and they're not paying me to say that).

According to the normal laws of food addiction, after pounding them for years, I should be vomitously sick of Kashi crackers. But I'm not. I think that they put crack in them or something, like along the lines of blueberry bar and grill bread crack.

You know how chefs play the last meal game? As in, if you knew that this was to be your last meal on Earth, what would you eat? Well, contrary to expectations, a lot of chefs do not choose foie gras, truffles, or caviar--they choose fried chicken, peanut butter and jelly, cheese burgers, macaroni and cheese, or a nice steak...

Well, my last meal would have to include crackers; heck, it could maybe even be crackers, as a vehicle for some sort of fattiness, whether it be cheese, pesto, or romesco. Therefore, I figured that it's probably time to move beyond the Kashi. Shouldn't I have my own, homemade cracker to obsess over?

That's where these crackers come in. There's nothing especially exceptional about them, but they seemed like a good place to start because they're very approachable--all you do is mix some simple stuff together, roll out the resulting dough, and bake it. 

The original recipe came from Chocolate and Zucchini, and I altered it a bit based on the ingredients I had on hand. You may also notice that my crackers are way thicker than the ones on the Chocolate and Zucchini site. I, being the genius that I am, thought that I would prefer a thicker cracker (like the Kashi ones), as opposed to the light, thin, shattery ones from the original recipe. 

Well, my crackers were pretty yummy, but they're a bit dry and tough. So it's probably best to keep these on the thin side, thus the pasta roller method suggested below. But despite their toughness, Nick still described them as being 'pretty good.' That's saying a lot from someone who does not hear the Cracker Siren Call as I do. The Mister, of course, loves them, but he gets so excited that he looks like he's having a seizure any time there's any cracker in his general vicinity, so that's not saying too much.

If you do feel the need to modify though, I would suggest adding some fresh herbs like some rosemary or sage, or some spices, like anything from cayenne to cumin seeds to cardamom.

Salt, Pepper, and Sesame Crackers

(Adapted from Zucchini and Chocolate)

• 150 grams (5 1/3 ounces) all-purpose flour 
• 150 grams (5 1/3 ounces) white whole wheat or whole wheat flour (or you can use all regular flour)
• 20 grams (3 tablespoons) toasted sesame seeds
• 9 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) water

Place the flours, seeds and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil and stir it in with a fork. Add the water and mix it in.

When the water is absorbed, turn the mixture out on a clean work surface and knead the dough gently to gather into a smooth ball. Add a touch more water if the dough feels too dry to come together, but the consistency you're shooting for is smooth, not at all sticky or tacky.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces of (roughly) equal size, and cover with a kitchen towel.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and prepare two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicon baking mats -- this is so you can bake two batches of crackers at a time, but if you only have one baking sheet, that's fine, too. If you have a rectangular or square bread stone, place it in the oven as it preheats; you'll need only one baking sheet in addition to the stone then.

Take one piece of dough (keep the others covered to prevent them from drying out) and flatten it into an oval disk between the palms of your hands. Set a pasta roller on the widest setting, and slip the disk of dough in the roller to thin it out. Fold both ends of the dough back over each other like a business letter and slip the dough in again. Repeat 3 or 4 times until the dough feels supple; you are essentially kneading the dough in the process. If it gets sticky at any point, dust it with a little flour.

Switch the pasta roller to the next (= narrower) setting and slip the dough in (just once this time) to thin it out. Repeat with the subsequent settings until you reach setting #5, and get a thin (I also think that 4 might work), long rectangularish sheet of dough. Place it on one of the prepared baking sheets, or a flour-dusted peel if you're using a bread stone.

(I think that if you don't have a pasta roller, you can probably roll these out by hand. Just make sure that the dough is relatively even, so that you don't end up with burnt spots interspersed with doughy spots.)

Repeat with more pieces of dough until there is no room left on your baking sheets. Using a dough cutter, a pastry wheel or just a knife, score the sheets of dough into square or triangular pieces so they'll be easier to break off.

Insert the baking sheets into the oven (or, if you're using a pizza stone, slide the dough in using the pizza peel) and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until golden to golden brown.

Transfer to a cooling rack, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

The crackers will keep for a few weeks in an airtight container.

Cherry Almond Coffee Cake

I've previously mentioned that other people's blogs can be quite inspiring. I actually have a whole email folder chock-full of blogger's recipes that I've mailed to myself as a reminder to eventually cook them. This recipe, from Hungry Cravings, was emailed and made almost right away, partially because it sounded delicious, and partially because I had some cherries that needed to be used up.

I have a sentimental fondness for coffee cake, as my grandmother used to make it on a regular basis. Hers was quite different from this recipe--it had a swirl of cinnamon inside (I could never get enough of that part), and a crumbly top. Come to think of it, maybe I should try to track down that recipe.

This cherry coffee cake is similar to my grandmother's coffee cake in that it has a dense, crumbly crumb, and it's sweet without being too sweet. It's nice to eat for breakfast, as a snack, or for dessert. It's not exactly the kind of cake that you just whip up in a jiffy, but it probably freezes well, and it probably gets easier to make each time it's attempted. This makes a pretty big cake, so be sure to have some willing sharers.


If I make this again, I'll make just a couple little changes. Namely, I'll macerate the cherries in some Bourbon or brandy, and I'll swirl some cherry preserves through the batter. These changes are reflected in the recipe written below, but feel free to omit them if you prefer a  more purist approach.

Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake
(Slightly Adapted from Hungry Cravings)

• 7 ounces (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
• 11 ¼ ounces cake flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 7 ½ ounces light brown sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 ounces sliced almonds
• ¾ pound cherries, pitted
• 1/4 cup Bourbon Or Brandy
• 6 ounces sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• The zest of half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract
• 8 ounces sour cream, at room temperature
• A jar (about 11 ounces) of cherry preserves

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Thoroughly butter a 9×3-inch round springform pan. In a medium bowl, sift together 9 ounces of the flour and the baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 

In another medium bowl, whisk together 3 ½ ounces of the brown sugar, the remaining 2 ¼ ounces flour, and the cinnamon in a medium bowl. Melt 2 ounces of the butter and add to the bowl. Toss in the almonds.

 In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the remaining 5 ounces butter, sugar, and remaining 4 ounces brown sugar on high for 3 to 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly combined and then beat in the lemon zest, vanilla, and almond extract.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then ½ of the sour cream, then 1/3 of the flour mixture, then the remaining ½ of the sour cream, and then the remaining 1/3 of the flour mixture, mixing on low for only a few seconds after each addition until just combined, and stopping the mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Do not overmix.

Transfer to the cake pan and spread evenly. In dollops, place the preserves on the top of the batter. Using a butter knife, mix the preserves into the batter so that the preserves form a swirly sort of pattern.

Arrange the cherries over the batter and then spread the almond mixture evenly over the batter and cherries in the cake pan. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cake start to shrink away from the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove the sides and bottom of the pan and transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely. (Don't forget this part--I cooked my cake properly, but because I forgot to take it out of the pan, it ended up being overcooked.) Cut into portions and serve.