Easy Red Wine-Poached Figs

Salutations from sunny, decidedly-not-humid California! It's my first time posting and I'd just like to apologize for the long delay in posting. But this blog isn't about apologies; it's about recipes and here's a really simple yet delicious one that can be a dessert or an et cetera.

Several weeks ago, I had an intense craving for yogurt. Maple flavored yogurt from Trader Joe's, to be exact. I developed my obsession for it while working as a scenic artist for Berkeley Rep, where just about all the scenic artists were obsessed with a particular flavor. While picking up some yogurt, I couldn't help but notice a nice packet of figs sitting nearby. Now, I'm a sucker for good figs. Something about the sweetness and the color and the bajillions of seeds... So, I had a bunch of figs, but unfortunately not all of them were ripe. And since I'm the only one in my household who likes figs, the poor things languished for awhile. And then, Eureka!

A quick way to keep otherwise delicate fruit or just dress up less than fabulous fruit is to gently cook it with sugar, a bit of liquid, and sometimes a good dollop of butter. What better pairing for the distinctively luscious fig than red wine? Pick a good red wine, one that you wouldn't mind drinking straight, and go for it. It will bring out all the sweetness of the figs and soften any sharp notes you might get from unripe fruit. Add a good dash of cinnamon and sugar, and you're set.

Easy Red Wine-Poached Figs

2 handfuls of figs, topped and split in half lengthwise
2 c good red wine, maybe a merlot or beaujolais
2-3 tsp granulated sugar, to taste
about 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, to taste
dash of nutmeg

Try to choose a wine that's well-balanced, not too much bite, preferably a bit fruity. I used some of a Gallo blended red that my mother had leftover from her Boeuf Bourgignon.

1. Combine wine, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in saucepan over medium heat. Heat until sugar is dissolved and bring to a simmer. Add the figs.















2. Simmer until the figs are soft and the aroma from the pot is fragrant. You may need to flip the figs over to get every side immersed.















3. Remove the figs. Reduce the poaching liquid down to about half.















4. Return the figs to the liquid to get it all to the same temperature. From here, you can serve it over vanilla ice cream (mmm!) or, since I was desperate, over maple yogurt. It'll also keep well in the fridge. Enjoy!

Mystery Mocha Cake

It was Ed's birthday last week, and I wanted to make a cake, so I was browsing the King Arthur Flour site for cake recipes. I never actually made him a cake, since he just took in the leftover car bomb cupcakes to work and they all gorged themselves on those, but, I found a cake I really wanted to make: the MYSTERY MOCHA CAKE! Mostly its the mocha in the title--anything with coffee and chocolate put together is a win, for me. It looked pretty straightforward, so I tried it last night.

The recipe says to bake it for 40 minutes, which I did, and it did in fact bounce back when poked, but, it was still really goopy on the inside. Since there are no eggs in the cake, thats ok. Its molten. And DELICIOUS. There is this crunchy coating on top, and goopy insides, and some chocolate cakeness too. Oh god. Amazing. I would have taken more pictures, except. well. There wasn't much to take pictures of, once we got into it. King Arthur says this this is a "low calorie" cake--I think thats relative. I mean, if you eat the whole thing, thats not so low calorie. Although low is a relative term, right?

Here is the recipe from King Arthur Flour's site, but I've reprinted it for your lazy viewing pleasure. Seriously, make this. It is so good. You will not regret it. But its not fancy or pretty-looking, so don't make it for some special occasion. Or do.

Mystery Mocha Cake
3/4C granulated sugar (I used brown sugar, due to my current lack of white sugar)
1C flour (I used 1/2C white flour, 1/2C whole wheat)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4C cocoa
3/4C skim milk
2 tsp vanilla

Sauce
1C double-strong coffee (I don't have a coffee maker, so I just used instant coffee. And decaf. Thats like sacrilege to some people...sorry. tasted good anyway!)
1/4C cocoa
1/2C white sugar
1/2C brown sugar (I used all brown sugar)

For the cake, preheat the oven to 350. Mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the skim milk and vanilla, stir it around until it makes a cake batter. Go ahead and taste, since there aren't any eggs.

Spread the cake batter into an 8x8" pan that has been lightly greased. Sprinkle a cup of sugar over the top of the batter. It is going to look like a LOT of sugar. Like an inch thick. Thats ok. Thats a good thing. Don't use less sugar.

Mix together the coffee and cocoa. Pour it over the top of the cake batter + sugar. Its going to look like a LOT of sauce. In fact, the whole top of the cake is going to be liquid. Thats ok. Just put it in the oven. Cook for 40 minutes, and take it out when it bounces back a little when you press it.

You want it still pretty goopy inside, because that goopy coffee-chocolate (ok, mocha) sauce is the best part. Unless the crunchy sugar top is the best part. The whole thing is pretty good. Especially when topped with vanilla ice cream, when its still hot from the oven. Ohhhh chocolatey heaven!


Here you can see the chocolatey-goopy-goodness. A zoom-in to the bite-size piece that is missing from the whole cake...

Crunchy Kale

Kale is somewhat boring. No matter what you do. And the unfortunate thing (fortunate?) is that it comes in huge batches. And its really good for you. And its pretty cheap. So you should eat it, right?

Using my extensive knowledge of the family brassicaceae (I took taxonomy of flowering plants, back in the day), I realized that if broccoli and brussels sprouts get crunchy in the oven, kale must do it too. Turns out I was right! I tossed the kale with olive oil and threw on some salt, put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, and I got little crunchy kale thingies! Definitely a finger food, don't even bother with a fork.

Start with a giant bunch of kale. Chop it up, into bite-size pieces. Toss with some olive oil (maybe 1/2 a tablespoon?), until it is evenly coated but not soaked. Sprinkle some salt on top. Don't overdo the salt, because kale seems to really pick up on that, so if you put on too much salt, it'll taste REALLY salty. Put the kale on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until it is crunchy and thoroughly cooked. Enjoy!



Oh, and the Ed-rating: he likes it. If it doesn't get cooked enough and its soggy, thats no good, but once its crunchy, its good.

Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes

The last time I made lemon cupcakes, they were vegan. They were actually quite good, despite my misgivings, but I didn't feel like getting soy milk and margarine and not using eggs, so I decided to use a different lemon cupcake recipe. Chiffon cake sounded about right, I wanted something light and airy, rather than the pound cake type cupcake. I also felt like playing with my electric beater things more. I modified a pretty generic orange chiffon cake recipe, and this is what I ended up with. They were good, but didn't sell as well as the margarita or car bomb cupcakes. Because people like their booze.

Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes
1.5C flour
2 tbs corn starch
1C granulated sugar, divided
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3C vegetable oil
4 large eggs, separated
1/3C water
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4C lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extra
1/4tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 325F. Sift together the flour, corn starch, 3/4C of the sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, put the egg yolks, water, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. In a third bowl, put the egg whites and cream of tartar.

First, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Once you've beaten your whites, use the egg beater to beat the yolk mixture. Once that is beaten, add it to the flour mixture, and combine. Once that is mixed, add about 1/3 of the egg whites to the flour/yolk mixture, and just stir it to incorporate the whites and lighten up the batter. Then add the rest of the whites and fold them in, using the fewest number of strokes possible. Fill the lined muffin tins 3/4 full, as these cupcakes won't rise that much in the oven without something to cling to. Bake the large ones for ~15-20min, and the small ones for ~8-12 minutes. Keep checking them, these times are approximate...

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

If its not obvious yet, I far prefer cream cheese frosting to buttercream...

1 stick (1/2C) butter
4oz (1/2 package) cream cheese
2-6C confectioner's sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2-6tbs lemon juice
food coloring as desired

Beat the butter and cream cheese. Add some sugar. Add the lemon zest and juice, and a couple drops of food coloring if you're using it. Add more flour. Beat. Taste. Adjust as necessary.

Allow the cupcakes to completely cool before you frost them.

Car-bomb cupcakes, v.2

The version 1 car-bomb cupcakes were good--really good. But, I noticed after my last bakesale that they got a little gummy after sitting in the fridge all night and then sitting in the hot sun. So, I made some changes, that I felt were worth writing up into a recipe. This time, it was to sell cupcakes at the Amesbury cyclocross race, and I wanted these cupcakes to live up to their internet hype.

They definitely lived up to whatever reputation they might have had. Although the real treat is the frosting, the cakes themselves were delicious--light, slightly bitter to offset the sweet, and deeply, darkly, chocolatey. I also used Young's double chocolate stout instead of Guinness, this time, mostly because I like to drink Young's and I don't like to drink Guinness--I don't know how much this affected the cupcakes, but they seemed to be slightly less beer-y than the last batch. Which is not necessarily a good thing, when you're selling cupcakes to cyclocrossers...



Car Bomb Cupcakes, v.2
(Makes 12 regular cupcakes + 104 mini cupcakes)

2C Guinness (or other tastey stout or porter, like Young's double chocolate stout)
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1.5C cocoa powder
2 tbs instant coffee powder (or better yet, espresso powder)
4C flour
4C sugar (I used all brown sugar, due to a lack of granulated sugar, but I don't think it matters)
1 tbs baking soda
2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1C sour cream
1/3C vanilla yogurt *
1/2C oil

*If you have more than a cup of sour cream on hand, go ahead and use sour cream instead of vanilla yogurt. I just ran out of sour cream and so had to resort to yogurt.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Do not boil. Add the cocoa powder and coffee and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a different large bowl, beat the eggs with the sour cream, yogurt, and oil. Add a little of the egg mixture to the beer mixture, whisking, and then add all the beer mixture to the egg mixture, and whisk to combine. Dump the wet stuff into the dry stuff, and mix until it is combined. It should be pretty runny.

Fill lined or greased muffin tins 1/2-3/4 of the way full. This batter rises a lot in the oven (probably due to the beer), so 3/4 full will yield cupcakes that overflow the edges a little bit. Cook the regular sized cupcakes for ~15-20 min (until a tester shows they're done) and the mini ones ~8-12 minutes. Cool them completely before frosting. These cooking times are approximate, so check them regularly.



Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks butter (1C)
8-16oz cream cheese (2 packages)
~3-6C confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
~1/4-1/2C Bailey's Irish Creme

These are pretty approximate numbers. The way I make frosting is pretty approximate and involves a lot of tasting. I use electric beaters, I don't know how to do it without them. First I beat the cream cheese and butter together. You can vary these amounts, but if anything err on the side of less cream cheese and more butter. Add about a cup of powdered sugar. Beat that in. Add the vanilla and 2 tbs of Bailey's. Beat. Add more sugar. Beat. Taste. Add more Baileys (2 tbs at a time), then more sugar, and taste. Keep adding Bailey's and sugar until the frosting tastes as liquor-y as you want, and is a good consistency. More sugar will stiffen up the frosting. You want it a little soft, for more pliable piping or spreading.

Once the cupcakes are cool, frost them however you want. When I pipe the frosting, I use disposable ziplock bags, and cut a hole in one corner. For spreading I just glob frosting on the cupcake and spread it around. If you refrigerate the cupcakes after frosting, the frosting will harden up, and then you can make pretty ganache swirls and stuff on top without worrying about smearing the frosting.

Enjoy! (responsibly?)

Cake Balls!

That sounds appetizing, doesn't it? I had some leftover margarita frosting from margarita cupcakes, and I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I was so enthralled with the peanut butter balls that I decided to do something along those lines. I made a generic cake, mixed it up with the frosting, rolled it into balls, and dipped it into white chocolate. The end result was sweet-- very sweet. But good! If you eat one. More than that and its too sweet. Anyway, these would have benefitted from a second dip in white chocolate, but I didn't want to waste the chocolate =).


First I made a generic cake. And then crumbled it up. The one I made was this:

1C flour
1C sugar*
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tbs melted butter
Milk

Add the dry stuff to a bowl. In a two-cup measure, beat the egg and the butter. Top off to a cup of liquid with the milk. Add the wet to the dry, mix until just combined, and cook at 350F for 15-20min in a 4x8" breadpan until its golden on top. Cool before crumbling.


Once you've crumbled up the cake, add a couple globs of frosting. I found a 1:2 ratio of frosting to cake was about right.


Mix it up. I added some (too much) green food coloring, because I wanted green cake balls.


Roll them into balls, put them on a tray, and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes to let them harden up.


Melt some white chocolate (5oz, here) in a double boiler.


Using two forks, dip each ball in the melted chocolate, then place on a cookie sheet (covered with wax paper). Place the dipped balls into the fridge to cool until the chocolate is hardened.

*If you want to make the balls less sweet, use less sugar in the cake.