Pear-Cranberry Coffee Cake

I don't know if this is a bread, or a coffee cake, or a what. Its based loosely off of a bread recipe, but the streusel on top gives it more of a coffee cake feeling. Tastes good, though!

2C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2C sugar
1 1/2C chopped pears (I used one Bosc pear, skin on)
1/2C cranberries, chopped in half
1/2C walnuts
1C buttermilk
1/4C applesauce
1/4C yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Streusel:
1/4C brown sugar
1/4C flour
1/4 stick of melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, pears, cranberries, and walnuts. Mix well. In another bowl, beat the egg, then add the buttermilk, applesauce, yogurt, and vanilla. Add the bowl of liquids to the dry stuff. Stir just to combine, then pour into a greased 8x8 inch baking pan. You could probably make muffins, too.

Melt the butter, then add the rest of the streusel ingredients. Once they are all combined, sprinkle this over the top of the cake. I added about 2 tablespoons of chopped walnuts, too, but this is optional.

Bake for ~30-45 minutes, until your toothpick comes out clean. Cool briefly, and enjoy!

Beeramisu

Stolen straight from here. But here is the recipe if you're too lazy to click the link:

1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 eggs beaten (I didn't add eggs)
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped
48 ladyfinger cookies (about 1 package)
6 ounces (3/4 cup) Porter beer (I used Young's Double Chocolate Stout)
1/2 cup brewed coffee, the stronger the better
1/2 cup cocoa

In a large bowl mix together the mascarpone, sugar, beaten eggs and vanilla. Fold in the whipped cream. Set this mixture aside.

In a shallow dish stir together the Porter beer and the brewed coffee, Dip the ladyfingers cookies into the coffee mixture. Don't let the ladyfingers get soggy. Arrange them in a single layer in a glass 8x8 dish. Spread 1/2-inch layer of mascarpone mixture on top of the ladyfingers. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cocoa. Repeat this for the second layer. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving.

Serves 12

I brought this to a weekly gathering of cyclists who run together and then eat together, and it got rave reviews. I will most definitely make it again.

Polenta Wedges

I used a 50-50 mix of polenta and corn meal (the regular stuff). I think you can put just about anything in these lovely golden wedges, this time I just used some herbs, but next time I might use some mushrooms, or sundried tomatoes.

Boil 3C of water. Slowly stir in 1C of the polenta-corn meal mix. Turn down the boil to less of a rollicking boil, and stir the mix constantly. Add whatever things you want to add--I sprinkled in some herbs de provence and salt and pepper. Keep stirring and bubbling until the glop is pretty thick and pulling away from the sides. Then pour it into a dish (an 8x8 baking dish works well) and smooth out the top as smoothly as it can go. Chill this dish.

After about a half hour, the baking dish full of polenta should be pretty solid. Dump it out on a cutting board, and slice into wedges. In a cast-iron pan, melt about half a tablespoon of butter. Add some of the wedges, and cook (without moving them much) until they are golden-brown on the bottom. Flip and repeat. Cool them on a paper towel.

Impulse Buy

It looks like a little dwarf to me. A dwarf thats actually an eggplant.

Lamb Lollypops in an Orange-Ginger-Soy-Sesame Glaze

I know, this isn't a muffin. Its shocking, really, to think that I eat anything other than healthy OCD muffins. But, it happens. We decided that we wanted lamb, and we were debating various ways to cook it and settled on a glaze. I thought this would be fantastic over mashed potatoes, but the motivation to make mashed potatoes wasn't to be found, so we went with popovers (baked in a muffin tin--see! There are muffins involved!).

Glaze
Juice of one orange
2 tbs granulated sugar
Grated peel of half the orange
~1tbs grated ginger, although I imagine ginger powder would be fine
2 tbs dark soy sauce
1 tbs black sesame seeds (or white, if that is what you have)



First Ed dissolved the sugar into the orange juice, then he added everything else. He pan fried the lamb, cut into individual lollypops (chops? I think I prefer the term lollypop), in some sesame oil, and just poured the glaze over the top. Don't get the heat too high or the glaze will burn. We used a really delicious organic little lamb, and cooked it super rare, just barely warmed up on the inside, the way meat should be. I've got to admit, that was the best lamb I've ever eaten, and I've eaten some delicious lamb. I love eating baby animals. I think this glaze would also be really good with duck, or venison. Anything with that gamey taste. Maybe next time we're in Whole Foods we'll check out that slab of buffalo meat...

Peach Blackberry Crisp

I don't exactly remember the ingredients for the crisp part, because I made this a while ago and didn't write it down. But it was fan-f***ing-tastic.

I believe it went something like this: 2-3 peaches, peeled and sliced, with ~1C of blackberries. Put that in a bowl with a half cup of sugar and a quarter tsp of corn starch, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Mix together in a separate bowl: 1C oats + 1C flour + 3-6 tbs (depending on how rich you want it) melted butter. Put the fruit in a pyrex dish, cover with the topping, and cook until the topping looks golden brown (10 minutes?).

Sorry to be so vague. But its a crisp, how much direction do you really need?

Cranberry Orange Walnut Muffins

More muffins! This one was originally a quick bread recipe, but I tend to make all my quick breads into muffins, so, muffins they are. This recipe was originally from the King Arthur Flour book, with a couple tweaks by yours truly. This muffin ranks as number 2 in my favorite muffins list, after the carrot-spice muffin. Its an absolutely fantastic flavor, especially after you let it sit for a couple of hours and the flavors really come together.

2C flour
1/2C sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1C cranberries*
1C walnuts
Grated rind of one orange
juice of one orange
2 tbs yogurt
boiling water to make 1C
1 beaten egg

*The original recipe called for raw cranberries and a whole cup of sugar, but I used dried cranberries (craisins) which have added sugar, and reduced the sugar.

Preheat oven to 325. Combine the dry ingredients, then add the walnuts and cranberries and orange zest. Squeeze the orange juice into a one-cup measure. Add the yogurt and then fill the rest of the cup with boiling water. Add this mixture to the beaten egg.

Stir the liquids into the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased muffin pan and cook until its done (~15-20 min).

Edit 12/8/07: I tried them with the full cup of sugar and raw cranberries chopped in half, and the result is even better. So tart, yet so sweet, just delicious!