Bacon and Blue Cheese Scones

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Alisa

I’ve noticed a trend. Every time it’s freezing, lately, snowing in particular, I post a blog entry. I also bake something. Today I made a banana chocolate chip bread with Olive and after putting her down for her “quiet” time (hardly ever quiet, but at least she stays in there), I came to write right away before the littler one wakes up from her nap. Everything happens in thirty-minute windows, lately. Feedings, naps, playtimes, snacks, lunch, cleanup, laundry folding, getting dressed, errands – it all goes like clockwork.

I remember this feeling of monotony and spinning my wheels when Olive was a baby. I don’t know what it is about the infant phase – it is all at once sweet, boring, thrilling, gross, blissful and extremely isolating. I think the feelings of isolation come from the cabin fever. It’s hard to get a baby ready to go out and do something outside the home when you know you’ll have to do something baby related in another hour. I love this phase but I am always looking forward to getting out of the house more and feeling productive. January is the antithesis of productive as far as my photography business goes. No hustle and bustle of bridal and engagement shoots, yet. Everything is dead, gray and cold. And maybe that’s okay. It’s a big, gigantic pause button and one that I (usually) am glad to press each year. But I’m a people-person. And not just a little-people person. I love interacting with grown-ups and perhaps that’s the catharsis of this blog. It was born the year my first daughter was born and it kept me connected to all of you who love cooking just as much as I do. I hope one day to have a cooking class. How grand would that be?! But the time isn’t right, yet. For now, I’ll write about scones and look forward to hearing from you all. And go feed the baby in another thirty minutes…

I improvised this lovely recipe from Annie’s Eats because I had neither scallions or cheddar and only about half the bacon her recipe called for. I first made her original recipe when I went on a road trip and they were just wonderful. My altered version was also great and amazing as a little side treat with a cup of soup. Especially on a day like today, there’s nothing quite like the smell of bacon coming from the oven. And with a bit of cold butter melting on top of one of these babies, you’ll be set.

Bacon and Blue Cheese Scones

Servings: 8
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3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1-2 tsp. ground black pepper
8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
5 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk (plus up to ½ cup extra, if needed)

For the egg wash:
1 large egg
2 tbsp. water

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper and then cut in the butter with a pastry blender or a fork until broken down and the butter resembles crumbly sand. Fold in the blue cheese and bacon and then stir in the buttermilk. Add a little extra to form a sticky dough if it seems too dry. Turn out onto a floured work space and form into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into squares or circles or daisies or whatever you prefer and place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with egg wash. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serve with cold butter.

Caramelized Pear and Biscuit Pie

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Alisa

Happy New Year’s Eve! It is a frigid 20 degrees today with a windchill of about -5 and this morning as I got reluctantly out of my bed, I looked out the frosted window and saw gray. Just gray with bits of white flocking everything in sight. I thought of what I would make for breakfast for the redhead and for Matt, who was working from home due to the weather, and I wanted something warm and cozy with possibly a bit of cinnamon. We had pears getting way too ripe on the counter and lest I waste such beautiful fruit, I decided to do a spin on Joy the Baker’s apple pie biscuits. The apples for her recipe are obviously not mushy pear consistency and so they cut up and bake into biscuits nicely. I knew that wouldn’t be possible with pears and I’d just end up frustrated, so I decided to do a free form biscuit/pie/tart mashup and the results were amazing. I adapted her biscuit recipe to include creme and lemon juice instead of buttermilk and the result was cakey, tangy perfection on top of caramlized pears.

I highly recommend this dish.

Caramelized Pear and Biscuit Pie*

For the pears:
4 ripe pears, peeled and sliced
4 TBS brown sugar
4 TBS unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt

For the biscuits:
2 cups self-rising flour
2 TBS granulated sugar
4 TBS cold butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 heavy cream
2 TBS lemon juice
1/4 cup milk

In the super old, awesome, vintage skillet your husband got you for Christmas, melt the butter and brown sugar and salt together until bubbly. Fold in the pears until they’re all coated and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 425F. In a large bowl, cut the butter into the flour and sugar until it’s all well incorporated. You can use your hands to break up the butter into tiny pieces in the flour, or just use a pastry cutter. Either way, make sure it resembles tiny pea-sized crumbles. Stir the lemon juice into the heavy cream and pour into the flour. Stir up until it’s all moistened and then add the milk until a sticky dough forms. You may need more milk. Loosely form biscuits and layer on top of the pears. Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown.

*adapted from Joy the Baker

Poppyseed, Prune and Lemon Coffee Cake

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Alisa

Coffee cake has always seemed a bit boring to me. In a land filled with pies and cookies and brownies, why would you ever choose a coffee cake? It’s cake’s slightly dry cousin. I never see a coffee cake recipe and think, “Yeah, I’ll spend time making that” when I could be spending time making something more satisfying.

That was all until I saw this recipe from Tasting Table. Do you get the Tasting Table emails? If not, you should. So many great recipes and interesting gift ideas abound in every email. This coffee cake looked absolutely decadent (it should – there’s almost three cups of sugar – ack!) But I figured in the name of Thanksgiving indulgence and postpartum cravings, I’d dive in and try it. And I dadgum near ate the entire pan myself. Not my proudest moment, but it was pretty enjoyable. The filling reminded me of fig newtons and the lemon zest brightened the entire sugar-laden thing up. I’d definitely recommend making this when you have family in your house over Christmas. It makes a ton, it feeds and satisfies a lot (or one person over the course of a week) and it is super comforting. Enjoy!

Poppyseed, Prune and Lemon Coffee Cake
makes one 13×9 cake

For the Streusel:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1¼ teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Coffee Cake:

Softened unsalted butter, for greasing
3¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
4 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten
¼ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Filling:
½ cup chopped prunes
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup poppy seeds
Zest of 1 lemon

1. Make the streusel: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, light brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon until everything is well incorporated. Add the melted butter to the flour-spice mixture and mix with a fork or a wooden spoon until fully incorporated and clumps begin to form. Make ahead: Unbaked streusel can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month.

2. Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 13- x 9-inch baking pan with the softened butter and dust the pan with flour.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract and melted butter until very smooth.

5. Using a rubber spatula, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until well combined.

6. Layer half the batter in the prepared baking pan; smooth it out to the edge leveling the top with an offset spatula. (Tip: Since the batter is so thick, it’s best to scoop it in ¼ cup mounds into the pan before spreading.)

7. Sprinkle the prunes evenly over the batter then sprinkle with the dark brown sugar and the poppy seeds. Top the filling with the lemon zest.

8. Layer the remaining batter over the filling using the same method mentioned above. Smooth out the top of the batter, ensuring it is even and reaches the edges of the pan. Sprinkle the top with the streusel, and then bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. I had to bake it over an hour to get the middle done. I recommend rotating it halfway through baking!

*recipe from Tasting Table

Christmas Cookies: Cranberry Rosemary and White Chocolate

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Alisa

Every year since who knows when, I’ve been making these lovely little biscotti that have a wonderful marriage of sweet, tangy and savory all packed into one crumbly bite. This year I decided to turn my biscotti into a soft sugar cookie and I absolutely loved the results. I took the batch to my knitting group and it got rave reviews – and those ladies are hard to please! I just love this combination – it’s so Christmassy in color and taste. A bit of pine essence from the rosemary and the in-season cranberries with a little snow-capped action from the white chocolate. If you wanted a more festive presentation you could skip adding the white chocolate chips and drizzle the tops with melted white chocolate! These are easy and bake up beautifully – perfect for your Christmas cookie exchange and more unique!

Christmas Cookies*
makes 2 dozen give or take

2 cups (10 oz) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 TBS light brown sugar
1 large egg
1.5 tsp vanilla
2 TBS chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with nonstick spray. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and rosemary in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat at medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined. Add the cranberries and white chocolate chips and fold in until just combined. Scoop out onto baking sheets into about a 2 tablespoon sized ball and lightly press down with your fingers to flatten out the top. Sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake 15 to 18 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cool the cookies for a few minutes after they come out of the oven and then transfer to a cooling rack. Serve with coffee and enjoy!

*base sugar cookie recipe from The New Best Recipe

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Alisa

I haven’t posted in a really long time. I apologize. Not that any of you were waiting around without anything to eat or lacking another post about complex carbs to drool over, but still. I don’t like being inconsistent, but I’m thinking that may be the new word that will begin to define my life, starting in about four weeks.

We’ve been doing all kinds of prep to the house for the arrival of this tiny baby. Amazing what all “needs” to be done to accommodate something that only weighs eight pounds. But I’m a planner. I love my ducks all in a row and a few of those ducks were still squawking around in my head, so we’ve been getting things done. We rearranged Olive’s room and Eleanor’s nursery, which will also be a guest bedroom. I’ve made a Quiet Book for Olive for the one Sunday morning a month that our church doesn’t have their children’s program during services, and I’ve been trying to knit Eleanor a cardigan, which I’m sure she’ll like to put on one of her dolls when she’s five, because I think that’s about when I’ll be done with it. Matt finished building Olive’s bed and I’ve bought the requisite new rug (I feel the need to buy a rug for each new life occasion) for the nursery and so we’re getting there. Slowly but surely, I’ll be ready for this baby to enter our world. Things left to do: buy Christmas presents for as many people as I can, write a few dozen blog posts, finish up my last three photo shoots, have a few cooking days to stock our freezer with ready to make meals for the winter, and create/shoot our annual Christmas card. Yes, we will go to just as much trouble as we always do. Unfortunately/fortunately. It’s going to be epic. 🙂

So in the midst of all this planning, I woke at 6 last Sunday morning with my parents in town for a visit, a quiet house, and THIS picture on my Instagram feed. I quickly scanned my brain pantry for the items and they were all there. So, I got up and made them. They were fantastically successful. So easy and so worth buying a little doughnut pan, although I’m sure they’d bake up into amazing little mini muffins, as well, if you don’t have a doughnut pan.

I promise more regular posts in the coming weeks. Life’s changing, but we still have to eat, right?! I hope things have been going well for you. And if they haven’t, these doughnuts will start you off in a better direction tomorrow.

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts*
makes 16

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus heaping 1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two standard doughnut pans. If you don’t have doughnut pans, you can bake these in a standard muffin tin; they just won’t be doughnuts.
Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.
Add the flour, stirring just until smooth.

Fill the wells of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full; use a scant 1/4 cup of batter in each well. If you’re making muffins, fill each well about 3/4 full; the recipe makes about 15, so you’ll need to bake in two batches (unless you have two muffin pans). Bake the doughnuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you’re making muffins, they’ll need to bake for 23 to 25 minutes.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

While the doughnuts are still warm (but no longer fragile), gently shake them in a bag with cinnamon-sugar. If you’ve made muffins, sprinkle their tops heavily with cinnamon-sugar.
Cool completely, and store (not wrapped tight) at room temperature for several days. I’d recommend a tupperware as opposed to a plastic bag. They sweat like the dickens.

*taken from the King Arthur Flour website, which you all should subscribe to

Double Dark Chocolate Waffles

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Alisa

The chocolate cravings have gone overboard. I really blame it in all seriousness on pregnancy. When I’m not pregnant, chocolate is good and fine, about on par with every other sweet. Not pregnant, I don’t think about it outside of seeing it, I don’t dream up ways of using it to its maximum potential in breakfast foods, and I don’t think that it’s “needed” to get from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. successfully. When pregnant…well, all those things suddenly become priorities. Like on Labor Day, I got up and looked up a basic buttermilk waffle recipe and then thought of the maximum way I could choco-fy it. And I did. Yes, I’ve had a similar waffle recipe on this blog before, BUT it wasn’t as good. These waffles are fluffier, less dense, and the chocolate chips remain melty like a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie during your entire breakfast. So. I’m not sorry for seeming repetitive. If you’re pregnant, I’ll understand if I get a thank-you note in the mail later this week.

I topped these in three different ways and they were all good: melted butter and powdered sugar – easy, and the most cookie-like experience. Butter with maple syrup: most waffle-like experience, but I’ve always felt that syrup on a chocolate anything is too much. Turns out, it’s not. And three: fresh raspberries all over the suckers. Chocolate dipped fruit, anyone? They were all good. Dress it up, dress it down, this will be your new craving.

Double Dark Chocolate Waffles
makes about 12 Belgian-style waffles

2 cups AP flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Heat your waffle iron. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a whisk until fully incorporated. In a smaller bowl, whip up the wet ingredients. Gently whisk the wet into the dry until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Cook waffles to the waffle-iron’s suggested time (mine has a handy little light that goes off when they’re done) and keep in a 200 degree oven while you cook the rest to keep them nice and warm and crisp on the outside. Serve with powdered sugar and melted butter, or whatever. It really doesn’t matter – it’s all good.

Roasted Green Chile and Tomato Tart

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Alisa

I am not a farmer. I’m pretty crap at knowing why things die, what I’m doing wrong, why half my plant is brown and the other half is green, etc. Last year, I all but neglected my tomatoes and they became like sea monsters in size and yielded dozens and dozens (if not with a little end-rot) of tomatoes. This year, I switched where they were planted and am taking better care of them and they have all tapped out at about 4 feet tall, haven’t continued to grow in height in the last month and we’ve gotten maybe four, medium-sized tomatoes and a handful of cherry tomatoes, and all of them are split down the sides (too much watering). Sigh. It’s hard to win at tomatoes. I’m sure some of you feel my pain. I want that innate sense of what these plants need, but I am afraid I’ve learned that this instinct is no instinct at all, but trial and error.

The tomatoes pictured were, indeed, from our yard. And they were, as all backyard tomatoes are, outstanding in flavor, despite their faults. I will never know how a tomato that claims to be “field grown” at the store can STILL taste like NOTHING, and a tomato you go out and pick from your yard tastes like concentrated tomato paste, x 1,000,000,000. Maybe it’s what Alton Brown said last week, that a tomato put in the fridge, even for a short time, loses a chemical designed especially for taste. Whatever the reason, tasting just ONE perfect summer tomato will leave you satisfied for the rest of the year. I don’t think I can be that enthusiastic about any other produce. Especially since I’m such a crappy farmer.

Enter: the tomato tart. Garnished with fresh, roasted, green chilies and a bit of cheddar and Parm, all baked on top of The Crust and a good slathering of green chile and caramelized onion dip. It was just about as perfect as you can get. And even if you don’t have a home-grown tomato, just go get one at a farmer’s market this weekend and DON’T refrigerate it and use that. Or, since we’re baking these tomatoes, go ahead and use a supermarket tomato. Roasting a tomato brings out great flavor in even the weakest, most genetically modified tomato. Happy baking!

Roasted Green Chile and Tomato Tart

1 recipe of The Ultimate Pie Crust
1/4 cup corn meal
1 cup green chile and caramelized onion dip
3-4 medium sized tomatoes (such as a Roma-size)
4 fresh roasted green chilies
salt and pepper
cheddar or Parmesan cheese, if desired

Get your pie crust rolled out and pressed into a 13×9″ tart pan, or like I did here, a half sheet pan. Trim off the excess (and you will have some) and refrigerate the pan for about 30 minutes, while you get on with everything else. Preheat oven to 450. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights – I use a bag of dried beans over and over for this purpose. I even keep them in a bag labeled “Pie Beans.” Bake the empty pie shell for 20 minutes, remove the weights and parchment and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the crust is golden on the bottom. Set aside to cool.

Whip up a quick onion/chile dip if you don’t have time to make the full recipe by pureeing 4 ounces of cream cheese, two tablespoons of olive oil, a large garlic clove, two roasted green chilies and a tsp of salt in a food processor until smooth. Spread this mixture onto the bottom of the tart. Then, sprinkle the 1/4 cup of cornmeal over the dip. This will help absorb the juices from the tomatoes and chilies so you don’t have a soggy crust.

Slice the tomatoes and chilies thin and layer onto your crust. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I shredded up a tiny bit of leftover cheddar and Parmesan on top of mine and loved the result. I think it’d be good without it. Reduce your oven to 375 and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the tomatoes look slightly shriveled and bubbly.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream (really – it’s awesome) and enjoy!

The Best Fresh Blueberry Muffins

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Alisa

Sorry for the delay in posts. I can’t really blame it on anything except feeling bloated, it’s 100 degrees outside, I don’t feel like cooking anything that’s picture-worthy and I’m rearranging my entire house to make room for a little human that will only weigh about 7 pounds. So here’s another indulgent baked goods recipe that both me and my little growing baby demand in spades these days (hey, I passed my glucose test almost too well. This kid needs sugar!)
Blueberries are $1.30 for a pint at our local supermarket! I bought a couple pints and plan on freezing some for those lonely winter months without a fresh berry in sight. Plus, I need to start thinking about literally storing up for winter as we will have a brand new baby to feed around the clock during the holidays, on top of everything else that will need to be done! I’m thinking these muffins will be perfect to freeze and gently warm in the oven when we need breakfast, yet don’t have the brain capacity to read a recipe.

I made these last week from the New Best Recipe cookbook and they turned out magically perfect. I used fresh instead of frozen, as the recipe suggests, and I indeed had “explosions of tart berries throughout the muffins” but I certainly didn’t mind. Because the recipe was testing in the winter when blueberries were out of season. The blueberries in the store now taste like…blueberries! So grab them while you can and whip these up for breakfast tomorrow morning! I brushed these with melted butter and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar for a little extra love.

The Best Fresh Blueberry Muffins*
makes a dozen

10 ounces (2 cups) unbleached AP flour (Gold Medal makes a softer muffin because it doesn’t have as much protein as King Arthur.)
1 TBS baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
7 ounces (1 cup) sugar
4 TBS unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
10 ounces (1 1/4 cups) sour cream
7-8 ounces (1 1/2 cups) frozen or fresh blueberries

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line with papers, like I do, because I live in terror of baked goods sticking.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk the egg in a separate medium bowl until well combined and light colored, about 20 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Add the sour cream in 2 additions, whisking just to combine.

Add the berries to the dry ingredients and gently toss until they’re all coated. Add the sour cream mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until the batter comes together and the berries are evenly distributed, 25-30 seconds. Don’t overmix, some spots of flour will remain.

Scoop into the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. Bake until muffins are light golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan about halfway through baking time. Dump the muffins onto a wire rack, stand the muffins upright and let them cool 5 minutes. Serve as is, or brushed with butter and dipped into cinnamon sugar. You win either way.

*taken from The Best New Recipe. This cookbook will make you look so, so smart.

Blackberry Lime Cinnamon Rolls with Lime Vanilla Bean Icing

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Alisa

Good Sunday morning to you all! This week has been a tough one for me. I got sick on Tuesday and as anyone who has ever been pregnant knows, you can’t take the good meds when you’re sick. So I had the usual, insulting cold in the middle of summer, had two weddings and one family shoot to edit, made a ginormous birthday cake for a friend which took up all of Tuesday AND my wonderful redhead decided to cut her usual nap time in half, so I had only one good hour during the day to get my photo work done (still got the wedding done in my two-week time frame – bragging, I don’t care, gotta throw that out there).

In the midst of my feeling like my head was stuck in a cloud and everything else, I felt it was the right time to make cinnamon rolls. I don’t know – it was just therapeutic. A few weeks ago, Matt made Joy the Baker’s first Baking Bootcamp recipe – a triple berry cinnamon swirl bread – and it was just outstanding. Wonderful recipe and the flavors were so perfect.

The day he made it, I knew I wanted to turn it into cinnamon rolls with some kind of citrus glaze. I finally got around to it and…score. They were so bright and comforting at the same time. I will definitely make these again when I’m not afflicted with Taste Blindness (I’ll expound on that, later). And you should make them, too! They take about an hour less than typical from-scratch cinnamon rolls and can be used with most any fruit – so get creative!

Blackberry Lime Cinnamon Rolls with Lime Vanilla Bean Icing*

For the Dough:
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/4 cup whole milk, warmed to a warm lukewarm
1 large egg yolk 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 cups King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt a bit of olive oil for greasing the bowl

For the Filling: 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups fresh blackberries
Zest from two limes
1 large egg, beaten for egg wash

In a medium bowl stir yeast with sugar. Stir in the lukewarm milk and then add the egg yolk and melted butter. Whisk together until thoroughly combined. Allow mixture to rest for 5 minutes. It should foam and froth. In a large bowl whisk together the flour and salt. Pour the milk mixture over the dry ingredients and start kneading it until it pulls away from the edges of the bowl. Place dough on a lightly floured counter and knead by hand for about 10 minutes more. Dough ball should be smooth and damp, without being too sticky. Shape dough into a ball. Grease a large bowl with olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl and cover. Allow to rest at warm room temperature for about 1 hours, or until doubled in size.

While the dough rises, whisk together the butter with sugar and cinnamon for the filling. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch cake pan. Set aside. After the dough has doubled in size, place it on a lightly floured counter and knead twice. Using a rolling pin to roll the dough to a rectangle of about 18×12 inches. Spoon the cinnamon filling over top, spreading evenly, leaving a clean 1-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle the fresh blackberries over the cinnamon filling and grate the lime zest over everything.

(My blackberries were apparently from the Land of Canaan, so I had to cut them up). Start by rolling the longest side of the dough. The roll will be a bit lumpy because of all the berries. Using a sharp knife, cut the log into 1 1/2 inch rolls and place cut-side down. Brush the rolls with the beaten egg. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes before icing.

For the Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
juice from one lime
3 tbs heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
a good pinch of kosher salt

Mix everything together in a medium bowl and thin out the icing with more lime juice, or thicken it up with more sugar. Easy as that!

Have a happy rest of your weekend 🙂

*I adapted Joy’s recipe for the Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread a bit, but you can see her original and wonderful recipe HERE.

Banana Chiffon Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Icing

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Alisa

I have a wonderful friend named Katrina. She is the mother of two, wild at heart, loves all things done from scratch and enjoys nothing more than giving things away for free that she worked hard to produce and for which she should be charging good money. I try my best to pay her for her amazing pasture-raised, organic eggs, but occasionally she’ll leave a dozen on my porch because “she had too many to use that week.” Look at these beauties!

So a few weeks ago when I was blessed with an extra dozen eggs on my porch, I decided to sacrifice them to the baking gods and make a chiffon cake. NOTHING whips up faster than a fresh, room temp egg white. And when you have fresh eggs (we’re talking hours from the chicken) you do NOT have to keep them in the fridge. And for baked goods, nearly all recipes will call for a room temp egg. I was completely shocked the first time I used Katrina’s eggs when making a chocolate mousse and the egg whites beat into stiff peaks in about a MINUTE. I’m not exaggerating. Amazing. This post is really just me bragging that I have a super cool friend who raises really great chickens who lay really amazing eggs.

For the recipe today, I give you a banana chiffon cake with salted caramel icing. A chiffon cake is kinda like an angel food cake except not so angelic. It uses both the yolks and whipped egg whites AND has oil. But the texture is similar to an angel food cake except this cake is super moist. When I was little, the only cake my grandmother would ever make (to my recollection) was an angel food cake, and I can only imagine that was because it has no added fat. She was missing out 🙂

Banana Chiffon Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Icing*

For the cake:

10 1/2 oz sugar
5 1/3 oz plain cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
7 large eggs; 2 whole, 5 separated, at room temp
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)

For the icing:

1 recipe salted caramel sauce
1 – 8 oz. package cream cheese at room temp

Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Whisk the sugar, flour, baking powder, soda and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk in the 2 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks (reserve the whites), water, oil and extract until the batter is just smooth.

Pour the reserved egg whites into the bowl of a sand mixer; beat at low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Add the cream of tartar, gradually increase the speed to medium-high, and beat the whites until very thick and stiff, just short of dry (as little as 7 minutes in a stand mixer and as little as 2 minutes if you’re using eggs that are only 5 hours old) 🙂 With a large rubber spatula, fold the banana mush into the batter, then fold the whites into the batter, making sure to not over mix, but being sure you get all the way down to the bottom of the bowl to incorporate whites into all the batter.

Pour the batter into an ungreased large tube pan (9-inch diameter, 16-cup capacity). Rap the pan against the counter a few times to rupture any large air pockets. If using a pan with a removable bottom, grasp both sides with your hands while firmly pressing down on the tube with your thumbs to keep the batter from seeping from the pan during this process. Wipe off any bbatter that may have dripped or splashed onto the inside walls of the pan with a paper towel.

Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 65 to 75 minutes. Immediately turn the cake upside down to cool (I’ll admit, this is scary, but have faith). If the pan does not have prongs around the rim for elevating the cake, invert the pan onto the neck of a wine bottle or funnel. Let the cake cool COMPLETELY before inverting.

To unmold, run a thin knife around the pan between the cake and pan wall. Use a skewer to loosen the cake from the tube. Loosen the cake from the bottom of the pan with a knife and invert it onto a serving pan. Hope for the best. Half of my cake was hollow because I didn’t incorporate the egg whites sufficiently. This is life.

Spread the icing over the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides.

To make the icing:

After making the salted caramel sauce, leave it in the pan and with a mixer or by hand with a whisk, whip the softened cream cheese until fully incorporated and no tiny lumps remain. Let it come up to room temp and then beat again before pouring over the cake.

*cake recipe adapted from The New Best Recipe cookbook. This book is endlessly tested and will never steer you wrong.

The Family Meal

we eat together

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