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.

Brown Butter Honey Ice Cream in Milk Toast Bowls

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Alisa

This recipe is insane. What’s more insane than each component is the sum of its parts. Matt saw a recipe for Japanese Brick Toast a few weeks ago and I had seen a similar recipe on Pinterest that looked downright heavenly. He said in Japan they put ice cream with buttery toasted sweet bread as a dessert (…which is doubtful – I’ve seen Japanese people. They don’t look like they eat ice cream in bread bowls). Why has no one thought of doing a bread bowl for ICE CREAM?! It’s genius. The bread soaks up the melted ice cream and you’re left with this spongy cake-like texture when you get to eating the bread part. This dessert demands to be shared. Because if you don’t share it, you’ll feel like a dadgum glutton. I mean, LOOK at that thing!

For the ice cream, we look no further than Jenni’s Splendid Ice Creams. I posted about her Brown Butter Almond Brittle ice cream last year. I’m a broken record when it comes to browned butter. I can’t help it. We began making ice cream out of her book about four years ago and haven’t even wasted our time with a different method. She’s perfected the texture of homemade ice cream, in my opinion. So for this recipe, I used her browned butter ice cream base and added honey and vanilla bean paste. It was perfect in our little ice cream bowl. The bread deserves a post of its own and don’t you worry – we’ll blog about it, soon. Matt loves it too much and loved the process too much to only make it once. He can’t wait to try it, again. For now, enjoy a truly amazing bowl of browned butter ice cream:

Browned Butter and Honey Ice Cream

for the base:
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1.5 oz (3 tbs) softened cream cheese
1/8 tsp fine sea salt (I use kosher)
3/4 lb unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbs light corn syrup
1 tbs vanilla bean paste

Raw honey to fold into the ice cream

Mix about 2 tbs of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a large bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a 4 quart saucepan. Bring to a boil and let bubble until the foam starts to subside and the butter is a rich dark brown (not black!). Remove from the heat and let stand until the butter solids settle to the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes.

Pour the clear butter oil into a storage container (once it solidifies you can use it as you normally would for cooking so it’s not a waste!) As you get closer to the butter solids in the bottom of the pan, use a teaspoon to remove as much liquid butter as you can. You should have about 1 tablespoon of brown butter solids and a little bit of melted fat in the bottom of the pan (it’s impossible to remove all the fat).

Add the remaining milk, cream, sugar, vanilla bean paste and corn syrup to the butter solids, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry (you’ll need to stir it up again as it will settle and solidify some). Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula or whisk, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister of your ice cream maker and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, folding in drizzles of raw honey as you go. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface of the ice cream (this is important to avoid freezer burn and maintain a good consistency) and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Layer ice cream with sliced bananas and serve in boring porcelain bowls, or sweet bread bowls. It’s up to you. 🙂 (recipe for bread bowls coming soon!)

Banana Coffee Almond Shake

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Alisa

Coffee, frozen banana, toasted almonds, milk and a squeeze of chocolate sauce. How can you go wrong with that?! This is an extremely simple, delicious and relatively low sugar pick-me-up for your hot summer afternoon! I saw a recipe similar on Serious Eats and had to try my own version! The only sweetness comes from the banana and a tablespoon of honey – not too shabby for something that seems pretty indulgent! It was absolutely perfect for that mid-afternoon I-gotta-have-something-sweet attack that happens to me every day. Enjoy and change up the ingredients as you like!

Banana Coffee Almond Shake
makes one large or two small servings

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, room temp
1/4 cup milk (any kind of milk will work)
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
1 frozen banana
1 TBS honey, agave nectar, whatever you like best
5 large ice cubes (about a cup of crushed ice)

In a blender, add the coffee, milk, almonds and banana and blend for about 30 seconds. Then add the ice and blend for 30 seconds to a minute more. Drizzle with chocolate sauce (or not – it’s up to you, but I had some in my pantry and, well, it was awesome) and serve!

Chilled Strawberry Soup

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Alisa

I ran across this interesting recipe last week and wanted desperately to try it. A chilled strawberry soup! What could be more summery or fun?

The original recipe called for Riesling and a garnish of black pepper and olive oil and next time I do it, I really want to try that version. Since I would be serving it to Olive and wouldn’t be cooking the alcohol out, I decided to alter the 1/2 cup of Riesling for lime juice and I think the results were so refreshing. Some might call this a smoothie, and it basically is, but it’s thinner and if you go the adult version route, it would certainly be more elevated than a smoothie. Olive loved this different snack and I loved it for breakfast this morning! I garnished the soup with a bit of chocolate mint from my plant out back. Did you know there was such a thing as chocolate mint?! I didn’t but was intrigued and I think there is a subtle smooth difference between it and basic sweet mint (which has the quintessential “gum” flavor). I thought mint and hints of chocolate would be great on a strawberry soup and it was – next time I may even add some dark chocolate shavings as a garnish!

Enjoy! It’s a hot one out there, today!

Chilled Strawberry Soup
makes about 3 cups

3 cups strawberries, hulled
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
Juice from two large limes (about 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup raw honey
Garnish: mint, chocolate, cracked pepper

Put all ingredients except the garnish in a blender or food processor and blend for about a minute, scraping down the sides. If you want to go the extra mile, strain the soup through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Chill for at least an hour and garnish as you wish! (I didn’t chill ours at all and it was great).

Triple Layer Coconut Cake

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Alisa

Amazingly dense, rich, saturated with coconut flavor with a light, fluffy, creamy frosting that only compliments and doesn’t overpower the rich, dense and super-moist cake. Yes, of course, this was the best coconut cake we’ve ever had. And why, is that? Because it’s Thomas Keller’s recipe, and as anyone who has ever heard of or seen one of his cookbooks will know, everything he touches is gold. This recipe, however, is not found in any of his cookbooks, but was featured in an article on Saveur magazine online. It was a recipe that took him back to his childhood, to having a cake very similar to this in a small town diner. We had this recipe bookmarked for months and finally gave it a go. While you can tell from the pictures that my layering techniques leave something to be desired, the flavors were amazing. Spot on. I even took it to a picnic in 80 degree weather and it held up (barely). This cake needs to be chilled the adequate time recommended, for sure. Even with my missteps and imperfect execution, it was one of the best cakes I’ve had in years.

Go forth! Be bold! Make this cake! We changed nothing – this is just one of those “I made it, so can you” kind of posts, so I’ll simply copy the recipe for you, here! Happy Weekend!

Triple Layer Coconut Cake

FOR THE CAKE:
Unsalted butter, for greasing
2 cups flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs, separated
1¼ cup mayonnaise
¾ cup coconut milk
½ cup, plus 1 tbsp. buttermilk
2 tsp. coconut extract
2 tsp. vanilla extract

FOR THE MERINGUE:
6 egg whites
1⅔ cups sugar
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the cake: Heat oven to 325°. Grease three 9″ cake pans with butter and line with parchment paper; set aside. Whisk flour, desiccated coconut, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Place sugar and egg yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; mix until fluffy. Add mayonnaise, coconut milk, buttermilk, coconut and vanilla extracts; mix until combined. With the motor running, slowly add dry ingredients until batter forms; transfer batter to a bowl and set aside. Clean stand mixer bowl and add egg whites; replace paddle with whisk attachment. Whip whites until soft peaks form; fold into cake batter. Divide batter between prepared pans, smoothing tops with a rubber spatula; drop pans lightly on a counter to expel large air bubbles. Bake until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Let cakes cool for 20 minutes in pans; invert onto wire racks and let cool.Make the meringue: Using an electric hand mixer, beat egg whites in a bowl until medium-stiff peaks form, 5–7 minutes; set aside. Bring sugar and ¼ cup water to a boil in a 2-qt. sauce pan fitted with a candy thermometer; cook, without stirring, until temperature reaches 250°, 4–5 minutes. With the mixer on low, slowly drizzle hot syrup into egg whites until combined. Increase speed to high; beat until meringue forms stiff peaks, about 3 minutes more.

Assemble the cake: Place one cake layer on a cake stand and spread 3 cups meringue over cake; sprinkle with ¼ cup coconut. Repeat with second layer. Place remaining layer on top; cover top and sides with remaining meringue and cover outside of cake with remaining coconut, pressing lightly to adhere. Chill cake 30 minutes to firm meringue; serve chilled or at room temperature.

copied from Saveur

Ginger Ale Poached Apricots over Warm Cinnamon Rice Pudding

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Alisa

Simplicity. I crave it, lately. Maybe because I’m in a world filled with a bouncing-off-the-wall toddler and red-headed drama, or maybe it’s because the summer is heating up and I’m busy shooting weddings, all the while wondering who this little baby growing inside me will turn out to be. I forget I’m pregnant most days. Other than my sudden urge to rearrange all the furniture and the hair tie holding my pants together, it’s easy to forget while dealing with everything else. That’s why I love cooking so much – it forces you to slow down and spend some time in thought. Even if for just five minutes – there will be some point in meal prep where you must wait. And in that waiting usually comes contemplation (if you can keep your phone out of reach).

Last week when I stood over my stove and smelled the tart sweetness of apricots stewing, I was transported back to the very first time I made jam. It was about this time four years ago and the (now gone) huge, old apricot tree in our front yard decided to dump about 10 lbs of fruit on our lawn for a week straight. I didn’t know what to do with all that fruit and I’d never made jam before, but I just started to create. Took a base recipe and made all kinds of flavors: Vietnamese Cinnamon, Vanilla Bean, Red Pepper, Bourbon, Chinese 5 Spice – they were all amazing and I felt so good about not letting any of that fruit go to waste. I also learned the simplicity of jamming. The joy of tasting that fruit completely come ALIVE with just the addition of some sugar and a squeeze of lemon. I never cared about apricots before that year, but since then, they’ve become one of my favorite fruits.

I didn’t make jam with these store-bought apricots, but I did let them poach in some leftover ginger ale and a stick of cinnamon and vanilla bean. The scent in my kitchen was as bright as the summer sun. When the apricots were done poaching, I removed them from the liquid and let the ginger ale reduce until it was a syrup. The apricots are sitting in that syrup in my fridge, now. Waiting to be poured over ice cream or spooned over a warm biscuit with butter. Or maybe just eaten straight out of the jar. Last week I made a cinnamon vanilla bean rice pudding for Olive’s snack time and added some poached apricots on top. The combination was so comforting and for a few minutes, we both just ate and smiled at each other.

Ginger Ale Poached Apricots with Cinnamon Rice Pudding

2 lbs of apricots, halved, pits removed
1 liter of ginger ale
two cinnamon sticks (or a tsp of ground cinnamon)
1 vanilla bean, split
1/4 cup sugar

Place the apricot halves in a large, non-reactive pot over medium-high heat. Add the ginger ale, cinnamon, vanilla bean and sugar and let the mixture come to a boil. After 10 minutes, remove the apricots with a slotted spoon and set them in a large bowl. Allow the liquid to reduce to about 1-2 cups of liquid and pour over the apricots in the bowl. Spoon apricots and syrup over rice pudding, ice cream, waffles, whatever you want!

Cinnamon Rice Pudding*
makes about 2 cups

1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/3 cup arborio rice (short grain rice)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
pinch of salt
1 egg

In a medium saucepan, heat the milks, rice and salt until the mixture boils. Reduce heat and let the mixture cook about 20-25 minutes, stirring often, until the rice absorbs most of the liquid. Remove from heat and in a smaller bowl, add the brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla bean paste and egg and whip until smooth. Add 1-2 tablespoons of the hot rice mixture to the egg mixture, stirring quickly to temper the egg. Then, while whisking, add the egg/sugar mixture back into the pot of rice and let it cook over low heat until slightly thickened, about 10 more minutes.

Serve with poached apricots!

*adapted from this lovely recipe off Simply Recipes

Baking Challenge: Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Alisa

I love a good challenge. And Joy the Baker gave everyone a wonderful one! She teamed up with King Arthur Flour (our favorite flour to use and the one Matt uses for all his bread) to create a baking challenge using four different flours from King Arthur’s extensive selection. Go here to see the contest rules for yourself and be sure and watch the video – it’s so inspirational! She makes everything look so easy 🙂

Matt chose two and I chose two – a true Family Meal collaboration! He went first with the Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread. It really didn’t seem that difficult for him and the recipe seems pretty forgiving. I think no matter what your dough looks like when you put it in the pan raw, it’s going to bake up beautifully. We brought this to our church class this morning and it tasted like one huge cinnamon roll filled with fruit. In fact, I think if I were to redo this recipe, I would make them into berry cinnamon rolls with an orange icing. Okay…that sounds awesome. You heard it here first, folks. That’s gonna happen.

Go take this challenge and have fun! Post your pics on Instagram with the hashtag, “#bakingbootcamp” and enjoy the process!

Click here for the very helpful recipe with photo tutorials!

Baked Double Chocolate Doughnuts

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Alisa

King Arthur Flour announced on their Facebook page that today is National Doughnut Day. I was set up to post about a healthy snack today, but I was derailed by their incredible photos of this dark chocolate baked doughnut. I really hate frying things – not for any noble health reasons, but because I fright easily from splattering lava hot grease. So these baked donuts were calling my name! In the debate of cake vs raised doughnuts, I’m a cake gal. I love the dense texture with the slightly crispy outside. These baked doughnuts come mighty close to mimicking a fried cake doughnut and they were so easy to make! I had fun with the different icings, too. In the lineup were:

Espresso Glazed! I don’t ever think I could pass up the coffee/chocolate combination if I tried, so I had to do this one. My favorite, though, was…

Peanut Butter Frosted! Thick, creamy peanut buttery frosting on a double chocolate doughnut? Well, if you insist. And then, my wildcard was inspired by Olivia the Pig’s favorite ice cream flavor, cherry chocolate chunk (my little girl watches one single episode all. the. time.) So I made cherry almond! Because me and almond go way back…

This was a super fun derailment and I hope you all enjoy some crave-worthy doughnut photos! And try this super easy baked doughnut recipe! I’ll add my frosting variations below!

Double Chocolate Baked Doughnuts*
makes 12-14 doughnuts

2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons vinegar, white or cider
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the wells of two standard doughnut pans. If you don’t have two pans, simply bake the batter in two batches. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon, cayenne, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips. Set aside. (I added those other flavors because I’m addicted to Mexican chocolate). In a large measuring cup or medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar.

Add the wet ingredients, along with the vegetable oil, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend; there’s no need to beat the batter, just make sure everything is well-combined.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s), filling them between 3/4 and full.
Bake the doughnuts for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after 30 seconds or so, loosen their edges, turn the pan upside down over a rack, and gently let the doughnuts fall onto the rack.

*adapted from this recipe on King Arthur Flour

For the icings:

I filled three bowls with 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar each. Then, I added 2-3 tablespoons of boiling water to each, whisking until smooth.

For the Peanut Butter Frosting:
To the sugar, I added 2 more tablespoons of boiling water and 2 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste because I have to add it to everything, and a pinch of salt. Whisk until smooth. If too thick, add more water. If too thin, add more peanut butter. You can’t lose.

For the Espresso Icing:
To the sugar, I added a teaspoon of espresso powder, a teaspoon of cocoa powder, a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste and whisked until smooth. Thin out with more water if desired.

For the Cherry Almond Icing:
To the sugar, I added 2 tablespoons of boiling water to about 1/3 cup cherry preserves and whisked until smooth. I added vanilla, a teaspoon of almond extract and a couple pinches of salt because it was just solid sweetness at first.

Let the doughnuts cool completely before dunking them halfway into the icing of your choice. Enjoy!

Blueberry Granola and Cinnamon Vanilla Yogurt Parfaits

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Alisa

This is a very simple snack that you can make ahead of time and have it ready to pull out of the fridge at any time during the week! I had some blueberries in the freezer that needed to be used and so I created a soft granola that could be good cut into bars, or crumbled up like I did here, to add to yogurt, cereal, ice cream, whatever! I love these little jam jar parfaits – I used the small 4 oz. size for Olive and used the bigger 6 oz. size for us big kids. Layered with plain, rich Greek yogurt that I mixed with some cinnamon and vanilla bean paste – these are ready for my fridge and ready for a week of snack time, pregnancy cravings or a quick breakfast!

Sweetening plain yogurt with cinnamon and vanilla bean paste (which is slightly sweet) adds enough sweetness without adding several teaspoons of honey or sugar, like we all feel compelled to do with plain yogurt. You’re getting plenty of sugar from granola (never let anyone tell you granola is a diet food) and so there’s no need to add even more by buying a pre-sweetened yogurt (which can have over 20 grams of sugar in each serving!) This recipe makes a really large batch of granola that’ll last you a while and I hope you enjoy the smell of your entire house while you make it!

Blueberry Granola Parfaits
makes about 3 cups of granola

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 TBS cinnamon
1 TBS vanilla bean paste
1/2 cup honey
1 stick melted butter
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/2 cup dried currants, raisins, whatever you like

In a large mixing bowl, combine the rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, combine the steel cut oats and 1 cup boiling water and let them soak for 20 minutes. Drain and add to the other oat mixture. If you don’t want to do this, simply add 2 more cups of regular rolled oats. I liked the steel cut chewiness, but I’ve done this recipe with all rolled oats before and it works fine either way!

Add to the oat mixture the vanilla bean paste (can sub regular vanilla extract), melted butter and honey and stir well to combine everything. Gently fold in the blueberries, currants and pecans (or any trifecta you desire). Spread mixture out on a greased, rimmed baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Take it out and let it cool and then break it all up and spread it out on the sheet again and let it bake at 250 for about 30 more minutes until it’s all golden brown. If you want to make granola bars, increase your first bake time to 30 minutes and let it cool completely before cutting into bars. While it’s cooling and still hot, I’d spread some white chocolate chips over the top and let them melt and then spread them all over for a topping for your granola bars, if you’re gonna swing that way.

Cinnamon Yogurt

1 cup Greek yogurt, plain
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together and whip up until fully blended. Layer in cute little jars with the granola and top with fresh berries for the snack pictured here! Garnishing with mint adds a wonderful flavor addition and brightens everything up.

*this can easily be made gluten-free by substituting the flour for coconut flour and insuring that your oats are gluten free. Check the box – a lot of brands are, nowadays!

The Best Peach Cobbler: Food is Healing

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Alisa

Peach Cobbler over Vanilla Ice Cream
I grew up in Eastern New Mexico. Which is basically West Texas. Which is basically the South. Basically. And in the South, when someone is ailing, grieving, winging it as a single parent for a week with a house full of kids, or whatever – we bring food. The more comforting the dish, the better.

Enter: homemade peach cobbler. The BEST peach cobbler you’ll likely ever have.

My Aunt Mary could have been my grandmother. The oldest in a family of eight children, Aunt Mary has acted like our grandmother as far back as I can remember. She picked me up from school, she made a few dresses for me, she always gave away the best homemade treats at Halloween and she stood in place of my own ailing grandmother when I got married. Did the same for both my brothers’ weddings, too. Aunt Mary also brings food. I would guess it is her first thought when she hears of someone’s suffering.

A few years ago my dad’s 20 year-old carpentry business and production shop burned to the ground in one night. I remember us all sitting around the dining room table a couple days later, feeling numb and really not knowing what to say or do next. It was as if a close family member had passed away. Aunt Mary walked in holding this still-warm peach cobbler and a pint of vanilla ice cream. We made a bowl and after the first bite, I felt a little bit of weight released from my shoulders as my heart sank into those amazing flavors. It was the food-equivalent of a hug. It could have been the emotions of the day or the fact that we all love Aunt Mary so much, but I think it was the best peach cobbler, or any cobbler, I’d ever had in my life.

When my grandpa passed away a couple weeks ago, we were sitting around the house the afternoon after his funeral and Aunt Mary called. She said, “I was just sitting here and realized that I NEVER brought over any food!” I smiled and said quietly to myself, “please let it be peach-” at the same time she said, “I JUST made a peach cobbler. Can I drop by?”

And the same comfort washed over us, again. This time my uncle had the first taste and in his quiet demeanor, he just nodded and said, “That IS the best cobbler I’ve ever had.” And he’s a farmer. He knows his cobbler. I sat Aunt Mary down before she could leave and told her that this time, she HAD to tell me the recipe. So, from memory she just told me how she did it. I love recipes like that. She even apologized and blushed a little when she told me how much sugar. 🙂

So I want to give this comforting recipe to you. So you can give it to someone else. Food, sometimes, is so much more than nourishment, calories, ingredients, fast or fancy restaurants. It can be those words you don’t know how to say or that comfort you wish you could provide but just don’t know how.

Classic Peach Cobbler

Peach Cobbler

serves 8-10

1 stick unsalted butter
2 – 28 oz cans of sliced peaches (don’t drain. And the ounces may vary. Aunt Mary just said, “Not the soup-can size – the bigger one! So I guessed.)
3 cups sugar (I know. You might eat this once a year. It’s okay.)
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt (she told me 1/8 tsp salt, but kosher is bigger so I always double the amount if I’m using it)
1/2 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 400F. In a 9×13 pan, melt the stick of butter in the oven.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, add the peaches with their syrup, two cups of sugar and let it start bubbling. Meanwhile, mix flour and the remaining cup of sugar, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and then add the milk.

Pour the batter on top of the melted butter. Then pour the peach mixture over the batter. Bake about 40 minutes until the batter is a rich brown. I’d really advise letting this cool down considerably before eating. You’ll think there’s waaaaaay too much syrup, but it thickens upon cooling and you have this glorious syrup to pour over your ice cream. Worth it.

Peach Cobbler

The Family Meal

we eat together

Category Archives: Desserts

Banana Chiffon Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Icing

Brown Butter Honey Ice Cream in Milk Toast Bowls

Banana Coffee Almond Shake

Chilled Strawberry Soup

Triple Layer Coconut Cake

INSTRUCTIONS

Ginger Ale Poached Apricots over Warm Cinnamon Rice Pudding

Baking Challenge: Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Baked Double Chocolate Doughnuts

Blueberry Granola and Cinnamon Vanilla Yogurt Parfaits

The Best Peach Cobbler: Food is Healing

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