Blueberry Muffins

While apple pie is pretty much as all-American as you can get, it's not really seasonal for the Fourth of July.  To me, a close second for sheer patriotic goodness is the blueberry muffin: Where else in the world is eating what is basically a cupcake for breakfast considered the norm?  God bless this country.

Seriously, I made four batches of these muffins over the weekend and my family ate them ALL.  Addictive yet so simple.  Sometimes, as my friend Kirsten says, you just can't improve on the simple standard: You could add lemon peel or orange essence, but it won't make these any better, just different. So here's the classic recipe:

Coconut Cake

June means it's birthday time in my family!  Last week was my dad's natal day, so I made him a dinner of his choosing as part of my gift.

For dessert, he picked an oh-so-delicious but slightly tricky coconut cake.  "Beware!" my friends said.  "The boiled icing will be your downfall."

But I'm here to tell you that if you watch your icing carefully and follow the directions semi-carefully, you'll be A-OK.  And you'll have a light cake that's not too overwhelming for summer (or anytime) celebrations.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Disclaimer: These cupcakes are so delicious, I've made two batches in the last four days.  That's a lot of cupcakes, even for me.

Several months ago, I took an amazing cupcake class at Butter Lane in New York.  Since then, I haven't made a single cupcake, instead pining away for the magic of a stand mixer, to whose camp I became a firm convert after the class.  Thanks to a U of C audit in my favor (sounds like something out of Monopoly's Community Chest, but for real), I finally bought a beautiful refurbished KitchenAid and have been chomping at the bit to make something with it for about a week.

To celebrate the arrival of both my friend Britta, who is moving to the area for graduate school, and Shelly the Stand Mixer: Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting.  This recipe is based on the Butter Lane class's recipe, but adjusted to reflect the different ingredients I had on hand and to incorporate the addition of fruit.

Berry Pie

As my gift to my mom this year for Mother's Day, I offered to make her any kind of meal that she wanted for dinner.  For dessert, she chose a berry pie—a great seasonal choice for the height of springtime's berry yield, which happens to coincide with Mother's Day.  So a happy belated Mother's Day to all the great moms out there (especially mine): This one's for you.

This recipe is adapted from another one of my favorite cookbooks, The Artful Pie.  Sadly, it is out of print, but definitely worth tracking down.  This particular recipe has been adapted to include less refrigeration time (seriously, I don't have time to refrigerate after every step, though I wish I did) and a wider mix of berries.  Why limit yourself?

Baklava

This past weekend, my friend Nina came to visit me from Chicago.  We had a good time exploring Chapel Hill and the surrounding environs and, of course, we ate pretty well.  Both of us love to bake, and we each come from cultures where baklava is a staple food group.  Basically, there was no other option on a rainy Saturday but to bake some of that flaky, buttery dessert.

With our two powers combined, we came up with a four-layer single-nut baklava drenched in sugar and butter.  Is it good for your body?  Probably not, though I can think of worse things to eat, dessert-wise.  But it is definitely good for your mood and your tastebuds, so I'd recommend you give it a try the next time you're feeling gloomy.  This kind of moist baklava can't be bought (or is extremely hard to find).

Linzer Bars

The clocks are set back, the leaves are finally changing color, and it's getting dark far too early: These are all indisputable signs of cookie season's arrival.  That little bite in the air tells baking fiends across the country, me included, that it's time to get down to the serious business of making (and sharing) sweets.

Back in July, I attended my very first canning party, from which I brought home a jar of homemade strawberry jam.  Since I'm not much for toast-and-jam (butter is my topping of choice), the jam has been guiltily staring at me for the past three months.  Solution: Make it the basis for a cookie.

This recipe comes from The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe from Each Year 1941-2009, which is coming out this month.  It's a really terrific book with lots of beautiful illustrations, plus it's interesting to see the evolution of what American readers of Gourmet expected from their cookies over the past 60+ years.  I adapted this recipe from their 1979 selection, leaving out ground almonds and other ingredients not readily at hand.

Special thanks for this recipe goes to Kirsten, without whom there would have been no jam, no cookbook, and no cookies.

Nectarine Cake

My dad always tells me how important it is to "eat to live, not live to eat."  Consequently, there are very few foods that I allow to fall into my "worth-living-for" foods category.  Stone fruits, for better or worse, comprise a goodly chunk of that list.  Peaches, plums, apricots: I love them all.  So when I went to the farmer's market last week and found myself surrounded by stacks and stacks of lovely fruit, I couldn't help myself.  I had enough self-control to buy the least expensive type of fruit, but I still wound up carting three pounds of nectarines back to the office and then home on the subway.  Now, I can eat a lot of nectarines, but three pounds of perfectly ripe, rapidly spoiling fruit is too much even for me.  So what to do?  Bake a delicate dessert highlighting the fruit, of course.

This recipe comes from the now sadly defunct Gourmet.  I changed very little, as baking tends to be much more unforgiving of improvisation than other types of cooking.

Strawberry-White Chocolate Muffins

Honesty, I've been told, is the best policy.  So I have to confess: I had an ulterior motive for baking these muffins.  Mainly: Bribery.

Yes, bribery.  To convince my New York roommate-to-be that I would be the best roommate ever.  And to sweeten the deal for a friend to look after Rizi Bizi.  Both of these situations, I might add, turned out quite well and while they might have done so anyway, the muffins sure didn't hurt.

So if you find yourself needing a baked good to tip the balance in your favor, I'll vouch for these extra-moist strawberry-white chocolate muffins (with a streusel topping), based on the decadent muffins at the C-Shop and this recipe.

You'll need:

3/4 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup diced strawberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Combine brown sugar, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl.  Add eggs one at a time.

Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt incrementally to the wet batter.  Then add diced strawberries and white chocolate chips.

Equally portion batter into the 12 muffin cups.

For the streusel topping:

2 tsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine the ingredients together, cutting the butter into the mixture.  I used a fork for this process.  You should get a crumbly-looking mixture.

Sprinkle streusel on top of the batter in the muffin cups.

Bake muffins for 25 minutes, or until a knife stuck in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.

They ain't healthy, but they sure are tasty.

If you store them in an airtight container, they should last up to 5 or 6 days.

Word to the wise: When I was making these muffins, I was really concerned about the dryness of the batter.  But worry not!  When you add the strawberries to the mix and stir them around a bit, their moisture will make this into a surefire, true muffin batter.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Earlier this week, I promised someone carrot cake cupcakes.  Yesterday rolled around and it was time to deliver.  I found it surprisingly difficult to find a recipe that I liked (something that used butter instead of oil, had traditional carrot cake ingredients), so I based my recipe off of this one, but with some pretty serious tweaks.  These are almost "hummingbird" cupcakes, but not quite.  One quick note: I didn't make my own icing, and for that I am sorry.  Next time I make a cake-like item, you can expect an accompanying icing recipe.

You'll need:

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp. honey
2 eggs
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 tbsp. apple juice
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a dozen muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and honey until the mixture is smooth.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then add grated carrot (you can grate right into the bowl—that's what I did).

Stir in flour, baking soda, and baking powder in two parts.  Stir smooth, but don't overbeat.  Add apple juice and stir.  Add walnuts and raisins.  You should have a smooth, moist batter at this point.

Spoon the batter into the twelve muffin cups approximately equally.  Bake until golden and risen, so that when you stick a knife in the middle, it comes out clean.  This takes about 25 minutes.

Cool on a rack, then remove from pan.  Let cool thoroughly before icing (This was a mistake I made because I was in a rush).

When you're done, you'll get some sweet cupcakes like this:

And your friends will be happy and look like this:

I warned you, Alex.  Now it's on the Internet.

Whopper Brownies and Raspberry Meringue Cookies

My younger sister, Juliana, and I have been planning to get together to bake something/have a dance party for weeks now, but it kept getting put off.  She finally came over this afternoon, and the results were of epically sugary proportions.

My original thought was to make meringue cookies, since I had leftover egg whites from a chocolate silk pie I made last week.  But since we needed to wait for the egg whites to reach room temperature, we warmed up our cooking skills with some Whopper brownies.

I got the idea for malted milk chocolate brownies after making the aforementioned chocolate silk pie last week.  It was supposed to be a chocolate malted silk pie, but the malt powder flavor just didn't come through.  I thought I'd give the malt powder another chance to prove itself, but with the aid of an entire movie theater-size box of Whoppers.

This recipe is based on the basic brownie recipe from my grandmother's copy of Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook.

You'll need:
2 squares semisweet baking chocolate
1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. malt powder
1 5-oz. box of Whoppers

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8-inch square pan with a little butter.

Melt the chocolate and the butter and place in a large bowl.  Beat in the sugar and eggs.  After it is thoroughly mixed, beat in the flour, baking powder, salt, and malt powder.

You'll need to break up the Whoppers before adding them to your brownies.  We did it this way:

Which is to say, we sealed the Whoppers up in a plastic bag and then Juliana jumped on them.

You could also smash them up with a rolling pin or put them in a food processor or something, but after seeing this method, why would you want to?

Add the crushed Whoppers to the batter, reserving about 2 tbsp.  Mix well.

Spread the batter into the pan and then sprinkle the reserved crushed Whoppers over the top.  This makes a nice caramelized crust.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top of the brownies have a dull color.  Cool and then cut.  This recipe should make about 16 brownies.

For our next trick, we made raspberry meringue cookies, based on this recipe by Sandra Lee.

You'll need:

1/2 cup egg whites

1 tsp. raspberry extract

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 cup powdered sugar

3 drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, beat together the egg whites, raspberry extract, and cream of tartar with a whisk until the mixture gets frothy.  Then add powdered sugar by tablespoon.  Continue whisking while adding the sugar.  Add food coloring, and keep beating until the mixture forms stiff peaks (as Juliana said to the meringues, "I want you to make Madonna's tits from the '80s").  This took us about 30 minutes with our whisk.  You could go a lot faster with an electric mixer.

Juliana demonstrates the type of exercises you'll need to do if you want to beat the whites by hand.

Spoon mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip, then pipe into 2-inch spirals on the baking sheets.

Like so.

Bake in the over for about 50 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.  When they are finished baking, turn off the heat on the oven, crack open the door, and allow the meringues to dry out for about 10 minutes.  Then you can just pluck them off the aluminum foil.

You'll get cookies like this:

This recipe made about 30 cookies.

They were slightly on the flat side, and more brown than pink, but they tasted airy and delicious.  Plus, the shapes were pretty hilarious.  Clearly we need more practice (and maybe an electric mixer), but this seemed like a reasonable first attempt.