Pie Party: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Crumb Topping

Last year on the Fourth of July, I was bobbing up and down on a lake in Virginia with Tim's extended family.  I do wish we could have done that again, but we had an assortment of other things keeping us at home.  In fact, being home gave me an excuse to bake a pie.

If you hadn't heard, there is a Pie Party today.  What is a Pie Party, you ask?  Well, a few food bloggers were chatting on Twitter about baking summer pies, and someone suggested having an online gathering where you bake a pie and post about it on a certain date.  That date is today--July 5--and if you go to the Pie Party's host's website, Shauna of Gluten Free Girl and the Chef, I'm sure you will find that on July 5 her page will be overflowing with commenters sharing their Pie Party submissions.  It's not a contest, but it is an opportunity to find new and interesting pie recipes for your collection.

To be honest, I'm a novice baker.  I do enjoy baking, and many of my recipes on this site are baked goods, but I wouldn't consider myself a pie maker.  I needed to do some research.  In the back of my mind, I could remember something I read in the New York Times about pie, and after a quick Google search, I found the article.  In this piece, Melissa Clark did some testing of ingredient combinations to find the perfect pie crust recipe.  Unfortunately her conclusion was to use lard in the mix--and while it sounded tasty, that just wasn't something I had the resources to do.  I instead opted for a mix of butter for flavor and shortening to help the crust hold its shape.  I must have made a wrong turn somewhere; while the crust was really, really tasty and the bottom and sides held their shape well, the edge was quite crumbly and didn't survive much handling.  I haven't completely given up on pie crust making, but in the recipe for this pie, I think I'll recommend picking up a ready-to-bake crust. 

Tim has been stockpiling strawberries in the hopes that I will create something interesting with them, so I guess this was his lucky weekend.  I opted for a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Crumb Topping.  It was easy enough to assemble (it would be a cinch with a ready-made crust), and I especially liked that it was pie masquerading as cobbler masquerading as pie.  The best of all summer dessert worlds. 

I know strawberries are ending their season in many parts of the country and just beginning their season in others, so don't wait--wherever you are--to make this pie.  We practically licked our plates. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Crumb Topping
adapted from Bon Appetit via epicurious
serves 8

The recipe was written for a deep dish 9-inch pie plate, but all I was a regular, 9-inch pie plate.  It worked out perfectly for me without decreasing the quantity of filling.

Ingredients
1 ready-made pie crust, pre-baked according to package directions

For the filling
3/4 lb rhubarb, sliced 1/2 inch thick on the diagonal, about 3 1/2 cups
1 lb strawberries, hulled and halved
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp lemon zest

Combine all filling ingredients in heavy bottomed pot.  Stir and let stand for 30 minutes.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat to a simmer and allow to thicken, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Pour filling into pre-baked prepared crust.

For the topping
2/3 cup plus 2 tbsp rolled oats, divided
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

In a food processor, combine 2/3 cup rolled oats, flour, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter and pulse until crumbly.  Transfer to a medium bowl and mix in remaining 2 tbsp rolled oats.  Sprinkle over filling in pie crust.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.  Cool on rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

For more Pie Party recipes, you can search on twitter for the #pieparty hashtag. 

Until Then, I Have Rhubarb

The rain has been coming every few days.  Not just a little rain but strong downpours that soak the cold ground and create little puddles throughout our yard.  We have started our spring routine of wiping our dogs' feet, one paw at a time, before we let them back inside.  Our little patch of chives have grown without any assistance from me, growing five or six inches tall before I even noticed they had returned.

Spring is really here.

Tim got a phone call a few days ago about about the Mason Community Garden.  The organizers are gearing up for this summer and were confirming that last year's participants would like to be a part of it again.  On behalf of both of us, Tim definitely agreed.  Thankfully, Mason has been planning ahead for a successful summer harvest.  The city has been mulching leaves onto the garden plot and the soil will be tested before the garden is open for planting this spring.  Just the thought of shopping for seedlings and mapping out our plot gets me excited.  I'm practically tapping my toes impatiently for May to get here.

Until then, I have rhubarb.  I've missed its long, ruby stalks and the way its tart flesh makes me purse my lips.  This spring I'm taking full advantage of this vegetable starting with a Country Rhubarb Cake. 

I can't recall eating rhubarb before last spring although I'm sure it was hiding in a pie or tart at some point in my past.  I have a faint memory of my grandmother telling me she doesn't like rhubarb, but I can't exactly put my finger on when that memory took place.  Remembering details is not really a strength of mine, but I think I'd remember rhubarb.  

Last spring I read Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and food started fitting into categories according to seasons.  Rhubarb and asparagas in the spring; tomatoes in July; winter squash in early fall.  I suppose I knew that vegetables don't grow in Ohio all year round, but supermarkets really alter the way I saw food.  If I want--I can get.

I did my best last year to appreciate seasonal foods, but this year is going to be even better.  I hope you think of this cake when you pass by a bunch of unassuming stalks of rhubarb at the market.  It will make you want spring to stick around a little longer.

Before I give you the recipe, there's a little housekeeping to address.  I want to acknowledge that I'm trying something new with my photos.  Instead of editing for sharpness or other filtering, I shot these pics on my iPhone and edited them using the instagr.am app.  I recently decided to take David Lebovitz's advice (a great read for food bloggers) and try to better define my blog.  I don't want this to be a "recipe" blog.  While that format is works for many bloggers, I am a writer instead of a cook.  This is my place to write--about food. 

So, like the pics  Hate them?  Feel free to let me know.  I'm still feeling it out.

Country Rhubarb Cake
recipe adapted from Gourmet, March 2004
serves 5-6

The recipe suggests making this in a glass pie plate but I don't have one.  I used an oven-safe ceramic dish that my mother-in-law gifted us two years ago and I don't think a pie plate is necessary.  The bottom layer of the crust and top layer did come together as it baked so that it is much more like a cake than a pie.  My suggestion is a 9 or 10 inch ceramic round or oval dish if you don't have a glass pie plate.

Next time I make this recipe I will add salt to the crust so I am adjusting the recipe accordingly.  I felt that was the only thing missing from the cake.

3 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 cups cake flour, sifted
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/3 cup 2% milk
2 large eggs (1 separated)

With the oven rack in the middle, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Butter a glass pie plate or a 9 inch round ceramic dish with 3 to 4 inch sides and chill.

In a medium bowl, combine rhubarb and brown sugar.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, combine cake flour, baking powder,1/2 cup sugar, and salt and whisk together.  Using your fingertips, blend in the butter until the flour mixture resembles a coarse meal (lumps the size of small peas).  In another small bowl, whisk together milk, one whole egg, and one egg yolk.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add milk mixture.  Using a wooden spoon, stir to combine until a sticky dough is formed.  The dough will be slightly lumpy and resemble a biscuit batter. 

With your fingers well coated with non-stick spray or flour, scoop half of the dough into the bottom of the dish and spread around with your fingertips.  Make sure the dough is pressed halfway up the side of the dish.  Then add the rhubarb mixture.  Drop large spoonfuls of the remaining dough around the top.  Some of the rhubarb mixture may be exposed before baking.

Add a few drops of tap water to the remaining egg white and stir.  Brush the egg white over the spoonfuls of dough and then sprinkle the remaining 1 tbsp sugar over the dough. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes until the dough is golden brown and cooked through.  Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before serving.  If you are making in advance, rewarm individual servings or the entire dish before serving.

Vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream are an excellent accompaniment to this cake. 

Equal Opportunity Gelato Consumers

How was your St. Patrick's day? 

I'm wondering what you were up to yesterday because it seems like everywhere I went there were people wearing green t-shirts, green knee socks and drinking suspiciously green beverages.  I, too, sported a green sweater, though I'm aware it was a weak attempt at partaking in the holiday.  I did consume a green beverage (margarita on the rocks) and watch some Sons of Anarchy (SAMCRO has quite a few Irish connections) but neither of those really made me feel like shouting, "Kiss me! I'm pretending to be Irish!" 

What can I say--I'm not Irish and I kind of don't get it.  I suspect part of it has to do with the fact that St. Patty's fell on a weekday this year and frankly, I am having a tough week at work.  My heart wasn't into the celebration.  I will do better next year--maybe even cook up some homemade corned beef.

On the other hand, Tim was a little more in the spirit.  While green beer wasn't on his agenda either, he did surprise me with a small St. Patrick's Day gift from Findlay Market.

 

Guinness flavored gelato from Dojo Gelato and a set of 4 gelato spades*.  What a gift!  The spades make so much sense for eating gelato, particularly pints that sit in the freezer and won't have that softness that you get from fresh.

The Guinness flavor was surprising and subtle.  There was a dark earthiness that I didn't expect and I could definitely tell that it was Guinness.  It wasn't savory--it was definitely dessert--but I appreciated the complexity of the contrast between the dark beer and what was likely vanilla gelato.  It was simple and smooth and did pump a little Irish into our day. 

Just to be clear--I am an equal opportunity gelato consumer--so please check out Dojo's and Madisono's blogs for their seasonal flavors.

*Oh, and the spades were purchased from Dojo's booth at Findlay Market.

Better Than Ice Cream

On Valentine's Day, Tim treated me to a home cooked dinner.  He spatchcocked a chicken and roasted it.  It was chicken at its best served along side rice and asparagus.  The grand finale, though, was the dessert he picked up at Whole Foods.

Madisono's Dark Chocolate Orange Gelato. 

Before I even tasted it, I appreciated that my husband purchased locally.  Madisono's is Cincinnati's first gelato company.  When we lifted the pint's lid, I could immediately smell the intense flavors of chocolate and orange.  How had I forgotten these two were a match made in heaven?  Then when I had a scoop I nearly exclaimed (in the manner of Willie Wonka), "The orange tastes like orange!  The dark chocolate tastes like dark chocolate!"  The flavors were individual yet blended and the result is reminiscent of a Chocolate Orange that my mom used to slip into our Christmas stockings. 

Every bite was smooth and creamy with none of the iciness you often get from pints of ice cream.  That richness is gelato's best asset.  Even the next day when we polished off the pint, there was still no graininess, no apparent ice burn, and the flavors were still strong.  Honestly, I can't see how a pint would last more than a day or two in our house anyway.  It would be dangerous to stock up on this stuff--to say it's addicting is an understatement.

For a list of locations you can get Madisono's gelato, just visit Matt Madison's blog.  We picked ours up at Whole Foods in Mason, and when we went there last night, the choices were slim as many of the flavors seemed sold out.  We did get the last Dark Chocolate Orange to indulge in while we watched Sons of Anarchy, so I'm hopeful that they get more in soon.  I'm not sure how long I will last without it. 

It's Hard to Imagine

Before I tell you about the Brussels sprout slaw (which I promise I will tell you about this week), I want to turn your attention to something else:  whole wheat chocolate chip cookies.  

I know--it's hard to imagine that these are as good as I'm going to tell you that they are, but you're going to have to trust me on this one.  I will give you a few reasons why you should:

1. I test all of the recipes I post and only give you recipes for the winners.  
2. You probably wish you used whole wheat flour more often.
3. It can be our little secret that these are whole wheat cookies.
4. No one will ever guess that these are whole wheat.

Is that enough to sway you?  I can give you a few more if you need them!

When I came home from Whole Foods with a tiny bag of King Arthur white flour and a big bag of King Arthur premium whole wheat flour, Tim immediately began reciting his usual speech about how he detests the flavor of whole wheat foods.  Then he started quizzing me on reasons why whole wheat flour is better for you than white flour.  He brandished the bag in front of me saying, "Whole wheat flour has more fat in it than white flour, see?"  It's hard to explain to someone how whole wheat flour also has more good-for-you-stuff in it than white flour, so I allowed him to have his rant. 

My only response to him was to suggest he use the flour to make a cookie and see how he liked it.  He originally balked at the recipe, but not one to turn down something sweet, he agreed.

These were the type of cookies you would hope to find in a gourmet bistro.  They were crunchy on the outside and so thick and chewy on the inside that you never wanted it to end (so you had to eat another one).  They were extremely buttery and rich and you would never know that it was whole wheat flour that gave the cookie its nutty flavor, incredible texture, and beautiful color.  Hands down, these were the best chocolate chip cookies ever made in our house and they even converted my husband into a believer in whole wheat flour. 

I won't lie to you and tell you they are healthy (with 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups of sugar).  But if you're going to indulge this holiday, it might as well be these cookies rather than the same old boring sugar cookies you always make.  They may even make a believer out of you. 


Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Kim Boyce's book Good to the Grain, as seen on Orangette
as written, makes 25-30 cookies

Since these cookies will make such a whole wheat flour believer out of you, I highly suggest you do as I did and put Kim Boyce's book on your Christmas/Birthday/New Years/Valentines Day wish list.  If it doesn't make it under my tree on Christmas, I will be buying it for myself and teaching my family about alternative grains in 2011 and beyond. 

Also, the recipe called for 3 tablespoons of dough per cookie, but Tim felt that 2 tablespoons was plenty enough to make a large cookie.  If you are looking for a really large, impressive cookie, I suggest going with the 3 tablespoons.  It may slightly increase your cooking time so be watchful of your dough.

Ingredients
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
16 tbsp cold, unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 ounces semi-sweet (or bittersweet) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Make sure your racks are placed in the upper and lower thirds of your oven.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  Whisk together until combined.  Put butter, sugar, and dark brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on low, until the sugars are just blended, about 2 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix to incorporate after each.  Then add the vanilla and mix to incorporate.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the flour mixture and beat on low until just combined (do not over-mix!).  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl again.  Add the chocolate chips and beat on low until just distributed. 

Using your hands, reach into the bowl and turn the dough, kneading it lightly until any extra flour is incorporated. You could also do this on a lightly floured counter. 

Scoop 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie onto each baking sheet.  You may only fit 8 or 12 mounds on the sheet, depending on how heaping your tablespoons are.  Refrigerate extra dough while baking.

Bake for 16-18 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through.  Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.  Repeat with remaining dough.

These cookies were best when eaten within 3 days. 

Seal of Approval

Since we are first time Thanksgiving hosts, I want to test new recipes before the big day to make sure they meet my expectations.  I've been searching high (online) and low (magazines & cookbooks) for anything that seems like it fits my vision.  I found a dessert recipe to test when I was looking through my latest Bon Appetit magazine (Thanksgiving issue).  It was a recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake.

I wouldn't call myself a cheesecake person.  Do I like cheesecake?  Sure, it's fine.  But out of a dessert line up, I would almost never choose it.  I'm more of a chocolate person.  There was just something about the simplicity of this recipe--likely combined with my my new found love of pumpkin--that made me instantly tear it out of the magazine so I could round up the ingredients.   
 .

Cheesecake makes me think of my dad--a lover of cheesecake and unexpected baker.  Before the Cheesecake Factory was in this area, he sought one out while we were on vacation.  We ordered a few light appetizers, saving our appetites for dessert.  We chose the flavors of cheesecake we wanted to try; we ended up creating a small assortment of desserts to sample.  I remember when the thick slices of perfectly baked cheesecake came out to our table, my mom's eyes grew wide at their height and decadence.  We are a family who appreciate food for it's flavor and presentation so at the time these cheesecakes were extremely impressive. 

Most people wouldn't really expect my dad to be someone who bakes, but he does, mostly around the holidays.  When I brought my Pumpkin Cheesecake to their house this past Sunday, my father quietly inspected it and said, "That looks great, Jen."

And when I expressed my concern about how high the center had rose in the middle while baking and then sank down and slightly cracked when cooling, he said, "They do that--they rise up and then the center falls.  It looks great." 

It wasn't the perfectly proportioned cheesecake like we ate at the Cheesecake Factory--but I had my father's seal of approval, and it was better than any cheesecake I'd ever eaten.


Pumpkin Cheesecake
recipe adapted from a Philadelphia cream cheese advertisement
serves 12-16

My husband told me that he thinks we could have reduced the amount of "sinkage" of the middle by cooling down the cheesecake more slowly.  I did a little research about that and decided to trust Ina's recommendation.  In a recipe for a chocolate cheesecake, she baked it for 1 hour and then turned the oven off and let the cheesecake sit in the oven with the door slightly open for 1.5 hours.  If you have that kind of time, then I would definitely try that method and see how it goes.  Ina is rarely wrong!

Ingredients for the crust
38 ginger snaps
1/4 cup pecans
1/4 cup melted butter

Spray a 9 inch springform pan with non-stick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.  Add ginger snaps, pecans, and melted butter to a food processor.  Pulse until ingredients are in small crumbs but will slightly hold together when pinched with your fingers.  Dump out the mixture into the pan and with your fingertips press onto the bottom and up 1 inch of the side.  (See picture above)  When you are finished, refrigerate while making the filling.

Ingredients for the filling
4 packages (8 oz each) of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Beat cream cheese and sugar on medium with a mixer until well blended.  Add pumpkin, spices, and vanilla and mix well.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing after each.  Pour mixture into crust.  Bake 80 minutes to 90 minutes or until the center is almost set (it may still slightly jiggle).  Remove from oven and run a knife around the edge to loosen from the side of the pan.  Cool before removing the rim. 

Refrigerate for 4 hours before serving. 

Optional:  Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and a dusting of nutmeg or cinnamon.  (Personally, I thought it was rich enough as it was!)

The Easiest Pumpkin Pie Ever

It has been nearly 24 hours since the Mad Men season finale.  If you don't watch Mad Men, you may not understand.  And if you don't watch Mad Men, I suggest you get thee to Netflix and start watching.  You are missing out.

Now that the season is over, I'm pondering what in the world I'm going to do with myself on Sundays.  I have spent my Sundays for the past 3 months feeding myself caffeine to stay awake from 10pm until 11pm so I can watch the entire episode.  I can't possibly wait until Monday to watch it on TiVo (even though I record it anyway--just in case).

I suppose since I have all of this time on my hands, I might as well bake.  Doesn't that seem like the obvious thing for a food blogger to do?  It seems that way to me.  So I did.  I baked.  Already.  Less than 24 hours after the finale--it's not even Sunday yet!   

:sigh:

It's going to be a long year until the next season...

I picked up a "pie" pumpkin at the grocery.  I think it was a sugar pumpkin, but it's possible the store was tricking me and just selling me a small, regular pumpkin.  And then I'm not sure it really matters.  Any thoughts on pumpkin selection?

I baked the pumpkin the same way I baked the butternut squash, using the method that I saw on Annie's Eats, and after it cooled I pureed and strained it.  I got quite a bit of liquid out of the pumpkin puree and then I cooked it over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly (notice my penchant for things that require a lot of stirring?), until most of the liquid was cooked out. 

Then, I made the easiest pumpkin pie ever.  I'm not kidding--ridiculously easy.  I cheated a little and used store bought pie crust that didn't require any pre-baking, but it was still--even if I had made my own crust--the easiest pumpkin pie ever.

I mixed all of the filling ingredients, poured it into the pie shells, baked, cooled, sliced, and ate it.  And that was it.

I highly suggest you make this.  It will be the perfect thing to quell your Mad Men withdrawal--or any reason you might want some pie!

The Easiest Pumpkin Pie Ever
adapted from Gourmet, November 1999
8 slices per pie

Don't feel pressure to make your own pumpkin puree.  It was just something I wanted to try out.  If you decide to make your own, you will probably need 2 or 3 small pie pumpkins.  But if you don't want to go to the trouble, canned pumpkin will do just fine!  Also, the original recipe called for whole milk but I used skim and I couldn't tell that anything was missing.  Lastly, the original recipe is for 1 pumpkin pie, but my pie crusts were shallow so the filling made 2 well-filled pumpkin pies. 

Ingredients
1 deep or 2 shallow pie crusts
15 oz can of pumpkin puree or 2 cups homemade pumpkin puree
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
3/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
whipped cream for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together.  Pour into prepared pie crusts.  Bake in middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes.  Check done-ness.  If the center still jiggles slightly, that is okay because as the pie cools, the filling will cook a little bit more and set up.  But if you feel like it is not quite finished cooking, allow to cook for 2-3 more minutes. 

Cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve room temperature or cold with whipped cream.

My Birthday

Don't lie to me and tell me that summer is not coming to an end.  And I don't want to hear any of that summer in Ohio can stretch out until mid-October nonsense.  It's enough disappointment to admit that I've only gotten to a handful of things on my summer list.  But if anyone would know the signals of the end of summer, it's me.

That is because today is my birthday.  And my birthday always marks the end of summer.

School begins at the end of August.  A slight chill returns to the air at night in August.  The trees start to turn their first leaves towards brown of utter exhaustion from trying to hold out for some rain.  It all reminds me of my birthday.

Don't get me wrong--there are good things about having an August birthday.  I get to spend all summer gearing up to celebrate it.  There are no major holiday distractions like Christmas or Halloween.  It's always warm and sunny outside so flip flops and tank tops are my birthday wardrobe. Margaritas and icy beers are weather-appropriate celebratory beverages. 

I've been doing my very best to celebrate in whatever way this end-of-summer birthday takes me, and I hope you will join in.  With some sautéed peaches, perhaps?

Sautéed Peaches
serves 3-4

Ingredients
2-3 medium peaches, ripe
1 tbsp sugar
Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tbsp)
2 tbsp butter

Peel peaches and cut in half.  Discard the pit.  If there are any reddish brown patches from where the pit met the flesh of the peach, scoop that out and discard.  Cut into slices and place in a medium bowl.  Add sugar and lemon juice to peaches and set aside.

Melt butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add peach mixture and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occassionally to prevent burning and coat peaches in butter.  When the liquid thickens, remove from heat.  Allow peaches to cool for 1-2 minutes before serving.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and a pinch of cinnamon.

Local 127 and the Art of Savory Desserts

At a recent canning demonstration and luncheon I attended at Local 127 in downtown Cincinnati (more details about the luncheon coming up next week), I was chatting with Chef Geddes about the flavor profile in the dessert he served.  It was, in his words, Cheesecake in a Jar with Blueberry Compote and Crème Fraiche.  It was, in my words, divine, and absolutely perfect after the incredible lunch we had just eaten, but it wasn't your traditional overtly sweet dessert.

I was particularly curious about the blueberry compote.  The blueberries tasted like blueberries, but they didn't have their traditional sweet/tart flavor burst.  They did have an acidic flavor that balanced well with the creamy cheesecake, but the acid was not that of a citrus fruit like lemon but of vinegar.  There was also a slight undertone of something else...something herbaceous and floral but not overpowering.  So I asked Chef Geddes about the secret ingredients.  

Champagne vinegar and basil.

How incredibly smart, I thought.  And how refreshing to not have sweet on top of sweet at the end of a meal.  I appreciated the creativity of the entire meal (more pics next week in my review of the luncheon) and the use of fresh, local ingredients.  My compliments to the chef, of course.

In homage to that dessert, I decided that a sweet and savory galette was my next project.  It was entirely experimental, as all things tend to be in my house, but I did find some inspiration by checking out some fruit galette recipes from Smitten Kitchen and Rose Levy Beranbaum.  I didn't want it to be overtly sweet so I scaled back on the sugar amounts, and I didn't want the crust to outshine the fruit so I chose a more savory sour cream crust that was recently featured in Cooks Illustrated.

The end result was almost exactly what I was going for.  I think I could have gone with a tablespoon or more of sugar, but the fruit was really the star here. 

Give it a try if you are feeling daring in the kitchen--and feel free to make any small adjustments by subbing a different fruit or increasing the sugar.  If you have a success story, please come back and share it with me!

Peach & Blueberry Galette
adapted loosely from Smitten Kitchen and Rose Levy Beranbaum
serves 6-8


*The peaches I used for this recipe were slightly firm and I was worried they would not be ripe enough, but I thought they perfect as far as flavor in the finished galette.  Over-ripe peaches may be slimy and not hold up well in baking, so lean towards to firm side.  Also, this is positively sinful with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Should you decide to be extra daring and make your own, may I recommend David Lebovitz's Vanilla Ice Cream recipe.  

Ingredients for the pie crust
adapted slightly from Cooks Illustrated July/August 2010
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar, plus 2 tbsp sugar
12 tbsp unsalted butter, very cold
3 tbsp sour cream
1/4 cup ice water
2 egg whites

Add flour, salt, and 1 tsp sugar to food processor and process until combined.  Cut very cold butter into 1/4 inch cubes and add to food processor.  Pulse until butter is the size of large peas (about 10 pulses).  In a separate bowl, mix sour cream and ice water until combined.  Add half of the sour cream mixture to flour mixture.  Pulse for about 3 seconds.  Repeat with remaining mixture.  Pinch dough with fingers.  If it is floury and dry and does not hold together, add 1 tbsp of ice water at a time, and process until dough forms large clumps and there is no dry flour.

Turn dough onto floured work surface and form into a disk.  Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  During this time, make the filling.  After you are finishing chilling the dough, remove from plastic wrap on a floured surface and roll out to a 12-14 inch circle.  This does not have to be perfect because this will be a sort of free-form pie.  Set aside on parchment paper until you are ready to fill.

Ingredients for the filling
5-6 peaches
pinch of coarse salt
juice of half a lemon (about 2 tbsp)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup blueberries
1 tsp corn starch
3-4 tbsp sugar

Preheat your oven with a pizza stone in it to 400 degrees F.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Cut a large X in the bottom of each peach, as demonstrated here and then add to the boiling water.  Allow them to boil for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Set aside peaches to cool until you can safely handle them, and peel back the skin.  If it does not come off easily, that's okay!  Just use a paring knife to help slip the skin off. 

Cut the peaches into wedges and discard the pits and skins.  Set the peach wedges in a mesh strainer and add a pinch of coarse salt and the lemon juice and toss it together.  Set the strainer over a medium bowl allow to macerate for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 1.5 hours. 

When the peaches are done macerating,  pour the accumulated juice into a small saucepan with 2 tbsp butter and allow to reduce to half on medium for about 5 minutes, or until it's syrupy.  Meanwhile, put the peaches back into a medium bowl and add the blueberries.  Toss with corn starch, 3-4 tbsp sugar, and the reduced juice. 

Add the filling to the center of the rolled out pie dough, taking care to leave 3-4 inches of dough around the sides as a border.  Take the edge of the dough and fold it over toward the middle, about 2-3 inches over the fruit filling.  Continue this all the way around the sides, crimping and pinching the dough so that it holds itself up around the filling.

Brush the crust border with the egg whites and sprinkle the last 2 tbsp of sugar over the crust. 

Bake on a pizza stone (or a baking sheet if you don't have a pizza stone) for 40-45 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is nice and brown.  Remove from oven (try using a pizza peel if you are having trouble taking it out) and set on a wire rack to cool slightly.  You may want to place a paper towel or dish cloth under the wire rack as the fruit filling may slip through any cracks in the crust.

Can be served warm with a scoop of ice cream or stored in an air tight container for up to 1 week.

From Scratch

I try to challenge myself in the kitchen.  Maybe it's my competitiveness (I never lose at Scrabble or dominoes--that I can remember, at least); maybe it's my risky side (who else would major in English in college with no plan for a career).  Between those less-than-ideal personality traits and my impatient nature combined with a control-freak attitude in the kitchen, a recipe that requires it's ingredients to boil, chill, rest, chill, rest again, roll, chill, rest, and then finally bake was really pushing me over the edge of my kitchen sanity.

It's not like all I do is cook or bake.  I have hobbies.  Gardening--I'm still coming to terms with our community garden failure but our herbs are growing like weeds.  Sewing--would you make your mutt a dress to wear to a parade?  Reading--just finished a good one and am taking suggestions for the next one.  My dogs--if you had dogs this cute they would be your hobby, too.  Wine--I started a ladies wine club to keep up on my wine education since I'm no longer in the business. 

While I was making these Black and White Swirl French Butter Cookies from America's Test Kitchen, I was wishing I was doing anything else.  Weeding the garden--really hated doing that.  Shaving my legs--isn't that just the most annoying thing that women have to do?  Waiting at the mechanics to get my oil changed--I still don't understand why it takes so long but that's why I'm not a mechanic.

Since this made nearly 50 cookies, I definitely needed to get rid of some of them so Tim and I don't eat every single one.  I work in a small office, but I decided to take a little container of them in to share.  I placed them out on the front of the desk with a little post-it that read, "Have a cookie!"  While I was in another room, the night employee came in to relieve me.  I asked him if he'd like a cookie, and he replied, "Oh, I've already had two."

I said, "I'm glad you like them.  I'm never making them again because they took so much work to make the vanilla dough and then the chocolate and then roll them out them out individually and chill them and then roll them together and then chill them in a log overnight and then slice and bake them this morning..."

He looked at me with wide eyes and said, "You made these from scratch?  They are awesome."

And that, folks, is why I will keep on challenging myself in the kitchen. 

I'm not going to torture you with the recipe, but if you'd like to wow your coworkers with your home-made cookie skills, I'd suggest you buy the cookbook and make sure you have plenty of patience, parchment paper, and a half a day to dedicate to baking.

How Rosemary Channeled My Inner Domestic Goddess

Yesterday morning I called my local bookstore to make sure they had the book I wanted in stock.  A very nice sounding young man only took a minute checking the shelves and came back to the phone to inform me that yes, "We have three copies of 'A Homemade Life' in hardcover.  I'll hold a copy for you at the counter."

Best.  News.  Ever.

You see, we have a road-trip coming up soon and I do not want to be stranded in the passenger seat of my own vehicle without something interesting to read.  In fact, after I read a post written by another Molly Wizenberg super-fan, I decided I absolutely had to go pick up the book for this particular trip.  I know that Tim will be committed to driving for long periods of time with few breaks and I am going to need to be completely absorbed in something to make the time pass.  Everywhere I look people have raved about how this book made them laugh, cry, and want to cook, so even though I'm late to picking up this book I know I will have it finished by the time we are home (or maybe by the time we get there). 

While we were at the bookstore, I decided I absolutely needed a new cookbook (can you ever have too many?).  Tim didn't know this, but I had already decided which one I wanted before we even left the house.  There was only one copy of How to Be a Domestic Goddess and it left the store in my bag.  

Nigella Lawson has always been one of my favorite food writers and cookbook authors, mostly because of her va-va-voom style and sly charm that makes me think she just might wink at me when she finishes a sentence.  I sat down last night and began reading this cookbook just as if I were reading a novel.  As Tim fell asleep, I was still sitting up in bed with the reading lamp on absorbing tips and tricks about baking.  Her foreword is absolutely spot on when she says that being a "domestic goddess" is more a state of mind rather than any action you perform.  Doesn't it make you feel good to bake a cake?  Don't you feel proud when you make scones from scratch?  I'll answer for you--yes and yes. 

The only difficulty with the book is what I'd consider a language barrier.  I have spent a good chunk of time today translating her British slang, metric measurements, and Celsius temperatures.  Did you know that dessert is referred to as pudding over the great Atlantic pond?  That took me a while to catch on to that--for a while I assumed she was talking about a mushy cake!  Complicating matters further, I am fairly new to baking (Tim is the baker in this family) and I don't own a scale.  More time was spent googling different opinions on how grams translate to volume for dry ingredients.  I think I got it figured out, but I imagine that any recipe would be even better if I were to do it completely as it was written.

A recipe for a Rosemary Loaf Cake really stood out to me.  For one, I recently saw another favorite blogger of mine make an Olive Oil Cake that contained rosemary and also because the rosemary plant in my backyard is finally starting to take off. 

Rosemary may seem like an odd choice in a dessert, let alone a cake, and Nigella addresses that.  She said to just trust that the flavors of sugar, vanilla, and rosemary would be a complimentary.  Two teaspoons of rosemary in this recipe may seem like a very small amount but it definitely created wonderful aromatics in the house while this was baking.

Assuming my translation from mass to volume was correct, I thought that the crumb of this cake was perfect.  It was slightly crumbly, sort of like a corn cake, but very soft and moist in the middle. 

The flavor was distinctly sweet, with a perfectly sugary top crust.  The hint of rosemary was in the forefront of its taste and, wouldn't-you-know-it-Nigella-was-right, complimentary to the vanilla as if they were the epitome of sugar and spice. 

Nigella suggests serving this with cold stewed apples or other fruit, but that didn't strike my fancy tonight.  I had one slice before dinner and a second one after just to be sure it was as good as I had remembered it being 30 minutes ago.  I think if you wanted to serve it with something, I'd go with a nutty ice cream or a basil gelato (the latter being something my friend Meg has already commissioned for her birthday this fall).   

Rosemary Loaf Cake
adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess
serves 8-10

Ingredients
18 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar plus 2 tbsp
3 large or 4 medium eggs
1 2/3 cup self-raising flour*
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp rosemary, chopped small
4 tbsp whole milk

*If you do not have self-raising flour, you can do what I did and sift together 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1 tsp 3/4 tsp salt, and 2 1/4 tsp baking powder.  Thanks to Bob at Cooking Stuff for the timely post. 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Sift together the 2 flours in a medium bowl.  In the mixer bowl, cream the butter until it's really soft and then add 3/4 cup sugar, creaming both together until pale, smoothe and light.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, alternating egg and then 1/3 the flour, then egg, and so forth.  Mix each until just incorporated and be careful not to overmix.  Then mix in the vanilla.  Fold in the rosemary.  Stir in the milk to thin the batter.  Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan.  Sprinkle the top with the additional 2 tbsp sugar.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the loaf pan on a wire rack until it's completely cooled.  Slice and serve or wrap well in tin foil until serving. 

West Chester Farmer's Market and Zucchini Without a Prayer

A Saturday morning at the West Chester Farmer's Market was exactly what I needed after indulgent weekends with friends.  Don't misunderstand, I adore my friends.  I miss them dearly.  Why do we all live so far apart from one another?  But my simple routine was completely off kilter.  There was no baking over the weekends with Tim.  There was no tending to our little garden.  There was no snuggling with the cutest puppy dogs ever.  And I missed Tim.  Our little life is a wonderful thing.

I admit I'd never been to a farmer's market before Saturday.  I have had the best of intentions to go, and in early May even drove up to South Lebanon a few times when I thought that their market might be open early.  Of course, it wasn't open, and then my early June weekends I was out of town, so this was my first opportunity.  I arrived around 9:30am and the area was already bustling with shoppers.  I had been given some advice by friends that you shouldn't take a grocery list with you but just go with what's fresh and available.  I did bring a little wish list of things I was hoping to find, and luckily, everything I wanted for the week was there. 

After perusing the farmer's market's website, I had two vendors in mind that I was particularly interested in checking out.  One was Blue Jacket Dairy.  A few weekends prior, Tim and I had been watching our local public broadcast channel and caught a special about local cheesemaking at Blue Jacket Dairy.  It was intriguing how this small, family operated business was turning traditional dairy farming into a specialty foods business.  With the local food and slow food movements expanding throught southwest and central Ohio, I was thrilled to see they were going to be at the market.  Their high quality gourmet cheese did not disappoint and I walked away with around $5 worth of each Ludlow cheese and Gretna Grilling cheese.

The other vendor I wanted to shop was Morning Sun Farm run by Dave and Evelyn Filbrun.  I was attracted to their booth because of the huge truck backed up to their stall and the long line of people waiting to purchase eggs and meat from them.  Their eggs are laid by free range, organic chickens and their selection of different organic poultry, pork, and lamb products was impressive.  They had all cuts of chicken available, and I was able to cross a whole chicken and a dozen eggs off my wish list.  Since this was one of the first booths I went to, I only had big bills.  The gentleman who was working the booth (perhaps it was Dave Filbrun?) was very polite and even offered samples of some sweet sausage they had warmed up on the table.  He asked me after I paid that if I had smaller bills when I finished shopping if I could bring him back some $1's or $5's.  About 20 minutes later, after I had purchased a zucchini, a big bunch of green onions, and some organic honey, I came back with some change.  The gentleman was so thankful that he gave me a package of frozen organic chicken wings at no charge. 

That's the beauty of doing business from person to person.  I will definitely be purchasing my meat from the market from here on out.  Not only is it better for my local agricultural industry (which is a big deal in Southwest Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) but he made a big impact on me.  I highly suggest if you are in the Cincinnati area to check out the West Chester Farmer's Market and see if you can do some of your shopping person to person.  I think it will make an impact on you, too. 

While I'm saving the chicken for dinner this week, I did use the green onions in my Vegetable Pad Thai and I used the zucchini in this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cakes with Pecans.  I'm pretty sure everyone has had zucchini in a quick bread, but I'd never had it paired with chocolate.  I know that Ashley over at Delish made some Mini Chocolate Zucchini Cakes of her own that I'd love to compare to this recipe.

While grating the zucchini I was wondering to myself how in the world this was going to taste!  Zucchini, while it is mild, definitely has a "green vegetable" flavor that is distinct when tasted alone.  When paired with 1 cup of sugar, zucchini just doesn't have a prayer of it's own flavor shining through.  While this is definitely not a healthy way to prepare zucchini, it is definitely a way to sneak vegetables into a dessert.  A nifty trick if you're like me and have a kid that won't even try something if she even slighlty suspects it won't taste good. 

I opted to top these with pecans but the original recipe called for walnuts.  For some reason Tim is rather picky about nuts and doesn't care for walnuts.  Personally, I don't find walnts and pecans all that different in flavor or texture.  I think if you left the nuts off completely, you would lose the little crunch that these bite size desserts need in order to be a more satisfying morsel.

I used semi-sweet chocolate chips rather than chopped bittersweet chocolate, and I think that was the right decision.  Without the semi-sweet chocolate, there isn't much intense chocolate flavor.  With the chips, they are very chocolately.  The texture was somewhere between a cupcake and a brownie and it was very easy to eat a bunch of them before you even realized they were half gone.  I suggest packing them up individually to ration them out before you eat all of them in one sitting!

This recipe also gave me a very good reason to use my mini muffin pan, which I've only used a handful of times to make very addictive Pepperoni Pizza Puffs.  In fact, Tim requested those Pizza Puffs this weekend, and that was what reminded me to make these Chocolate Zucchini Cakes! 

Chocolate-Zucchini Cakes with Pecans
adapted from Everyday Food Magazine
makes 24-30 mini cakes

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp course salt
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely grated zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
3 tbsp sour cream
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
24-30 pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, stir together butter, sugar, salt, and egg until combined.  Add vanilla, grated zucchini, and sour cream.  Stir until incorporated.  Sift flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and stir until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Spray mini muffin pan with cooking spray.  Fill each cup with batter until 3/4 full (about 2 tablespoons) and top with a pecan half.  Bake 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool slightly in pans on wire rack before serving. 

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

Memory Loss and Margarita Ice Cream

I can't even bring myself to give you a garden update.  While I was away this weekend, Tim gave me the rundown of our plants and it was not the magical moment where he tells me we are certified green thumbs that I had been expecting.  Let's just say we are on our last ditch effort to save our tomatoes. 

I will say that the trip from our house to our garden has been more enjoyable than I expected.  The garden is outside of the city, and we have to drive through the uptown (or downtown?) area of Mason to get there.  Just as you are about to reenter the great wide open areas outside of town, there is a little ice cream stand. 

This is not just any ice cream stand.  It's the most popular ice cream stand I've ever seen.  Every single time we drive past the line is all the way out to the sidewalk and then curved around to one side or another.  People of all ages are standing around slurping milkshakes or licking vanilla soft serve ice cream.  It's clearly a summer staple in Mason, and one I hope to try out for myself very soon.

Ice cream madness is not exclusively in Mason.  Home cooks everywhere are making ice cream.  Just this past week my coworker Reanne asked me if I had ever made home made ice cream without an ice cream maker.  Well, I hadn't then, but I decided that I needed to try.

I had been carrying around a faint memory of watching Nigella Lawson make a tex-mex fiesta for some friends in which she made tequila ice cream without an ice cream maker.  If you know me outside of this blog, you know that I have a terrible memory.  It infuriates my husband to no end, and I'm sure he's not the first to be frustrated with the way I can simply let things go from my mind.  My argument is that I am asked to remember a lot--family things, work appointments, over 27 years of things that have happened in my life--and I just don't have the energy to store them all.  I have overcome some of my forgetfulness by creating habits--always putting my keys in the same place, making lists, using my Outlook calendar--but inevitably I will forget something that is important to someone else.  Consider this an apology to anyone who feels like I've forgotten something important.  I'm a work in progress.

This tequila ice cream must have made a big impression on me.  I must have been sitting there watching the television and saying to myself, "Store that somewhere, self.  You might need that when you're sitting at home trying to think of what to make for dinner when your friends come all the way out to the suburbs to visit you." 

Before Tim and I went Krogering to pick up all of the other items needed for our little dinner party, we stopped by a liquor store near our new neighborhood.  Tim ran in and I waited in the car.  About 30 seconds later, he came flying back to the car with no liquor in hand and a scowl on his face.  My first instinct, "Is the place getting robbed?  Something bad happened?" 

No.  None of that.  "They charge you $1 to use your debit card. I'm not paying $10 for a $9 bottle of tequila."

So that settled that.  We were not buying tequila from that liquor store.  Or probably anything else from there either...ever. 

We instead picked up a bottle of margarita mix with the liquor already in it from the grocery and that immediately changed this from a five ingredient ice cream to a three ingredient ice cream.  I'm all about simplicity--I can only remember so many things anyway.

 

You must do this a day in advance and the amount of servings this makes are sort of iffy.  I froze the ice cream in two small plastic containers, and my dinner party of five was so full from guacamole, lime-cilantro grilled shrimp, and fish tacos that we each only ate a small scoop in a little parfait dish.  We didn't even finish a full container.  So if I were estimating, this recipe makes 10-12 servings for a post-dinner dessert, but if you waited a few hours until you were good and hungry again, you might be closer to 8-10 servings.  If you are the type who loves margaritas and would drink a margarita instead of eat dinner, you might get 6 servings out of this (but I would still always recommend dinner, especially if you are eating at my house!)

Margarita Ice Cream
recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson

*A quick note:  In the original recipe, Nigella measures some things by weight and some things by volume and it was getting a bit confusing.  Since I don't have a scale I just estimated a few things and it turned out perfectly.  I think that my measurements in my adaptation will work well for you, but you are welcome to try her measurements shown in the link if you have a scale.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Margarita Mix with Tequila already mixed in
1/2 cup powdered sugar
16 oz heavy cream
optional:  lime zest for garnish

In a medium bowl, pour in the margarita mix and stir in the powdered sugar until dissolved.  Add cream and whisk until thick but smooth, not stiff.  Spoon mixture into airtight container and freeze overnight. 

Serve immediately after removing from the freezer and garnish with lime zest. 




 

The Perfect Mix of Ingredients

April showers are intended to bring May flowers, but there is no catchy saying to give the novice gardener a clue about what to do when there are May showers.  Due to this rain, our modest contribution to the community garden has not gone into the ground.  In fact, I'm fairly certain that our plot hasn't been properly tilled, but I'm not sure exactly what that means.  The organizers of the garden assured us that they would get to it as soon as there was enough sun to dry out the muddy dirt, and with sunshine in the forecast for the next two days, I'm hopeful that we will be able to plant our vegetables by Thursday evening.

What do we do while we wait?  We bake.  Well, Tim bakes.  I just...stir the batter?  Or just take pictures.  Whatever is most helpful and doesn't ruin anything!

One of our (and when I say "our," I mean Tim's) most recent projects was perfecting the bundt cake.  I suppose the idea of a Vanilla Sparkling Wine Pound Cake came from me, but he is never one to object to copious amounts of sugar (just ask his mother--he gets it from her)!  And I also can't help it that my grandmother gives loads of women's magazines to my mother each month, and then I steal borrow them from my parent's house.  It gives me something to read on the drives back and forth!

Flipping through this variety of magazines centered on home, family, and food, I wondered if I had just woken up one day and these "grown-up" magazines suddenly were relevant to me.

But then again, the topics in these magazines really do interest me, and in many ways always have.  I suppose this change didn't just happen to me overnight. Many friends in college referred to me as the "mom" because I was always cooking family dinners and organizing group events.  It's a natural progression to do the same within my family--planning weekly menus, instituting family game nights (where I still dominate everyone in dominoes), and investing time into making our house a home.

Mastering the perfect bundt cake is really just an extension of what we are trying to accomplish in our home, our marriage, and our family.  The perfect mix of ingredients that we are able to savor together.

Vanilla Sparkling Wine Pound Cake
Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients for the Cake
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sparkling wine (I used Pink Champagne)
3 tbsp sour cream
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup canola oil
5 cold eggs
2 tbsp vanilla extract

1.  Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt cake pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Sift mixture and set aside.  In a separate bowl, stir together sour cream and sparkling wine and set aside.

2.  Using an electric mixer, mix together sugar, melted butter, and oil until well combined.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Beat in vanilla extract and continue to beat on medium-high for 3 to 5 minutes until the batter is thicker and lighter in color.  Stop mixing and add 1/3 the flour mixture.  Beat on low until just combined, and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Add half of the wine mixture, beat until just combined.  Repeat with 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining wine mixture, and the final 1/3 of the flour mixture.  Be careful not to over mix!  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan with a rubber spatula.

3.  Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cake out on the rack and cool completely.


Ingredients for the Sparkling Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp sparkling wine + additional wine if needed

In a small bowl combine the powdered sugar with 1 tbsp sparkling wine.  Add additional wine, 1 tbsp at a time, until you reach drizzling consistency.  Drizzle glaze over cooled cake.

This was really heavenly.  I hope you give it a try!