A-Z blogging challenge: F is for Frangipane

I remember the first time I tasted frangipane (around 1988-89). My reaction was pretty straightforward: What is this heavenly mixture, and where can I get more? I was working at a local deli/bakery, and one of the owners looked at me as if I must have just ridden into town on the back of the proverbial turnip wagon. Seriously, you've never tasted this before? Now, he didn't actually call it frangipane, but he did identify it as a very common pastry filling, sometimes combined with fruit. (In this case, it was embedded in a puff pastry pretzel. Oh, sweet memories...)

Since then, I have eaten, made and experimented with frangipane, many times. A few variations/tweaks from epicurious.com over the years, and it's practically tattooed on my brain. I simply adore the very basic combination of eggs, butter, sugar and nuts (most commonly: almonds). Maybe a little vanilla or almond extract. That's it. Easy as can be, and flavorful.

1 cup blanched almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
5 Tbsp. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract

Grind almonds finely in food processor, pulsing to get fine, but not too fine. Add other ingredients and process to combine.

If using a pastry shell, have that prepared and chilled. I have had great luck just putting fruit and frangipane in ramekins and baking sans pastry--also, it's gluten-free that way, if that's important. (Again, the options are endless.)

When ready to bake the frangipane, preheat oven to 350 F. If using multiple small baking dishes, place them on a cookie sheet to make it easier to get them into and out of the oven. Bake 20-35 minutes, depending on baking dish (frangipane will bake faster in shallower dishes than deeper ones), until the top is golden and has puffed just slightly.

Let cool for at least 10 minutes. Store leftovers in refrigerator for up to a week.

Makes 2 generous servings or 4 smaller ones, or a dozen tart-size.

Summer berries with frangipane (top)
Fresh apricot frangipane tarts (bottom)

I consider it a sign--providential, coincidental, serendipitous, whatever you want to call it--that my very favorite flower in the world, plumeria:

...is also known as frangipani. Not exactly the same, but very close...

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

It's a-s'mores-ay!

pparently I've reached new dork heights (or is it depths?) with that post title, I'll give you that. But this recipe? This amazing blend of flavors? It can take any amount of dork teasing you dish out. And I'm sharing, just in time for Valentine's. OK, technically I'm late if you're going to make it for THIS Valentine's day, but it's so good and easy, you could still make it in time, really.

It has been a long time since I've been so gushy about a sweets recipe... at least a month or two anyway; I'm sure there was something at Christmastime that I was ga-ga over... but that's so last year. This recipe is very now. Very yummy indeed.

I'm a one-s'mores kind of girl, around the campfire. Give me one, and I'm done. They are usually too sickeningly sweet, too much chocolate to the bite (reminder: chocolate is not the first sweet thing I go for, go figure). But this recipe, with its soft, graham cracker-ish top and bottom... well, it is quite sweet, there's no denying that, but it's also very more-ish. As in, one bite leads to another bite, and then just one more. Get it? And warm from the oven? Just all the more more-ish!

I did a few online searches to arrive at this recipe, and I am so glad this is where I landed! It may be called s'mores pie, and I did indeed make my Valentine guys a pie just tonight, but I've also made it in little individual cups, and a massive pan of bars, and a small pan of squares, too. Seth happened to take a bar or two to school and shared, resulting in a big request for more, and before I knew it I was whipping up enough for his English class. So whatever iteration is your pleasure, it will work. It doubles, triples and even quadruples quite well.

I know traditional Valentine's treats center around red, with hearts. While this recipe lacks both, it does have that one critical Valentine's ingredient: chocolate. I think it makes a thoroughly enjoyable sweet, Valentine's or not!

S'mores pie
adapted from Hershey’s
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup salted butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla 
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp. baking powder
6 regular-sized Hershey Bars, broken into pieces 
1 7oz container of marshmallow creme
Wax paper

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spray a 9-inch pie pan with baking spray. Beat butter and sugar together, either in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, until combined. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, graham cracker crumbs and baking powder. Add to the wet mixture and combine well. Divide the dough in half. Press half the dough in the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pie pan.

Evenly spread the marshmallow creme over the bottom crust. Spread the broken chocolate pieces on top of the marshmallow creme.

Form the remaining dough into a ball and place on a piece of wax paper. Top with another piece of wax paper and flatten into a 9″ circle. I used a rolling pin to gently get the dough to the right size and thickness. If you just haul away on your rolling pin, the wax paper will break. Trust me.

Carefully peel the top piece of wax paper off. Flip the crust onto the top of the pie and peel the other piece of wax paper off.

Pinch the dough together to form the crust. Bake 20-25 minutes until lightly browned.

I guarantee a happy Valentine with this treat!

I think that funny little pinch job I did around the one edge looks like a smile, don't you?

Christmas caramel corn

aramel corn holds a very special place in my heart. I know, you're thinking to yourself, doesn't EVERY thing Sher makes hold a "special place" in her heart? The way I rant and rave about food... well, yes, I suppose there's some truth to that. But in this case, it's REALLY extra-super-duper true; there is a particularly sentimental sway that caramel corn holds...

It wasn't rare on a Saturday night during my childhood for my mom and I to make a pan of caramel corn. I associate it mostly with winter evenings, probably even near the holidays? I have enjoyed making it occasionally myself over the years, turning a bit of a blind eye to the butter factor! Also, my sister-in-law Kim and I have been known to plow through one of those rather large-ish bins of popcorn during the holidays, though usually those have the added "benefit" of having a cheese or buttery or chocolate partition. Hmmm. Benefit? Sure...

Well, this year I had been thinking I would haul out the homegrown caramel corn recipes again, and wouldn't it be fun to make it "holiday-ish?" I looked over quite a few recipes and was very pleased to find this recipe via Pinterest for a red and green version. In many recipes I've seen, the red and green effect is arrived at via Jello as the coloring method. While I'm sure that works out great, I just wasn't in the mood for lime and strawberry caramel corn--I want caramel corn that tastes like caramel corn! And I was happy to let good old fashioned food coloring help me out with the holiday-ish aspect...

Caramel Popcorn
slightly adapted from Baked Perfection's version
21 cups airpopped popcorn
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 + 1/8 cup light corn syrup
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
red and green food coloring

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium saucepan, melt together the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil, sitting frequently. Boil over low heat for five minutes. Remove from heat and add the baking soda and vanilla.

Place half of the popcorn in a 9x13 pan coated with cooking spray. Place the other half in another 9x13 pan coated with cooking spray.

Place half the carmel in a medium bowl and add red food coloring until you reach the desired shade of red. Immediately pour over one pan of popcorn. Toss to coat.

Add green food coloring to the remaining caramel until you reach desired shade of green. Immediately pour over second pan of popcorn. Toss to coat.

Bake for 45 minutes, rotating pans and stirring each pan with a spatula coated with cooking spray every 15 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

So fun, so easy and so pretty! A complete keeper for this holiday, and one I expect to haul out many times in the years to come.

Betcha can't eat just one: Flourless chocolate bites

hese little flourless chocolate morsels have come out of my oven more than any other sweet thing, ever. I feel pretty confident saying that, as one year (2003, I believe) I made 2,000+ of them for a local winery during the winter barrel tasting weekend.

I remember the first time I made the recipe at home (which I found at epicurious). In 2000, epicurious was pretty much the best online source for recipes. I made it as a full-size cake for a dinner party, which was what the recipe called for--a 10-inch springform pan. It was good, but I found it a little dry at the outside, and a little wet at the center, and decided the recipe would work much better, and spend much less time in the oven, as smaller cakes.

Since then, I've never made a full-size flourless chocolate cake again. I've made them mostly in mini muffin tins and popped them out as "bites," or as individual desserts in a larger muffin pan (about 1.5 x a regular muffin size). They don't puff up like a muffin, thankfully, so they have a really pretty look. (Key: don't fill the tins too full. An ample half-fill is about the right amount.)

This year I decided that a) I finally need to post the recipe, and b) I was ready to try a couple of variations.

First, the recipe:

Flourless chocolate cake bites
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
6 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir butter and chocolate in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted. Mix sugar and cocoa in large bowl. Add eggs; whisk until well blended. Pour in the butter-chocolate mixture and stir until well combined.

At this point, you're ready to bake. You can follow the directions at epicurious and bake in a 10-inch springform pan, or you can deviate as I do and make many smaller cakes.

This recipe multiplies well. In fact, I don't think I've ever made a single recipe--I've made as many as 10x the recipe, and just recently made it 5x. So my stab at how many a recipe makes... is around 72 little bites, which is three of the mini muffin tins.

A couple of my tips: Let the batter sit for a bit and cool before putting into the well-sprayed (baking spray) muffin tins. In fact, you can refrigerate the batter for a few hours or overnight and scoop it into the tins with a spoon. (At that point, you'll have to let it sit out for a bit to actually warm to the point of scooping.)  I have always found that a little easier than trying to pour it in as a runny batter. I haven't frozen the batter, but I have definitely frozen the baked cake bites, and they thaw and even reheat quite beautifully. The larger size that I've made can almost resemble a molten chocolate cake once it's been reheated in the oven for a few minutes.

Variations: This year I decided I would make them with a hazelnut twist and an Almond Joy twist. Oddly, I'm not sure I would again; both of them felt like they needed to be baked in little baking cups to accommodate the extra ingredients, and so it added a cumbersome aspect to the process. (I know that sounds lazy, but when one is making 500 or so, being able to be efficient gets kind of important...) The Almond Joy variation turned out messier in both the making and the eating than I like, but very yummy. The hazelnut version (see the picture above) was also quite delicious, and less messy than the almond variation. To accomplish the hazelnut, I baked the bites for about 7 minutes (filling the tins with a little less batter than usual), pulled them from the oven, piped Nutella into the middle of the bite, topped it with a roasted hazelnut and popped them back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes. Worked well, but not sure it's that big of an improvement over the original...

Finally! The flourless chocolate bites have been shared. They are a really easy little sweet nibble to master, but be sure to spray whatever you bake them in very well. The batter loves to stick, and I have thumped many a muffin tin on a countertop to try and separate cake from tin... At this point my muffin tins are quite well seasoned and the baked cakes fairly leap from the pan. But be warned: PAM!

Bake up a couple of batches of these and you'll be set for those drop-in guests throughout the holidays! Enjoy.

Get out the vote: Crowd-sourcing birthday treats!

t's a big week ahead around here!

First off, my birthday's coming up. I know, commence with the streamers and balloons (not) and general princess-like behavior (double not)... 

Second, and of almost equal hoopla-do, it's Sweet Tea & Sunshine's birthday--three years old! It's been three quick years since friend Jen encouraged me to pick up my blogging "pen" and put it to "paper," and it's been quite a fun ride since then.

But for the birthday, I always spend a little time pondering what dessert I would like. (Please tell me other people do this? Or am I a freak of nature?) I know, cake is most traditional, and for a few years husband quite sweetly bought me the most beautiful cakes from Dean&DeLuca. But the past few years I've said, oh skip that hassle and expense (I think I said it more gently than that), I'll make something yummy, since I kinda like doing that sort of thing anyway. He objects, thinking somehow I'm not supposed to make my own treat, but I call silly on that idea. And, he lets me have my way, in this matter. What's the saying? Happy wife, happy life? He's a wise man.

So the first year of the blog (2008) I made galaktoboureko. That heavenly Greek custard dessert has been a big favorite of mine for many years, from first bite.

For 2009, it was a pile of cream puffs (choux pastry with custard), which have been high on my list since childhood. (Amazing how much Seth has grown in two years, eh? A-maze-ing.)

Last year is oddly fuzzy in my brain, but I think I made some spice cupcakes and mini-cakes in a new cake form I'd been given, but can't find a post or pictures of it, and apparently I was in a quandary about what to make last year too! (I do remember that my parents were here to celebrate with us, so it was obviously a lovely weekend!)

This year, the dessert question continues. I don't make cakes and sweet stuff a lot (despite what some folks think with my number of dessert posts) and so I do want to "make it count" for my birthday. It will be a lovely celebration with my men, so I suppose I should take some of their tastes into account, but honestly I probably won't (much)... when their birthdays roll around it's all about their tastebuds, right? (And I'll make sure there's something around that floats their respective boats, of course.) But the actual dessert? That can be all about me!

That's where you come in, pretty please.

I was browsing through my Pinterest-saved sweet recipes and thinking about what I would like to make, and really couldn't make up my mind. I was thinking to myself that Pinterest should have some sort of voting mechanism so people could weigh in and give opinions, and then I realized (doh!) that I have my own little voting place--between here and a targeted Facebook post or two, I should get a pretty decent crowd-sourced birthday dessert, don't you think?

1. Macarons. I have been wanting to make macarons for a very long time and have been procrastinating. There's a piece of me that's intimidated, and another than pooh-poohs that notion, but for some reason it just hasn't happened yet. My main concern with making macarons is that, like cream puffs, they don't really resemble a dessert or birthday cake, so you just pile them in a bowl and sing Happy Birthday? I guess...

2. Galaktoboureko. I loved it in 2008, and haven't made it since, seriously. So I'd be happy to recycle that concept.

3. Or, for something new, there's this cake: Nutella Icebox Cake. How amazing does that sound? Some of my favorite flavors--hazelnut, chocolate, graham crackers--and it even slightly resembles a cake! Bonus. Double bonus for the fact that it looks way heck easier than macarons.

4. Also in the cake realm is the Peanut Butter Sheet Cake. Hoo-hah. Or however Al Pacino said it in Scent of a Woman. It's a Pioneer Woman recipe, so you know it is filled with all things buttery and good.

5. It's also been awhile since I've made a crepe cake. I LOVE crepe cakes... and if I made a hazelnut one, that could be heavenly too... though even just regular vanilla custard is lovely enough. Hmmm. (The one on the upper right is tiramisu--that sounds pretty good too, doesn't it?!)

6. And then, there are the velvets: Red and Blue. (Why isn't there a Green Velvet cake? Surely that should exist, don't you think?). A true layered cake almost seems truly birthday-like...

7. I've enjoyed leche cake ever since I first tried it a few years ago... I usually think of it as a summer cake with fresh berries and fruit, but I could wrap my mind around a fall version...

8. It's been so long since I've made a cheesecake. My very favorite cheesecake recipe is the Three Cities of Spain Cheesecake from Epicurious--I've made this recipe more times than I can count, but not recently... Does a cheesecake count for a birthday? I think it could. If I wanted to step it up a notch in the cheesecake department, take a look at this creature: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cake. Huh? You've got your layer cake (chocolate), you've got your cheesecake (plain), you've got your frosting (peanut butter). Wow.

OK, so, too many options? One that stands out, head and shoulders, and screams "Sher!" to you?

Please tell me. If you've never commented before, or you've gotten forgetful about commenting or (more likely) you've been too busy to comment for a while... vote, please!

I usually have pretty strong opinions on stuff and the idea of crowd-sourcing anything kind of makes me smile to myself, but in writing this down and sifting through my sweet-tooth desires, I've really gotten into the idea that which ever one gets the most votes, that's it. Period. So pick well. But pick soon. Polls will close Wednesday, Oct. 26. (A girl might need to practice her dessert a bit before the big day, right?!)

The family that marshmallows together, stays together!

he idea of homemade marshmallows has been on my mind for some time... but only insofar as "those seem like a good idea." I'd never even really looked at what it would take to make it happen... until last week.

We are a marshmallow family, 'tis true. In hot chocolate, in s'mores, right out of the bag. This past holiday season, the discovery of tree-shaped and star-shaped marshmallows was a particular delight. Little green trees, little red stars... we happily popped them rather rapidly on a few occasions. (I swear, they just taste better. Really. Although, there were also snowman-shaped marshmallows, and for some reason, they did NOT taste as good. They were also slightly off-white--dare I say yellow-ish--and that's just NOT a good shade of color to bring to mind while eating something that has "snow" in it's name...)

So when helping to plan a party for a dear friend last weekend, the idea of a chocolate fountain/fondue came up, and immediately (after considering the lack of really good fresh fruit to dip in the chocolate) I thought, "This is the perfect opportunity to figure out homemade marshmallows!"

Turns out, they're not that hard, at all! In fact, they are springy and delicious. Can't wait to make these again and try some different flavors, too.

For the recipe, I turned to the ever-reliable Smitten Kitchen and read up on her trials and tribulations with the goo that is created from hot sugar and gelatin... I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't end up with head-to-toe sugary goo on me, but I'm pretty sure reading her story helped me avoid that experience!

Springy fluffy marshmallows
Makes about 96 1-inch cubed marshmallows

About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar worked just fine)
1/2 cup light corn syrup (I had none in the house, so used honey and it worked out fine)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites or reconstituted powdered egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla (alternately: 1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean, 2 teaspoons almond or mint extract or maybe even some food coloring for tinting)

Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.

In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer.

In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. (Next time around I will do this step before the gelatin-hot sugar mixing, since I don't have a handheld mixer currently. I ended up using my food processor, and it did OK, but not fabulously.) Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out. Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

These babies are a bit addictive... but you're talking to a marshmallow lover here. I took them to the party and they were well received, and definitely got the Seth seal of approval here at home too.

Other goodies for the chocolate fountain included rather sad January strawberries, pineapple,
pears and angel food cake.

Birthday girl Megan with Anna, enjoying a marshmallow or two!

Maybe up next?
Chocolate marshmallows
Chocolate Swirl Marshmallows

What flavor do you think I should try? Something special for Valentine's Day?

For the holidays or ANY day: Chocolate sandwich cookies

he first time I had a homemade chocolate sandwich cookie was in 2003 at Tom Colicchio's fast-casual place in New York, 'wichcraft. The lunch was really great but the cookie absolutely stood out--it was chocolate with a peanut butter filling--heavenly!--and I have been meaning to attempt something in the chocolate sandwich cookie realm ever since. 

I looked up a number of sandwich cookie recipes online and wavered between this style (more of a drop cookie) or a roll of dough that would be sliced. In hoping that the drop cookie would be softer (my experience with sliced roll cookies is that they tend to be a bit on the crisp/tough side), I went for it. And the payoff was delightful!

Chocolate sandwich cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 whole large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
3 oz fine-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, melted, and cooled
2 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped, melted, and cooled

Whisk together flour and salt in a bowl until combined.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle attachment) or 4 minutes with a handheld. Add whole eggs, yolks, and chocolate, beating until combined. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until combined well.

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.

Drop 1/2 teaspoons of batter 1 inch apart on 2 ungreased baking sheets. Bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are puffed up, 7 to 8 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Cool baking sheets and make more cookies with remaining dough on cooled sheets.

I "dropped" the dough the first sheet of cookies and they didn't look like thin sandwich cookies; I knew I would need to take a more active hand in their shape! So I filled a gallon ziploc (homemade piping bag, don't you know?) and snipped off the corner and piped rounds onto the baking sheet, then smoothed them with my finger. This worked really well. I would highly recommend this approach, rather than just dropping dough onto the pan.

Also, the recipe above (epicurious again, of course!) calls for a chocolate filling, as well. I wasn't in the mood for double chocolate, and whenever there's Nutella in the house, it is the go-to filling of choice. Naturally.

So to fill:

Spread 1/2 teaspoon filling on flat side of 1 cookie, then place flat side of a second cookie over filling to form a sandwich. Fill remaining cookies in same manner.

These cookies tasted pretty good right out of the oven, without filling. They tasted even better the next day, with Nutella firmly in place. They seemed to continue to improve for a number of days, but I did not get a chance to verify past three or four days, as they were long gone by then!

Next up: to experiment with a peanut butter filling, and a peppermint filling too... looking forward to sharing the results.

Vanilla bean cupcakes + ice cream = birthday goodness!

hat to make for a young man's 14th birthday? Last year it was rainbow delights, the year before that I broke out the giant cupcake mold for a big blue Smurf cake (picture of style, not actual)... this year...

Seth's request for an ice cream cake was met with some bad memories on my part of a botched attempt about 20 years ago. I rushed the process, back then, and ended up with a rather soft mess that, while tasty, didn't really live up to expectations.

So I did a little research. One thing I didn't have 20 years ago was the vast wisdom of the interwebs to assist in the effort. A little this and a little that, and I felt ready to roll.

But I couldn't really make just an all-ice cream cake, could I? It seemed unthinkable--all ice cream, no cake? Seth was all for that, but I wasn't convinced... So I busted out a cupcake recipe I'd been meaning to try, doubled it and made a few little cakes, and a couple of thin regular rounds to put with the ice cream layers.

So here's what I learned:
Recipe = yummy cupcakes
Recipe = not so yummy frozen cake
Whipped cream = excellent frosting for an ice cream cake
A couple of tablespoons of pudding mix added to the whipped cream = even better (smoother, spreadable) frosting for said ice cream cake

So next year, I will be ready to roll with just ice cream as a cake for the young man, if that's what he wants. And still make some cupcakes on the side... for me!

Vanilla bean cupcakes
from Chow

2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped, seeds reserved (or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Line 2 (12-well) muffin pans with paper liners. Alternatively, coat the wells with butter; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps; set aside.

Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until very light in color, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla seeds (if you’re using vanilla extract instead, you’ll add it later), and continue beating until the mixture is airy, about 3 minutes.

Scrape down the paddle and the sides of the bowl, turn the mixer to medium speed, and add the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the milk (and vanilla extract, if you’re using it in place of seeds) and mix until combined (the mixture will look curdled, but it’s not). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Reduce the speed to low, add the reserved flour mixture, and mix until just combined, about 15 seconds.

Fill the muffin wells about halfway and bake until the cupcakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Set the pans on a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pans and let cool completely before frosting.

Layers ready for frosting: cake on the bottom, mint chip, cookies 'n cream and more cake!

Completely frosted and ready to stick back in the freezer.

Boy and his cake!

Boy and his buds: Reilly, Andrew and Lucas, taking a cake break from Wii.

The inner workings of the cake...

Another birthday down... they seem to be coming up faster and faster as the years roll by!

Clafouti: Pick your fruit!

lafouti is something I've been meaning to make for some time, what with all the fresh fruit around... but ice cream has been winning out every time I head for dessert. I know, not a bad exchange. Finally, yesterday, after I'd gone to all the effort of turning the oven on (I know, stop it with the overachieving, seriously) I thought I might as well...

And oh how glad I am to have done it. While the dish doesn't really fit into the cake mold at all, it certainly fulfills my custard needs quite nicely. I have made a clafouti before, years ago--I think with raspberries--and had really enjoyed it. Why it's been maybe 10 years between efforts, I really can't say. It will not be 10 years until I make it again. (Learning moment: apparently when you make clafouti with anything other than cherries--the traditional fruit--it's called flaugnarde. Yeah, not a pretty sounding word. I'm sticking with clafouti, especially since every single recipe I've ever seen for the dish calls it that.)

Like the cobbler, this recipe can work with almost any fruit. I dare you to think of one (OK, kiwi just came to mind) that WON'T work. I've seen recipes for cherry of course, pear, pineapple, apple, berry, fig, apricot...

I can't give credit for this recipe to any one site, since the source on the blog I found it on wasn't correct. Regardless, there are other fabulous takes on this recipe (variations abound) here, here and here. I think I want to try them all!

Clafouti
Serves 6

1/2 stick butter, melted, plus more for baking dish
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for baking dish
1 pound fresh fruit, whatever your pleasure
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch salt
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lemon, zested
Powdered sugar
Ice cream or whipped cream, for garnish

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Generously butter and flour a 7 by 5-inch baking dish or 6 individual, wide, flat gratin dishes. (I sprayed a 9-inch glass pie plate with non-stick spray. Worked great.)

Add the fruit, in an even layer, to the prepared baking dish. I chose a combination of apricots and blueberries, which turned out lovely. The apricots were just on the cusp of ripe so they held together great, and the blueberries were a nice sweet counterpart to the tang of the apricots.

In the bowl of a food processor, add the almonds, sugar, flour and salt and pulse until they are coarsely chopped. In a large bowl, using a whisk, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla and lemon zest until they are homogeneous. Add in the melted butter and the flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour over the cherries.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the center is set and the top is golden brown.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve with ice cream or whipped cream or both.

I served mine warm and plain, almost right out of the oven--I don't really need anything messing with the custard, and it was heavenly. And, I have to say it was even better cold this morning for breakfast.

The extra yum in this recipe is the ground up almonds. It really imparts a frangipane quality to the custard that is lovely. 

See all that glorious custard and fruit? Heaven.

More ice cream! Three ingredients each: Banana ice cream and Raspberry ice cream

fter our fig ice cream extravaganza the other day, there was a bit of cream left over, and far be it from our family to allow that to go to waste!

Also, we stopped by a beautiful fruit stand in Victoria yesterday and Mom got another flat of raspberries--big as your thumb, these babies! So naturally we thought: raspberry ice cream. Good thought. I found a few recipes online but ended up culling the best of a few and making my own mixture. Keeping the raspberries fresh was key, as was not using eggs (we ran out after making potato salad for lunch!).

See, I meant it. Big as my thumb, anyway.

Raspberry Ice Cream
2 cups cream
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups fresh raspberries

Combine the cold cream and sugar in a bowl, stirring with a whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Put the mixture in your ice cream machine/mixer and let it mix for 10-15 minutes, then add the raspberries and mix for another few minutes until well blended.

When I added the berries, the mixture got quite soft again for awhile, and Pa made the bright suggestion that I should stick the berries in the freezer to chill prior to making it next time. I agree that might help speed the process up a bit, but we persevered and it was a good half hour later with occasional stirs that the ice cream was hard enough to scoop into dishes.

This makes not quite a quart in a Donvier ice cream make. I would recommend splitting this between six people, rather than the four we had... I know, we didn't have to dish up the whole batch, but it just kinda happened, and then we all walked around in a raspberry ice cream coma for a bit. Not eating cream on a daily basis, it was quite rich. Quite yummy too.

I had also glimpsed a recipe a couple of days ago on a Serious Eats post on my sidebar over there to the right... banana ice cream, using frozen bananas. Since I usually have some sad overripe bananas on my counter at home, I thought experimenting with this might be a good thing. And why not do it while visiting the parents, so they can be guinea pigs too?! Two birds with one stone. How handy.

Banana, Honey and Peanut Butter Ice Cream
serves 1
Adapted from The Kitchn

1 large, slightly over-ripe banana
1 teaspoon peanut butter
1 teaspoon honey

Peel banana. Slice it into about ten chunks. Freeze the chunks. Once frozen, put them in a food processor with peanut butter and honey. Puree until creamy, like soft serve ice cream, stopping the processor to scrape the sides when necessary.

OR

Forget to peel banana. Freeze it. Wrestle futilely with now-frozen banana peel. Give up and let it sit for 30 minutes to thaw. Peel banana like a two-year-old. Break it into three or four pieces. Add pieces to food processor with peanut butter and honey. Puree until creamy, like soft serve ice cream, stopping the processor to scrape the sides when necessary.

I picked the first method (doubled it to share with the family) and it worked really well. The whole family enjoyed it, thoroughly. Of course, there was also consensus that a dribble of chocolate would be a wonderful addition to the banana/peanut butter flavor and I have to agree. But for a dairy-free ice cream, that is one amazing dessert!

Fresh fig ice cream

y adoration for fresh figs is well documented. I've waxed on about it many times (I did a "fig" search and found more than 10 entries mentioning the joy that is figs) in the past here on the blog, and am always looking for ways to eat them while they are ever-so-briefly in season. I like them in salads and sandwiches, as well as appetizers and desserts; but truly, most times I am content to eat them just as they are--straight from whatever box they came home in.

But when you have aging, leftover figs, it makes sense to use them up in something baked or cooked. And so when I happened upon this recipe and knew we had some rather close-to-retirement figs in the house, it just made sense to whip it up, quick-like.

Fresh Fig Ice Cream Recipe
From David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop

2 lbs fresh figs (about 20)
½ cup of water
1 lemon, preferably unsprayed
¾ cup of sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
½ teaspoon of freshly squeezed, lemon juice, or more to taste

Remove the hard stem ends from the figs, then cut each fig into 8 pieces. Put the figs in a medium, nonreactive sauce pan with the water, and zest the lemon directly into the saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes until the figs are tender.

Remove the lid, add the sugar and continue to cook until it reaches a jam-like consistency. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Blend together with cream and lemon juice, chill in the fridge and then put in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Ma and I halved the recipe, since our fig supply was low; a trip to town tomorrow will fix that! And another amendment we made was that I ran the cooked mixture through the food processor really quick--even though it was jammy, I thought a quick mix would make for a smoother blend and I think that was a smart move.

While fresh and uncooked will always be my favorite way to enjoy figs, I can't argue with this option. Wouldn't dream of it. In fact, I'm already dreaming of variations... balsamic reduction added? With goat cheese? Maybe a little creme fraiche? A smidge of chocolate? Or how about some hazelnuts... I like to get as many of my food obsessions as possible in one bowl. Efficient, no?

And on a completely side note, Seth and Ma and I went for a walk today and saw a group of alpacas hanging out by the fence down the road. I think they are just the cutest. I was informed how expensive they are as pets (given that you can't ride them or make $$ off them other than breeding, I suppose, and they're rather large to take for a walk), and they got substantially less cute after that! Still, such sweet and gentle creatures. I guess these guys had been trimmed recently of their fur (hair?), and they looked quite spiff and cool in the sunshine.

Robby the alpaca, with Buttercup behind him.

Just pieces of Rudy in the front--he was moving too fast for my iPhone, with
Shogun and Buttercup and Robby.