The final countdown

My girls are getting quite excited about the fact that there are only a few more days until Christmas.  Tonight as they were doing their Advent calendars, Gillian told me that there were only two more days until Christmas.  When I pointed out that there were actually three more days, she simply replied, "Yes, but there are only Thursday and Wednesday left until Christmas Eve!"  Can't really argue with that. =)  

Gillian is at a great age for Christmas this year.  It reminds me of the year that Brianna was almost four (at least I think that's right).  Any time that someone asked her what Santa was going to bring or what she wanted for Christmas, her answer was the same, "Cinderella chapstick."  Gillian has only consistently mentioned one thing on her list--"the last monkey Pillow Pet."  Why the last one?  We've only seen one in the store, and for some reason G is convinced that it's the only one left and that it has to be hers.  Who can really understand the 4yo mind? =)  Last week we were in the car after I picked her up from daycare and I was trying to find out some more details about what she wanted for Christmas.  Of course she brought up the pillow pet, but I asked her if there was anything else that she wanted Santa to bring her.  She sat there for a minute, obviously giving a lot of thought to her answer.  Then she replied, very matter-of-factly, "Well....I think I will ask Santa Claus to bring me a big sister who isn't mean to me."  For the record, I did manage to contain my laughter enough that I didn't run the car off the road...

We finally got around to sending letters to Santa on Sunday morning.  The year that Brianna was obsessing about the Cinderella chapstick was also the first year I asked her if she wanted to write a letter to Santa.  Her answer? "No, Mommy. We need to send him an email!" I did some looking online, and found northpole.com.  We still go there every year to send letters.  The other thing we did on Sunday morning was make the latest Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for breakfast.  Jill of Jill's blog picked Cardamom Crumb Cake for us to bake this week.  Crumb cake is always a hit around here, and B & G love to help me make stuff.

I made a few changes, but mostly stuck with the recipe.  I didn't want to mess with making coffee, so I used some brewed tea instead.  I simply left out the espresso powder.  I was going to leave out the nuts in the crumb topping as well, but Gillian suggested that I use cashews since she likes those.  I used the zest from a satsuma (kind of like a tangerine) since that's what we have on hand for packed lunches.  The girls enjoyed helping me make this recipe--Gillian did a fine job rubbing the zest and sugar together.  Then she stirred dry ingredients together.  Brianna got to get her hands dirty, too, making the crumb mixture, and she got to crack the eggs.  They both helped put the crumb mixture on top of the cake batter.  

The verdict?  This one went over reasonably well with everyone here.  I'll probably skip the nuts entirely next time, since even though Gillian suggested the cashews, she said she didn't like them on the cake after all.  I think that's more because Brianna didn't like them than anything else.  So what else is new...  I thought they went well with the flavors in the cake.  The orange and cardamom were good together, too.  My cake seemed kind of sweet, a result of leaving out the espresso powder, I'm guessing.  I might try the cake again, with the coffee.  I'd like to try making it with different spices, too.  

If you'd like to try this recipe for yourself, you can find it on Jill's blog.  To see what everyone else thought this week, check out the Links.    

Tea time

I'm a tea drinker, and have been for a very long time.  I knew I was considered one of the grownups when I was allowed to stay up late enough to drink tea with everyone else before bedtime during family visits.  More often than not, you can find me relaxing with a cup of tea late in the evening.  Actually, I drink tea almost any time of day.  I'll occasionally drink iced tea, but most of the time it's hot tea, even in the summer.  I find the whole process of making tea to be a stress reliever.  It takes time to heat the water and brew the tea.  You might think I would just be impatient about that, but instead it forces me to slow down and relax.  I like my tea really hot to start, so you can only sip it slowly at the beginning.  That's one of the things I disliked about living in Boulder.  At the higher altitude, water doesn't get as hot when it boils, so the tea starts off less hot.  Drove me crazy. =)

So when I read that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Coffee Break Muffins, I knew what changes I was going to make.  The recipe was picked by Rhiani of Chocoholic Anonymous.  While I'll occasionally use coffee or espresso powder in baked goods (usually chocolate ones), I'm not that fond of items where you can actually taste the coffee.  But I figured why not just use tea?  In particular, chai.  I've been doing a lot of baking with spices during the past few weeks, trying to will fall to arrive, even though the temperature is still consistently in the 80s and 90s around here.  Hasn't really worked yet, but I'm going to keep trying. =)  As part of that, I've actually made these muffins twice so far.

I have occasionally tried making chai by adding a mix of whole spices to brewing tea.  But most of the time, I just use one of Stash's chai teas.  My favorite for drinking is the Holiday Chai; I enjoy it year-round.  I didn't use it for the muffins, though.  For the first batch of muffins, I used some Double Spice Chai, figuring the extra spices would stand out more.  I left out the espresso powder and added some additional spices to the batter.  I kept the cinnamon, and added 1/4 teaspoon each of ground ginger and ground cardamom, as well a pinch of ground cloves.  I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  I also used half white whole wheat flour for that batch.  I wasn't sure how much the muffins would rise, so I was conservative in filling the muffin tin, and ended up with a dozen regular muffins and 8 minis.  

I made those muffins back at the end of August.  I did take pictures, but wasn't that happy with them.  Since then, I got some new stuff for pictures, in lovely fall colors.  (I couldn't resist some of these towels from SLT.)  So I made the muffins again.  I was partway through adding the dry ingredients to the bowl when I realized that I used all AP flour for this batch.  I was out of the Double Spice Chai, so I used some Chai Spice Tea for this round.  I decided to increase the spices a bit, using half a teaspoon each of cinnamon, ginger and cardamom, and a pinch of cloves.  Since the first batch of muffins ended up a bit short, I filled the muffin tin more this time, and just made 12 regular muffins.  I baked them for 18 minutes.

The verdict?  We enjoyed these muffins a lot.  Brianna and Gillian ate theirs with a variety of jams; I just put some salted butter on mine, which was quite tasty.  It's nice to have another muffin recipe to add to the rotation.  A lot of the ones the girls like are more involved, with add-ins or toppings; I needed another "plain" option.  We'll definitely be making these again, maybe trying some different teas and different spices.

Want to try these (coffee or tea) for yourself?  You can find the recipe on Rhiani's blog.  For everyone else's take on this recipe, check out this week's links.  

Summer into Fall

It's September.  We're past Labor Day.  Kids here have been back in school for three weeks already.  These should be signs that fall is pretty much here.  Except that, according to the thermometer, it's still summer.  *sigh*  The one thing I really miss about the northeast (where I grew up) is fall.  The crisp air in the mornings.  The apples.  The changing leaves on the trees.  Here, in September we're lucky if the temperature only makes it into the high 80s instead of the 90s.  Genuinely cool weather is at least another month away.  We had a little bit of slightly cooler weather last week, but that was courtesy of tropical storm Hermine, which brought plenty of other problems (like flooding and schools being closed for a day).  My dad is here to visit this week and he's sure to enjoy the weather since he likes it warm and it's about 20 degrees warmer here than in Pennsylvania.  Me, I'm wishing he could have found a way to bring the 50s and 60s with him. =)

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe definitely makes me think of fall.  Sabrina of Superfluous picked the Cranberry Upside-Downer for us to make this week.  Unfortunately, it's a bit early for fresh cranberries for a lot of people, but from the comments on the P and Q, most were able to come up with good solutions for that.  In the book, Dorie gives a peach variation, and also suggests frozen cranberries.  I actually planned ahead for a change last winter, and stashed a whole bunch of cranberries in the freezer at the end of last year's season.  So I originally planned to just make the cranberry version.  Then I realized that I had a whole bunch of plums that needed to be used up.  Also, I wasn't that thrilled with their taste, but figured that cooking them (especially with the skins on) would remedy that.  So I decided to use both cranberries and plums for my cake.  I didn't add any nuts, since I knew that B&G wouldn't like them.  The other change that I made was to play around with the spices.  I kept the cinnamon, but reduced the amount to half a teaspoon.  For the other half teaspoon, I went with cardamom, since I really like it with plums.  

The verdict?  Well, my original thought was that with this much cake, I could always take some to the daycare.  Then I sampled a piece, and decided that I didn't want to share!  I haven't made an upside-down cake in a long time, and had forgotten just how tasty they can be.  I love the combination of fruit and moist cake.  And I was very happy with my choice of fruit.  The flavors of the plums and cranberries played well together, and I liked the contrasting textures of the two.  Adding a little homemade vanilla ice cream didn't hurt either.  Everyone else here liked the cake, too, although Brianna did say she liked the cake and fruit separately, but not together.  (So I did share a little.)

If you'd like to try this cake for yourself, head over to Sabrina's blog for the recipe.  To see what variations the other TWD bakers came up with, check out this week's Links.  And while you're at the Tuesdays with Dorie page, don't forget to check out the info for French Fridays with Dorie, the new group forming to bake through Dorie's new book!

Ready for something new

I've been trying to do a better job of blogging lately, and I think that for the most part I'm succeeding.  One thing I've been trying to do is get myself on a more consistent posting schedule, about three times a week.  Tuesdays, of course, are pretty much reserved for Tuesdays with Dorie.  I'm also trying to post some sort of bread about once a week (either BBA recipes or other breads).  The third category is more random.  I've been making an effort use some of the many cookbooks on my shelves more frequently.  So while I'm sure I'll continue to make some of my old favorites (like these scones that we had again for breakfast this morning), I want to make and share some new ones, as well.  

While we're still seeing pretty good strawberries (and I keep buying them), more stone fruits are showing up at Central Market as well.  I need to remember to look at the farmers market next weekend, too.  I haven't had much luck with peaches yet (a lot of them are still rock hard and not smelling like much), so I've been checking out the plums (and relatives like plumcots and pluots) as well.  I saw some red plums last week that seemed good and not too expensive, and brought them home.  Unfortunately, I wasn't thrilled when I sampled one--the texture was fine, but it didn't have much flavor other than sweet.  It reminded me that I usually buy darker plums with red flesh.  Then it occurred to me that maybe they'd be better if I baked them.  The question was, what to make?  I wasn't in the mood for something like a crisp, and I was a bit leery of a cake, since I've had bad experiences with the Dimply Plum Cake from Baking From My Home to Yours.

A couple months ago, I bought myself a copy of David Lebovitz's newest cookbook, Ready for Dessert.   I read through it after I got it, but have only made a few recipes from it so far, for chocolate cookies and caramel ice cream.  But I knew it had a lot of fruit desserts, so I pulled it off the shelf and took a look.  In the first section (cakes), I found a recipe for Spiced Plum Streusel Cake with Toffee Glaze.  In the introduction to the recipe, David says, "This cake combines everything I crave: tangy plums, toffee with a bit of salt, and buttery cake."  I stopped searching right then.  Sounds good to me!

The streusel consists of sliced almonds, brown sugar and spices, with a bit of flour and some melted butter to hold everything together.  I don't usually have almonds on hand, so I went with some pecans that were in my freezer.  The spices (both in the streusel and the cake) are cinnamon and cardamom.  I don't use cardamom nearly enough, so I was glad to try it in this recipe.  The cake batter is made with the creaming method--butter and sugar are beaten together until fluffy, then eggs are added.  Finally, the dry ingredients (AP flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and cardamom) are added, alternating with some buttermilk.  (I left out the vanilla extract by accident, but used vanilla sugar, so it was okay.)  The batter is spread into a 9-inch springform pan and slices of plums are pressed into it. Then the streusel is scattered on top.  My cake took 50 minutes to bake.

It was late when I made my cake, so I let it cool overnight and added the toffee glaze the next morning.  The glaze is made by melting together butter, dark brown sugar, heavy cream and a bit of salt.  The mixture is brought to a boil and simmered for a minute, then allowed to cool to room temperature.  The glaze seems thin at first, but thickens as it cools.  Once it's cooled, a bit of vanilla is added, then it's drizzled over the cake.

The verdict?  Well, the cake barely survived 24 hours, so that should be a good indication of how much everyone liked it. =)  Knowing that fruit desserts don't keep that well and not wanting to try to eat it all at home, I took the cake to work with me.  Only about a third of it survived to go home again, and we polished that off pretty quickly.  One of my employees commented that this cake might just be the best thing I've ever brought in.  So it's safe to say that this cake is a new favorite.  While it was excellent with the plums, I suspect it will be delicious with other stone fruits as well.  Next up, peaches! (That version of the cake is in the oven as I type.)

If you'd like to try this cake for yourself, I highly recommend that you get your hands on a copy of Ready for Dessert.  Edited to add: I did find the recipe on Google Books, here.  (Don't forget to check your local library if you want to try before you buy!)  I look forward to making and reviewing more recipes from it.