Roasted Rhubarb Streusel Muffins

Conversation at our house earlier this week...

Me: Look, I made you muffins.

David: Those muffins aren't for me.

Me: Why do you say that?

David: They don't have chocolate.

Me: Oh? Well, they could still be for you.

David: They are pretty. You made them for the blog.

Me: Guilty smile.

Yes, I was busted. These were definitely blog muffins. But, they didn't start out that way. I was just going to make some nice simple rhubarb streusel muffins.
I'm not sure what got into me the day I decided to make these muffins. Somehow I got it in my head to turn them into flowers. I thought that the almond petals would stay in place and the batter would rise up around them. It didn't quite turn out that way. Honestly, they didn't all turn out looking so great. Some were perfect like the one above, but others looked more like coneflowers. They were all a pain to get out of the muffin tin without breaking off the petals. I ended up discovering that they were pretty easy to replace, just stick the pointy end of the almond back into the warm muffin. If I was to do this again I would just toast the almonds ahead of time and then stick them in the muffins when they came out of the oven. I don't see myself having that much patience again for a while. The muffins were really tasty, so I will definitely be making them again. Next time I'm just going to mix the rhubarb in and sprinkle the streusel and almonds on top and maybe then David will believe that I made the muffins for him. I wonder how they would taste with chocolate?

Chocolate Cake with Creamy Caramel Ganache

Last Thursday I realized how much this blog has become part of not only my life, but David's as well. I took the day off to cook a Cuban Pork roast which involved hours of marinating and then basting in citrus juice. It was David's Birthday and the dinner was a surprise as he was at work all day. The dinner turned out amazing. As we were getting ready to eat David asked if I was going to photograph our meal. I honestly had no intention of using the dinner as a blog post. It was his Birthday and I wanted us to be able to sit down and enjoy it. When I first started this blog, getting the camera out always resulted in pacing and eye rolling. Now, it is just assumed that there will be photos when there is something good to eat. For this meal I did insist that we sit down and eat, no photos.
I did however sneak in a few shots of the cake. If you have been following along here for a while you will remember that I am Birthday Cake challenged. This year for the first time I actually managed to pull off a really good cake on David's Birthday. I asked if this made up for the other three years of flops and the reply was, "Only if you make three more of these before my next Birthday". Sounds like I have a busy year ahead of me!

Salted Caramel Budino

I have always been a bit (ok, alot) of an internet junkie. Do you remember the first time you were introduced to the internet? I guess I should specify that I am talking about the modern day internet. I actually remember my first internet experience quite well. I was dating a computer programmer at the time. It was somewhere around 1993 and he took me to the computer lab where he was an intern. I must admit I was less than impressed at first, but then I found the Australia page. Two hours later and I was hooked. I didn't yet realize I was surfing that night.
Tonight I was trying to remember what I used to while away the hours with on the internet before I found food blogging. It was then that I realized how many phases I have gone through in my life. There was orchids, kayaks, all things related to natural history, painting, and jewelry making to name a few. Not to mention my never ending obsession with traveling and my vagabond career habits for many years. The internet is an amazing place for a daydreamer. The great thing about the internet and my interest in food is that almost nothing is out of reach. A few months ago I saw an article about this Salted Caramel Budino at a restaurant in Philadelphia called Barbuzzo. Although Philadelphia might not be possible, a little internet sleuthing pulled up the recipe for the Budino. The first time I made this recipe I took the one straight from tasting table and I felt it was missing something, after further research I found that the one in the restaurant actually has a chocolate cookie crust. I added it to the next batch and they turned out perfect.

Snow Cloud Cookies

Fairbanks is not a place that gets a lot of snow. This surprises some people, snow and cold automatically go together in most of our brains. I know it did in mine until I moved here. The one thing that surprises me is how just a little bit of snow (3 inches) can stick around for months. I grew up in Northern Michigan where the snow comes and melts, and repeats the cycle 10 times over the course of the winter.
This winter has been one of our coldest yet. We have had little reprieve from 30 below and colder temperatures all winter. Which means we have had very little snow, that is until last week. The temperature slowly crept above zero. We started getting spring fever. Then it happened...winter arrived. The warm temperatures brought the snow. More snow than I have ever seen in Fairbanks. Enough snow that would equal a pretty good storm where I grew up. Not only was there snow, but wind too. We are prepared for cold, we insulate our houses and the pipes that bring our water. But snow? Fairbanks didn't know what to do with the stuff. Being used to driving in these conditions I actually went to work Monday morning to find there hadn't been a plow on the road in the last 24 hours, nor had anyone else. It was actually kind of fun. That storm brought 18 inches or more of snow to some parts of Fairbanks, then on Friday we added 8 more.
Our poor pups didn't know what to think. They aren't fans of cold snow on their bellies. They stared out the window in amazement.
Me? I took the opportunity to make some snow cloud cookies. This weekend seemed like the perfect time.

Photo by David Gibbs

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

I felt a little like Goldilocks trying to make this ice cream. I tried several different recipes to get it "just right". I was trying to re-create the type of caramel ice cream I had while I was in San Francisco. There was the Salted Caramel from Bi-Rite and then the Burnt Caramel Ice Cream from Perbacco that was served with Pignoli cookies. They were both quite rich in texture. I wanted to create a salted and burnt caramel flavor. In the end it wasn't the flavor as much as the texture I really struggled to achieve. The first recipe I tried was way too soft. I think the caramel texture makes it difficult for the custard to set up. The second batch as you might have guessed was too hard. Neither batch was quite rich enough for my taste. When I stumbled across Thomas Keller's recipe for caramel ice cream in Ad Hoc at Home and saw that it had 10 egg yolks I figured it would at the very least it would be rich enough, and it was. This recipe was "just right" in texture and flavor. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to making caramel, so mine could have afforded to be cooked just a bit longer to get a true burnt caramel flavor, but it very much tasted like the one I had from Bi-Rite and there is nothing wrong with that.

Lemon and Ginger Madeleines

Let  me start by saying that I have never eaten a "real" Madeleine.  I bought this Madeleine pan over a year ago thinking that I would love Madeleine's, but after making several recipes I came to the conclusion that they just weren't my thing. It is entirely possible I just never found the right recipe. So, if you are a Madeleine officianado, please don't write and tell me these aren't true Madeleine's. If you are a huge fan of lemon and ginger (a lot of ginger) I recommend giving it a try. Just think of them as muffins in a cute package.
This recipe is quite versatile. The first time I made it I went with the original version and made it in full size muffin wells. The recipe is from Orangette. Molly mentioned when she made the muffins they ended up with these strange humps that reminded her of Madeleines. I noticed this as well. So, why not make them in Madeleine pans? Since I only own one 12 well Madeleine pan I make one batch and put the rest in mini muffin tins. If you put one tablespoon of batter in each well the recipe will yield 36 either way. The thing I love about making them this way is they are great little grab and go breakfast snacks. I take a few to work and have them with my morning coffee. The ginger might even give you more of a jolt than the caffeine!

Meyer Lemon and Pistachio Truffles

It is Valentine's Day, so stop by your local chocolate shop and pick up something nice for your sweetie. What if the closest chocolate shop is 300 miles away? Well, I guess you are going to have to make the chocolates yourself.
I really enjoy making truffles myself anyway. There are so many possible flavor combinations. Once you get the basic recipe down, the possibilities are endless. However, this flavor combination was not my own. During my last trip to Anchorage I stopped in at Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge to sample some of their truffles. This flavor was my favorite by far. Since I can't buy more for Valentine's Day I had to re-create them in my own kitchen.

Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake

The Christmas season is truly a season of excess. It seems as though food falls from the sky and directly into our kitchen. Every time I turn around, more food. To avoid having anything go bad I feel like I am continuously turning it into something else to prolong its life. Those oranges look like they are about to turn, make marmalade. Oh no, the apples are getting brown spots, make applesauce. At some point we do need to eat this stuff, although I do have quite a few recipes marked for the marmalade.
During the holidays  we also received a couple of  fruit gifts including some beautiful pears. The two of us ate most of the pears just as they were. They were so good, but we reached our saturation with three pears left. Desperate I turned them into this pear cake. Once it was done and I took it out of the oven, I thought it might have just been easier to eat the remaining pears instead of a whole cake. One bite of this unusual cake made me realize I had made the right decision. I had a lot of luck with this cake, it turned out perfect on the first try. I do caution you to read some of the comments on the original site where it was posted as it looks like other struggled with baking times. My pears were huge and incredibly juicy, I would imagine the baking time would be significantly less with smaller or dryer pears. Mine did sink a bit (ok, a lot) in the middle, but it tasted great.

Orange Olive Oil Cake

December is hard. Every year I think it will get easier. This year I even looked forward to December, hoping for some quiet time to reflect. In the middle of it all I rarely realize how challenging it is. 40 below and no daylight during the week. I go to work in the dark, there are no windows in my office, and I leave in the dark. I will admit they don't chain me to my desk, but staring out into the ice fog and looking for the sun that is just barely above the horizon is not really incentive enough to leave my office.When it is all over and January finally arrives I suddenly realize I have come out of my own personal ice fog.  December is hard in Fairbanks.
January on the other hand is quite literally the light at the end of the tunnel. I have had two weeks off at home to crank up the wood stove and throw open the blinds and let in the light. Each and every day the light increase by 3 minutes. It is noticeable in so many ways. January is also when the citrus starts finding its way into our kitchen. Each year I do some serious research trying to find sources that will ship fresh citrus fruit to Fairbanks. Until this year the only place I could find was the Lemon Ladies Orchard in California. This year with the motivation of making this cake I was determined to find someone to ship me some naval oranges. One by one I went through lists of online citrus companies reading through their shipping policies and finally came across The Orange Shop in Florida. Next, to find the olive oil. The recipe calls for a light and fruity olive oil. I couldn't think of a better place to look for a good olive oil than Zingerman's. They list theirs by flavor profile in their catalog, so I thought it would be easy to pick one out. After reading all the descriptions online I still wasn't sure which one would be best. I sent off an e-mail to the customer service department along with a link to the recipe. I was so glad I did, they were so helpful and suggested the perfect olive oil for this cake. The online description didn't sound quite right, but they assured me this was the one. They were right. The day I made the cake my house smelled like an orange grove. As directed I waited an entire day to cut into the cake. It was perfectly moist and the flavor was subtle enough to make the cake feel light after a rich meal. The best part was the following day. The sliced end that had been exposed to the air was still perfectly moist and the flavor had intensified. I had a piece for breakfast.  A few hours later the sun came up and the temperatures pushed above zero. I really can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispy Treats

Ok, I couldn't take the Black and White theme anymore. I had to change the colors. I feel better already! I am trying to give the blog more of a Fairbanks feel, but the grey was just too much. After all, it's almost the new year and with solstice behind us the days are getting longer. They say the temperatures are supposed to get up to 20 degrees by this Saturday. That is 20 above zero. I notice as time goes on that we just say it is 20 degrees, when it is actually 20 below.
I have made these Rice Krispy treats several times since they were first posted on the Smitten Kitchen blog. They are the grown up version of rice krispy treats. What does that mean exactly? Well, with the addition of salt, they become quite addictive. They have that whole salty sweet thing going on. I'm not a huge regular rice krispy treat fan, but every once in a while I want something with that chewy texture. These really do the trick. I always have to make sure to make them when I am going somewhere, otherwise half the pan disappears and innocent people (puppies) get blamed.

Peanut Blossoms

As we finished up our Christmas dinner, David and I got to talking about the end of the year. His feeling was that the year should be over at Christmas. Christmas, more than any other holiday is a marker of milestones. I have to agree that I do more reflecting on Christmas day than I do on New Year's Day. On New Year's Day I mostly reflect on what I drank the night before. But I disagree that the year should end with Christmas. This week  between Christmas and New Year's Day is very important for transition. What other time of year is it encouraged to eat yourself into a coma for a month and then go on a crash diet and re-organize your life? I usually start eating a little healthier during this week, but at the same time I always purchase one last carton of egg nog and slowly come to grips with the fact that there will be no more Christmas cookies for breakfast. Although there is no reason I couldn't make them year round, I rarely make peanut blossoms outside of the Christmas season. So I will have just a few more cookies (or maybe a batch) this week, maybe with a glass of egg nog (it might have to be milk, the grocery didn't have any in stock today) by the fire while I pull out all my books and plan to make 2011 the best one yet.

Peppermint Candy Cane Cupcakes

Every Christmas time I always have to make at least one thing with crushed candy canes. If I don't, then I at least add them to heavy cream to top hot chocolate. It just isn't Christmas for me without it. Lately, I get all my cupcake ideas from Trophy Cupcakes Facebook feed. When I saw they were making candy cane cupcakes I knew I had to have one. The problem: Trophy Cupcakes is in Seattle. I decided I would search out my own. A candy cane cupcake search produced a lot of cupcakes with boxed cake mix. Not exactly what I was going for. Luckily I thought to search Peppermint Cupcakes and came up with this great recipe that I was able to adapt for candy canes. I was able to create exactly what I was looking for, the cake is subtly flavored (more vanilla), and the frosting packs a nice peppermint punch.
I already had the box of Christmas decorations on the dining room table. I pulled out the lights and turned them on to take these photos. I heard a little crunching noise until the table, I figured our pup had scavenged up some broken bits of candy cane on the floor. Turns out he was chomping away at our Christmas lights under there! Looks like I need to add new lights to the shopping list...

Pumpkin Cake with Dulce de Leche Icing

Ok, I admit we are a little beyond pumpkin season. I also know I'm not the only one who stocked up on pumpkin this year. If you are one of those people who was worried about the pumpkin shortage and possibly have a little extra taking up space in your cupboards, this is the perfect recipe for you. This cake is super easy to make. It's one of those great things to bring to a potluck or anywhere else you want to feed a lot of people. The original recipe was called Pumpkin Bars. A friend told me that it came out more like cake in the recommended 9x13 inch pan, so I put it in a 10x15 hoping for bars. The results... still cake, but a might moist and flavorful one. Also, I realized that I was not going to have enough icing to cover a larger cake and decided to add Dulce de Leche to the icing. What a happy little accident, it really added to the overall flavor.

Pignoli Cookies

Would you like a cookie that fell in the snowbank? I love the winter light in Fairbanks. We get very little of it, but what we do get is quite spectacular. The problem is that what we do get five days of the week falls during the hours that I am working. I enter my office in the dark and leave in the dark. That makes photographing food nearly impossible. A couple weeks ago I decided that I would bring these cookies to work to photograph them during my lunch hour. The good thing about college campuses is that you can photograph cookies outside in -10 degree weather and nobody gives you a second glance. Unfortunately, my fingers don't work so well in these temperatures and at one point I lost control of the entire plate and all the cookies fell into the snow. So, in case you were looking for the directions where you sprinkle the cookies with sugar, well that's not sugar!
Pignoli cookies are a traditional italian cookie. I had never tried them until a few weeks ago, but instantly fell in love with them. I knew I had to make them. The recipe I found looked pretty easy,in fact it is the only cookie recipe I have ever made that made exactly the number of cookies that the recipe yielded. They were just as good as the ones I had with burnt caramel ice cream at a restaurant in San Francisco.
When I returned to work I jokingly asked if anyone would like a cookie that fell in the snowbank. Well, they must have been pretty good, because someone ate the whole plate!

Marie-Helene’s Apple Cake

Wow, I almost forgot it was Friday. I am in San Francisco this week, but I made this cake a while back. Actually, it was the first recipe I made from Around my French Table and it totally sold me on the book. The original recipe calls for an 8 inch springform pan. I only had a 9 inch, so my cake is a little flat. It didn't change the flavor at all. This is the first recipe I made from this book that I realized how much your ingredients really matter. Dorie calls for using four different types of apples. It really does make a difference. I love getting some bites that were softer and more sweet, while others crisp and a little more sour. This recipe alone is worth the price of the book.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

It just wouldn't be fall without pumpkin. For me, Thanksgiving  wouldn't be the same without pumpkin pie. I love all forms of pumpkin desserts. This year I was really worried that we might only have one pumpkin dessert this fall and that would be our one pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. You see I still had one can left from last year, but our grocery store shelves were bare of any kind of pumpkin. I asked one of the sales clerks and she informed me that there was a pumpkin shortage. I had actually heard about the shortage last year, but we had pumpkin available all through the holiday season last year. So, I had asked David to keep an eye out for one or two cans of pumpkin while he was back east. Apparently, there was never a pumpkin shortage on the east coast as David said there was plenty in every store. Just to be on the safe side he sent up a case anyway. We thought if there really was a shortage in Alaska, some of our friends might want some pumpkin too. Shortly before the pumpkin arrived I came across a news article that said the pumpkin shortage was over and a few days later or store shelves were once again stocked. Now, I have a whole case of canned pumpkin. So, expect a whole lot more pumpkin recipes around here. Have any good recipes for canned pumpkin to share? Let me know.

Carrot Zucchini Bars

It's that time of year again. The time of year when they start releasing all the new cookbooks for the holiday season. I'm not usually on the cutting edge of new cookbook releases. I always wait to see what my other favorite bloggers are saying and wait to make my purchases. There have been a few this year that I just couldn't wait and pre-ordered as soon as they were released. When I took a peek into the Fat Witch Brownie book online and saw that all the recipes are made in a 9X9 pan, I couldn't resist. I much prefer bars to cookies. They are much less labor intensive, put all the dough in one pan, and you are done. No endless rounds of scooping and baking. There is something about the texture of a bar that I like better as well, the cross between a cookie and a cake.

When I actually got this book in my hands I began to wonder if the author is left-handed. Unless it is a novel, I usually browse through books and magazines from back to front. I attribute this to being left handed and it being easier to hold the book and flip the pages this way. The reason I say this is that all my favorite recipes are in the back of this book. These Carrot Zucchini bars were the second to last recipe and the next recipe I want to try for Breakfast Brownies (oatmeal espresso top with a brownie crust) is right before that.
I was amazed by the simplicity of this recipe. The whole time I was making these bars I was thinking there must be something wrong, they just seemed too easy. They turned out  delicious, and moist. Perfecting for using your last zucchini of the season.

Lingonberry Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

This was my third attempt at Panna Cotta. I nearly posted the lovely Vanilla Bean and the Lemon that I made this past spring. Something was holding me back. Although those other recipes were far easier than this one, there was something slightly off with the consistency. What I am finding with the other two recipes is that they are perfect texture after about four hours, the problem is that if they sit overnight they continue to gel and become more the texture of jello, any longer and you have Knox Blocks. It seems that powdered gelatin just keeps getting more solid. A few weeks after this experience I still had two draft posts sitting in my inbox when I came across a blog article called "Perfecting Panna Cotta". If you are ever planning on making Panna Cotta, even this recipe I recommend you read the article first. I knew right away that I needed to delete those other two posts and try again. Then I promptly forgot all about it, until I saw a great recipe for Blackberry Panna Cotta. I started thinking about all my berry options and decided to go with Lingonberry. Unlike powdered gelatin, sheet gelatin takes some time to set up. I was really worried about these when I tried them after 6 hours as they were more the consistency of mousse, but had I read the instructions more carefully I would have realized they need to set up for a full 24 hours. At 24 hours they were perfect, I then held out and tried one each day for the five days following. Day five they were still perfect. They are really light and not very sweet, the perfect thing after a big meal. If you like things a little more on the sweet side I recommend adding an extra 1/4 cup of sugar, but if you like the tart natural flavor of the berries follow the recipe as posted.  Also, don't miss the fun blog photo out takes after the recipe. 

World Peace Cookies

If I were to ever be fired from a job I would like the official reason to be "creative insubordination". It seems to me a reason like that would be worth getting fired. I have been reading Dorie Greenspan's cookbook (yes, reading) Baking from my Home to Yours. She has some great stories in that book, one about getting fired for "creative insubordination" and another relating to the naming of these cookies. For some reason the whole time I was making them I couldn't stop thinking about the Miss America Pageant. When I was a kid my mom and I used to watch Miss America every year. Even at a young age the platform of World Peace seemed a little daunting for any Miss America contestant to accomplish in the one year of her reign. Of course, my mother, being the good mother she was would always make some sort of comment about how I should try out for Miss America. Whenever she said this I would never think that I wasn't pretty enough, or how my mosquito bitten legs would look in a swimsuit, or even what my platform would be. My main fear was what I would do for a talent. I have no music or dance skills and nobody...not even my dogs want to hear me sing! Now, I wonder if maybe Miss America could bake these cookies for her talent. That way both her talent and her platform could be World Peace. It's just a thought for any other potential Miss Americas with no talent out there!
These are seriously chocolaty cookies, maybe there will only World Peace for chocolate lovers.

White Chocolate Ice Cream with a Raspberry Swirl

So, here it is...the last of my summer posts. There is no doubt that summer is officially over in Fairbanks. The temperature sign registered 32 degrees Fahrenheit or the big 0 Celsius when I pulled into work this morning. That always catches me off guard this time of year. I run out of the house without my jacket, we live in the hills where it is warmer, and then I get to work and I am freezing by the time I get into the building. The days are still warm and sunny, so eating ice cream isn't out of the question. But then again, when is ice cream out of the question? Raspberries always remind me of warm summer days, so what better thing to eat when it is cold outside?
White Chocolate and Raspberries is one of my favorite flavor combinations. It reminds me of one of my favorite dessert restaurants of all-time. When I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio there was a place called "The Grand Finale". I hope it is still there because I loved their fresh raspberries with White Chocolate Mousse. This is the frozen version.