Eat The Love

Holiday Charcuterie Board [ Sponsored Post]

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:52:32 +0200

Learn how to make a holiday charcuterie board, the perfect grazing board to entertain, or as an easy, no-cook meal at home.

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This post was sponsored by Safeway. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However, all opinions below are completely my own.

It’s the holidays and I’m excited to be teaming up with Safeway and Boar’s Head to make a holiday charcuterie board! One of the best things about charcuterie boards is how easy they are to make, and how impressive they are for folks. I’m a huge fan of Boar’s Head products because they’re super fresh and only use the highest quality ingredients. Boar’s Head wants to simplify making charcuterie boards even more, because sometimes looking at all the options for a charcuterie board can be intimidating. They suggest doing a two-two-two formula, of two cheeses, two charcuterie meats, and two other items to round it out. Simple right?

My favorite thing about doing a grazing or charcuterie board is how customizable they are. If you’re serving the charcuterie board as part of a larger meal or entertaining with a spread of other items, the two-two-two formula is awesome. It simplifies entertaining and allows you to spend more time on other dishes or entrees, or just socializing. It’s also a great formula if you just want to make a simple dinner at home with no cooking for a couple or a small family. Assemble the board and dinner is served!

For a bigger crowd or if the charcuterie board is all you’re serving as the meal, feel free to max it out though! I tend to be a maximizer. The more the better for me! So, I start adding on more stuff to graze, including fruits, vegetables, dips and even cookies (I mean, it IS a holiday charcuterie board, cookies seem like a good idea). Here’s some suggestions on making your own grazing board for the season.

Cheeses

If you’re sticking to two cheeses, I recommend going with crowd pleasing popular ones. A soft cheese like French Brie is always a popular one and is appreciated on all charcuterie boards. I can’t imagine a charcuterie board without it!

From there I try to pair the soft cheese with a hard cheese. Cheddar cheese is one of my favorites. Cheddar comes in a variety of versions, ranging from mild to sharp, with various origins and makes, including Irish, Wisconsin, Vermont and Canadian. You can even go with a smoked version if you want to add in a wild card. They all have their own flavor profiles and it’s always fun to try.

Beyond Cheddar, cheeses like Colby Jack, Havarti, Gouda, Gruyere, Swiss, and Monterey Jack are all great ones to have on a cheese board or charcuterie plate. If you go beyond two cheese, consider a goat cheese, a hard cheese like Parmigiana Reggiano, a blue cheese or a flavored cheese like a Havarti with Dill or a Monterey Jack with caramelized onions to mix it up.

Charcuterie

With meats on a charcuterie board, there’s no rules! You can pick up a few variety packs, which make life easy, or you can pick the cured meat you like ala carte. I usually go with a salami whole sausage to slice up, as well as pre-sliced prosciutto.

If you opt to go beyond the two charcuterie meats, consider a peppered salame or a spicy sopressata to give the charcuterie a little bit more kick. I like to buy thinner cut charcuterie meat, along with the uncut sausages that I can cut thicker, to give a little bit of variety, as well as intrigue and texture on the board.

The Other Two

Feel free to pick and choose from any of these other two categories if you are simplifying your charcuterie board. Or maximize and pick a bunch!

Bread and Crackers

Though I can TOTALLY eat my cheese and cured meat by themselves, most folks aren’t animals like me and want a vehicle to place the cheese and meat on. I usually provide a softer bread, as well as a hard one like a cracker or pretzel, on my board. A couple of types of bread are always fun to provide, like a sourdough bagette or a whole wheat baguette.

Crackers come in a variety of flavors. You can make your own or just pick one from the store. I tend to veer toward more neutral flavored ones like sesame or salt but if you are feeling adventurous or know your friends will love a stronger flavored cracker, experiment. If you have room, buy two or three crackers to match the flavors of the cheese and charcuterie.

If you have friends with dietary restrictions, consider providing gluten free crackers, bread or thin jicama slices for them to use, and make sure to separate out those crackers on their own plate or board to avoid cross-contamination.

Fruits and Vegetables
For the holiday season, I try to use seasonal fruits that make the board look festive. Consider pomegranates, apples, pears, or mandarin orange segments for a holiday board. Dried fruit like figs, apricots, cranberries, or oranges are also fun to add in.

I also often include some vegetables to round out the board. Carrots, radishes, endive, bell peppers, celery are all great additions to a holiday charcuterie board. Salty cured vegetables like olives, gherkins, or other pickled vegetables can also be a great addition.

Dips
I’m a fan of adding a dip or spread to the board as well. It rounds out the spread and makes it feel more like a party. I’ve used Boar’s Head hummus (they make a variety of versions like the roasted red pepper version that I used in this board), as well tzatziki, French onion dip, Spinach dip (all of which Boar’s head also makes) or made my own dip like my Turkish carrot dip to add to the board. Pick a flavor that matches and goes with your theme. Hummus is fairly neutral but can be jazzed up with various flavors. Tzatizki and French onion dip are more specific in flavor. I might add in tzatziki if I’m serving up feta on my board, while I might choose French onion dip if I’m going with a more American cheddar cheese.

I also sometimes add in condiments like honey, mustards and jams. Fig and quince jams in particular are a great spread for a holiday party. They go well with cheeses. And if you add in pretzels or pretzel crisps to your board, you might want to also consider adding a mustard, which pairs well with them.

Nuts and Sweet

Finally, I often will add a bowl of nuts, whether it’s mixed nuts or candied pecans. Dark chocolate is also a classic sweet to add into a charcuterie board. Just makes sure to use squares or cut up chunks to make them into edible bite size bits.

And because this is a holiday, I’ll add in a holiday cookie. Ginger molasses is always a great cookie to have a grazing board because the strong ginger flavor can cut through the fatty charcuterie and cheese. But chocolate crackle cookies, pistachio and cranberry cookies or eggnog cookies are a great addition to have on a board.

Holiday Charcuterie Board

Making a holiday charcuterie board is easy and infinitely customizable. Pick two (or more) cheese, charcuterie and additional items for the board, and then serve. Add in smaller extra items like fruit and nuts to the board, to fill in gaps to give the sense of bounty and plentifulness. This is my go-to recipe for a charcuterie board, but feel free to mix it up. I have more suggestions and hints in the sections above.

Course Appetizer, dinner, lunch, Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine American, European

Keyword charcuterie, cheese, dip, fruit, vegetable

Servings

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1/2 pound Boar’s Head French Brie
1/2 pound Boar’s Head Cheddar any kind
1/2 pound additional Boar’s Head cheese like Gouda, Swiss, Blue Cheese,
6 ounces thinly sliced cured meat like Boar Head’s Prosciutto
7 ounces cured whole sausage like Boar Head’s Uncured Bianco D’Oro Italian Dry Salame
7 ounces additional cured meat like Boar Head’s Pepper Salame, Sopressata or Capocollo
1 apple sliced
1 pomegranate cut open
1 bunch grapes
1/2 pound carrots peeled and cut into sticks
1 bell pepper cut into sticks
8 ounces crackers
8 ounces baguette bread
1/2 cup olives
1/2 cup jam or honey
8 ounces Boar’s Head hummus I used roasted red pepper hummus but use your favorite
Cookies or chocolate

Instructions

Take a wooden, ceramic, or slate charcuterie board and add the cheese and cured meat to the board. Slice the cheese and/or charcuterie if necessary or desired.
Add apples, pomegranates, and grapes to the board, filling in the gaps and holes in the board.
Add a small bowl of olives, jam and hummus to the board. If there isn’t room, place them next to the board. Add cookies or chocolate to the board as well.
Serve within two hours.

The post Holiday Charcuterie Board [ Sponsored Post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Roasted Delicata Squash and Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate Agrodolce [Sponsored Post]

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 19:00:00 +0200

This roasted Delicata squash and Brussels sprouts dish has a pomegranate sweet and sour agrodolce making it an easy, sophisticated side dish.

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This post was sponsored by California Grown. I was compensated for this post and developing this recipe. However, all opinions below are my own.

Back in October, I was lucky to go on a tour with California Grown of California’s San Joaquin Valley, an agriculturally rich area that grows over 250 different crops. We visited kiwi farms, watched fresh figs get packaged, rode a modified grape harvester to harvests dried-on-the-vine raisins, visited a winery and picked pumpkins at a pumpkin farm. And we ate SO. MUCH. FOOD.

Our trip coincided with California Farmer and Farmerworker month and after watching the workers working the fields, I can 100% say, they deserve to be celebrated all year round! The food they harvested is distributed throughout the country but after a day of hanging out in the pumpkin field picking pumpkin squash and decorating gourds, we were lucky enough to dine on some local grown food at Trelio in Clovis, California. At dinner I had some amazing food, including some eggplant with agrodolce and a shaved fennel salad with pomegranate vinaigrette. Taking all that as inspiration, I created this roasted Delicata squash and Brussels sprout dish with pomegranate agrodolce, the perfect fall and winter side dish for your holiday table (or really any time of year).

How to make this dish

This recipe is surprisingly easy to make. Prep the Delicata squash by cutting it lengthwise and scooping out the seeds. Then cut the squash into half moon crescents. Cut the Brussels sprouts in half. Toss both with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then roast in the oven.

Halfway through the roasting, flip the Delicata squash, toss the Brussels sprouts, and add in some red onion slices also tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. While the vegetables are roasting, make the agrodolce by combining red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, pomegranate molasses, maple syrup, some fresh thyme, and a piece of orange zest in a small pot. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Once the vegetables are done, move them to a serving plate and drizzle with the agrodolce. Sprinkle with some fresh pomegranate seeds and serve.

What is agrodolce?

Agrodolce is an Italian sweet and sour sauce. The word “agro” means sour and the word “dolce” means sweet. Often it is made by reducing vinegar and sugar together, but it’s a super versatile condiment, with the sour acidity varying from white wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, apple cider vinegar or even citrus juice. Sweeteners can be honey, sugar, maple syrup, or brown sugar. And you can add in dried fruit or spicy peppers to give it a kick.

What is Delicata squash

Delicata squash is my favorite winter squash because it requires very little prep work. A lot of winter squashes require you to peel or remove the rind of the squash, or they are very large and require a lot of time to cook. But the Delicata squash skin is thin and edible, and the orange interior is sweet and creamy, similar to a butternut squash.

It also tends to be easier to work with, as it has a long oblong shape, not too big, and isn’t too unwieldy on the cutting board. It’s a good source of fiber and potassium, though it doesn’t have a lot of beta-carotene like other squashes do. And yes, the seeds are also edible, toast them up just like pumpkin seeds, then turn the roasted seeds into candied pumpkin seeds if you want!

How do you seed a pomegranate

You can buy pre-seeded pomegranates at the store, but seeding whole pomegranates, is easier than it looks. Just do a shallow cut around the top of the pomegranate and peel off the top.

Then slice down the sides of the pomegranate into the skin (it’s a shallow cut, not too deep) with a knife. Cut on the “boxy” edges of the pomegranate, using them as as a guide. These boxy edges should also line up with the white member inside the pomegranate.

Once you’ve sliced down the sides, just pull apart the pomegranate, then gently push the seeds out into a bowl. Stored pomegranate seeds in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Can you make this ahead of time?

Yes! The roasted vegetables can totally be made ahead of time. Let them cool completely and don’t add the agrodolce. Right before serving, heat them up again in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes, or in the microwave. Then drizzle the agrodolce over them, and sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds.

Leftovers can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

About the farm tour

California’s San Joaquin Valley is one of the most prolific agricultural areas in the world. I was lucky enough to visit the area in the Autumn time to learn more about where my food came from. Here’s some of the places and things I learned

Sweet Thistle Farms was a family-owned flower and pumpkin farm, where I picked a Long Cheese pumpkin off the vine (it looks like a wheel of cheese, but it has a buttery orange flesh like a regular pumpkin). The farms shares land with Rocky Oaks Goat Creamery, and we got to sample the fantastic goat cheese as we decorated mini pumpkins.

Quady Winery specializes in sweet dessert wines and vermouths. We did an extensive tasting and then saw them crush some of the last grapes of the season.

Catania Worldwide showed us how they grew kiwis, which grew like grapes on a trellis. I actually didn’t even know that kiwis grew in California! Afterwards we went to the packaging plant and saw the kiwis being packaged which was fascinating. Those workers work fast!

Our final famer tour was at River Ranch Raisins which had us actually climbing onto a modified grape harvester and going up and down the rows of grape vines, where the raisins were dried on the vine (DOV). The Selma Pete Raisins dry and the sugars caramelize slightly in the sun, making them super sweet, plump and juicy. Riding the harvester was surprisingly fun, watching the farmers carefully make sure they were driving between the rows, as the combine shakes the grapes and then lifts them up in a conveyor belt, then drops them into a separate tractor with giant bins. I’m still obsessed with those raisins and I think once pomegranate season is over, I might try adding some of the raisins into the agrodolce while it cooks down.

If you like this vegetable side dish, check out some other vegetable side dishes featuring California grown produce:

Roasted Delicata Squash and Brussel Sprouts with Pomegranate Agrodolce

This easy vegetable side dish requires very little work, as the vegetables roast in the hot oven. Make sure to cut the Delicata squash into the same size pieces so they cook evenly. Try to find medium to large Brussels sprouts for this dish and cut them in half. If you have smaller ones, just leave them whole. If the Brussels are too small, they’ll overcook. You want them nicely charred but not black.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings servings

Calories 185kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Roasted Vegetables

2 pounds Delicata squash about 2 medium-size
1 pound Brussels sprouts halved if they are large
3 tablespoons olive oil divided
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt divided
3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper divided
1 medium red onion

Agrodolce

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 thyme sprigs
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes (optional)
3- inch piece of orange zest optional

To serve

3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F and lightly spray a large, rimmed baking sheet with cooking oil.
Cut the ends of the Delicata squash off, then cut the squash lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and discard or save them another purpose. Cut the squash into 1/2-inch thick half-moon pieces. Place the squash and Brussels sprouts in a large bowl and drizzle with 2 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, then toss to coat.
If they won't all fit in one bowl, toss and coat the squash first with 1 tablespoon of oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, then repeat with the Brussels sprouts.
Carefully spread evenly onto the baking sheet. If the sheet is too crowded, you can spread it onto two baking sheets. You want to give them a little space to breathe, so they roast and not steam. The vegetables will shrink down though, as you roast them.
Roast the vegetables for 15 minutes. Meanwhile peel the onion, then cut off the ends, and cut the onions into 1-inch wide slices, root to tip. Toss the onion pieces with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, salt and pepper (I used the same bowl, no need to wash it). Once the vegetables have roasted for 15 minutes, remove from oven, flip the squash and Brussels, then add the red onions to the pan. Return to the oven and roast for an additional 15 minutes.
While the vegetables are cooking, make the agrodolce by placing the red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, pomegranate molasses, maple syrup, thyme sprigs, salt, Aleppo pepper (if using) and orange zest (if using) in a small pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat so simmering. Simmer for 10 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally. Once cooked, remove from heat.
Once the vegetables are done roasting, move them to a serving plate or bowl. Drizzle the agrodolce over the vegetables and sprinkle with the fresh pomegranate seeds. Serve immediately.

Nutrition

The post Roasted Delicata Squash and Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate Agrodolce [Sponsored Post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Miso Butter Glazed Green Beans

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 02:33:55 +0200

This miso butter green beans with corn and fried shallots is an easy side dish with the not-so-secret miso as an umami flavor booster!

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The cooler weather has me turning up the heat, grabbing a cozy sweater and baking up a storm. But dinner still have to make its way onto the table, and that means I’m making comfort food like easy chili, shepherd’s pie, easy baked ziti, and Moroccan lamb tagine. But along with all those main dishes, I often want to serve a green vegetable side. And green beans are one of my quick easy dishes, with their snappy nutty flavor and their quick preparation. I’ve made green beans with shallots and thyme and I’ve roasted green beans and tossed them dried cranberries. But my current favorite way to prepare them is this miso butter glazed green beans with corn and fried shallots!

How do make miso butter glazed green beans

Making these green beans are super easy. First bring a large pot of water to boil, then blanch the green beans. Then drain and run them under cold water.

Then soften the butter and stir in the miso. This step is key, because if you just toss the miso into the pan, it runs the risk of burning and becoming acrid. Blending it with butter helps dilute and distribute the miso throughout the dish better.

Add a little oil the empty pot that you boiled the green beans in and add back the green beans, chopped garlic and shallots. Then cook until the aromatics have softened a bit. Add sake and cook until it mostly evaporates which helps cook the green beans a little more. Then add the corn and the miso butter cook until a glaze forms. Sprinkle with fried shallots and serve.

What is miso and what sort of miso should be used?

Miso is a fermented soybean paste that is common in Japanese cuisine. It is a salty paste that is packed full of savory umami flavor. Umami is the same underlying savoriness flavor you find in tomatoes, parmesan cheese and anchovies.

Miso often comes in different varieties, with the most common being white, yellow and red. Usually the darker the color, the more intense the flavor, with white being mild, yellow being medium strength, and red has the most intensity. I opt for red miso, as I like its assertive quality in this recipe, but you can use whatever miso you have. Just keep in mind the miso flavor will be more mild with white and yellow miso and if you want a stronger flavor, to increase the amount (perhaps an additional teaspoon or two).

You can miso in Asian grocery stores, as well as upscale and well-stocked grocery stores. Look in the refrigerated section, where you might find tofu.

Can you skip the sake?

If you don’t have sake, you can use soju (a Korean rice wine), Chinese rice wine, sherry, vermouth or white wine in its place, though each of those have a slightly different flavor profile, and the resulting dish will taste slightly different.

Though the alcohol will burn off in the cooking, if you don’t like cooking with alcohol, you can easily swap out chicken broth, vegetable broth or just plain water in place of the sake. Again, keep in mind that resulting dish will taste slightly different.

Can you make this ahead?

These green beans are best eaten right when they are done but if you want to prep and make the dish ahead of time, you can store them in the refrigerator and then rewarm them using the microwave or on the stovetop. Be sure to sprinkle the fried shallots on top right before serving them though. If you add them and then store the dish, the shallots will lose their crispness.

These green beans will keep in the fridge up to 2 days.

If you like this green bean recipe, check out these other vegetable side dishes

Miso Butter Glazed Green Beans with Corn and Fried Shallots

This easy-to-make green bean side uses umami-rich miso mixed with butter and a splash of sake to bring out the earthy nuttiness of green beans. Add a little bit of sweet corn and the crunch of the fried shallots, to make it a quick, excellent side dish for the holidays or really any time of year!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, Japanese

Keyword green beans, side dish, vegetable, vegetarian

Prep Time 6 hours 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Servings

Calories 305kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds green beans trimmed, 680 g
1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
2 tablespoons red miso see note above info on different miso
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped shallots about 2 medium
1 tablespoon chopped garlic cloves about 3 medium
1/2 cup sake see note above for how to substitute sake
1 cup corn kernels freshly cooked, frozen or canned
Salt and pepper to taste

To serve

1/4 cup fried shallots

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salty water to a boil. The water should taste like ocean or sea water, so salt aggressively. Once the water is boiling, add the trimmed green beans and cook for 60 to 90 seconds. The green beans should turn bright green. Immediately drain and run under cold water from the faucet until the green beans are no longer hot (warm is still ok).
Combine the softened butter and miso together to form a paste.
Add the oil to the large pot you used to boil the green beans, then add back the green beans, chopped shallots and garlic. There’s no need to clean the pot. Just make sure you drained all the water out of it.
Cook the vegetables for 1 minutes on medium heat, stirring constantly, then add the sake. Cook until most of the sake has evaporated, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the corn and the miso butter. Cook until the butter has melted and a glaze has formed. Taste and add additional salt and pepper to your taste.
Move to a serving bowl or plate, sprinkle with the fried shallots. Serve immediately.

Nutrition

The post Miso Butter Glazed Green Beans appeared first on Eat The Love.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 01:25:42 +0200

This classic cinnamon streusel coffee cake is rich and buttery, with a ribbon of cinnamon sugar filling in the middle.

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Though my husband is much more of a cookie and brownie person, he does have a weakness for coffee cake. It might be because he drinks so much coffee! And though I’ve shared my recipe for pumpkin coffee cake, Swedish blueberry cake, Mexican chocolate and corn coffee cake, and my Earl Grey infused blueberry coffee cake, I somehow have not shared my go-to cinnamon streusel coffee cake recipe. This is the buttery, rich, and moist coffee cake that you find at a coffee shop, but SO. MUCH. BETTER. Topped with the perfect amount of cinnamon streusel crumb topping, this is the coffee cake that you want to serve with coffee, tea, or pretty much any hot beverage of your choice, for breakfast, tea time, or as dessert.

How do you make this Coffee Cake?

For me, a proper coffee needs a crumb or streusel topping. This coffee cake is no exception. Start by mixing together flour, sugar, brown sugar, a heavy dose of cinnamon, and a little salt in a medium-sized bowl. Drizzle in melted butter and toss until everything starts to clump together. Then refrigerate while you make the rest of the cake!

I like to give my coffee cake a little middle swirl of extra brown sugar and cinnamon. Just blend it all together in a small bowl and set side. But you can totally skip this if you want to simplify the recipe a bit.

Then the cake batter! Cream together butter, white and brown sugar, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together until light, fluffy and the mixture clings to the side of the bowl. Add eggs, one at a time. Add some flour, then sour cream (or Greek yogurt) and milk, them more flour.

Spread half the batter into a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling on top of it. Then spread the remaining batter on top of the filling. Take the refrigerator cold crumb topping and sprinkle it all over the top of the cake, breaking up any big chunks into small pebble sized pieces. Bake, cool and serve!

Can you make this cake ahead of time? How do you store it?

This cake can be made ahead and stays nice and moist for 2 to 3 days. Cool it completely, then make sure to store it in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature on your counter or table.

Can you freeze this cake?

Yes! This cake freezes well. You can freeze the entire cake as is by letting it cool completely, then wrapping it in plastic wrap and placing it in a very large resealable freezer Ziploc bag. But I like to cut up the cake into individual slices and freeze those, as then I can just take a slice out for myself when I want a treat. Place cake slices on a baking sheet in the freezer for 2 hours, or until frozen solid. Then place in a large resealable freezer Ziploc bag or air-tight container for storage. Cake will keep for up to 2 months frozen. To defrost, leave at room temperature at 2 hours before serving.

Make it your own

If you want to play around with this coffee cake, here are a few suggestions:

Nuts: try adding 1/3 cup chopped pecans, walnuts or pistachios to the topping. Or add 1/4 cup chopped nuts to the cinnamon filling in the middle of the cake.
Cacao Nibs: Allergic or don’t like nuts, but still want a crunchy nutty texture? Use 1/3 cup crushed cacao nibs in the topping or 1/4 cup crushed cacao nibs in the filling.
Spices: try playing around with the spices, swapping out some or all of the cinnamon with cardamom, ginger, all spice or another warm wintry spice.
Citrus: Add the zest of fresh lemon, lime or orange juice to the butter and sugar creaming stage of the recipe, then add 2 tablespoons of the juice to the milk and reduce the milk by 2 tablespoons.
Glaze it: I don’t make a glaze for this coffee cake as I feel like it’s gilding the lily, with the sugary crunchy streusel topping, but if you want to truly mimic a classic coffee shop coffee cake, make a simple glaze by mixing 1/2 cup of sifted powdered sugar with 2 or 3 teaspoons of milk or citrus juice. Add in 2 teaspoons first, then add in a little more liquid if you need it. Once the cake is cooled, drizzle the glaze over the crumb topping in a zig-zag or criss-cross pattern. Let the glaze dry before slicing and serving.

If you like this coffee cake, check out these other coffee cake recipes:

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

This cinnamon streusel coffee cake is a buttery and moist coffee shop classic! It has a cinnamon-forward crumb topping, as well as a layer of cinnamon brown sugar filling in the middle of the cake. Feel free to play around with the amount of cinnamon, reducing it if you feel like the suggested amount is too aggressive for your taste.

Course Breakfast, brunch, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword cake, cinnamon, crumb topping, streusel

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Servings

Calories 572kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Cinnamon streusel topping

1 cup all-purpose flour 140 g
1/2 cup white sugar 100 g
1/4 packed brown sugar (dark or light) 65 g
2 tablespoons Turbinado sugar sometimes labeled Sugar in the Raw (optional)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

Cinnamon filling

1/2 packed cup brown sugar (dark or light), 110 g
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cocoa powder optional (for dark coloring)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cake batter

3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 1 1/2 stick or 170 g
1 1/2 cups white sugar 300 g
1/4 cup packed brown sugar dark or light, 65 g
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour divided 490 g
1 1/4 cup milk any kind, 305 g
3/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt, 200 g

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking pan with cooking oil.
Make the streusel topping by placing the flour, sugar, brown sugar, Turbinado sugar (if using), salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium-sized bowl. Mix together with a fork or a balloon whisk until blended and uniform in color. Drizzle the melted butter over the mixture, until all the butter is absorbed, and clumps start to form. Refrigerate (uncovered is fine) until use.
Make the cinnamon filling by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, cocoa powder (if using), and nutmeg together with a fork in a small bowl.
Make the cake batter by placing the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed, until the mixture is light in color, creamy in appearance, and clings to the side of the bowl.
Add the eggs, one a time, and mix until each is incorporated before adding the next one. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition.
Add 2 cups of flour the bowl and slow mix to incorporate. Once the flour is absorbed, add the milk and sour cream (or Greek yogurt) to the bowl. Mix until incorporated. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix until absorbed and a batter has formed. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl between additions.
Pour and spread about half the batter into the prepared pan (about 825 g if you have a scale) and spread evenly over the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon filling over the entire top of the batter.
Carefully spoon the remaining batter over the cinnamon filling. Spread it gently to cover the filling.
Get the cold streusel topping from the refrigerator. Sprinkle it over the top of the cake batter. Break up the really large chunks, but leave some chunks together, as that’s what makes the streusel topping so great! Be sure to cover the entire top of the cake.
Bake in the oven 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Let cool on a wire rack before serving.

Nutrition

The post Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake appeared first on Eat The Love.

Green Shakshuka with Green and Black Ripe Olives [sponsored post]

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 17:00:00 +0200

This easy-to-make green shakshuka recipe is packed with leafy greens, as well as green and black ripe olives, and feta cheese.

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This post was sponsored by California Grown. I was compensated for this post and developing this recipe. However, all opinions below are my own.

If you’ve followed my blog at all, you know I absolutely love olives. They’re one of my secret ingredients that I try to sneak into a lot of dishes because the salty briny flavor gives dishes extra punch. The earthy, umami-packed flavor works well in my olive tomato hand pies, a quick chop makes an excellent herb dressing for asparagus, and olives are fantastic paired with charred, smokey eggplant. So, when California Grown asked me to partner together in October, which is California Farmer and Farmworker Month, I was excited to bring you my take on a green shakshuka, a leafy green version of the classic shakshuka dish, made with green and black California ripe olives.

What is shakshuka?

Shakshuka, occasionally spelled shakshouka or chakchouka, is a Northwestern African egg dish, with multiple countries like Tunisia, Turkey, and Morocco laying claim to its origins. Its popularity has spread throughout the Mediterranean and across the world and is also closely associated with Israeli cuisine.

It’s a popular breakfast or brunch dish that is typically made with a tomato base, cooked with spices, vegetables, cheese and occasionally meat. Once the base is made, eggs are cracked and poached in the sauce, and then served.

Similar dishes to shakshuka include menemen, a Turkish dish that uses scrambled eggs instead of poached eggs, eggs-in-purgatory which is a similar egg poached in tomato Italian dish with Italian spices, and Huevos rancheros which is a Mexican dish with eggs and tomato salsa.

Shakshuka is a very versatile dish. I’ve even made a pretzel shakshuka dish! Green shakshuka is a version of the more common tomato-based shakshuka, using green leafy vegetables as a base.

How do you make green shakshuka?

Green shakshuka is an easy-to-make dish that uses leafy green vegetables, cooked down into a stew, as a base for the eggs. First toast some cumin seeds and then crush them in a mortar and pestle. You can skip this step and just use ground cumin if you’d like, though the spice flavor won’t be quite as assertive or robust.

Cook chopped garlic, leeks and chard stems in a large pan, then wilt down chard leaves and spinach. Add in green and black ripe olives, along with feta cheese, fresh herbs like oregano and flat-leaf parsley and Aleppo pepper. Once everything stews down, make a “well” in five spots in the pan and crack eggs into them. Cover and cook until the eggs are done to your liking. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with toasted bread.

What do you serve with shakshuka?

I like to serve the green shakshuka with toasted crusty bread to help “sop up” any egg yolk. But you can eat the shakshuka all by itself, or with toasted pita bread or crackers. I also sometimes serve my green shakshuka with lime wedges, as the acidity really helps amp up the flavor of the greens. You can also serve it with a light salad or a side of hummus, falafel or more olives if you’d like.

How to customize this recipe:

Like traditional tomato-based shakshuka, green shakshuka is very versatile, allowing you to make it your own. Here’s a few suggestions to play around with

Different greens: I use a mix of chard and spinach in my green shakshuka. The chard has a little more substance, while the spinach wilts down and creates a silky background. But feel free to swap out the greens with kale, collard, arugula, beet greens or a box of baby mixed greens if you’d like. I recommend using 1 pound of greens for this dish, which sounds like a lot, but it reduces down when wilted. Keep in mind that some greens (like collard or kale) might not shed as much water when cooked, while spinach and beet greens will shed more water. If you’re using greens that don’t produce as much liquid when cooked, compensate by adding 1/4 cup of water or vegetable stock to the pan to help cook the eggs.
Different alliums: I use leeks and garlic for my aromatic vegetables but feel free to use a yellow or red onion or shallots instead, or in addition to the leeks and garlic.
Add vegetables: I don’t add a lot of vegetables to my green shakshuka, as I want the leafy greens and the olives to shine. But feel free to customize by adding in other vegetables like cubed zucchini, shaved brussels sprouts, sliced asparagus, green or yellow bell peppers, or artichoke hearts to this dish. Make sure to add the vegetables in with the garlic and alliums as they need more time to cook. You can even sprinkle some avocado to the top of the dish after it’s cooked for a little buttery green richness.
Give it more umami: Umami that allusive “meaty” flavor that Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, olives, and mushrooms have. You can add sauteed mushrooms to this dish to punch up the umami, along with more olives. Or, if you’d like, add some cooked sausage like merguez or chorizo to the dish.
Add acidity: If you find the dish is lacking a bit of complexity, I might suggest trying to add a little lime or lemon juice to the dish. The acidity is a nice addition to the leaf green and briny olives.
Different cheeses: I use feta cheese in this recipe but feel free to swap it out with a crumbly cheese cotija, a rich cheese like dollops of ricotta or hard cheese like parmesan.
Swap out spices: I used toasted and ground cumin seeds in this recipe along with Aleppo pepper, but you can play around with spices, using toasted and ground coriander, caraway seeds, and red pepper flakes. If you want to amp up the spicy heat, you can add cayenne to the dish, slice up and saute some serrano or jalapeno peppers to the vegetables, or add a few spoonfuls of harissa sauce.
Swap out herbs: This recipe uses fresh oregano and flat-leaf parsley as the herb, but you can easily swap or add other fresh herbs to this dish. Try fresh dill, cilantro, or thyme as a substitute or replacement. I always recommend using fresh herbs though, as green shakshuka cooks quickly and dry herbs work better in stews and longer cooked dishes.

If you like this green shakshuka recipe, check out these other vegetable forward dishes:

Green Shakshuka with California Ripe Olives

This leafy green version of the traditional shakshuka skips the tomatoes and uses Swiss chard and spinach as a base. I added in black and green ripe olives, along with feta cheese and some spices like cumin and Aleppo pepper. But I have a section above on how to customize this shakshuka and make it your own! Feel free to play around with it, as it’s a very versatile dish.

Course Breakfast, brunch, lunch, Main Course

Cuisine African, Jewish, Maghreb, Mediterranean, tunisian

Keyword eggs, feta cheese, leafy greens, olives, vegetarian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Servings

Calories 318kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 teaspoon cumin seeds or 1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 pound Swiss chard
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 large leek cleaned and sliced into half moons
5 large garlic cloves chopped
1/2 pound spinach
1 tablespoon oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley sometimes called Italian parsley
1/2 cup California ripe black olives sliced in half
1/2 cup California ripe green olives sliced in half
1/2 cup feta cheese diced or crumbled
5 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon Aleppo peppers or more if desired (sub red pepper flakes if you want)
Salt and pepper to taste

To serve

Slices of toast optional
Lime wedges optional

Instructions

If using, toast the cumin seeds by placing them in a large 12-inch skillet and heating it, shaking or stirring the seeds until they are fragrant and have darkened slightly, about 1 minutes on medium heat.
Pour the cumin seeds into a mortar and pestle and then lightly crush them. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, let the cumin seeds cool, then place them in a freezer Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Trim and remove the Swiss chard stems from the leaves. Cut the stems into 1/2-inch pieces. Slice the chard leaves into 1-inch ribbons.
Place the oil, sliced leeks, garlic cloves and chopped chard stems into the 12-inch skillet used to toast the cumin. Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, until the leeks have softened, about 3 minutes. Do not let the garlic brown or caramelize.
Add the chard leaves, spinach, oregano leaves, and 2 tablespoons of the chopped parsley, along with the crushed cumin. If all the chard and spinach doesn’t fit, cook it in batches, adding half the greens, and then adding the other half after the first batch has wilted down. Continue to cook until all the greens have wilted down.
Sprinkle the black olives, green olives and feta cheese over the top of the greens, then make a well in 5 different spots in the greens.
Crack an egg into each well. Cover with a lid and let cook on medium low heat for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.
Remove and sprinkle with remaining parsley, Aleppo pepper (or red pepper flakes), salt and pepper to taste. Serve with slices of toast and lime wedges if you’d like.

Notes

This post was sponsored by California Grown. I was compensated for this post and developing this recipe. However, all opinions below are my own.

Nutrition

The post Green Shakshuka with Green and Black Ripe Olives [sponsored post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Tarte Tatin (French Apple Tart)

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:45:31 +0200

How to make a picture-perfect Tarte Tatin, the classic upside-down French caramel apple tart, with step-by-step photos and instructions!

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Fall is here, and that means ALL the apple desserts! Like my apple slab pie, my apple pandowdy with blackberries, my apple fritters, my fried apple pie, and my apple cider donuts. But somehow I’ve not shared with you my recipe for the classic French tarte tatin.

I’ve been making a variant of the tarte tatin dessert, the classic French upside-down caramel apple tart, for years. I bring it to dinner parties. I serve it as a dessert for special occasions. And I make it randomly when I’m just feeling a little bit fancy. But, true story, it’s not a fancy dessert. It’s surprisingly easy to make. And it never fails to impress. Maybe it’s because it has a French name, or because it has those beautiful glistening apple mounds nestled in a flaky crust, but numerous folks seem intimidated by making it. Fear not! Here’s how to make a picture-perfect looking tarte tatin with minimal effort, complete with step-by-step instructions and photos.

What is a Tarte Tatin

A Tarte Tatin is a classic French apple dessert, where a caramel is made in a pan, then apples are cooked in the caramel. A pie crust or puff pastry crust is placed on top, then the entire pan is placed in the oven. Once baked, the tart is inverted, leaving the crust on the bottom and apples on the top.

It’s a signature dish of the Hôtel Tatin, a hotel about 100 miles south of Paris, France. The hotel, run by the Tatin sisters, has origins from the 1880s, with various stories about how Stéphanie Tatin originally made the dish by accident. That said, there are references to a similar dish as early as 1840 in cookbooks. The tarte tatin is traditionally made with apples but you can make it with different fruit, like pears, quinces, peaches and even savory versions exist made with onions.

How do you make a Tarte Tatin

The traditional method of making a tarte tatin has you cooking sugar in a pan to make a caramel, adding butter to it, then adding the apples, cooking it until the apples have softened slightly. Then you place the crust on top and bake the pan.

I deviated from this classic method because I have found that trying to cook all the apples in the same pan you bake it is difficult because apples shrink so much. To get the picture-perfect classic apple tarte tatin look, you need to cook the caramel and apples in a separate pan, then arrange them in a small pan, overlapping and shingling them so when they shrink, it still produces a full looking tart.

Make the caramel in a large 12-skillet by cooking sugar until is turns golden brown. Add the butter to cool it. Stir in vanilla and salt. Add the apples and cook until they start to soften and the edges of the apples look translucent. Then arrange the apples in a smaller 9-inch, 10-inch or 11-inch pan, overlapping them as you fit them all in. Pour the caramel all over the apples. Then roll out the pie crust, fit it over the apples and bake. Let cool until warm, then flip onto a serving platter.

Tricks on making the perfect looking Tarte Tatin

Use baking apples: To get the best looking Tarte Tatin, make sure to use apples that will hold up baking and heat. My favorite baking apples include Braeburn, Cortland, Gala, Jonagold, and Pink Lady/Cripps Pink. The popular Honeycrisp apples also hold their shape well when baked, but they tend to be more juicy, so expect more caramel juice to flow and pool when you invert the tart. Make sure your serving plate has a lip to catch the juice. If you have access to heirloom apples like Arkansas Black or Gravenstein, they are excellent apples for baking. I avoid Red Delicious apples in baking, as they fall apart into mush when heated.
Use two pans: I mentioned above that the traditional method of making a tarte tatin has you cooking the caramel and apples in one pan and then trying to arrange and bake it in the same pan. If you want a picture perfect tarte tatin, use one large pan (I recommend a 12-inch skillet) to cook the caramel and apples, then arrange the apples in a smaller pan (9 to 11-inch skillet) overlapping them to accommodate with shrinking then pour the caramel over the apples. The overlapping apples and the ability to carefully arrange the apples in the new smaller pan will lead to a better looking tarte tatin.
Have cold butter ready: Caramel goes from the ideal translucent golden brown to acrid black fast. Have cold butter ready to add to the pan to stop the cooking! Make sure to place the butter in a small bowl or have it next to you cut up, so you can use it when it’s needed.
Use a large 12-inch skillet with a silver bottom: If you’ve never made caramel before, I highly recommend using a large skillet with a silver bottom. The light colored bottom will help you judge the color of the caramel. Dark non-stick pans are great for clean up but the dark color makes it hard to see what color the caramel is.
Wait for the tart to cool slightly before inverting: Most recipes have you invert the tart fairly quickly. Not only is the pan and tart super hot (which is dangerous) but the caramel is often very liquidy and will run all over the place. Let the pan cool for 30 minutes makes it much more easier to manage when flipping over. It also gives it time for the caramel to settle and thicken. If any apple stick to the pan, just carefully remove it from the pan and replace it onto the tart. This is much easier to do when the apples and pan aren’t scalding hot!

Short cut

If you want to skip making the pie crust, feel free to use store bought pie crust or store bought puff pastry. I personally prefer a pie crust over a puff pastry crust for a tarte tatin, but either works!

How do you store a Tarte Tatin

Store tarte tatin in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature and serve or warm it up gently in a 300°F or toaster oven for 10 minutes if you’d like.

If you like this Tarte Tatin, check out these other Fall desserts and baked goods:

Tarte Tatin

This classic French upside-down caramel apple tart is easier to make than it looks. The trick is to cook the caramel and apples in a larger 12-inch skillet or pan and then carefully arrange the apples into a smaller 9, 10 or 11-inch pan before baking it. The large skillet or pan allows you to cook more apples, which shrink down and create a picture-perfect Tarte Tatin that will have all your friends and loved ones super impressed.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Keyword apple, caramel, tart

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Rest Time 30 minutes

Servings

Calories 343kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Pie crust

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 175 g
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter 115 g or 1 stick
5 to 7 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling

3 1/4 to 3 1/2 pounds apples roughly 8 to 10-medium sized ones
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter 57 g
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Make the Pie Crust

Make the pie crust by placing the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and sprinkle them over the flour. Toss the butter with your hands to coat them with flour, then use your fingers to smash the butter into flat small pieces, roughly the size of peas.
Drizzle 5 tablespoons of water over the mixture and toss with a fork. Use your hand to massage the dough, until all the water is absorbed and evenly distributed, and a cohesive dough has formed. Add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough seems too dry and isn’t forming properly. Gather the dough into a single ball, then flatten it into a 1-inch thick disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Make the Caramel and Apple Filling

Make the filling by peeling an apple and then cutting it into 3 wedges, discarding the core. The larger size chunks of apples will look best for the tarte tatin. Repeat with the remaining apple, placing the pieces in a large bowl. Sprinkle with apple cider vinegar and toss to prevent them from browning.
Cut the cold butter into 1/2-inch chunks and set next to the stove. Sprinkle the sugar into a large 12-inch skillet (preferably one with a silver or light-colored bottom if you have never cooked caramel before). Cook the sugar on high heat, until it starts to melt, then reduce the heat to medium low. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until all the sugar has melted and started to turn golden brown.
Once the sugar is a golden brown, remove from heat and add the cold butter carefully. It will steam and sputter, and the caramel might seize up and harden. Don’t worry about this. Just stir the butter into the hot caramel as much as you can.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Move the pan back to the burner. Add the apples to the pan and cook them on medium low heat, stirring as best you can. The caramel will be hard and chunky but as the apples start to exude liquid as the pan heats up again, the caramel will loosen and dissolve back into a liquid. Continue to cook the apples until they have started to soften slightly, the edges of the apples have turned slightly translucent, and the caramel has liquified again, about 10 minutes or so. Remember, the apples will continue to cook in the oven so no need to cook completely on the stove. Remove the pan from the heat.

Arrange the Tart and Bake

Take a 9, 10 or 11-inch oven-proof skillet or pie pan and carefully arrange the apples, round side down in concentric circles. I like to pick the biggest apple slices and use those around the edge of the pan, working my way in with smaller apple slices.
“Shingle” the apples so they overlap about 1/3 of the way if you can. This allows you to fit in more apples into the pan, as well as accommodates for when the apples shrink more in the baking.
Use as many apples as you can fit in, but don’t stress too much if you can’t use all the apples. Save the remaining caramelized apples for another use, like topping on yogurt or ice cream, or just snacking on them.
Whisk in the vanilla and salt into the remaining caramel in the large 12-inch skillet that you cooked the apples in. Then scrape and pour the caramel over the apples.
Take the chilled dough from the fridge and roll it out on a clean, lightly floured surface into a 10 to 12-inch circle. Roll it out roughly an inch larger than the skillet pan you are using.
Fold the pie crust in half, then in half again, making it look like a quarter pie wedge. Place the crust over the apples and unfold.
Tuck the edges of the pie crust into into the side of the pan.
Cut a few steam vents into to the crust. Place the pan on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any spillage and to help move the pan in and out of the oven) and bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the crust looks golden brown and juices are bubbling out of the steam vents. A smaller 9-inch skillet will be closer to 25 to 30 minutes, while a larger 10-inch skillet will be closer to 30 to 35 minutes.
Let the tarte tatin rest and cool on a wire rack for 30 to 45 minutes. Then place a serving platter or cake stand upside down on it and carefully invert the pan. The tarte tatin should easily release onto the platter. If any apples stick to the pan, just carefully loosen and replace them back onto the tarte tatin.
Serve warm as is, or with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

Nutrition

The post Tarte Tatin (French Apple Tart) appeared first on Eat The Love.

Easy Fudge Brownies

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 17:00:00 +0200

These easy fudge brownies are made in one bowl and come together quickly. They are chewy, fudgy and intensely chocolatey!

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Ahhh brownies. I realized that I have shared quite a few brownie recipes, like my Neapolitan cheesecake brownies, my rye brownies with caramel, my peppermint cheesecake brownies, and my pumpkin cheesecake brownies here on this blog. But one thing I haven’t ever shared is a straightforward fudge brownie recipe. Which is a shame because that’s one of those classic recipes that everyone needs.

And though I’ve tried tons of fudge brownie recipes, it took me a LONG time to really develop a recipe that I adored and wanted to share. So, I started making batch after batch of brownies. It’s a tough gig! ButI really wanted to dive in deep, tweaking the recipe to make it the best fudge brownie recipe ever. A brownie that was deeply rich and chocolate-packed, worthy of the name “fudge brownie.” I wanted it dense but not gummy, chewy and fudgy, and almost sensual in texture. Finally, I developed this easy fudge brownie recipe that you can make in one bowl!

How to make fudge brownies

These fudge brownies are super easy to make and only require one bowl or a large pot. First place butter, sugar and cocoa in a large microwave safe bowl. Cook in the microwave until the butter is melted and the sugar and cocoa are dissolved. Stir in the vanilla, salt, instant coffee, and baking powder.

Add the eggs, one at a time. Fold in the flour and then the chocolate chips. Pour into a prepared pan and bake!

How do you get that shiny brownie top?

Everyone seems to love the shiny brownie top you get from a box mix. But not every homemade brownie has it. This recipe is designed to have that coveted shiny topping, which is a chocolate meringue that sits on top of the brownie after it bakes. Here’s how I achieved it.

Melt the butter: Unlike cakes or cookies that often have you mixing sugar with solid butter to get a creamy mixture, melted butter in this brownie batter helps dissolve the sugar. Make sure the butter is warm enough to dissolve the sugar a much as possible. Warmer butter dissolves sugar easier than cool butter.
Dissolve the sugar: Adding the sugar and cocoa together and dissolving them in the melted butter helps create the meringue topping.
Mix in the eggs one at time: Make sure to really beat and mix in each egg before adding the next egg. Ideally you want your batter to be smooth and not grainy. The more dissolved the sugar, the more you’ll get the meringue topping.
Add the chocolate chips: Solid chocolate chips helps encourage the meringue to form on top.
Resting for 1 or 2 minutes: Let the pan of brownie batter rest for a minute or two before placing it in the oven. You’ll notice that the batter settles a bit and the top of it starts to look glossy. A shiny gloss batter makes a shiny gloss top!
Use a quart-sheet pan: I tested this recipe using a conventional baking pan, with higher 2-inch sides, as well as a shorter quarter sheet pan. I found the quarter sheet pan, which is only 1-inch deep, gave a more even shiny top over the conventional baking pan. The brownies were delicious from both pans so don’t worry if you don’t have a quarter sheet pan. But if you do, I suggest you try baking these brownies in them!

Can I use regular cocoa and not Dutch-process cocoa?

This recipe is designed for Dutch-process cocoa. This is cocoa powder that has been alkalinized to remove some of the natural acidity found in cocoa beans. The alkalizing process darkens the cocoa and also makes it easier to dissolve in liquid.

If you only have regular cocoa, you can use the same amount, just swap out the 1/2 teaspoon baking powder with 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. The acidity in the regular cocoa will react with the baking soda and give rise to the brownies. Expect the brownies made with regular cocoa powder to slightly more cakey, less rich tasting, and lighter in color than the brownies made with Dutch-process cocoa.

Customize these brownies

These brownies can be adapted to your own taste. Here are few suggestions:

Use your favorite chocolate chips: Though I strongly suggest adding the chocolate chips to help with the shiny crackly top, feel free to use dark bittersweet chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips or even white chocolate chips. Or try using a different flavored chip like butterscotch, peanut butter or mint chip. You can also use a mix of chocolate chips if you want. Or omit the chocolate chips all together!
Use chocolate chunks: Try chopping chocolate instead of using chocolate chips. You can often get higher quality chocolate in bars instead of as chips, so pick one that you really enjoy eating out of hand.
Add nuts: Add in 1 cup of chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans, pistachios, macadamia nuts or hazelnuts to these brownies.
Add cacao nibs: If you are allergic to nuts but still want the crunch and texture of nuts, try adding 1 cup of roasted cacao nibs. They add a nutty texture, as well as more chocolate flavor to the brownies.
Brown the butter: To give these brownies an extra layer of caramelized flavor, brown the butter by melting 1 cup and 1 tablespoons of butter in a skillet, cooking until the milk fats have turned golden brown. Pour into a heatproof bowl, making sure to scrape out and add in all the golden-brown milky bits, and proceed with the recipe, stirring the sugar and cocao powder into the hot butter. Continue to stir until the butter has cooled down a bit before adding the eggs, otherwise you’ll end up with cooked scrambled eggs in your brownies.

How to store these brownies

These brownies improve with age, becoming more rich and fudgy in a day or so. Store the brownies in an airtight container or under a cake dome at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also store the brownies in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days. You can eat the brownies directly from the fridge if you’d like. They are even more dense and fudgy! Or leave them on the counter for an hour to warm up to room temperature.

If you like these easy fudge brownies, try these other chocolate recipes:

Easy Fudge Brownies

These chewy easy fudge brownies are a deep, dense, chocolate-packed brownies, the sort of brownie that every chocolate lover craves. They have that coveted shiny meringue top and come together easily in one bowl or pot. I like to make my brownies in a shallow quart sheet pan that is 1-inch thick. But they bake up just fine in a more conventional 2-inch deep baking pan. Just don’t expect the shiny meringue top to go all the way to the edge of the deeper 2-inch pan. The shorter 1-inch pan helps the meringue form across the brownie top.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword brownies, chocolate

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Servings

Calories 384kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks or 225 g
2 cups white sugar 400 g
1 cup Dutch-process cocoa 110 g
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee optional but recommended
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs refrigerator cold
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 175
2 cups chocolate chips or chopped chocolate 340 g

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 x 13 x 1-inch quarter sheet pan with cooking oil, then line the bottom and sides with parchment paper. You can also use a more conventional 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan, spraying with cooking oil and lining with parchment paper in a similar manner. See the headnote above for the difference in baking between the two.
Place the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a large microwave safe bowl. Cook the mixture for 1 minutes, then stir. Cook in 30 seconds bursts, stirring between each cook cycle, until the butter is completely melted and warm. Stir vigorously once the butter is melted, to dissolve the sugar and cocoa powder as much as possible. The mixture might look a little pasty or grainy. That’s ok.
You can also heat and cook the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a large pot on the stove if you don’t have a microwave or don’t wish to use it.
Add the vanilla, salt, espresso powder (if using) and baking powder to the bowl and stir to incorporate. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly to incorporate. Try to get the mixture nice and shiny and glossy.
Add the flour and fold it in until there are just a few streaks of flour left. Add the chocolate chips and continue to mix and fold them in, until evenly distributed and all the flour is absorbed.
Scrape the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Let it sit for 1 or 2 minutes, or until the top of the brownie batter has a glossy sheen to it. Then place in the oven and bake for 23 to 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle in few places comes out clean (you want to check a few places in case your toothpick hits a chocolate chip). Try not to overbake the brownies.
Let rest in the pan until cool enough to touch, about 20 minutes. Then grab the edges of the parchment paper and move the entire brownie to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely, remove parchment paper, cut and serve.

Nutrition

The post Easy Fudge Brownies appeared first on Eat The Love.

Pumpkin Bread with Sugar Spice Crust

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 00:01:11 +0200

This easy-to-make pumpkin bread uses an entire can of pumpkin puree and has a sugar pumpkin spice crust on the sides and top!

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Though I loathe to let go of summertime and its bounty of berries and stone fruit, once the weather turns cooler I do get a slightly tinge of excitement for fall. We don’t have deciduous trees here in San Francisco, something I missed terribly from growing up in the Midwest. But that doesn’t stop me diving headfirst into pumpkin. I’m not a pumpkin spiced latte type of guy, though I do stand by my excellent pumpkin spiced latte bread recipe as one my favorite treats. But pumpkin bread pudding, pumpkin star bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling and pumpkin cheesecake will all start to appear soon in my apartment. However, the first pumpkin recipe to show up this Autumn in my kitchen is a classic pumpkin bread, a quick bread that is easy to make, and something I realized I’ve never shared here.

How do you make pumpkin bread

Pumpkin bread is a quick bread, which means it’s a simple batter bread that is risen by chemical leaveners like baking powder and baking soda.

To make pumpkin bread, combine pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) with oil, melted butter, eggs, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice blend together. Fold in flour, then pour into a prepared pan. Sprinkle with some pumpkin pie sugar on top and bake. Super easy and so satisfying!

What makes this pumpkin bread different?

Most pumpkin bread use a small amount of pumpkin leaving you with leftover pumpkin to figure out what to do. I use the entire can of pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cups) to make an extra large loaf!

Beyond that, I use a generous amount of pumpkin pie spice, a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, to help accentuate the pumpkin flavor. You can use a store-bought version of pumpkin pie spice or you can make your own.

But the best, and most different, thing about this recipe is the sugar and spice coated sides and top that it has! I first brush the sides of the pan with melted shortening, then I dust it with a blend of sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Then I use the remaining pumpkin pie spice sugar on top, creating a delightful sugar coating that elevates this standard pumpkin bread recipe to be my go-to favorite easy pumpkin recipe.

What sort of pumpkin should you use?

I tested this recipe with Libby’s canned pumpkin puree. It’s the most common pumpkin puree that is available at nearly every grocery. If you opt for a different brand of pumpkin puree you might find the puree is lighter in color and more watery than Libby’s. That’s fine for this recipe but in other recipes, like my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, the extra moisture might affect the texture.

Do not use canned pumpkin pie filling, which has spices and sugar added to the filling. This recipe is not designed for pre-made pumpkin pie filling, so be sure to check the label to see if it says 100% pure pumpkin.

You can also use homemade pumpkin puree if you’d like. I recommend using a smaller “sugar pumpkin” or “pie pumpkin” instead of those larger pumpkins, which are flavorless and grown just for decoration. Smaller sugar pie pumpkins will be labeled as such. Just cut the pumpkin in half, and scoop the seeds out. Roast the pumpkin, cut side down, on a rimmed baking sheet in a 400°F oven for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the flesh is tender and pulls away from the skin. Scoop out the flesh and puree it in a food processor.

Keep I mind that homemade pumpkin puree is more watery than the stuff you find in the can. This won’t affect this specific pumpkin bread recipe but it will affect other recipes. In most recipes, I like to cook the pumpkin puree in a skillet to drive off some of the moisture to get a firmer puree with more pumpkin flavor. Just cook twice the amount of pumpkin puree that is needed for the recipe until it has been reduced to the desired amount in a large skillet, preferably a nonstick pan, stirring constantly.

What is pumpkin spice?

Pumpkin pie spice, often referred to as pumpkin spice, is a blend of warm wintery spices. It’s commonly a blend of mostly cinnamon, with smaller amounts of ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

I have a recipe for how to make your own pumpkin pie spice on this blog. You can also add other complementary spices to your pumpkin pie spice blend, like black pepper, cardamom or allspice. For more ideas, check out my blog post on homemade pumpkin spice.

If you don’t wish to make a large batch of pumpkin spice, just use 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg in place of the pumpkin pie spice blend for the sugar topping, and the same amount of spices for the bread batter.

Customize it

This pumpkin bread is very customizable. Here are a few ideas to make it your own:

Chocolate chips and chunks: Make this a chocolate chip pumpkin bread by adding in 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate right before baking.
Candy chips: Try adding in 1/2 cup of cinnamon or butterscotch chips to this pumpkin bread before baking.
Nuts: Fold in 1/2 cup of chopped nuts like pecans, walnuts, or pistachios into the batter before baking.
Seeds: Add in 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, or sprinkle some roasted seeds on top of the loaf instead of the pumpkin pie spice sugar.
Dried fruit: Add 1/2 cup of dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried blueberries or golden raisins to this batter.
Brown Butter: Cook 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a medium skillet until the butter is fragrant and milk solids have turned golden brown. Let it cool slightly (about 5 to 10 minutes) and pour it into the bowl in place of the melted butter and oil

How do you store pumpkin bread?

Store this pumpkin bread in an air tight container or under a cake dome for up to 3 days. Or freeze it in a resealable freezer Ziploc bag for up to 2 months.

If you like this pumpkin bread, check out these other quick bread recipes:

Pumpkin Bread

This warm and comforting pumpkin bread is like eating a slice of autumn! It’s easy-to-make and uses the entire can of pumpkin puree, which means you won’t have any leftover. It does make a large loaf, so make sure to use a large loaf pan, one that is 9 x 5 inches in size. Do not use canned pumpkin pie filling which has additional spices and sugar added to it. This recipe is not designed for pumpkin pie filling. You can use store bought pumpkin pie spice, make your own, or use a substitution (see my section above).

Course bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword bread, pumpkin, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice, quick bread

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings

Calories 455kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Topping and sugar crust

3 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend see note above for substitution
1 tablespoon shortening melted

Bread batter

1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling, 15 oz, 425 g or 1 standard can
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup unsalted butter melted, 57 g or 1/2 stick
3 large eggs
1 cup white sugar 200 g
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 110 g
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend see note above for substitution
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 315 g

Instructions

Make the topping and sugar crust by combining the white sugar and pumpkin pie spice blend together in a small bowl.
Take the melted shortening and brush it all over the inside of a large 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle half of the pumpkin spice sugar blend all over the bottom and sides of the pan, pouring out any loose spiced sugar back into the bowl.
Make the bread batter by placing the pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, melted butter, eggs, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice blend and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly with a whisk until well blended.
Add the flour and gently fold until most of the flour is absorbed. If there are a few dots of dry flour left, that’s ok.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread out evenly.
Sprinkle the top with the remaining pumpkin spice sugar.
Bake 70 to 80 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. If you have an instant read thermometer, the internal temperature should be somewhere between 200°F and 205°F.
Let bread cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack, then gently invert and place upright on the cooling rack to cool to room temperature. Replace any of the sugar crust that has fallen off.

Notes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Pumpkin Bread recipe.

Nutrition

The post Pumpkin Bread with Sugar Spice Crust appeared first on Eat The Love.

Peach Slab Pie

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 17:00:00 +0200

This peach slab pie is packed with luscious peaches as well as a few secret ingredients to make it the best peach pie you’ve ever had.

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My husband is more of a cake person than a pie person, but he can’t resist a slab pie. It’s the high crust to filling ratio that he loves. It’s also why, when I make pies, lately I’ve been making them slab style, like my rhubarb and berry slab pie, my easy cherry slab pie, and my apple slab pie with prunes and brandy. With the summer quickly coming to end and stone fruit season fading fast, I grabbed a bunch of peaches at the store and set about making a peach slab pie for a dinner party I was going to.

What is a slab pie?

A slab pie is a pie made in a sheet pan, instead of a standard round pie pan. It is in a slab shape, thus the name, slab pie. It has a lower filling to crust ratio, making it ideal for those who love pie crust.

It’s also a great dessert for parties, picnics, gatherings, and potlucks/pitch-ins. The rectangular slab pie can be cut into easy-to-serve smaller portions, which is harder to do with a traditional round shaped pie.

This slab pie is made in a quarter sheet pan, which is a 1-inch deep 9 x 13-inch baking sheet. You can also make this in a more common 9 x 13-inch 2-inch pan (like the kind you bake brownies and sheet cakes) if you that is all you have. But I suggest you line the pan with parchment paper, with the edges of the paper overhanging the sides of the pan, which will allow you to grab the paper and lift the entire pie up from the pan. This will make it easier to serve, so you aren’t “digging” into the pan for each slice.

How do you make this peach slab pie?

You start by making this pie like any other pie, by making the crust. Combine all-purpose and whole wheat flour in a bowl with salt. Add cut up cubes of cold butter and crush them with your fingers until they are flat. Drizzle water over the ingredients, tossing until absorbed and a dough forms. Divide and form two disks then wrap in plastic wrap and chill.

Once chilled, make the filling by combining peeled slices of peaches, brown sugar, spices, tapioca or cornstarch, a dash of bitters and a grated apple. Roll out one disk of the dough and fit into the quarter sheet pan. Add the filling and roll out the other dough. Add the second dough on top, either as a single sheet or in woven strips. Chill the entire unbaked pie in the fridge then bake until the filling is bubbling in the middle!

How do you peel the peaches?

Peach desserts often require you to peel the peaches beforehand. Some folks use a serrated peeler to peel the peaches, which works especially well for underripe peaches, you do need to own a serrated peeler. I prefer to peel my peaches by first blanching them in boiling water then shocking them in ice cold water.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While the water is heating up, place a large bowl of ice water on a table and cut an X on the bottom of each peach with a sharp knife. Once the water is boiled, carefully add the peaches to the water, and let them cook for 1 to 2 minutes. The less ripe the peaches are, the more you need to let them cook in the boiling water. Super ripe peaches really only need 30 seconds.

Once the peaches have boiled, remove them from the pot and place them in the ice water bath to “shock” them. They pick them up, and simply peel off the skin of each peach using the X that you have made in the bottom of the fruit.

I have a whole blog post that goes more into details about how to peel peaches if you need more step-by-step instructions. But the whole process should only take about 5 minutes (not counting the time it takes to boil the water).

That said, if you don’t feel like peeling the peaches, you can always buy nectarines! Nectarines are botanically the same as peaches, but with smooth skin instead of fuzzy skin. Just let the nectarines ripen and slice them with the skin on to use in the filling in place of peaches.

What makes this peach pie different than other peach pies?

You’ll notice this pie recipe has a few extra ingredients that seem a bit odd or unusual, like paprika, bitters, a green apple, and raspberry vinegar. Each of them plays a role in the pie filling making it extra delightful. Here’s what they do:

Paprika: a commonly found spice in most kitchen cabinets made of dried and ground red peppers. Usually used in savory dishes from Eastern Europe. I discovered adding paprika to my peach pie filling from the Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book (<- affiliate link) who use it in their Paprika Peach Pie recipe. It adds a warm sweetness to the filling and also helps accentuates the golden orange honey tones of the peaches. I use sweet paprika but feel free to try out smoked or spicy if that’s what you have, or just omit the paprika all together. If you do use smoked or spicy, reduce the paprika to 1/2 teaspoon the first time you experiment, as both the smoked or spicy versions are much more assertive in flavor.
Bitters: Cocktail bitters are spirits infused with herbs and spices. They are most often used in cocktails like the Manhattan or the Old Fashioned. But single dash adds complexity and another layer to the filling of pies and to savory dishes. I used Angostura bitters (both the traditional and the Orange) when making my peach pies. But feel free to experiment with other bitters you might have in your bar, or just omit them if you don’t have any or don’t want to add them.
Green Apple: Though it sounds unorthodox, I am big proponent of adding a grated apple to my pie filling. A green apple like Granny Smith not only naturally adds a touch of fruity sweetness, as well as a little bit of tart acidity, but it also helps thicken the filling, as apples are full of a natural occurring protein called pectin, the same protein used to thicken jams, jellies, and preserves. Adding a grated apple will not only allow you to use less starch in the filling but still creates a sliceable pie. And no, you do not taste the apple! If you don’t have an apple or don’t wish to use it, just omit it and increase the starch to 6 tablespoons if you still want the pie filling to be firm. Use the same 1/4 cup of starch if you prefer a looser filling.
Raspberry vinegar: I used raspberry vinegar because the subtle berry flavor of the vinegar compliments the peach stonefruit flavor. The acidity in the vinegar helps keep the peaches from going brown before it cooks, and also adds a bright juiciness to the filling. You can find raspberry vinegar in most well-stocked grocery stores. If you don’t have raspberry vinegar, you can swap out lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in its place.

Tips and Tricks:

Cold ingredients for pie crust: The key to a flaky crust is using cold ingredients! Use cold butter and cold water. Some folks even chill their flour and bowl! But I don’t bother with going that far. I just make sure the butter and water are cold and work quickly so they don’t warm up.
Chill the pie crust: I always chill my pie crust after making it, so the gluten protein in the flour can relax. Gluten is the protein that is formed when water is added to all-purpose flour. Chilling the dough relaxes the gluten, and also helps solidify the butter, which leads to a more tender and flaky crust.
Chill the pie before baking: Yes, chilling the pie AGAIN after you assemble will help with flakiness. As you manipulate the dough, rolling it out and weaving the top, the crust will warm up. Chilling the dough again helps relax the dough, solidify the butter, and prevents the dough from shrinking. Those beautiful scalloped edges that you make will more likely stay in place if you chill the dough. Plus chilling the pie gives you time to pre-heat the oven.
Use store-bought crust: If you don’t have time, find making pie crust intimidating, or just don’t feel like making pie crust, you can totally shortcut the recipe with store-bought pie crust! You might need 2 boxes of pre-made pie crust, and have to cobble it together for the top and bottom crusts to fit in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Just brush some egg wash on the dough and overlap them to form a larger crust. The egg wash acts as a “glue” helping to hold the dough together.
Use frozen or canned fruit: Peaches have a limited season but that doesn’t mean you should only have peach pie in the summertime! Frozen peaches are a great alternative as are canned peaches. You might want to slice the peaches into thinner pieces for a slab pie because they tend to be on the chunker side. But otherwise, use the same amount of frozen peach pieces (no need to thaw them) or use the canned peaches (drained) in place of the fresh peaches. Increase the starch to 6 tablespoons (8 if you aren’t use an apple in the filling) as the frozen and canned peaches have more liquid. If using the frozen peaches, increase the bake time by 5 minutes in the end to accommodate the cold peaches.
Add in berries: Feel free to play around a bit and add in 1 cup of berries like blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries or a mix of berries to make a peach berry slab pie.
Use a different flour: I use a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour in this crust. But feel free to just use entirely all-purpose flour if that is what you have on hand. You can also swap out the whole wheat flour with rye flour which will lend a subtle nutty and earthy flavor to the crust.

Storage

Like most pies, this peach slab pie is best eaten the day it is baked. But you can store leftovers either at room temperature for 1 to 2 days in an air tight container or under a cake dome, or in the fridge for up to 4 days.

You can also freeze the pie. Let it cool completely and then either freeze the entire pie as is in the freezer, first uncovered until frozen through, then wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in a large 2-gallon Ziploc bag. You can also freeze slices on a sheet pan uncovered, until frozen solid, then placed in a Ziploc bag, layered between pieces of parchment paper or wax paper, if you’d like. Thaw overnight in the fridge or on the counter for about an hour before serving.

If you like this peach pie, check out these other fruit dessert recipes

Peach Slab Pie

This luscious peach slab pie is packed full of juicy sweet peaches. The filling has a few unusual ingredients that elevate the dish to the next level. There’s paprika, which adds a hint of sweetness and gives the filling an extra boost of yellow orange color. There’s a dash of bitters that add a subtle dimension to the filling, keeping it from becoming cloyingly sweet. There’s raspberry vinegar that rounds out the juiciness. And there’s a grated apple that help thicken the filling without the need for more starch. Most of these ingredients are optional, and you can see my section above to find out what they add to the pie, but they do elevate this dish, making it one of the best peach pies you’ve had!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword fruit, peaches, pie, slab pie

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Rest time 2 hours

Servings

Calories 345kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups all-purpose flour 280 grams
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour 190 grams (or substitute all-purpose in place)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup to 1 cup ice cold water
1 1/4 cup unsalted cold butter 2 1/2 sticks or 285 grams

Filling

8 medium ripe peaches 2 1/2 to 3 pounds
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar 165 g
1/4 cup tapioca starch or cornstarch, 35 g
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar can substitute lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 dash bitters like Angostura, optional but recommend
1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored and quartered

To Finish

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water
2 tablespoon turbinado sugar sparkling sugar or white granulated sugar

Instructions

Make the Crust

Make the pie crust dough by placing the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the cold butter into 1/2-inch cubes and sprinkle them over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, toss the cubes in the flour then smash them into flat pieces, roughly the size of a pea.
Once all the butter is flattened and broken up, drizzle 2/3 cup of the ice water over the dough and toss with a fork until a dough starts to form. Using your hands massage the dry ingredients gently into the wet parts. If the dough looks too dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, until a solid dough forms.
Divide the dough into two parts and then flatten each part into a disk about 5-inches wide and 1-inch thick. Wrap each dough with plastic wrap and then refrigerate for a minimum of an hour or overnight (or up to 2 days in the fridge).

Make the Filling

Once the dough has chilled, start prepping the filling. First peel the peaches (see my section above for details on the best way to do that), then slice them to be 1/2 inch thick. Usually this is about 12 to 16 slices per average peach, a little thinner than a typical peach slice. Place them in a large glass, ceramic or plastic bowl.
Add the brown sugar, tapioca starch (or cornstarch), raspberry vinegar, paprika, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and dash of bitters into the bowl.
Take the apple and grate it over the filling. Then gently mix the filling together.

Assemble the Pie

Start assembling the pie. If you’re using a 9 x 13-inch baking pan (the kind that you make brownies in), lightly spray it with cooking oil, then line it with parchment paper. If you are using a 9 x 13-inch rimmed baking sheet (known as a quarter sheet pan), skip this step. Flour a clean surface and then roll out a disk of dough into an 11 x 15-inch rectangle.
Fold the dough into quarters. Move the dough carefully to the pan. Unfold and fit the dough into the baking sheet or pan, trying to NOT stretch the dough as much as possible. This will help prevent shrinkage.
Pour the peach filling into the pastry dough and then distribute the filling evenly throughout the pan.
Repeat the rolling out of the dough with the remaining disk, making sure it 11 x 15 as well. Now you can place this dough directly over the pie (to make a double crusted pie) and then cut steam vents into the top with a sharp knife. Or you can cut the dough into strips, then “weave” a crust on top, first putting strips of dough in one direction, then alternating and lifting up the dough to weave it into a top crust.
Seal the dough around the edges with your fingers, creating a scalloped edge. Then place back in the fridge to chill for 20 to 30 minutes. This will help the crimped edges keep their shape and maximize crust flakiness. While the pie is chilling, pre-heat the oven to 425°F.

Bake the pie

Once the pie has chilled and the oven has reached temperature, place the cold pie on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any overflow spillage as it bakes). Beat the egg yolk with water, and brush it over the top of the pie. Sprinkle with the turbinado (or white) sugar, then bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Then reduce the temperature of the oven to 375°F and continue baking for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the center of the pie is bubbling up through the top crust vents or holes.
Let the pie cool for 1 hour on a wire rack for the filling to thicken before serving.

Nutrition

The post Peach Slab Pie appeared first on Eat The Love.

Raspberry Oat Bars

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 16:00:00 +0200

These easy-to-make raspberry oat bars, made with fresh or frozen raspberries, uses a shortbread oat crust that is also the topping!

Jump to Recipe

Though I have yet to meet a berry that I did not like, I have a special place in my heart for raspberries. They’re tart, they’re sweet, and they have that concentrated berry flavor that a lot of other berries doesn’t. But I don’t use them a lot. I’ve made raspberry cookie bars and I’ve added them to my mixed berry galette with chocolate crust but somehow, I haven’t really made a recipe where the raspberries really SHINED. So clearly I had to rectify that with these raspberry oat bars!

These raspberry oat bars are based on my strawberry oatmeal bars that have crystallized ginger in them. I kept these raspberry bars a bit more simple, so their pure raspberry flavor shines through. The baking of the bars breaks down the berries into a jammy fruit spread from the heat. Best of all, they can be made with fresh or frozen raspberries (no need to even thaw the frozen berries) which means you can make them all year round and not have to worry if the raspberries are in season.

How to make these oat bars

These one-bowl raspberry oat bars are super easy to make. Spray a square pan with cooking oil, then line with parchment paper.

Combine oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Drizzle melted butter over it and toss until the dry ingredients start to lump together. Pull out about a cup of it, and press the remaining amount into the pan, creating the crust.

In the same bowl (no need to clean it!) mix raspberries, sugar, balsamic vinegar, tapioca or corn starch, and vanilla together. Spread over the crust.

Then sprinkle the top with the reserve oat mixture. Add a little bit extra turbinado sugar for crunch. Bake, let cool, then pull out of the pan with the parchment paper. Cut and serve.

How to customize these bars

These bars are super easy to customize. Here are few ways:

Use a different berry: Try subbing out blueberries, blackberries or strawberries (like in my strawberry oatmeal bar recipe).
Use a different fruit: Try chopping up and making these with a stone fruit like cherries, plums, peaches or apricots. Just chop the fruit into 1/2-inch chunks and cook until the center of the bar is bubbly. Bake time may vary depending on the fruit, so just bake until you see the fruit break down and boiling in the center of the pan.
Swap out the balsamic: I use balsamic to bring a touch of deep sweet acidity but if you want something slightly brighter in flavor, try substituting lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in its place.
Add spices: Try upping the cinnamon in the recipe to 1 teaspoon to bring the cinnamon more forward. Or add 1/4 teaspoon of cloves, allspice or nutmeg for a different dimension. Try adding dried ginger powder or fresh ground pepper for a hint of heat and depth.
Add dried fruit: Try adding 1/4 cup of dried fruit like dried cherries, blueberries or cranberries to give the bars a little more chewy. Or add 2 tablespoons of dried ginger to give a little sweet heat to the raspberry bars.
Use a different flour: Try swapping out the all-purpose flour with rye flour or whole wheat to give a healthier or nuttier flavored crust and crumb.
Use a multigrain cereal: Use a multigrain rolled cereal in place of the rolled oats to give a different flavor to the recipe
Add some nuts: Add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts like almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, macadamia or hazelnuts to the topping of the bar for crunch and flavor.

How do you store the bars?

Store these bars in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container or resealable Ziploc bag. Eat them cold or bring them back to room temperature if you prefer.

You can also freeze them, sealed in a heavy-duty resealable freezer bag. They’ll last up to 3 months in the freezer.

If you like these raspberry oat bars, check out these other berry desserts

Raspberry Oat Bars

These bright and vibrant raspberry oat bars have a jammy fruit berry flavor in every bite. The shortbread rolled oat base also functions as an oat crumb topping, making these super bars incredibly easy to make as well.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword bars, blackberries, easy, oats, raspberries

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Servings

Calories 220kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups rolled oats regular or thick cut preferred, 165 g
1 cup all-purpose flour 140 g
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 110 g
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
10 tablespoon melted unsalted butter 140 g
2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen red raspberries if frozen, no need to thaw, 1 pound or 455 g
1/4 cup white sugar 50 g
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon tapioca starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar or white sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 9 x 9-inch pan with cooking oil, then line with parchment paper, making sure there’s at least 1 inch of paper overhanging the sides of the pan. Spray the paper lightly with more cooking oil.
Place the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl then mix together with a whisk. Drizzle butter over mixture, tossing until mixture clumps and all butter is absorbed.
Scoop out and reserve about 1 cup of oat mixture. Press remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan.
In the same bowl (no need to clean it) combine frozen or fresh red raspberries, sugar, balsamic vinegar, tapioca starch, and vanilla in a bowl. If using fresh raspberries, don't worry if the raspberries start to break down as you mix them.
Spread raspberry filling, evenly distributing raspberries over the crust. Sprinkle reserve oat mixture and turbinado sugar on top.
Bake in oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the middle of the oat bars are bubbling. Let cool completely in pan, about an hour, then remove by pull the parchment paper out of the pan. Remove the paper then cut into 12 bars and serve.

Nutrition

The post Raspberry Oat Bars appeared first on Eat The Love.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 16:45:00 +0200

These easy-to-make double chocolate chip muffins aren’t too sugary but are packed with chocolate chips to satisfy your chocolate craving.

Jump to Recipe

I’ve casually mentioned my friend Rita on this blog in the past. She’s that one friend who is obsessed with chocolate. OBSESSED. We all have that one friend (or perhaps YOU are that one friend). Either way, I developed my chocolate banana bread recipe with her in mind, and every time I bake with chocolate, from my bakery-style chocolate chips cookies, to my chunky shortbread chocolate chip cookies, I think of her. So, when I needed to create an easy chocolate chip muffin recipe for a client of mine, I also thought of giving it an extra chocolate muffin spin, a double chocolate chip muffin that adds rich cocoa powder to the muffin batter.

And though I know Rita devoured a test batch of these muffins when I made it for her, I have to admit, I’m pretty fond of them myself. When I went to make another batch of them at home, they were gone lickety-split. Tender yet sturdy muffins, with burst of dark chocolate chips speckled throughout, and absolutely not too sweet (they’re muffins, not cupcakes), these double chocolate chip muffins are a great breakfast for those chocolate lovers who want chocolate 24/7.

How do you make these muffins?

Making these muffins aren’t any different from other muffins. Combine the dry ingredients like any other muffin recipe by whisking together the dry ingredients like flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Then whisk together the wet ingredients like melted butter, yogurt, vanilla and eggs along with white and brown sugar. Once combined together, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until most of the dry ingredients are absorbed.

Add the chocolate chip and mix to distribute.

Divide in a muffin pan and bake! Pro tip: I like to add a few extra chocolate chips on top of the batter, because it makes the muffins look Instagram worthy. Ha!

What sort of chocolate chips to use?

Use the sort of chocolate chips that you prefer to eat. I tend to lean toward a semi-sweet chocolate chip, one that is around 55% cacao. But feel free to us a darker bittersweet chocolate that leans more to 72%, or a milk chocolate or even white chocolate chips. Keep in mind milk and white chocolate chips are sweeter and darker chocolate less sweet, so that will affect the muffin flavor.

You can also use chopped chocolate if you wish. You want roughly 9 ounces of chocolate. Make sure to chop the chocolate into pieces that are roughly the size of chocolate chips before using.

How do you substitute for buttermilk?

This recipe calls for buttermilk but not everyone has that on hand. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, just stir 1 cup and 3 tablespoons of whole milk (or whatever milk you have on hand) with 1 tablespoon of white or apple cider vinegar. Then let the milk sit for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken a bit. Use that in place of the buttermilk.

Make it your own!

The base recipe for these muffins is a great starting point to adapt and create your own variation. Try swapping out some or all of the chocolate chips for

Chopped nuts: Add in pistachios, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, hazelnuts or almonds
Dried fruit: try adding in some raisins, dried blueberries, dried strawberries, dried cherries, dried cranberries.
Dried ginger: Dried candied ginger would give the muffins a slight sweet heat to them. Try adding 1/2 teaspoon of five-spice blend to give it an Asian twist.
Use a different flavored candy chip: Play around with different candy chips like mint, peanut butter, butterscotch, or cinnamon
Try adding some warm spices: Add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg if you want to add a little more dimension to the chocolate muffin. Or try playing around with spices like black pepper, cardamom, ground ginger, pumpkin pie spice blend, or even ground coriander to give the muffin a little twist.
Make it holiday seasonal: Give it a holiday twist by adding in fresh cranberries and orange zest.
Give it some sweet crunch: Sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top to give these muffins a little extra crunch.
Make an easy crumb topping: Combine 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, 6 tablespoons softened butter, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Mix with a fork until crumbs form and sprinkle over the muffin batter right before baking.

How do you store these?

These muffins store best at room temperature for 2 to 3 days in an airtight container. I don’t recommend storing them in the refrigerator, as they will get stale and drier faster. But you can freeze them if you can’t eat them before they dry out. Just let them cool completely and store them in a labeled freezer bag. Frozen muffins will last up to 3 months in the freezer. Just thaw them out on the counter or kitchen table for about 2 hours before eating.

If you like these double chocolate chip muffins, check out these other muffin and a breakfast baked good recipes:

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

These double chocolate chip muffins aren’t too sugary but are packed with loads of chocolate chips. The addition of the cocoa powder in the muffin batter adds an earthy richness without being greasy or sweet. Use a darker bittersweet chocolate chip if you want to keep these muffins less sweet or make them a little bit more of a treat by using semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips instead.

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate, muffin, quick bread

Prep Time 15 minutes

Servings

Calories 375kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

To prepare muffin pan

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffin Batter

2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
1/2 cup cocoa powder natural not Dutch-processed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 115 g
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips 265 g

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F and brush a standard 12 cup muffin tin with some melted butter.
Place the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Using a balloon whisk, stir the ingredients together until they are uniform in color and well blended.
Place the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl. Stir with a whisk until combined and smooth.
Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Slowly fold together the ingredients with a large spatula, stirring until most, but not all, of the dry ingredients are absorbed.
Add the chocolate chips and fold them into the batter, slowly stirring until they are evenly distributed.
Divide the batter into the muffin cups. The batter will fill the cup almost to the top of each cup. Sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top to make the muffins look bakery fresh.
Bake in the oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean and the edges of the top of the muffin are turning golden brown. If you have an instant-read thermometer, it should be about 205°F. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then careful run a thin knife around the edge of each muffin, releasing it, and moving them all to the wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

The post Double Chocolate Chip Muffins appeared first on Eat The Love.

Easy Strawberry Cake

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 17:00:00 +0200

This easy strawberry cake is made in one bowl and results in a delightfully butter cake packed with jammy strawberries on top.

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Summertime means MOUNTAINS of strawberries for me. Sure, I eat them straight out of the container, but I also am constantly making strawberry desserts with them, as I almost always have too many to eat. That means making my sparkling strawberry lemonade, strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberry oatmeal bars, strawberry coffee cake with pistachio crumb topping, and strawberry lemon shortcake. But even with all those baked goods, I realized I’ve never shared my go-to easy strawberry cake recipe. It’s one of those super simple desserts that takes ten minutes to prepare, and everyone just loves!

How do you make this cake?

This easy strawberry cake is a one bowl cake that comes together fast. The most time-consuming part is cutting and prepping the strawberries!

First remove the green part of the strawberries then cut each berry in half. Sprinkle the berries with a little balsamic vinegar and set aside.

Then place sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, vanilla and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream until fluffy. Add milk and an egg and combine. Add flour, mix until absorbed, then scrape batter into an oiled 9-inch springform pan.

Top the batter with the strawberries, then sprinkle the top with some sugar. Bake, let cool in the pan, then remove from the springform and serve!

Can you use a different pan than a springform?

If you don’t have a springform pan you can totally bake this in regular 9-inch pan. Just make sure to spray the pan with cooking oil and line the bottom with a parchment paper round. This will keep the cake from sticking. Carefully invert the cake onto a large cutting board, remove the parchment paper, then invert it back onto a serving plate or cake stand right side up.

You can also bake this in a ceramic or glass deep dish pie pan. Serve it right out of the pan! Because of the nature of the pan, keep an eye on the baking, and make sure not to overbake it. Ceramic and glass pie pans continue to keep heat, so the cake will continue to bake for a little bit after removing it from the oven. You want to remove it right when it’s done so it doesn’t overbake.

Can I substitute balsamic vinegar?

I use a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar in the strawberries to give it a little acidity. The earthy sweetness in the balsamic adds a dimension and depth to the bright strawberry flavor and makes them taste richer, sweeter, and more juicy.

If you don’t have balsamic vinegar or don’t like balsamic, try substituting 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in its place. The lemon juice will taste lighter and brighter than the balsamic, but it will still be delicious.

How do you store it?

I rarely have leftovers with this cake, but when I do, I store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days or up to five days in the refrigerator. If I’m storing it in the fridge, I bring the cake to room temperature before serving.

If you like this easy strawberry cake, check out these other coffee cakes that feature fruit in them:

Easy Strawberry Cake

This easy-to-make strawberry cake can be made in one bowl. It uses fresh strawberries tossed in a balsamic vinegar. The balsamic vinegar gives a deep rich sweetness to the strawberries and the acidity makes the juicier with each bite. If you don’t have balsamic vinegar, swap out an equal amount of lemon juice to give it a bright vibrant berry flavor. Note that the cake also has you sprinkling sugar over the top of it before baking. Don’t skip this! The sugar combines with the juicy strawberries to form a jammy fruit in the cake with a crunchy sweet topping. It’s one of the best parts of the cake!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword cake, easy, strawberry

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings

Calories 306kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 pound strawberries
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 cup white sugar 200 g
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature 85 or 3/4 stick
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest optional but recommended
1/2 cup whole milk or whatever milk you have
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 210 g

For topping

2 tablespoon white sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with cooking oil, then line the bottom of the pan with a parchment paper round.
Prepare the strawberries by removing the greens and discarding them. Cut each strawberry in half. Place strawberries in a medium bowl and sprinkle the balsamic vinegar over it. Toss to coat and set aside.
Place the sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, and lemon zest (if using) in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix the ingredients together on low speed until the butter starts to incorporate into the sugar and increase the speed to medium. Mix until the sugar butter starts to cling to the side of the bowl and looks light and creamy.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and add the milk and eggs. Beat to incorporate. Don’t worry if the batter looks broken.
Add the flour and slowly mix it in. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway the mixing. The batter should come together now.
Place the greased and lined pan on a rimmed baking sheet or pizza pan. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread the batter evenly in the bottom of the pan.
Place the strawberries, cut side down, on the cake batter. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top. Then place the cake in the oven.
Bake the cake for 10 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 325°F and continue to bake it for 55 to 65 minutes or the sides of the cake are golden brown and pull slightly away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan, then run a thin knife or flexible plastic dough scraper around the side of the pan. Release the cake and serve.

Notes

Adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe.

Nutrition

The post Easy Strawberry Cake appeared first on Eat The Love.

Cherry Almond Muffins

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 17:00:00 +0200

These cherry almond muffins are packed with fresh cherries and almond flour, with the crunch of sliced almonds and turbinado sugar on top!

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Cherry season is a fleeting one, which means I end up buying the equivalent to my body weight in cherries when they appear at the store. Also, I weigh more than I look, so yes, that is a lot of cherries. And after I’ve gorged myself on cherries, I look to way to make use of them before they go bad. That means I’m making cherry slab pies, cherry buckle with cocoa cinnamon crumb topping, and my favorite cherry, plum and peach cobbler. But with the huge amount of cherries I had in the house, I figure it was time I made cherry almond muffins, one of my favorite muffins!

How do you make this muffin

Making these cherry muffins is super easy, with the most time consuming part being pitting all the cherries.

Pit and halve the cherries. You can do this with a cherry pitter or you can do it by hand with a small paring knife. Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over the cherries and set aside.

Whisk together the dry ingredients of flour, almond meal (or almond flour), baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Then combine the wet ingredients by mixing together plain yogurt, sugar, melted butter, vanilla, almond extract, and eggs.

Make an indention or “well” in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl, then fold the mixture until most of the dry ingredients are absorbed. Add the cherries and chopped almonds, then continue to fold until they are evenly distributed.

Divide the batter into 2 different greased muffin tins, alternating between each cup. Sprinkle the top with sliced almonds and turbinado sugar. Bake, let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

What’s the best way to pit cherries?

Though I normally hate single use devices in the kitchen, I actually love my OXO cherry pitter (<- affiliate link). I tested various cherry pitters for an article I wrote for Simply Recipes so I can say it’s a great pitter in the myriad of pitters available. But if you love cherries like I do, and buy as many cherries I do, you can also invest in a hopper style cherry pitter (<- affiliate link) that allows you to pit fruit fast super fast.

That said, if you don’t have a cherry pitter, you can just pit cherries by using a paring knife and slicing the cherry in half by cutting into the cherry and slicing around the pit. Twist to remove one side of the cherry. Then dig the pit out with your finger. Once you get in the rhythm of it, it goes pretty fast. Just be sure to wear an apron or a dark shirt, as you might get cherry juice spraying over you as you pit them all.

Why two pans? Can I bake in one?

I bake my muffins in two different muffin pans. This allows the heat to circulate better around each muffin cup, and results in an even rise and a high domed top. It’s the secret to “bakery-style” muffins.

That said, you can totally bake all 12 muffins in one pan if you find it too fussy to bake it in two batches. Just fill each cup with batter and bake as directed. Or, if you only have one muffin pan but want the coveted high dome top that makes muffins look like they came from a bakery, just bake half the batter in the one muffin pan, let the muffins cool for 5 minutes, remove them from the pan, and let the pan cool an additional 10 minutes. Wipe the muffin tin out with a paper towel (no need to wash it) and then spray with cooking oil and fill again with the remaining batter. Bake as directed.

How do you store these muffins

These muffins keep for 2 to 3 days at room temperature. Store them in an airtight container or under a cake dome to help prevent them getting stale.

You can also place them in a resealable Ziplock bag and store in the fridge for up to a week or freeze them for up to 2 months. Thaw the muffin to room before serving or reheat them in the microwave, with 15 to 20 second bursts of cook time, until they are thawed and warmed up.

Can you substitute the almonds/almond meal for another nut or omit them?

Yes. If you don’t like almonds or want to use another nut, feel free to substitute for the same amount. You can also take half a cup of the whole nut and process it in a food processor or blender until it turns to powder. Then use that in place of the almond meal.

If you are allergic to nuts or don’t like nuts, just omit the nuts entirely and substitute the almond meal with 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour, making the total flour amount 2 cups. Bake as directed.

If you like these cherry almond muffins, check out these other breakfast pastry recipes:

Cherry Almond Muffins

These cherry almond muffins are packed with fresh sweet cherries and nutty crunchy almond. To give them that bakery-style domed top, I bake them in two different muffin tins, alternating cups. This allows them to rise more evenly with greater oven spring. If you don’t have two muffin tins or just want to bake them all at once, feel free to use one muffin pan and bake as directed. See my section above for how to still get them bakery-style with just one muffin pan.

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword almond, cherry, muffin

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings

Calories 267kcal

Author Irvin

Equipment

2 muffin pans

Ingredients

2 cups pitted cherries halved
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 245 g
1/2 cup almond flour 60 g
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain yogurt 250 g
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 115 g or 1 stick
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 large eggs

Topping

1/2 cup sliced almonds 50 g
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar or white sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Place the pitted cherry halves in a bowl. Sprinkle balsamic vinegar over them and toss to coat. Set aside.
Place the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Stir together with a balloon whisk until all the dry ingredients are evenly distributed.
Place the yogurt, sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and eggs in a different bowl. Beat together with a whisk until uniform in color.
Make an indention or “well” in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Fold and stir the ingredients together until the dry ingredients are mostly absorbed. Add the pitted cherries then continue to fold, until the cherries and almonds are uniformly distributed. Do not over mix. A few dry spots in the batter is ok.
Spray alternating cups in two muffin tins with cooking oil. Or line alternating cups with cupcake liners.
Divide the batter into the muffin pans. The batter will fill each muffin cup almost to the top.
Use your fingers to break apart the sliced almonds. Sprinkle some sliced almonds and turbinado sugar on the top of each muffin. Place one pan in the oven, baking for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (test a few spots in cases it hits a cherry). Repeat with the other muffin pan.
Let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully remove them from the pan and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

The post Cherry Almond Muffins appeared first on Eat The Love.

Apricot Frangipane Tart with Rye Crust

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 17:00:00 +0200

This easier-than-it-looks apricot tart is made with fresh apricots, fragrant almond frangipane and a nutty, malty rye crust.

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Though my obsession with stone fruit on this blog is fairly obvious with various recipes like cherry slab pies, peach and prosecco cobblers, and plum crisps, somehow apricots always feel overlooked. But apricots have their own homey appeal, and I always grab some when they show up at the store to make my apricot yeast bread, the apricot blueberry coffee cake or my apricot and berry cobbler. So, when I ran into some perfectly ripe apricots in the store, I knew I had to make something new with them. The result is this beautiful, sophisticated apricot tart with frangipane filling and rye crust.

How do you make this tart?

This easy-to-make tart doesn’t require you to roll out a dough. Instead, the crust is made almost like a shortbread, pressed into the tart pan, eliminating the need to roll out the dough. Start by combining rye flour, powdered sugar, salt and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Then mix until the butter is broken down and the mixture looks like sandy pebbles. Mix an egg with some water and drizzle it in, until a dough forms.

Press the dough into the tart pan, then freeze the dough for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven. Bake the crust and let it cool.

While the dough is cooling, make the frangipane filling by combining almond flour, sugar, salt, butter, vanilla, almond extract, an egg, and some rye whisky in the same bowl you used to make the tart dough. There’s no need to clean it! Spread the filling over the cooled tart crust, then cut the apricots in half and slice them. Place them on the filling. Bake and let cool before serving.

What is frangipane?

Frangipane is a sweet almond custard filling. I love it as a base in tarts and galettes like my plum galette with frangipane filling and my mead poached pear galette with frangipane filling. You can make it with different nuts, like walnuts, pistachios or pecans, though the traditional nut used is almonds. You can make it by grinding whole almonds in a food processor, but I find it much easier to use almond meal or almond flour instead. Feel free to use either flour or meal, though the meal has the almond skins on it and result in a slightly more bitter filling which adds an interest dimension to the filling.

If you want to experiment, or don’t have almond flour or meal, try grinding 1 1/2 cups of almonds, or other nuts, in a food processor until they are powder, and use that in place of the almond flour or meal.

Can I use a different flour than rye?

This tart uses rye flour which is a dark flour that is often associated with pumpernickel and heavy rye bread. Often rye bread is flavored with caraway seeds. But rye flour by itself tends to be nutty, and almost malty flavored, with touches of caramel and butterscotch. It has an earthy soft depth to it that tastes nothing like caraway seeds.

I use rye flour in my homemade soft rye pretzels, my rye brownies with caramel and my salted double rye chocolate cookies. And the rye flour in this tart crust adds a great dimension and flavor to the dessert. But if you don’t have rye flour, or don’t feel like buying it, you can easily swap out the same amount of all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour in its place and still have a delightful dessert.

Can I use a different pan for this tart?

I made this tart in a rectangular tart pan that is 8 by 12 inches. It is slightly smaller than a quarter sheet pan. I don’t recommend using a quarter sheet pan, as the crust dough just barely fits the 8 x 12 pan. The dough for the recipe might not be enough to fill the bottom and sides of a slightly larger quarter sheet pan.

However, if you don’t have a tart pan this size, you can totally make this in a 9-inch or 10-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom. Bake as directed. And if you don’t have a tart pan, you can also use a 9-inch or 10-inch springform pan, the kind that you make a cheesecake in. Just don’t press the crust dough all the way on the spring form pan. You only need about 1-inch of dough all the way around the sides of the pan.

Because a springform pan has taller sides, heat won’t reach the center of the filling as easily. So you may need to increase the bake time by 5 to 10 minutes.

Can I use a different fruit?

Yes! Play around with this recipe by subbing out a pitted and sliced stone fruit like peaches, nectarines, plums or cherries. Bake as directed but keep an eye out on bake time, as some fruit cook faster than others.

How do you store this tart?

Store this tart in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for 1 to 2 days.

If you like this apricot tart, check out these other summer fruit recipes:

Apricot Frangipane Tart with Rye Crust

Fresh apricots, fragrant almond frangipane and a nutty, malty rye crust all come together in this easier-than-it-looks tart. I use a touch of rye whiskey in the filling to give it a little dimension (and because I like the idea of using rye whiskey with a rye crust). Feel free to substitute out bourbon, plain whiskey, or something like Southern Comfort or dark rum in its place. If you are avoiding alcohol, just omit it, and add 1 tablespoon of orange juice or water in its place.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword almond, apricot, frangipane, fruit, tart

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Chilling Time 20 minutes

Servings

Calories 294kcal

Author Irvin

Equipment

8 x 12 rectangular tart pan with removable bottom or 9-inch or 10-inch round tart pan with removable bottom

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/2 cups rye flour 185 g (can substitute all-purpose or whole wheat)
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 115 g or 1 stick
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted to remove lumps 35 g
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water

Filling

1 1/2 cups almond flour or almond meal 145
1/3 cup white sugar 135 g
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature 85 g or 3/4 stick
1 large egg
2 tablespoons rye whiskey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
8 apricots about 8 ounces

Instructions

Make the crust dough by placing the rye flour, butter, powdered sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix until the butter is broken down and the mixture looks like sandy pebbles.
Beat the egg and the water together and then drizzle it into the bowl. Mix until a dough forms.
Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of an 8 x 12-inch rectangular tart pan. There is just barely enough crust, so make sure to work the dough thin. I find it’s easier to press the dough around the sides of the pan, then use the remaining dough to fill the bottom. Just stretch it out, it doesn’t need to be thick. If the dough is too sticky, wet your fingers slightly and use that to press the dough in.
If you don’t have a rectangular tart pan, you can use a 9 or 10-inch round tart pan instead.
Prick the bottom of the tart crust all over with a fork.
Place the tart pan in freezer for 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 350°F. Once the crust has chilled, place it on a rimmed baking sheet and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes or until the edges start to look slightly darker, and the crust is dull matte instead of shiny.
Keep the oven on the same temperature but let the crust cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
While the crust is cooling, make the filling by placing the almond flour or meal, sugar, salt, and butter in the same bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Don’t bother cleaning the bowl or the paddle, it’s fine if it still has a little residue dough from the crust. Mix the ingredients together until it starts to clump together, and you can’t see any more butter lumps.
Add the egg, rye whiskey, vanilla, and almond extract, mixing until a smooth paste forms.
Spread the frangipane paste inside the tart pan.
Cut the apricots in half and discard the stone pit. Slice the apricot into 4 or 5 slices with a sharp knife, and then place them cut side down onto the frangipane filling. Return to the hot oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the frangipane filling is puffy, starts to turn golden brown, and the apricots are soft.
Let cool on a wire rack until only slightly warm to the touch, about 30 minutes, then serve immediately.

Nutrition

The post Apricot Frangipane Tart with Rye Crust appeared first on Eat The Love.

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 04:19:00 +0200

This easy-to-make sparkling strawberry lemonade is refreshing, made from fresh-squeezed lemon juice, strawberries, and minimal sugar.

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I low-key hate the phrase “if life gives you lemons…” but because I was working on a work project, I ended up with about 8 pounds of lemon. Specifically, I ended up with 8 pounds of already zested lemons, which I was trying to figure out what do with. And since things are warming up here in San Francisco and seasonal strawberries were popping up on sale the market, and I had already bought some to make my strawberry rhubarb syrup, I jumped at making some sparkling strawberry lemonade!

I still have a bunch of lemons left though, which means I’ll probably end up making a version of my Meyer lemon shaker tart with strawberries and rhubarb with regular lemons or maybe some honey lemon glaze for a fig focaccia. Or a different lemon recipe that I have yet to figure out. But in the meanwhile, I’ll be sipping on this easy strawberry lemonade while I contemplate all my options…

Why this recipe is so easy

There are recipes out there that have you making a simple syrup, but I just throw all the ingredients in a blender instead of cooking the syrup on the stove. Simple syrup is usually made by boiling water with sugar at 1:1 ratio. But because there’s more liquid in this recipe (2 cups lemon juice + juice from the pureed strawberries) and only 3/4 cups white sugar, the sugar dissolves pretty quickly without heating up. No heating means faster and easier strawberry lemonade.

Refine it

I like this recipe because it’s super easy and simple. Squeeze the lemons, cut the strawberries, blend. That’s it. But if you want to go one step further, and strain the syrup after you blend it, to remove the strawberry seeds and pulp, as well as any lemon solids that might have snuck through. I don’t bother with this step as it’s one more thing for me to wash, but it does give you a smoother beverage in the end.

Customize it

Use plain water: Don’t want to make it sparkling? Don’t use sparkling water! This recipe works great with just plain water, making a more standard (but still fantastic tasting) strawberry lemonade.
Meyer Lemon: Swap out the regular lemon for Meyer lemon.
Adjust Sweetness: This recipe makes a not-so-sweet strawberry lemonade. If you prefer a more sweet, less tart lemonade, increase the sugar to 1 cup. If you like your lemonade puckering tart refreshing-style, reduce the sugar down to 1/2 cup. Or just tinker with it to your liking.
Brown Sugar: Swap the white sugar with the same amount of brown sugar to give some molasses undertones.
Maple Syrup: Use 2/3 cup maple syrup instead of the white sugar.
Honey: Swap out 1/2 cup of honey for the white sugar.
Berries: swap out the same amount of a different berry like fresh or frozen raspberry, blackberry or blueberry. Or swap out 1 pound of pitted cherries to make cherry lemonade!
Mint: add a handful of fresh mint leaves after you have pureed the strawberry lemon syrup thoroughly. Pulse the blender in short burst until the mint leaves are chopped.

Storage

Keep the strawberry lemonade syrup in the fridge for up to 5 days. But you can also freeze the syrup if you can’t drink all of it in that time! Frozen syrup will keep for up to 4 months in the freezer, in an airtight container or a Ziploc container. Just scoop or pour some of the frozen syrup into a glass with ice, add the sparkling water and you have instant refreshment!

If you like this strawberry lemonade, check out these other recipes using strawberries

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

This strawberry lemonade is an easy beverage that is absolutely refreshing. The recipe makes a not-so-sweet but not puckeringly sour lemonade, so if you like your lemonade a little more on the sweet side, increase the sugar to 1 cup. Make it with fresh water if you don’t want it sparkling. I highly recommend you use fresh squeezed lemons and not bottled lemon juice which tastes slightly off. Strain the fruit syrup if you want a cleaner smoother lemonade, but feel free to skip this step if you don’t care if the lemonade has a little more body.

Course beverage

Cuisine American

Keyword drink, easy, lemonade, strawberry

Prep Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings

Calories 137kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 pound strawberries hulled and coarsely chopped
2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds or 10 -12 medium lemons
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
Sparkling water or seltzer
Lime wedges as garnish optional

Instructions

Place the chopped strawberries, lemon juice and sugar in a blender or food processor. Process until the strawberries are pureed smooth and the sugar has dissolved.
Strain the liquid if you want a smoother lemonade. Skip this step if you don’t mind if your lemonade has a little more body.
Add about 3/4 cup of the strawberry lemon syrup to a glass and add 1 cup of sparkling water. Stir and add ice. Adjust the ratio of water to syrup by taste. Enjoy!

Nutrition

The post Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade appeared first on Eat The Love.

Cauliflower Risotto with Wild Mushrooms [Sponsored Post]

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 00:33:29 +0200

This cauliflower risotto is a take on classic risotto but made with low-carb, keto-diet friendly cauliflower rice and roasted wild mushrooms.

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This post was sponsored by California Grown. I was compensated for this post and developing this recipe. However, all opinions below are my own.

I feel like I don’t say this enough. But I love making risotto and I love eating risotto! I’ve shared a recipe for bacon and asparagus risotto. I’ve made fried risotto balls, otherwise known as arancini. And I even incidentally mentioned how I made risotto using leftover tidbits from my fridge for an article about cooking at the beginning of the pandemic. So, I was excited to have risotto for dinner when I went on a press trip for California Grown last month, using some of the wild mushrooms farmed at Far West Fungi. The risotto was as fantastic as I expected it to be. And it inspired me to make this cauliflower rice risotto, a recipe I’ve been tinkering with for awhile, trying to perfect it for a friend of mine who is on a keto vegetarian diet.

The California Grown folks invited me out to the visit some farms down near Monterey, and it was so great to hang out with fellow food bloggers. Especially after two years of basically being a hermit and not seeing anyone at all. Even more fun? Learning where all my produce is grown!

Ocean Mist Farms showed us how they grew artichokes (did you know that the artichoke is a flower? I had no idea!). Lakeside Organic Gardens, one of the largest organic growers in the US had us visiting their Romaine lettuce fields and we watched a machine literally vacuum up bugs and pests. And Far West Fungi showed up their shipping container farms, filled with almost alien looking mushrooms grown out of sterilized wood dust. It was an utterly fascinating trip, one that will keep on inspiring me in the kitchen.

Those mushrooms though! It’s what inspired this recipe the most. I adore mushrooms and have bought from Far West Fungi often. And my husband, who teaches chemistry at a community college, actually taught one of the family members who own Far West Fungi! Such an amazing coincidence. And that particular farm tour, along with the risotto we had for dinner after the farm tour, was what inspired me to make this roasted mushroom risotto using cauliflower rice.

What is cauliflower rice?

Cauliflower rice was originally invented by Los Angeles Chef Benjamin Ford back in 1998 for his restaurant Chadwick. Chef Ford initially called it cauliflower cous cous, but regardless of what it’s called, it became wildly popular around 2012 with the popularity of keto and paleo diets.

Cauliflower rice is basically cauliflower that has been broken down into small rice-sized bits often with a food processor. Nowadays you can buy cauliflower rice already processed into small rice size bits in a bag at well-stocked grocery stores. But it is also super easy to make. Just cut up half a medium head of cauliflower into florets, then place them in the bowl of a food processor. Process the cauliflower in bursts, until the floret has been broken down into small bits about the size of rice or cous cous. Repeat with the remaining half of cauliflower.

If you do not have a food processor, you can still make cauliflower rice. Cut the cauliflower into florets and then grate the cauliflower through the large hole of a box grater to make small bits.

How do you make roasted mushrooms?

One of my favorite tricks with using mushrooms in large quantities is roasting them! Roasting not only intensifies the flavor of the mushroom, but also allows you to drain off some of the liquid from the mushroom (which has a lot of moisture) in the process.

This liquid is packed full of savory umami and will add even more depth and flavor to the risotto dish as well as any dish you need to use mushrooms in.

To roast the mushrooms, first line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil (for easy clean up) and preheat the oven to 375°F. Slice the mushrooms and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place them on the pan (it will be crowded but don’t worry about that). Roast for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and pour off as much of the liquid as you can into a measuring cup. You should have about 1/2 cup of liquid.

Then place the pan back in the oven and roast for another 20 to 30 minutes, or until the mushrooms have browned but are still tender.

How do you create the creaminess in cauliflower risotto?

Unlike traditional risotto made with a starchy rice like Arborio or Carnaroli, there’s no starch in the cauliflower to produce a thick and creamy dish. So, you need to compensate for this with additional ingredients.

I use a touch of heavy cream, as well as a generous amount of fresh grated Parmesan to add creaminess to the dish. If you are avoiding dairy or are looking for a vegan option, try using a non-dairy milk (like oat or soy), and vegan Parmesan-style cheese instead.

How do you store leftovers?

If you have leftovers, you can store them in the refrigerator, in an airtight container. Wild mushroom cauliflower risotto will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge.

If you like this mushroom cauliflower risotto, check out some of these other vegetable recipes using California Grown produce:

And try some of these desserts using California Grown produce:

Cauliflower Risotto with Wild Mushrooms

This wild mushroom cauliflower risotto uses cauliflower that has been broken down into small bits and is commonly called cauliflower rice. It is low carb, vegetarian and keto-diet friendly. You can buy the cauliflower rice already processed and bagged or you can make it yourself (see my section above on how to make cauliflower rice). I also use a mix of mushrooms for this recipe. This includes common Cremini (brown mushrooms), as well as more exotic King Trumpets, Yellow Oysters, Tree Oysters, and Maitake mushrooms. Feel free to use whatever mix of mushrooms you can find or like. Just try to slice or cut them into similar sizes so they all cook at the same time in the oven.

Course dinner, lunch, Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword asparagus, cauliflower, keto, mushroom

Servings

Calories 346kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Roasted Mushrooms

2 pounds mushrooms mixed (see headnote above)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cauliflower Risotto

1 medium leek cleaned and white and light green parts sliced
1 medium onion chopped
4 medium cloves of garlic minced
1 pound asparagus cut into 1-inch spieces
1 pound cauliflower rice 1/2 head of cauliflower broken down into rice, about 4 cups
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 stick, divided
1/4 cup vermouth or white wine
1/2 cup mushroom broth from roasted mushrooms
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup heavy cream

To finish

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese about 1 3/4 to 2 ounces
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Roast the mushrooms by first preheating the oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Slice, cut or break up the mushrooms into roughly the same size. Place in a bowl, drizzle the oil over the mushrooms, sprinkle salt and pepper, then tossing to coat.
Pour mushrooms into the baking sheet and spread evenly. The baking sheet will be crowded and there will be some mushrooms overlapping. Do the best you can and don’t worry about it, as the mushrooms will shrink dramatically. Then place in the oven for 15 minutes.
Once the mushrooms have roasted for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and carefully drain the liquid in the pan into a glass measuring cup. You should have about 1/2 cup of liquid. Rearrange the mushrooms back into an even layer (they should be less crowded now) and place back the oven for 25 to 30 minutes more or until the mushrooms are tender but not crispy. Let rest on the pan until ready to use.
While the mushrooms are roasting, prep and cook the cauliflower risotto. Slice the leek lengthwise and clean out any sand. Then slice the white and light green parts of leek into 1/4-inch pieces, reserving the dark green parts for another use (I save them up in the freezer, then use it for stock). Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Break down the cauliflower into cauliflower rice if necessary, by cutting it into florets and using a food processor, pulsing the pieces into rice-sized bits. Cut the asparagus into 1-inch pieces.
Heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a very large skillet or sauté pan until melted. Add the chopped leek, onion, and garlic, cooking on medium low heat for about 3 to 5 minutes or until the onions are soft and translucent but not brown. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and the cauliflower rice, cooking for an additional 2 to 3 minutes to soften it.
Once the cauliflower rice starts to soften, add the vermouth or white wine and cook until it has evaporated. Add the mushroom broth from the roasted mushrooms, along with the asparagus pieces and the fresh thyme leaves. Cover and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes.
Uncover the pan, add the cream and increase the heat to bring the cream to a simmer (but not boil). Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the cream has reduced. Stir in the roasted mushrooms, cheese and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

This recipe is sponsored by California Grown. I was compensated for this post and developing this recipe. However, all opinions below are my own.

Nutrition

The post Cauliflower Risotto with Wild Mushrooms [Sponsored Post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Easy Cherry Slab Pie

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 17:00:00 +0200

This easy-to-make cherry slab pie is great for a crowd with a firm, not runny filling, that doesn’t require you to pre-cook anything!

Jump to Recipe

I’ve been on a massive baking binge lately, more than usual. The reasoning because seasonal fruit is so…seasonal. And when I see cherries pop up, I need to buy bags and bags of them. But as much as I love to eat cherries, I often buy too many! That’s when I start baking with them in the form of a cherry buckle with cocoa cinnamon topping, apricot, sweet cherry and plum vanilla pie, or in my cherry, plum and peach cobbler. But this time instead of mucking about with combining different flavors, I decided I wanted to do something classic with all the cherries. That meant baking up a sweet cherry slab pies!

What is a slab pie?

A slab pie is similar to a standard round pie but made in a sheet pan. It is in a rectangular slab form, thus the name, slab pie. It’s ideal for those who love crust as there’s a higher crust to pie filling ratio. But it’s also a great dessert for large parties, gatherings, and picnics. It’s easier to serve folks, as they can cut small portions for themselves, which is harder to do with a traditional round shaped pie.

This slab pie is made in a short 9 x 13-inch baking sheet that is 1-inch deep. You can also make this in a 9 x 13-inch 2-inch pan (like the kind you bake brownies in) if you that is all you have. But you might want to line the pan with parchment paper, with the edges of the paper overhanging the sides of the pan. This will allow you to grab the paper and lift the entire pie up from the pan, making it easier to serve so you aren’t “digging” into the pan for slices.

How do you make this cherry slab pie?

Like the typical pie, you first start with making pie crust. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, then add in cold cubed butter. Smash the butter into slivers with your fingers, then drizzle and toss in ice cold water until a dough forms.

Once you have the pie dough, divide it in half and form 5-inch disks, about 1-inch thick. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of an hour or overnight.

When the dough has chilled and you’re ready to make the pie, combine 2 pounds of pitted and halved sweet cherries with sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, balsamic vinegar, almond extract, a grated granny smith apple, and salt.

Roll out the dough to fit into a 9 x 13 x 1-inch pan. Pour the filling into the dough, evenly distributing the filling through the pan. Dot the top of the filling with a little extra butter, then roll out the other dough and fit it over the top of the filling.

Brush the edges of the pie crust with an egg wash, then seal the top and the bottom together and decoratively crimp the edges. Brush the top of the crust with egg wash, sprinkle some sugar on top, cut a few steam holes, and then refrigerate the pie while you preheat the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Once the oven is preheated, bake and then let cool for an hour before serving.

What makes this pie different than other cherry slab pies?

Most cherry slab pie recipes result in a runny filling or have you pre-cook the filling juice to thicken it. This cherry slab pie has a firm filling that isn’t too starchy and skips the pre-cooking stage, making it easier to prepare!

The addition of the grated Granny Smith apple is what keeps the filling from running! Most pie fillings rely on a lot of starch or flour to thicken the fruit filling. This is good solution to prevent runny filling, but can make the pie taste starchy or give the fruit filling an odd “bouncy” texture.

But the Granny Smith apple is filled with pectin, a natural thickener that is what makes fruit jams and jellies thicken. The grated apple helps thicken the filling naturally, without extra starch. Despite the addition of the apple, you don’t taste the apple flavor at all in the filling. Instead, the apple adds a subtle fruit sweetness as well as thickens the filling, resulting in less sugar needed for the filling as well.

There’s also an addition of balsamic vinegar in the filling. This ingredient is optional but highly recommended as it adds a touch of acidity to the filling, balancing the sweetness and bringing out the bright cherry fruit flavors even more. If you don’t have balsamic vinegar, try adding lemon juice instead, which isn’t quite as rich as balsamic but still highlights the bright acidity of the fruit.

Tips and tricks

Cold ingredients for pie crust: When making pie crust, always start with cold ingredients, including cold butter and cold water. Make sure to chill the pie crust for a full hour or make it up to 2 days ahead of time, so the butter in the crust can fully solidify. Cold pie crust equals flakey pie crust!
Use an apple in the filling: As I mentioned above, the addition of the apple sounds odd, but it naturally thickens the pie without extra starch or flour. Don’t skip this ingredient until you want your pie filling to be runny.
Refrigerate the pie after assembling: Refrigerating the pie after assembling means the pie crust can chill again after it’s been rolled out and manipulated at room temperature. Chill the entire pie while you preheat the oven then. That way the crust is still cold when it goes into the oven.
Use store-bought crust: For a shortcut, you can totally use store-bought pie crust. However, you might need to use 2 boxes of the pie crust and cobble together the top and bottom crusts to fit into the pan. Just brush some of the egg wash on the dough and overlap the dough to form a larger crust for the top and bottom. Use the egg wash as a “glue” to hold the dough together.
Use frozen cherries: If cherries are out of season but you still want to make a cherry pie, you can use frozen cherries. Just increase the cornstarch to 5 tablespoons as frozen cherries have more liquid when they thaw.
Split the cherries in half: I often times will just use a paring knife and fingers to pit my cherries but I did write an article for Simply Recipes about the best cherry pitters, and the one I like the most is the OXO cherry pitter (<- affiliate link). But if you plan on pitting a lot of cherries, you might want to invest in a batch “hopper style” cherry pitter (<- affiliate link) which allows you to pit large batches of cherries at once. No matter how you pit your cherries though, split them in half afterwards. This allows you to check to make sure you removed all the pits (even the best cherry pitters will occasionally leave a pit in the cherry). Halving the cherries (I just tear them in half with my fingers) also creates a more even layer of filling in the pie.

Storage

This slab pie is best eaten the day it is baked. But you can store the leftover remaining cherry pie at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 days or in the fridge for up to 4 days.

You can also freeze this pie. Let the pie cool completely then either wrap the entire pie tightly in plastic wrap and place it in a large 2 gallon ziplok bag and freeze as is, or slice first, then place slices in an airtight container or in a freezer bag. Thaw it out overnight in the fridge or take a slice out and thaw on the countertop for about an hour before serving.

If you like this cherry slab pie, check out some of these other pies

Easy Cherry Slab Pie

This cherry slab pie is made in a sheet pan and ideal for serving larger crowds or bring to a picnic. Unlike other cherry slab pie recipes, this filling is not runny and doesn’t require you to precook the filling or the fruit liquid. Instead, it relies on a grated Granny Smith apple to help thicken the filling with the natural pectin in the apple. But don’t worry, you won’t taste the apple in the filling. The natural sweet cherry flavor shines through and the apple only adds a subtle fruit sweetness that also means less sugar is necessary in the fillin

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword cherry, fruit, pie, slab pie

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Chill time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes

Servings

Calories 475kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Pie Crust

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 455 g
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, cold 285 g
2/3 cup to 3/4 cup ice cold water

Pie Filling

4 1/2 cups cherries about 2 pounds or 910 grams
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
1/4 cup cornstarch 40 g
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Granny Smith apple
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

To assemble

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water
2 tablespoon turbinado sugar sparkling sugar or white granulated sugar

Instructions

Make the pie crust dough by placing the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the cold butter into 1/2-inch cubes and sprinkle them over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, toss the cubes in the flour then smash them into flat pieces, roughly the size of a pea.
Once all the butter is flattened and broken up, drizzle 2/3 cup of the ice water over the dough and toss with a fork until a dough starts to form. Using your hands massage the dry ingredients gently into the wet parts. If the dough looks too dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, until a solid dough forms.
Divide the dough into two parts and then flatten each part into a disk about 5-inches wide and 1-inch thick. Wrap each dough with plastic wrap and then refrigerate for a minimum of an hour or overnight (or up to 2 days in the fridge).
While the dough is chilling, make the crust by pitting the cherries and halving them into a large bowl. Add the sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, vanilla extract, and salt. Then peel and core the apple, and grate it into the bowl, using the large holes of a box grater. Toss to combine all the ingredients together.
When you’re ready to assemble the pie, if you’re using a 9 x 13-inch baking pan (the kind that you make brownies in), lightly spray it with cooking oil, then line it with parchment paper. If you are using a 9 x 13-inch rimmed baking sheet, skip this step. Flour a clean surface and then roll out a disk of dough into an 11 x 15-inch rectangle.
Fold the dough into quarters. Move the dough carefully to the pan. Unfold and fit the dough into the baking sheet or pan, trying to NOT stretch the dough as much as possible. This will help prevent shrinkage.
Pour the filling into the pastry dough and then distribute the filling evenly throughout the pan. Cut the remaining unsalted butter into small 1/4-inch cubes and sprinkle them all over the top of the filling.
Repeat the rolling out of the dough with the remaining disk, making sure it 11 x 15 as well. Place this dough over the filled pie.
Make the egg wash by beating the egg yolk with the water. Then lift up and brush the bottom crust with some of the egg wash and place the top crust back on top of it, using the egg wash to “glue” and seal the crust together. Trim any excess crust and decoratively pinch and seal the dough all the way around the pie. Place the pie in the refrigerator (uncovered) for 20 to 30 minutes.
While the pie is chilling, preheat the oven to 375°F. Once the pie is done chilling, brush the remaining egg wash over the top of crust (you won’t need to use all of it). Then sprinkle the top crust with turbinado sugar (or sparkling or white sugar) and cut some decorative vent holes into the top.
Place the pie on a large rimmed baking sheet (in case any of the filling bubbles out) and bake the pie for 60 to 70 minutes or until the filling is bubbling through the steam vents in the center of the pie. Let the pie cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before serving.

Nutrition

The post Easy Cherry Slab Pie appeared first on Eat The Love.

Rainbow Layer Cake

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 17:00:00 +0200

This fabulous rainbow layer cake is frosted with rich dark chocolate frosting, which makes the bright and vivid cake layers pop out even more.

Jump to Recipe

Even though I’m gay, I’m a bit late to the rainbow party when it comes to dessert. Perhaps it’s the over-the-top fabulousness that comes with rainbow treats, a fabulous that doesn’t always fit with my everyday ho-hum life. But once I made my rainbow chocolate chip cookies last year, it kind of broke the seal. I ended up developing a rainbow rice krispie treats for my friends over at Simply Recipes. And this year, I decided it was time for me to make a towering rainbow layer cake, one frosted with rich fudgey chocolate frosting and adorned with rainbow sprinkles. Because if I’m going to make a rainbow layer cake, why not go all out?

What makes this different than other rainbow layer cakes?

Most rainbow layer cakes have white frosting, but I really wanted a deep and rich flavored chocolate frosting that made the colors of the layers pop even more. So I adapted the chocolate frosting from my Smith Island Cake that is in my cookbook Marbled, Swirled and Layered (<- affiliate link).

If you really love white vanilla frosting, you can swap out the chocolate frosting with your favorite vanilla frosting. Just make sure to double a typical recipe you might need for a double or triple layer cake. With six layers, this cake needs extra frosting for coverage.

How do you make this cake?

Though it looks complicated, this cake is only slight more difficult to make than a traditional layer cake. The main difficulty is the dividing the cake batter into 6 batches and add food coloring, as well as frosting a few more layers.

Make the cake batter in the typical way, by first creaming the butter and white sugar together, along with some vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt. I use imitation clear vanilla because I want to keep the cake batter as white as possible before adding the food coloring, but you can use real vanilla if you’d like.

Once the sugar and butter mixture is fluffy and light colored, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl, then add the egg whites, mixing it in. Add half the flour, all the buttermilk and the remaining flour.

Divide the batter into 6 different bowls and add the food coloring to each. Then pour each into a greased and parchment paper lined 8-inch pan and bake. Once baked, let them cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then release on a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

While it’s baking, make the frosting by softening some chocolate in a microwave, then heating up cream, sugar, and vanilla together in a pan until hot (but not boiling). Stir it into the chocolate until it’s smooth, then add butter to form a fudgy smooth icing. Chill in the fridge until spreadable.

When the frosting is at the right consistency, stack the purple layer on a cake stand or cake plate and frost it. Then add the blue layer on top of it. Continue adding the layers in the order of the rainbow, spreading a thin layer of frosting between each cake layer, and then frost the top and sides. Press some rainbow sprinkles onto the bottom sides and now you have a stunning and gorgeous cake!

What to do if you don’t have six cake pans?

Don’t worry if you don’t have 6 cake pans! Who does? Just bake the cake in batches!

Bake 2 or 3 layers at a time. Then let the cake cool for 15 minutes in the pan. Run a thin knife, spatula or plastic dough scraper around the side of the pan and release the cake layer onto a cooling rack.

Wipe out the cake pan with a paper towel (no need to wash it). Spray the pan with cooking oil and line with a piece of parchment paper on the bottom. Bake the remaining layers.

How do I get the intense colors?

Gel food coloring is key to getting the vivid and striking colors. To get the intense cake layer colors, you need professional gel food coloring. My favorite brand is AmeriColor but any professional gel food coloring will give you better results than the liquid stuff you find at grocery stores. You can find professional grade food coloring at craft stores like Michaels, JoAnn or online (<- affiliate link).

Using liquid food coloring, like the type you can get at a grocery store that comes in the teardrop shape bottles, just won’t get you the same intense color. You need to add a lot more, and that messes with the liquid ratio of the cake. I don’t recommend using that type of food coloring.

The Americolor gel paste food coloring I use includes Regal Purple, Royal Blue, Forest Green, Lemon Yellow, Orange, and Super Red. I also noticed that I wasn’t super happy with the orange colored layer, so I ended up adding just a drop or two of the super red to nudge the cake layer to a more suitable orange. Use your own judgement about that layer. Each layer really only requires about 1/4 teaspoon of the gel food coloring, with the exception of the red, which I used a scant 1/2 teaspoon, because I really wanted it vivid in color.

More Tips and Tricks

8-inch pans: This cake uses 8-inch pans, which are slightly less common than 9-inch pans. I like using the 8-inch pans because the cake has more height, and I can fit three 8-inch pans on a rack in my oven. But if you only have 9-inch pans, you can bake the layers in those. Just check the pan around 12 or 13 minutes to see how it’s baking. The thinner layer of cake batter means it might bake up faster.
Use tall pans: I recommend using 3-inch tall cake pans if you have them. Tall cake pans means the cake layers will bake up more evenly and flat, without the typical center dome. However, the cake will be fine if you use 2-inch tall cake pans. Just expect the cake to dome a little more in the center.
Use cake flour: I use cake flour to create a more tender crumb in the cake. You can use all-purpose flour if that is all you have but keep in mind that the cake will be a little more tough and crumbly. If you find that the cake texture is too much like cornbread, consider buying a box of cake flour and trying that out.
Pick a chocolate you like to eat: This frosting is fairly intensely chocolate, almost a ganache with heavy cream and sugar added in. Pick a chocolate you like to eat out of hand, as that’s what you’ll mostly be tasting when you eat this cake.
Frost thinly: Because there are so many layers, use a thin coating of frosting between layers and the sides and top. Don’t worry though, you will still have a lot of chocolate frosting in an individual slice. The thinner frosting layers just means a better balance of cake and frosting ratio.
The frosting needs the right temperature: Because this frosting is like a ganache, you need to have it the right temperature to use. Too cool and it’s stiff and hard to work with. Too warm and it’s runny. I make the frosting, then cool it in the fridge anywhere from 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours, depending on how cold your fridge is. Stir the frosting halfway through the chill time to get the entire frosting the same temperature. If it gets too cold, just let it sit at room temperature to warm up a bit, or microwave it in 10 second burst, stirring between cook times. It doesn’t take long to warm up again!
Place the cake on a baking sheet before adding sprinkles: I like to press sprinkles onto the bottom edge of the cake for fun but sprinkles bounce everywhere. I place the cake on a rimmed baking sheet, so the sprinkles don’t go all over the table. Once I’m done decorating the cake, I can pour the sprinkles back into the canister to use again.

Make Ahead

You can make the cake layers one day and then assemble and frost the cake the next day if you wish. Wrap the cake layers in a plastic wrap tightly after they have cooled and come to room temperature. Make the frosting the day before, and microwave in 10 second bursts, stirring between cook times, to warm it up to spreadable consistency. Then assemble and frost.

The cake keeps for about 3 days already assembled under a cake dome at room temperature. Keep in mind the longer it sits out, the less fresh it will be.

Storage

Store this cake at room temperature for up to 3 days under a cake dome. You can also freeze this cake if you want. I like to slice the cake into individual pieces, place the slices on a small pieces of parchment paper, and then freeze on a baking sheet. Once solid, I’ll place them all in an air-tight container, layered with the parchment paper, for longer storage. Then I can thaw out a piece individually to eat. The frozen cake will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months.

If you like this Rainbow Layer Cake, check out these other cake recipes

Rainbow Layer Cake

This fabulous rainbow layer cake is a stunning cake for nearly any occasion, from a childhood birthday to a celebratory pride party in June. It’s easier to make than it looks but it does require you to bake 6 different layers. If you don’t have 6 cake pans (and who does?) just bake it in batches. You can see my section above on tips on baking in batches.

To get the vivid layers of color, use gel food coloring a not grocery store liquid food coloring. My favorite brand is AmeriColor, but any professional grade gel food coloring will work. Liquid food coloring just won’t give you the same color. Gel food coloring can be found at the craft stores like Michaels, JoAnn, or online.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cake, chocolate, chocolate frosting, frosting, layer cake

Prep Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Frosting Chilling Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings

Calories 948kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Cake batter

1 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 285 g or 2 1/2 sticks
2 1/2 cups white sugar 500 g
1 tablespoon clear imitation vanilla or real vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 large eggs
2 large egg whites
3 1/2 cups cake flour 455 g
1 1/2 cups buttermilk well shaken

Coloring

1/4 teaspoon AmeriColor Gel Regal Purple
1/4 teaspoon AmeriColor Gel Royal Blue
1/4 teaspoon AmeriColor Forest Green
1/4 teaspoon AmeriColor Gel Lemon Yellow
1/4 teaspoon AmeriColor Gel Orange plus 1 to 2 drops of Super Red (optional)
1/2 teaspoon AmeriColor Gel Super Red

Frosting

12 ounces chopped dark bittersweet chocolate 340 g
1 1/4 cups heavy cream 290 g
1 1/4 cups white sugar 250 g
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract real or clear
10 tablespoons salted butter if unsalted add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 140 g or 1 1/4 sticks

To finish

Rainbow sprinkles optional

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Spray six 8-inch cake pans with cooking oil, then line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper. If you don’t have six cake pans, see the section above about baking in batches.
Place the butter, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Start the mixer on low, slowly bringing the mixer up to medium speed as the butter becomes more pliable and the sugar is incorporated. Mix for 5 or 6 minutes, or until the butter and sugar are fluffy and light in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice while you cream the ingredients.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides between additions. Add the egg whites beating to incorporate. Don’t worry if the batter looks broken as you add eggs. That’s normal.
Add half the flour and slowly stir it in with the mixer. Scrape down the sides, add the buttermilk, scrape down again, and then add the remaining flour.
Divide the batter into 6 different bowls. This will be about scant 1 1/2 cups of batter, or about 300 grams each if you have a scale. Mix in the food coloring to each bowl with a spoon or spatula. Note that to achieve the right shade orange, I added a drop of red food coloring gel to the orange layer, but you might want to skip that if you like the way the orange gel comes out.
Scrape and pour the batter into the pans, spreading the cake batter evenly into the pan. It will be a thin layer. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, the top of the cake springs back when you gently press it with your fingers, and the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.
If you don't have 6 pans or you can't fit them all in the oven, see my section above for baking the cake layers in batches.
Let the cakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a thin knife, spatula or plastic dough scraper around the side of the pan, then carefully release the cake layer onto a cooling rack. Peel away the parchment paper. Let cool completely before frosting.
While the cake layers are baking, make the frosting by placing the chocolate in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and microwave for an additional 30 seconds. The chocolate will not be melted but the bowl will be warm, and the chocolate touching the bowl will be melty.
Place the cream, sugar and vanilla in a medium pot and heat on the stove on medium heat stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved, and the cream is heated. Bubbles should start to form on the side of the pot. Do not let it boil.
Pour into the bowl of chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted.
Add the butter to the melted chocolate, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, stirring until the butter is melted and incorporated.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 1/2 hours. Stir halfway through chilling the frosting. You want the frosting to be cool enough to be spreadable like peanut butter or Nutella, but not too thick or stiff. If it’s too stiff, stir it and let it sit on the counter at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes to warm up a bit.
Once the cake layers are cooled, and the frosting is the right thickness, place a small dab of frosting on a cake plate or pedestal and place the purple layer on it. Frost a thin layer of chocolate frosting all over the top of it, then add the blue layer. Repeat this process, frosting the cake layers, adding the green, yellow, orange and then red on top. Frost the sides and top with the remaining frosting.
Press a small amount of rainbow sprinkles around the bottom edge of the cake before serving.

Notes

Frosting recipe adapted from my cookbook Marbled, Swirled, and Layered (<- affiliate link).

Nutrition

The post Rainbow Layer Cake appeared first on Eat The Love.

Grilled Sangria-inspired Marinated Skirt Steak

Wed, 25 May 2022 16:45:00 +0200

This quick and easy grilled skirt steak is steeped overnight in a sangria-inspired honey marinade that infuses it with loads of flavor.

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It’s warming up here in San Francisco and that means I’m firing up the grill! I’m lucky to live in San Francisco, a city with a fairly temperate climate, so I can basically grill all year long. But something about warmer weather makes me want to get out of the kitchen and cook outdoors. When the weather gets nice, I find myself making double cheeseburgers, Korean BBQ chicken wings and, of course skirt steak with my all-purpose steak rub and chimichurri recipe.

But recently I decided to mix it up a bit and make this sangria-inspired marinated skirt steak. It’s just barely adapted from the cookbook Big Love Cooking by Joey Campanaro and Theresa Gambacorta (<- affiliate link). It’s a super easy recipe with the marinade lending tons of flavor to the steak. I often serve it with my crispy oven roasted potato wedges and green beans with thyme, shallots and pistachios or a big salad and dinner is done is less than an hour. Perfect for a weeknight meal.

How do you make this marinated skirt steak?

Making the marinade for this skirt steak requires minimal prep work. Slice up some shallots, coarsely chop some garlic and slice some oranges (I opted for blood oranges but regular Valencia or navel oranges work just as well).

Add them to some red wine, honey, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

Then place the skirt steak in a large ziplock bag, pour the marinade over it, and let it sit in the fridge to do its work overnight. Grill for a couple of minutes per side and dinner is done!

What is skirt steak?

Skirt steak is a long piece of beef that is located inside the chest and abdominal cavity of the cow. There’s an inside and outside skirt steak but the most common skirt steak that you find at grocery stores is the outside skirt steak, which is transversus abdominis muscle of the cow. The inside skirt steak, which is the muscle that moves the diaphragm, usually ends up in commercial kitchens.

Because the skirt steak is close to internal organs like the liver, it has more robust flavor, almost offal like. But don’t worry. It doesn’t taste like liver! It just has more meaty “beef-iness” to it.

It’s can be a tough piece of meat, but because it’s thin, it cooks and grills fast and it soaks up marinades well. It also has fat in-between the muscle strands, which keep it from drying out when grilling. I recommend cooking the skirt steak to a medium rare, as anything more done will lead to a dry and tough piece of meat.

Can you substitute skirt steak with flank steak?

You’ll often find recipes that tell you can you substitute flank steak for skirt steak. And you can. But keep in mind that flank steak is a thicker cut and marinades don’t penetrate as quickly. The nature of the skirt steak allows the marinades to really soak in!

If you do choose to use flank steak instead of skirt steak, I’d recommend letting the steak marinade a full 12 hours to let the flavors penetrate. You will also need to cook the steak longer on the grill, as flank steak is a thicker cut of meat that skirt steak.

Can you broil or pan cook this steak?

Yes! Though my preferred method to cooking skirt steak is on the grill as it lends a smoky char to the meat and cooks it super fast, you can cook this indoors using a broiler or a heavy skillet like cast iron.

To broil, move the top oven rack so it’s about 4 to 6 inch from the heat source at the top of the oven. Then place the steak on an aluminum foil lined pan and broil for about 4 minutes. Then flip the steak and broil for an additional 3 minutes. If your broiler has temperature option, pick high. You want the hottest heat possible when cooking skirt steak!

To pan cook it, cut the steak into 2 or 3 pieces, so they fit into the size of your skillet. Choose a heavy skillet if you have one. I like to use my cast iron to pan cook steak. Remove from the marinade and pat it dry with paper towels. Then heat the pan over high heat for about 2 to 3 minutes, until it’s screaming hot. Add about 1 tablespoon of oil, then carefully place the steak in the hot pan with tongs. Press down with the tongs so that the entire steak has contact with the hot pan, and let it cook for about 2 minutes, or until the bottom side of the steak is golden brown and lifts up fairly easily from the pan. Flip the steak and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

How do you cut skirt steak?

Skirt steak is made up of long muscle fibers which soak up the marinade. But when you serve up the steak, you should be careful of cutting the steak because you want to cut against the grain, and not with the grain. This means you are cutting perpendicular to the long fibers, cutting them into short pieces.

If you cut the opposite direction with the grain, you end up with a piece of meat that is one long fiber. Chewing on that will be like chewing on a rubber band! Make sure to cut diagonally against the grain, and you’ll be rewarded with meaty goodness.

What sort of red wine should be used in the marinade?

The old adage of “pick a wine you like to drink” certainly works with this recipe too. But, to be honest, I often will find the cheapest red wine that I’m willing to drink at the grocery store and use that. There’s no need to use an expensive wine, as it just functions as a marinade, and has additional ingredients in it like honey, orange, shallots and garlic. I usually try to find a robust red wine, like an Argentine Malbec or Spanish Tempranillo for under $10 and use that in the recipe.

If you like this skirt steak recipe, check out some side dish recipes to go with it:

Grilled Sangria-inspired Marinated Skirt Steak

This grilled sangria-inspired marinated steak is packed with flavor. Just make sure to get the steak in the marinade early in the day or make it right before you go to bed. A quick cook on the grill and dinner is ready in minutes.

Course dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword beef, grilling, marinade, steak

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Marinade Time 4 hours

Servings

Calories 749kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

3 cups red wine 1 bottle or 750 ml
1/4 cup honey 75 g
1 medium-sized orange Navel, Valencia, or Blood
2 small shallots 60 g
5 medium-sized garlic cloves
5 sprigs fresh thyme
6 tablespoons olive oil 75 g
3 pounds skirt steak about 2 to 3 pieces
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Place the red wine and honey in a large bowl. Slice the oranges and shallots and add it to the marinade. Coarsely chop the garlic and add it as well. Add the thyme and olive oil and mix.
If the skirt steak is long, cut the steak into 2 or 3 manageable sized pieces. Then place them in a 2-gallon resealable freezer bag or a baking pan big enough to hold the steak and the marinade. Pour the marinade carefully into the resealable bag or baking pan. Seal it or cover the pan with plastic wrap and then marinade the meat for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 12 hours in the refrigerator.
Don’t go over 12 hours as the acidity in the wine will start to break down the fibers of the steak.
Take the steak out of the fridge about an hour before you are ready to cook it, to let it come to room temperature. Once you are ready, preheat the grill on high for 10 minutes. Then remove the steak from the marinade, letting any excess marinade drip off. Salt and pepper the steak generously on both sides, then grill the steak for 2 minutes per side on the high heat.
If you forget to take the steak out of the fridge, don’t stress. Just cook it for an additional minute or two per side.
Let the steak rest for 8 to 10 minutes before slicing the steak against the grain diagonally and serving.

Nutrition

The post Grilled Sangria-inspired Marinated Skirt Steak appeared first on Eat The Love.

Chunky Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 00:09:24 +0200

These easy-to-make brown butter chunky chocolate chip shortbread cookies have a sprinkling of crunchy sea salt on top.

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Full honesty here, when I want a chocolate chip cookie, I usually want a thick chewy bakery-style chocolate chip cookie. Sometimes I want a variant of that style of cookie, like a sourdough chocolate chip cookie, a cookies and cream cookie, a mint chocolate chip cookie (which I developed to taste like mint chocolate chip ice cream) or even my reverse chocolate chip cookie. But I rarely opt for the chocolate chip shortbread cookie variety.

But every now and then I want something with a little crisper. A little more buttery. A little crumbly-in-the-mouth. And though I’ve tinkered with a bunch of various shortbread recipes, including a couple of super popular viral cookies, nothing really resonated with me until I came across Dorie Greenspan’s caramel chunky chocolate chip cookies from her cookbook Baking with Dorie (<- affiliate link).

Don’t be fooled by the name, there’s no caramel in the cookie. But I took her version as a jumping off point, and cranked it up a notch, using brown butter, more vanilla, more chocolate chunks, removed the nuts, and sprinkling on a bit of crunchy Maldon sea salt on top. Yeah, I was that guy who radically altered the recipe! But most importantly, I changed the preparation method a bit to make it easier to form each cookie as I found the slicing of the cold dough difficult to do. The result is the best and easiest to make chocolate chip shortbread cookie that I’ve found!

How do you make this shortbread cookie?

To make these cookies, start off by browning two sticks of butter in a pan. If you’ve never made brown butter, don’t worry, it’s not tough! I’ve got a section below on tips on tricks on making brown butter.

Once the butter is brown, pour it in the bowl of a stand mixer and add a lot of vanilla to it. Then add white granulated sugar and powdered sugar and some kosher salt, mixing it together. Add in flour and mix on slow speed, until the dry ingredients are absorbed, and it looks a little bit like wet sand or tiny pebbles. You know you’re done when the dough will stick together when you grab some in your fingers. Add the chopped chocolate and mix in.

Now brush two muffin tins with melted butter and press in heaping tablespoons of the dough into each cup, compressing the dough. Each dough ball should be about 30 to 35 grams each if you have a scale and want to get precise. Stick the whole thing in the fridge and let it chill for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight preferably. Once chilled, sprinkle some salt on top and bake!

What makes this shortbread different?

Most shortbread cookies tend to be more on the thin and very crumbly. This cookie is baked in a muffin tin, which keep the shape of the cookie and allows it to be thick and chunky. In addition, the use of the brown butter, as well as the melted butter brushed in the pan, means you get a lot of nutty toffee and caramel flavors in the cookie, something that a lot of pale white shortbread cookies don’t have.

Expect these cookies to also have more substance than a traditional shortbread cookie, with a firmer texture and more crunch than a typical sandy crumbly shortbread or sable cookie. But they still have that signature buttery flavor that shortbread cookie has, just with a little more cookie oomph!

What can you do if you don’t have two muffin tins?

This recipe requires you pack each cookie dough into two buttered 12 cup standard size muffin tins. Some folks don’t have more than one muffin tin. If you only have one muffin tin, butter it like instructed, and press half the dough into the cups. Place the pan in the fridge to chill.

Then take the remaining dough and divide it out into 12 balls. Squeeze each ball of dough tightly together in your hands to get it to form together but don’t worry if they aren’t perfect in size. You basically just want them in lumps so you don’t have to divide them later, after they’ve chilled and hardened. Place the balls in an airtight container and place in the fridge along with the muffin pan.

Once the cookie dough has chilled, take the dough balls out of the fridge and set them on the counter. Preheat the oven, and then bake off the cookies in the pan as directed. Once the cookies are baked, let them cool for 3 minutes in the pan, then move them to a wire rack. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and brush the pan with more melted butter. Press the cookie dough balls into the pan cups. They might fall apart, but that’s ok. Just press and compact them down into the cups of the muffin tin. They’ll pack down. Then bake the second round as directed.

How to brown butter

Browning butter isn’t difficult to do, but it does require you pay a little bit of attention while making it. I recommend using a silver bottom pan if you have one and you’ve never made brown butter before.

Place the pan on the stove and turn the heat on high, heating the pan and butter until it melts. Stirring with a heatproof wooden spoon or spatula. Once most of the butter has melted, reduce the heat to medium low. Continue to cook the butter, stirring constantly until the milk solids on that have fallen to the bottom of the pan start to turn golden brown.

Make sure to scrape the sides of the pan as you stir. This is where the milk solids often accumulate and cook first. The butter will foam a lot, this is the water in the butter boiling off, so make sure to use your spatula to push the foam aside to check the bottom of the pan to see how the milk solids are looking.

Once you start seeing the milk solids turn brown, and the butter starts to smell fragrant and nutty, remove the pan from the heat. Let the residual heat of the pan continue to cook the milk fats until they have all turned a deep golden brown. If you need to nudge the brown butter further and darker brown, return it to the stove on low heat and just continue stir until you get that brown color you want. Don’t go black though! That’s a sign the butter fat has burnt and there’s no going back from that. You’ll have to start over.

Though I highly recommend using browned butter, if you’ve had difficult making brown butter in the past or want to skip this step, just melt the butter in a pan or in the microwave and use that instead. Expect your cookies to be less nutty and caramel in flavor, but they’ll still be delicious.

Tips and tricks on the making these the best cookies

Though these cookies are pretty foolproof to make, here are a few tips on how to make them the best chunk shortbread chocolate chip cookies you’ve had.

Use chopped chocolate: I prefer to use chopped chocolate in this cookie. The chocolate chips tend to be a little hard and are designed to not melt. I like to use chopped chocolate which is softer in a shortbread cookie. But if you are in a rush or don’t want to chop chocolate, just use your favorite chocolate chips in these cookies. They’ll still be lovely!
Use browned butter: I love the nutty fragrant and slightly caramelized flavor that the browned butter gives these cookies. They almost taste like they have hazelnut or almond flour in them, but they don’t! I have tips on how to make brown butter in a section above, but if you don’t want to make brown butter, feel free to just use melted butter instead. The cookies will be super tasty, just not as complex in flavor.
Use the best ingredients: This goes without saying with all recipes, but because this cookie has very few ingredients, I really recommend using the best ingredients you have on hand. Real vanilla extract, high quality butter, pure cane sugar, and quality chocolate. You’ll taste the results.
Use salt: I like to sprinkle a nice crunchy sea salt, like Maldon salt, on top of my cookies. The salt is a nice contrast to the chunky cookie, as well as elevates and intensifies the flavor of the chocolate and brown butter even more.
Chill the dough: Though you can make these cookies the same day that you make the dough, after chilling the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours, the flavor of the cookie really intensifies and deepens if you let the cookie chill in the fridge overnight or even 2 days. The flour has time to fully hydrate, and the cookies firm up and deeper toffee flavor emerge. If you don’t believe, try baking up half the cookies the day you make them, and then the other half of the cookies the next day and compare. It’s pretty impressive the difference. But if you are impatient, know that the cookies that are made the day of are still pretty great!

Storage

These cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days in an airtight container. You can also freeze them in an airtight container or in a resealable freezer bag. Just thaw on the counter before serving. Keep in mind the salt on top of the cookies will melt and absorb into the cookie the longer you store them.

If you like these chocolate chip shortbread cookies, check out some of these other chocolate cookie recipes

Chunky Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

These chunky shortbread cookies are packed with chopped chocolate and have a sprinkling of crunchy sea salt on top. The addition of the brown butter gives them a rich nutty and caramel depth that regular melted butter doesn’t but if you are short on time or intimidated by brown butter, melted butter will still yield a delightful cookie. Make sure to allow time to chill the cookie dough. I highly recommend making the cookie dough one day and then baking them off the next day for convenience and extra flavor. This recipe does require the use of two standard size muffin tins. If you only have one muffin tin, see my section above about how to bake them with one tin.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword brown butter, chocolate, chocolate chip, cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Chilling Time 2 hours

Servings

Calories 153kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Dough

1 cup unsalted butter 225 g or 2 sticks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar 100 g
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted 60 g
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
1 1/4 cups chopped dark chocolate 210 g (use something you like to eat out of hand)

To Bake

2 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

To finish

Crunch sea salt like Maldon or Sel de Gris (optional but recommended)

Instructions

Start by first making browned butter. Place the butter in a large saucepan, preferably one with a light silver bottom. Heat the pan on high, stirring constantly, until most of the butter is melted, then reduce the heat on the pan to medium low. Continue to cook the butter, stirring constantly and scrapping down the sides of the pan, until the milk solids have turned golden brown. Remove from the pan and let it cool slightly, about 2 or 3 minutes.
Pour the browned butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Make sure to scrape in the browned butter milk fat bits at the bottom of the pan into the bowl as well. Add the vanilla, then the white sugar, powdered sugar, and salt into the bowl. Mix on low speed, increasing to medium for about a minute, or until the ingredients have had time to mix together. It won’t look blended, but don’t worry about that.
Add the flour and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are absorbed. Then increase the speed to medium and mix for about a 1 to 2 minutes, or until the dough starts to look like small pebbles or large grain sand. Grab some dough and press it together with your fingers. If it sticks together, then the dough good. If it fall aparts, mix for another 30 to 60 seconds.
Add the chopped chocolate and mix on slow speed, until it is evenly distributed.
Take 2 standard 12 cup muffin pans and brush the inside of each cup with some melted butter. Then scoop out a rounded tablespoon of dough from the bowl and smash it into the bottom of one of the buttered muffin cups. Press firmly to pack it in. If you have a scale and want to be precise, the dough should be somewhere between 30 to 35 grams. Repeat this process with the remaining dough, filling up both muffin pans, making 24 cookies.
Place both pans in the refrigerator, and let chill in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours, or overnight preferably. You can chill the cookies for up to 2 days if you wish.
Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F. One preheated, sprinkle the top of each cookie with a pinch of sea salt, then bake the cookies for 18 to 20 minutes or until the edges and the top of the cookies are golden brown. Rotate the pans halfway through the baking if your oven bakes uneven.
Let the cookies cool in the pan for 3 to 4 minutes, to let them firm up. Then slide a thin butter knife or small metal offset spatula around the cookie to loosen it from pan. I like to slide it into a couple of spots around the cookie to loosen it. Then slide the knife or spatula under the cookie. The cookies should just pop right out. Move the cookie to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook Baking with Dorie (<-affiliate link)

Nutrition

The post Chunky Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies appeared first on Eat The Love.