Category Archives: Recipes (Sweet)

Saveur’s Best Damn Meyer Lemon Cake

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Made with lemon juice, lemon zest and lemon extract for a super lemon-y taste.

A title like that practically challenges you to bake the darn thing, doesn’t it?

After all, you either fling yourself into it optimistically, confident that it really will be the best dang lemon cake you’ve ever sunk your teeth into or you grudgingly do it, all curmudgeon-like, waiting for that moment of  smug satisfaction to prove hoity-toity Saveur magazine wrong.

My verdict?

Since I’m not one to scarf up lemon cake after lemon cake on a regular basis, I can’t say if it’s the very best damn Meyer lemon cake I’ve ever had in my life. But I will say it really is pretty darn wonderful.

As it should be since it’s based on a recipe by baking doyenne Maida Heatter.

A simple batter enriched with milk, ground almonds and plenty of butter gets livened up with Meyer lemon zest and concentrated lemon extract. It bakes up in a loaf pan — a light-colored one works best so that the cake doesn’t overbrown. When the cake emerges from the oven, it’s doused with a warm syrup of Meyer lemon juice and sugar.

Once the glaze has soaked in, turn the cake out of the pan. The recipe doesn’t say so, but I would advise using a piece of parchment paper to do this, rather than a plate, as the now-sticky top of the cake can easily adhere to a plate and come ripping off. Once you have the loaf out of the pan, invert it right-side up on a rack to cool completely.

Then, wrap the cake in plastic wrap and wait 24 hours before eating it.

I know, I know, you have to be patient, so that the glaze melds completely with the cake.

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Minute Marmalade

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Jam from the microwave.

Want to make jam when you’re, um, in a jam for time?

This no-fuss, no-mess, no-time-at-all recipe allows you to do just that — with help from your microwave.

My good friend and fellow Bay Area food writer Beth Hensperger has just come out with her latest cookbook, “Not Your Mother’s Microwave Cookbook” (Harvard Common Press) that will have you looking at this common appliance in a whole new way.

Let’s face it — most of us use our microwave oven primarily for reheating leftovers. But it can do so much more, as evidenced by Hensperger’s book. Roast peanuts? Yup. Toast coconut? For sure. Dry fresh pasta? You bet. Dry fresh herbs? But, of course.

You’ll even find a microwave version of my Dad’s “Foil-Wrapped Chicken” in the book, of which I just received a review copy. Only, this version is safe for the microwave because it uses parchment paper instead.

All it takes is two Meyer lemons, one orange, some sugar and some corn syrup.

Her microwave “Orange Marmalade” takes just minutes to make. You can even turn it into “Meyer Lemon-Orange Marmalade” as I did, and add fresh chopped thyme for a twist. This easy recipe is a boon to those who have citrus trees in their yards and are trying to find new ways to use that bounty at this time of year.

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Indescribably Great Frozen Maple Mousse Pie

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Be prepared to swoon over this frozen maple mousse pie with candied cranberries.

After taking my first bite of this creamy-dreamy dessert, words simply failed me.

Search as I may, I don’t think there’s a word that can properly describe how amazing this “Frozen Maple-Mousse Pie with Candied Cranberries” is.

Luscious? Yes. But more than that. Gorgeous? You bet it is, but it’s even beyond that. Swoonful? Oh my, it sure is, but I’m not even sure that’s a real word.

I made this as the finale to my Christmas dinner. And what a showstopper it was.

The recipe is from Kathleen Callahan of Seattle’s Emmer & Rye and was published in the November 2010 issue of Food & Wine magazine.

It’s deceptively light tasting, given that the crust is almost all pulverized toasted pecans with a little bit of butter to hold it all together and the filling is a full cup of maple syrup, egg whites and 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream.

A slice of cheesecake may be decadently wonderful, but at the end of a big holiday meal, it just sits like a lead weight in your stomach at the end of the night. Not so this pie. Once frozen, the filling turns ethereal. It’s much more airy than any ice cream; more like a sound wedge of whipped cream. Best yet, you can make it days ahead of time and keep it in the freezer until you’re ready to serve it.

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A Comforting Cake Laden with the Bounty of the Philo Apple Farm

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An apple-cranberry cake with a sense of time and place.

Amid all the lengthy, elaborate and supremely elegant recipes in “The French Laundry Cookbook” (Artisan) is a most homey one that concludes the book.

Perhaps it’s only appropriate, too, since “Sally Schmitt’s Cranberry and Apple Kuchen with Hot Cream Sauce” was a favorite dessert at the original incarnation of the French Laundry when it was owned by Sally Schmitt and her husband, Don, before the couple decided to sell it to Thomas Keller.

As “The French Laundry Cookbook” co-author Michael Ruhlman so eloquently writes of the couple in the intro to the recipe, “…they are the ultimate purveyors. They purveyed a restaurant.”

Indeed, had it not been for them, and what they nurtured in that spot, there might not have been the French Laundry as we know it today, nor the now vaunted reputation of the town of Yountville as a tiny culinary capital of the world.

So when I purchased some Philo Gold (Golden Delicious) apples from the Philo Apple Farm that the Schmitts bought after leaving Yountville, and which their daughter and son-in-law now run, I knew just what to do with them. To pay homage to all that the Schmitts have accomplished and created, I knew those apples that Sally had helped sow the seeds for had to be baked into the apple cake she used to serve at her restaurant.

A very thick batter of butter, sugar, egg, flour, a little milk and baking powder gets stirred up with nutmeg and a pinch  of salt. Spread it evenly into a greased cake pan. Then artfully press thin slices of apples down into the batter. Arrange fresh or frozen cranberries over the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake.

Gild the lily with hot cream sauce.

The simple, tender cake lets the fruit shine through. It’s fine as it is. But Sally also adds a hot cream sauce fortified with sugar and butter that you can pour over slices as liberally as you want. I must say, it does add a rather nice touch, making the cake even more special and memorable as it soaks up all that warm richness.

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Parsnip Pie, Please

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Nope, not pumpkin pie, but parsnip pie.

People who know me well will tell you that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of pumpkin pie.

No, siree.

Which, of course, makes no sense when you realize that I love pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cake and just about everything else pumpkin.

So, I’m always on the lookout for alternative desserts for Thanksgiving.

That’s why this “Parsnip Buttermilk Pie” caught my attention. So much so that I saved it from the Dec. 2009/Jan. 2010 issue of Fine Cooking magazine, intent on trying it this holiday season.

After all, I adore parsnips, especially when they’re just simply roasted, amplifying their sweetness and nuttiness.

Sweet parsnips.

For the filling in this pie, parsnips are boiled, then mashed, and finally mixed with buttermilk, dark brown sugar, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, grated nutmeg and cloves. It’s poured into an all-butter crust that’s first blind baked.

After the pie is cooled to room temperature, it’s ready to serve. Or  you can make it the day before, and bring it to room temperature before cutting into slices the next day. A dollop of slightly sweetened whipped cream is a perfect crowning touch.

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