Category Archives: Recipes (Sweet)

Fruit- and Veggie-Packed Muffins

Posted on by 39 comments

Who doesn’t need to eat more fruits and veggies? (You know who you are.)

I like to get mine in the form of tender, moist muffins.

OK, my idea of fruits and veggies comes wrapped in butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar. But that got your attention, right?

These “Zucchini, Carrot, and Cranberry Muffins” come courtesy of “The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter). The new cookbook is by third-generation baker, John Barricelli, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY, then worked at Le Bernardin in New York and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, before opening his SoNo Baking Company & Cafe in South  Norwalk, Conn.

If you’ve got zucchini taking over your backyard like zombies with no place else to go, this is the recipe for you. If you have cranberries stashed in your freezer from last Thanksgiving and have been wondering what the heck to do with them, this recipe is for you.

Read more

Olive Oil-Sherry Pound Cake and A Chance to Win Aussie Olive Oil Samples

Posted on by 35 comments

Like wines, olive oils have a myriad of flavors and aromas.

The more robust tasting the olive oil — with an intense bitterness and astringency on the nose and palate — the more antioxidants it has. It also will keep longer — even five years — than milder tasting olive oils, which should be consumed within a few months of pressing.

Use pungent extra virgin olive oils when you want them to be the focal point, such as in salads or as a finishing touch to dishes or just to dunk chunks of crusty bread in. Use mild olive oils in cooking when you don’t want its flavor to dominate.

Those were among the olive oil lessons I learned on my recent trip to Australia with a small group of food journalists. We were guests of Boundary Bend Ltd., which makes Australia’s premier extra virgin olive oils under its Cobram Estate label.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to taste a variety of just-pressed oils. After choosing our favorite varietal, we were each given a precious little bottle to take home.

While most of my colleagues opted for the more potent tasting oils, I chose the Manzanillo, a more delicate, fruity, and almost creamy tasting oil with the intriguing scent of strawberry jam.

My hosts said it was ideal for baking. And they were correct, as it tasted lovely in the “Olive Oil and Sherry Pound Cake” that I made when I returned home.

Read more

Uncomplicated Fruit-Topped Yellow Cake

Posted on by 29 comments

May Day, May Day, come in…

Blueberries in trouble…

Need life-raft to keep them afloat…

Do you copy?

Indeed, this simple cake bears the name of “Uncomplicated Fruit-Topped Yellow Cake.” But I had a slight, uh, complication.

Oh, nothing major. Just a case of sinking blueberries. Not as dire as what happened to the Titanic, that’s for sure. But still, a little annoying.

After all, when the cake is described as “fruit-topped,” you figure the fruit will stay, well, on top.

Not in the case of these berries. But next time, I’ll just be sure to toss them in a little flour before adding them to the batter, even if the original recipe didn’t call for that step. And there will be a next time. Aside for the berries’ losing struggle to stay afloat, this cake was perfect. Tender, moist, like a giant blueberry muffin, actually.

Read more

Penance for a Food Product Snub

Posted on by 28 comments

Forgive me, kefir, for I have sinned.

For years, I never tried you, never cared to, never even thought about it.

What can I say? There was just something about your name that turned me off.

I love your distant cousin, yogurt, whose name I’ve grown accustomed to saying effortlessly and joyously.

But you, kefir, every time I heard your name, I just turned the other way.

The tragedy.

I hope you can find it in your cultured, fermented heart to forgive me now, because thanks to the good folks at Lifeway, who cajoled and persisted with samples, I finally tried you.

And now — dare I say it — I ADORE you.

Read more

Three Cheers for Cherries

Posted on by 29 comments

At this time of year, who can’t get enough of those glorious little sweet orbs that crunch and squirt fuchsia-hued juice everywhere when you bite into them?

Luckily for me, I have CJ Olson Cherries in my hood. The charming fruit stand in Sunnyvale is a testament to times past, when the shopping center now surrounding it was instead lush cherry orchards. Those trees may be gone now, but the stand, which has been family-run there since 1899, remains the place to buy cherries.

When I stopped by a week ago, there were close to half a dozen varieties to choose from, including those lovely rosy-yellow Rainiers. But which to bake with? That was the question on my mind. The helpful clerk suggested the classic Bing, because it’s what Olson’s uses in its famous cherry pies that are so flaky, buttery and bursting with fruit that you simply can’t say “no” to a slice or two or three.

The Bing, he advised, has a quite crisp exterior, which helps it keep its shape better when baked. It also has a more complex flavor with almost a wine-y quality, which will give any baked good a lot more depth and nuance.

I toted home my bag of deep burgundy-colored cherries and set to work with my handy-dandy pitter.

They were destined for a special treat — “Cherry Focaccia with Rosemary.”

I took an original recipe for “Red Grape Focaccia”  from the October 2006 issue of Cuisine at Home magazine, only I swapped out the grapes for cherries instead.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »