Cinnamon Sugar Plum Cake

There are time when I see a recipe that, for some reason, grabs my attention and will not let go until I finally just make it. This is only troublesome when I do not have any occasion to make something like a pie or a cake, since I'm not sure what I would do with a whole dessert sitting on my counter top (other than eat the whole thing myself, of course). So I decided that my co-workers would get to try this Cinnamon Sugar Plum cake this week, and I'm happy for them to try it.

I think perhaps I'm very susceptible to language and the power of suggestion that words can impart, because once I read “sugar plum” in the title of this particular recipe, I was hooked. After brief reflection, I realize that I'm drawn to the warm, Christmas-y connotations of sugar plums, and despite the fact that it is August, and plums are in season now, I simply could not let go of the term “sugar plum.”

And I'm glad that I did not. The cake is fairly simple to make, yes, but the flavors of cinnamon paired with sweet plum are absolutely heavenly, and certainly not season-specific. It is not too heavy for summer, nor is it too lemony for winter. I tried my slice with lemonade, on a warm evening on my balcony, but it would also be lovely with hot cider, sitting in front of the fireplace. The color that the cinnamon lends to the browned cake is also positively gorgeous, and an image that comes to mind when the term "rustic" is used: I could envision this cake on a heavy wooden farm house kitchen table, waiting to be devoured after a large lunch.

The cake also deepened my appreciation for the plum, a fruit I would never think to pick up at the farmer's market. Before buying a few, I did a bit of research on the plum; the plum is high in vitamin C and antioxidants, and there are over 2,000 varieties of plums, with over 100 available in the United States. When buying plums, look for ones that yield to slight pressure and are soft at the tips.

Cinnamon Sugar Plum Cake

From Epicurious.com

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
4 large plums (about 1 1/4 pounds), pitted, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
½ tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter spring form pan. Whisk first 3 ingredients in small bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in ¾ cup sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, then lemon juice and lemon peel, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in flour mixture. Spread batter in prepared pan.
Press plum wedges halfway into batter in circles, spacing slightly apart. Mix remaining 1 ½ tablespoons sugar and cinnamon in small bowl; sprinkle over cake. Bake until cake is browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cut around cake; release pan sides. Serve cake warm or at room temperature.

Baking To-Dos

I have a bit of a problem with to-do lists. The issue is not that I am forgetting important tasks or appointments, or that I never know what needs to be done around the apartment or picked up from the store. It is hardly that my life is not managed; the problem lies on the opposite spectrum, in that I feel, at times, that my life is micro-managed. I have task lists for absolutely everything, sprinkled everywhere that I would possibly be on any given day. There are scribbled Post-its on my desk, in my calender, and in my bag, hanging from the bulletin board, and next to my bed. I have a computerized to-do list, a list of books I must read, vacations I must take, and another list of long-term to-dos in a special notebook of mine. Everything is written down, even the things I know I will never forget: “Tuesday, cereal for breakfast.”

It goes without saying, then, that I also have a list of baking to-dos: “Desserts To Bake.” Like many of my lists, it seems to grow faster than I can cross items off, and it doesn't help when I pick up a new cookbook, and then go wild marking pages with even more Post-its.

Since I've been spending most of my baking time lately putting together older favorite recipes, I thought I would expunge myself of a portion of my baking to-do list, and let someone else have fun with some of the recipes that I may, or may not, try at some point in the future.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake
from Bob's Red Mill Baking Book

Ingredients:
1 cup white rice flour
1 ¼ cups white bean flour
2 tsp. Xanthan Gum
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
¾ cup soft butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. grated orange peel
2 cups shredded zucchini
½ cup milk
1 cup walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a tube pan or loaf pan.In a mixing bowl combine the first 8 ingredients (rice flour through cinnamon), set aside.In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar; add eggs one at a time and vanilla extract, orange peel and zucchini. Stir in, alternately, the flour mixture and milk (or water); add nuts and stir. Pour batter into prepared pan.Bake for approximately 1-1/2 hours; cool with oven door open for 30 minutes. Turn out and cool completely on a wire rack. May be served with or without frosting.

Hazelnut Butter Cookies
from Epicurious.com

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy unsalted hazelnut butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 12-ounce package semisweet mini chocolate chips (2 cups)

Directions:
Sift first 4 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter, hazelnut butter, and both sugars in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated. Soften dough slightly at room temperature before shaping.)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using 1 level tablespoon for each cookie, roll dough between palms of hands into 1-inch balls. Arrange 1 inch apart on prepared sheets. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

Peach Cobbler
from The Food Network

Ingredients:
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
1 cup milk
4 cups peeled, pitted and thinly sliced fresh peaches (5 to 6 medium peaches)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Several dashes ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Pour the melted butter into a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, 1 cup sugar, the baking powder, and the salt and mix well. Stir in the milk, mixing until just combined. Pour this batter over the butter but do not stir them together.
In a small saucepan, combine the peaches, lemon juice, and remaining cup of sugar and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Pour the peaches over the batter but do not stir them together. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg if desired.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden-brown. Serve warm or cold.

A joint effort: Sweet Potato and Gruyère Soufflè

There are some activities that I prefer to do alone: I like to travel solo, I don't mind going to the movies by myself, and I most certainly bake alone. It's the product of my time spent in the kitchen that I enjoy sharing with others, but the act of baking, for me, has become a private quiet time when I allow myself to disengage from the world and focus entirely on the task at hand: the measuring, the mixing, the folding, the kneading, the watching. I've become so accustomed to my ritual, that I had forgotten what it can mean to cook with someone else in the kitchen; to create a dish together. Working side by side, passing utensils across the stove, starting and stopping the timers, talking about the boiling water or inquiring about the chopped onion, is nothing if not a bonding experience.

This past weekend, I not only worked with another cook in the kitchen, but found myself in another kitchen entirely, which I found to be refreshing. Maybe I didn't know where the saucepan or the cutting boards were, but a little collaboration goes a long way, especially when making a soufflè.

I had always considered soufflès to be a sweet dish, involving eggs and cheese and cream. Although I was not far off, I didn't consider the other realm of savory soufflès, and I'm so glad I finally did. My co-cook was actually the one who pushed the recipe in front of me, but it took barely an utterance to convince me to try it. I had my apron tied around my waist at the very mention of Gruyère.

What intimidated me, as I'm assuming worries many beginner chefs who come upon a soufflè recipe, is the idea that these dishes are time-consuming, laborious, and easy to royally screw up. I found none of these presumptions to be true. There was a certain amount of prep work for this soufflè, but having a companion by my side to help with some of the chopping and dicing helped quite a bit...in all truthfulness, I think he may have contributed slightly more to that effort, but I did my part with whisking and egg beating. In short, there is nothing to be frightened of in this recipe. And for the effort that goes into it, the result is beyond worth the time spent. It's difficult to put into words just how satisfying this dish turned out, how well the flavors blended together, how creamy and rich each mouthful was. True, we had the advantage of farm fresh San Juan eggs and local Pacific Northwest Gruyère, but the recipe itself is simply one that's perfectly crafted to produce a fine specimen of culinary art. And having the opportunity to sit down with the person I shared a kitchen with, to share each savory bite together...well, that was the sweetest thing of all.

Sweet Potato and Gruyère Soufflè

From Epicurious.com

Ingredients

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup coarsely grated Gruyère (about 3 ounces)
2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
4 large eggs, separated

Directions

1. Butter a 1 1/2-quart soufflé dish and dust it with 1/4 cup of the Parmesan.
2. In a large heavy saucepan cook the onion and the garlic with salt and pepper to taste in the butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until the onion is softened, stir in the flour, and cook the roux, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the milk in a stream, whisking, and simmer the mixture, whisking, until it is thickened. Remove the pan from the heat, whisk in the Gruyère, whisking until the cheese is melted, and whisk in the sweet potatoes and the egg yolks, 1 at a time.
3. In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they just hold stiff peaks, whisk one fourth of them into the sweet potato mixture to lighten it, and fold in the remaining whites gently but thoroughly.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared soufflé dish, sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan over it, and bake the soufflé in the middle of a preheated 375°F. oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until it is puffed and golden. Serve the soufflé immediately.

On hiatus for the big move

December is normally my favorite baking month, for all the obvious reasons: Christmas tortes, Christmas fudge, Christmas cakes, Christmas candy, Christmas cheesecake...and of course, Christmas cookies. Every year, I spread my own variety of buttery, chocolatey holiday cheer with an assortment of confections, many of which are old favorites that have already built a following amongst my friends. I make Chocolate Crinkles, Peanut Butter Blossoms, Coconut Meringues, Gingerbread People, Russian Tea Cookies: so many of the standard holiday favorites. And naturally, I love to try one or two new recipes to try out.
This year, however, there is a significant change in plans. Instead of cheerfully cloistering myself in my kitchen, I'm packing up my belongings and moving to Seattle. In just a little more than a week, I'll officially give up my identity as a Brooklynite and begin the transformation into a Seattlite, a change for which I'm thoroughly thrilled. But, because a cross-country move is quite...involved, I won't be able to bake my treasured array of Christmas cookies, and therefore, will not be able to blog about them.
Once everything comes together, I'm hoping to have a fully stocked kitchen and a new assortment of taste-testers for my recipes, but in the meantime, the best I can do is report on the Seattle bakeries that I fully intend on patronizing. That, and offer some links to the cookie collections that I would be creating if not for this change of scenery.

Happy baking!

The Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies

Martha Stewart's Cookie of the Day

Betty Crocker's Cookie Exchange

Epicurious' 25 Days of Christmas Cookies

Better Homes and Gardens' Cookie Exchange Favorites