Apple Upside-Down Cake

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Ingredients

• Topping
  
  
  
  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter
    
  • 4 apples
    
  • 2/3c brown sugar
    
  • 2tsp juice from a lemon
    
  • possibly some corn starch
    
  
  
• Cake
  
  
  
  • 1c unbleached all-purpose flour
    
  • 1tbsp cornmeal
    
  • 1tsp baking powder
    
  • 1/2tsp salt
    
  • 3/4c granulated sugar
    
  • 1/4c brown sugar
    
  • 2 eggs
    
  • 3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
    
  • 1/2c sour cream
    
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
    
  
  

Cut the apples in half and cut out the core area. Cut two of the apples into 1/2" slices, and two of the apples into 1/4" slices (keep separate). Heat the 1/2 stick of butter in a sauce pan until the foaming subsides (takes a few minutes). Then add the 1/2" slices of apple. Let those cook until they start to caramelize, 4-6 minutes. Only stir a few times during those 4-6 minutes to turn the apples - they'll caramelize a lot more easily if you leave them alone. Now add the remaining topping ingredients (the brown sugar, lemon juice, and other apples). Stir until the sugar dissolves and apples are coated - about a minute. Transfer the apples into a 9" round cake pan. We used a HEAVILY GREASED springform with a layer of parchment paper on the bottom. I would also recommend putting a layer of foil around the bottom of the springform to catch leaks. In our try, the apples gave off a lot of water. So we spooned JUST the apples into the pan, then put the brown-sugar, butter, and lemon-juice mixture back on the stove and added corn starch (dissolved in some cold water first) and cooked until it thickened considerably. Then we spooned this over the top of the apples in the cake pan.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, mix together the sugars and eggs until homogenized. Slowly whisk in the butter, then the sour cream and vanilla until just combined. Add the flour and whisk until combined. Then pour the batter over the apples. Bake at 350* for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10-20 minutes. Run a paring knife around the edge to loosen it, then invert onto a plate (good luck - use oven mitts or let it cool more if you can't do it). Cool a little longer - 20 more minutes? Then serve.

Thoughts: Claire and I were surprised by how relatively un-seasoned this cake is, but it was really delicious. We made it for breakfast, but it's probably more of a desert. In the future, Claire says she could use more seasoning, but I disagree. Some of the apples were a little crisper than either of us thought they would be, so maybe next time I will cook the apples a little longer before we add them to the cake pan. The original recipe has us peeling the apples, but I didn't notice it and my cake turned out delicious so I don't think I would peel them in the future.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Better Granola

Based on a recipe called "Seven Year Granola" I came across through the Kitchn blog.
Ingredients

• 2/3 lb quick oats, 1/3lb rolled oats
  
• whatever nuts you have on hand (up to 3c)
  
• 1tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2tsp ground cardamom
  
• 1/2tsp ground mace (or replace all of the seasonings with a little less than 2tsp Penzy's Baking Spice mix, like we did)
  
• 1c dark brown sugar
  
• 1 stick unsalted butter
  
• 1/3c water
  
• 1/2tsp salt
  
• 2tsp vanilla extract
  
• a bunch of raisins or other dried fruit
  

Preheat oven to 300*F. In a cuisinart, grind 1/2 lb of quick oats into a fine powder. In a large bowl, mix all the oats (and oat flour you just made), the nuts, seeds, and spices, and set aside. In a small sauce pan, add the butter, water, and brown sugar, and heat until the butter has melted. Take off the heat and add the salt and vanilla and stir to dissolve. Pour this over the oats and nuts mixture, stirring until everything is uniformly damp. If you can't get everything damp, add a little extra water and stir some more. Let it stand for 10 minutes.

Spread the mixture evenly over a large baking dish, and then make several divisions with a spatula or something so that it's more like a series of clumps of granola. The basic idea is that you want to expose a little more surface area to the dry oven air so that you can get more clumps in the finished product. Bake for ~30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and gently stir the mixture around. This will break the mixture into slightly smaller chunks. This is OK. return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. Repeat this step (mixing and baking) until the granola is dry. Then set it out on a counter to cool. Once it reaches more or less room temperature, add all the dried fruit.

Thoughts: This granola is unique among the granolas we have made in the past insofar as it actually has CLUMPS of granola. Awesome! Personally, I could use to adjust the seasoning somewhat, and next time I will probably want to use more rolled oats and less butter. I hypothesize that the oat flour is responsible for getting things to stick together, so I can reduce the fat content a little and it'll be fine. We'll see. Otherwise, this is fantastic. Claire and I agree that it's probably the best granola we've made.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Two Coffee Drinks for Summer

One is based on something I had in Florence that the cafe in question called a "cappuccino freddo". The other is basically frappuccino. I should note: if you are in Florence, be aware that not every cafe has a cappuccino freddo. I asked for it at one place and they gave me something I did not want.

Anyway, for both, you first need cold-brewed coffee. Just combine coffee grounds and cold water in a jar at a ratio of about 1:4. It's a lot of coffee grounds. Seal the jar and shake vigorously. Set it on the counter for about 12-24 hours. I come by and give it a shake every now and again during that time, but it's probably not necessary. At the end of that time, strain it through a coffee filter (or in our case, a sieve with a paper towel) into another jar. Refrigerate.

Cappuccino Freddo
Put some coffee in a cup. Put the same amount of milk in a milk frothing device (I have this thing that's basically a french press that froths the milk by pushing it through the little strainer...). Add about two teaspoons sugar or brown sugar (more or less depending on your tastes) to the milk and stir until it's more or less dissolved. Froth the milk and pour over the coffee. Enjoy.

Frappuccino
Mix 1 part coffee to 3 parts milk (depending on the strength of your brew it could be more or less). Add sugar to taste - about 2 tbsp for 4 cups of liquid is close to the ratio we used.

Thoughts: Cold-brew coffee is different from normal coffee. As I understand it, different aeromatic compounds are released at different temperatures. Cold-brew yields something with very strong coffee notes without much bitterness. It's perfect for cold coffee drinks.

The drinks are great. I really like the cappuccino freddo, personally, because there's just a lot going on there with so few ingredients. The difference in sweetness between the frothy milk and the coffee makes it very enjoyable to drink. Claire likes the frappuccino, by contrast. We make it a little less sweet than the store-bought stuff, and we can use skim milk. So it's healthier, less cloying, and WAY cheaper.

Disaster Indeces: 1/10 all around.

Sausage and Swiss Chard Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 lb Italian sausage (casings removed), chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced or chopped or whatever
• 1 can tomatoes (14.5 oz) - we used "fire roasted," which worked really well
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 10-12 lasagna noodles
• 1 16-oz package of shredded mozzarella cheese
  
• 1 container ricotta cheese (1.75 cups)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 eggs
• 1-2 ozs chevre cheese (we used herb & garlic chevre)
• 1/4 fresh basil, shredded
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 (large) bunch swiss chard, bottom inch of stalks removed
  
• 1 yellow summer squash
• 6 oz frozen spinach

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Brown the sausage over medium-low heat until it's pretty cooked through. Add the garlic, tomatoes, dried basil, dried oregano, and 1.5 tsp salt. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. You can add some water to it if it gets too thick. Remove from heat.
Boil some pasta water in a large pot and cook the lasagna noodles in batches.
In the meantime, saute the onions over medium-high heat until almost translucent.
While you're sauteing the onions, prepare the Swiss chard. This is how you do it:
remove the stalks from the leaves and chop the stalks into smallish pieces. Chiffonade the leaves.
When the onions are almost translucent, add the stalks of the Swiss chard. Cover and cook for around 8 minutes, or until the stalks are tender, stirring occasionally. When tender, remove the onion/chard mix from the heat and set aside.
Take the chard leaves and add them to a smallish pot with the 6 oz. of frozen spinach (which you need to thaw ahead of time. Do it now if you haven't yet.). Cook the chard leaves and spinach, covered, over low heat. Add a few tablespoons of water to facilitate wilting. Cook for 5 minutes, or until wilted. Remove from heat and mix with the onion/chard mixture.
In a large bowl, mix ricotta, mozzarella, eggs, fresh basil, dried parsley, Parmesan, and some salt. Mix thoroughly. When the onion/chard/spinach mixture has cooled a little, add it into the cheese mixture and mix thoroughly.
Wash the summer squash and chop off the ends. Slice length-wise into sheets and grill until softened.
Now assemble the lasagna:
Coat the bottom of a glass lasagna with olive oil.
Put as many noodles as you'd like on the bottom. Put a layer of tomato/sausage mix on the noodles. Then add a layer of yellow squash. Then add a layer of the cheese/vegetable mixture. Then more noodles, then more tomato sauce, then more squash, then more cheese/vegetables, and then a final layer of noodles. On top of that we drizzled some olive oil and then the chevre.
Put in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes.

Thoughts: Delicious. We based this loosely on a recipe we found online, and then added all sorts of stuff (swiss chard, spinach, yellow squash, chevre, onions, fresh basil). The flavor was fantastic. Maybe it was the sausage, maybe it was the swiss chard, maybe it was the yellow squash, but either way, it was fantastic. We didn't have as much tomato sauce as I would have liked, so we didn't get to put a layer of tomato sauce on top of the whole concoction. So next time I would have added another can of tomatos or something. I don't know. Fantastic.

Disaster Index:1/10

Blueberry-cranberry bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups white flour
• 2 sticks of butter, chilled
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• juice from one lemon (and zest, if you have it. We didn't)
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
  
• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 4 tsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375.
In a medium bowl, mix the cup of sugar, the flour, and the baking powder together. Mix in the salt (and lemon zest, if you have it). Cut the butter into small chunks. Little by little, add the chunks to the dry ingredients and squish them with your fingers (this technique also used to make Scottish scones ) so that the butter gradually incorporates into the flour mixture. This may take a while. Do it until all the butter is mixed in and the mixture has the texture of wet sand.
Dough should be pretty crumbly. There's a LOT of butter in here.
Take half of the mixture and spread it on the bottom of your glass pan (we used 9"x 13"). Tamp it down as well as you can.
In another bowl, stir the cornstarch, lemon juice, and sugar together. Gently add the blueberries and the cranberries (I usually chop the cranberries in half because it makes them more manageable to eat. But you can probably put them in whole if you'd like). Stir to combine.
Spoon the fruit mixture over the crust in the pan.
Sprinkle the other half of the dough over the top, crumble fashion.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Eat.

Thoughts: Delicious. And VERY buttery. Next time I would probably use 1.5 sticks of butter and see how it goes. I don't think it really needed 2 whole sticks. The original recipe called for just blueberries, but I thought the cranberries were a nice addition - they lend a little tiny bit of tang that is quite refreshing. I would store them in the fridge, but I would also take them out and let them warm up a little before eating them (maybe 10-15 minutes?), because the flavors really come out when the bars are a little warmer. Dan says "good ratio of berries to crust" and "fantastic flavor." Plus they were super easy to make. I like that the same dough is used for the crust and the topping. This is not always the case.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Cowboy Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter, softened
  
• 1/2c vegetable oil
  
• 1c granulated sugar
  
• 1c dark brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1tsp vanilla extract (or 1/2tsp of double strength)
  
• 2c whole wheat flour
  
• 1tsp baking soda
  
• 3/4tsp salt
  
• 1/2tsp baking powder
  
• 2c rolled oats
  
• 1/2c golden raisins, plumped in some boiling water for 5 minutes and drained.
  
• 1c chocolate chips
  
• 3/4c coconut
  
• 3/4tsp cinnamon
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil, and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue beating until well mixed. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Add a few tbsp of water if necessary.

Spoon onto a cookie sheet in approximately 1.5 tbsp portions. Bake until done - in our oven about 20 minutes.

Thoughts: Delicious. This recipe was based on one we found on food network, but we modified it slightly to fit what we had/needed to use up and what we wanted. It worked wonderfully, although the bake time is quite long. If you take them out at the right time, though, they're perfectly chewy, not dry at all. Nice texture, too. Not much to say except that they're really great. Wouldn't do a thing differently next time.

Disaster index: 1/10

Cranberry Orange Scones

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar (plus 3 tbsp, if using fresh cranberries, which you should be doing)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
• 1.25 cups chopped fresh cranberries (or dried, if you must)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tsp orange extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line a large sheet with parchment or wax paper.
In a food processor, pulse the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter together until it resembles a coarse meal. Set aside in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, toss the chopped cranberries together with the 3 tbsp sugar until thoroughly coated. Stir into flour mixture.
In another small bowl, beat together the egg and egg yolk. Stir in the milk and the orange extract. Add the whole mess into the flour/cranberry mixture and work together with your hands until well-incorporated.
On a well-floured surface, and using well-floured hands, pat the dough into a 1" thickness. You'll probably have to add more flour. I swear, I had to add like, 2 more cups of flour to make this not sticky. Using a cookie cutter about 2" diameter, cut the dough out into rounds.
Place rounds on the cookie sheet and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.
Eat.

Thoughts: These came out a little flat (topologically, not flavor-wise). I'm not sure why -- maybe add some leavening? I don't know. I think these could have used more cranberry and more orange extract. Also, it was a great idea to use fresh cranberries; they add a really nice tartness that you can't get with dried cranberries. I'm wondering if we can use our griddle scone recipe as a base, and still add blueberries or cranberries. Would they cook sufficiently on the griddle? Stay tuned. Daniel really liked the texture. I wish they had been a little more fluffy and puffy, but what can you do?

Disaster Index: 3/10

Update: We tried the suggestions in "thoughts", using the Scottish scones as a base and using both blueberries AND cranberries. Much improved. 1/10. Would bake again.