After living in  South Florida for more years than I care to remember, I’ve gotten used to the subtle clues that signify the  change in seasons.  They’re hard to define, but over time one gets better at identifying them.  Some years, however, it seems like Mother Nature is downright schizophrenic.   Take this winter, for instance.   For a few days at a time, the temperature would dip down into the forties and for the next  week or two, it would spike back up to  seventy-five.    I’d leave my house in the morning wearing a cozy sweater, and by noon I’d be sweating bullets!  And, the plants and trees were confused too.   I had azalea bushes blooming in January, that were nothing more than a mass of barren, brown twigs by mid-February.

We had no real springtime this year either.   By the time St. Patrick’s Day rolled around, my weather thermometer hit eighty and never looked back.    I really missed that transition period!   But apparently, Summer was in a hurry to get here and  would not be delayed.  So, while the calendar tells us that we still have another six weeks for it to officially be summer, the weather says otherwise.

There are few things I like about summertime in Florida.  It’s miserably hot and impossibly humid.  Even abundant sunshine becomes unpleasant under those conditions.  And, you can forget about  growing beautiful, lush  fruits and vegetables in your garden unless you plan to stand outside all day long spritzing them with a hose.   It’s just too damn hot!   But, there are a few nice things that make the heat tolerable, not the least of which is air conditioning.  By the first of May, most of the tourists have evacuated, and I can once again get into any restaurant I want without an hour and a half wait.   Another thing that I like about this time of year, is that those ripe and juicy California strawberries start lining the produce aisles in our supermarkets.

You may have heard that Florida is considered the winter strawberry capitol of the world. From December to April, we are lucky enough to have fresh strawberries coming out of our ears. Then, for a month or two after the winter crop dries up, we’re stuck with sad little tasteless berries from Godknowswhere. That is, until those ruby-red California beauties arrive.

One of my favorite ways to use fresh strawberries is in a good old-fashioned, Southern-style strawberry shortcake.   Another thing I love to do is bake them into things like muffins and scones.  So, when I came across this recipe for a strawberry cake, I was intrigued.

This strawberry cake is pretty simple stuff.  It’s a basic, vanilla-scented yellow cake studded with a mass of fresh berries – a full pound to be exact.   From just looking at the recipe, you probably wouldn’t  guess it would be anything very special.  But, after baking one for myself, I am here to tell you that it most definitely is – although you might not realize it right away.

While baking, the cake kind of puffs up and envelops the strawberries, which go all melty and jammy and lusciously sweet.  They remind me a little of my roasted strawberries in that regard.   The cake itself has a soft and tender crumb, which manages to get the slightest crunch around the edges.  It’s sweet, but not cloyingly so, making it a perfect backdrop for the berries ensconced inside.   And, the cake really takes no time at all to whip up. The hardest part for me was sniffing around my oven as I waited for it to finish baking.   Then, as it sat cooling on my counter, that cake really began to draw me in.   I found myself slicing off a tiny sliver every time I walked through my kitchen.  I baked the cake early in the morning, and by mid-day it was almost half gone!   Try explaining that to hungry loved ones as you present a half-eaten cake at dinner time!

I can see this cake being made with various other fruits as well.  I suspect that blackberries, peaches, nectarines or plums would all be wonderful.

So, while I’m sweating out the next several weeks of almost-summer, it’s nice to know that I can have this strawberry cake to give me comfort.  That, and lots and lots of ice cream!

As I write this post, I’m hanging my head in shame.  You see, dear readers, I’ve been holding out on you.  Not intentionally, mind you, but holding out just the same.  The other day, as I was sifting through recipes to include in my Easter brunch roundup, I re-read my old post on Savory Vegetable Noodle Kugel and realized something.  In that post I told you about a fab recipe for a Cherry Noodle Kugel that I was going to share.  And, I never did.  I swear, I meant to!  It just never happened.  My sin was one of omission, and I intend to rectify it right now!    Since this week also marks the beginning of the Jewish celebration  of Passover, I think it’s the perfect time to do it.    Besides, it gives me an excuse to make this wickedly good kugel again.

Now, before I get thousands of comments informing me that Jews don’t eat wheat products during Passover, let me say that I do know that.  However, Passover is a Jewish holiday and kugel is a Jewish dish, so I’m using one to segue into the other.  Besides, I also know that there are “Passover noodles” made with potato starch, and other gluten-free pasta products available at the supermarket.  Any of them would work in this dish.

I acquired this recipe more years ago than I care to remember from a sweet, Jewish “Bubbe” named Esther.  She and her husband, Jerry, had been old friends of my family for ages.  Since my own grandparents were already gone, I kind of secretly adopted them as surrogates.  Esther was originally from Brooklyn, so she definitely knew a few things about kugel.  Come to think of it, she knew a few things about brisket too.  And, matzoh balls.  But that’s a story for another day. 

Where my vegetable kugel is a savory dish, Esther’s kugel is a sweet one, making it a great choice for dessert.  It also makes for a tasty breakfast and a very satisfying late night nosh.  It’s rich and creamy and fruity.  And, who doesn’t love that?

The recipe for this dish couldn’t be easier.  A simple custard made from eggs, milk, cream cheese, sour cream and sugar is whizzed up in the blender.  Then, it is poured over cooked egg noodles and baked.  A topping of cherry pie filling is added during the last fifteen minutes of baking time.  When everything is browned and bubbly, the kugel is done.  That’s it!

I like to use super fine egg noodles in this kugel, because it gives the dish a smoother, more custardy texture.   Feel free to use the wider ones if that’s what you prefer.  Your kugel won’t be any less scrumptious – and it will be scrumptious.

Whatever you celebrate, make. this. kugel.  You’ll be glad you did.  And, if Esther were here, she would be too.

As a teen, I remember having lots of conversations with my mother about dating and relationships.  Of her many “isms”, the one I heard most was “Looks aren’t everything.  It’s what’s on the inside that matters.”    Of course, she was right, but my superficial 16 year old brain didn’t always agree.  Before I settled down with Mr. SGCC, I dated a wide variety of boys.  Some were blindingly beautiful, and some had other, less obvious attributes.  More often than not, the pretty boys turned out to be a disappointment.   They were usually too busy flexing their muscles and  gazing at their own reflections in the mirror to worry about such mundane things as developing  a personality or perfecting the art of conversation.  Though I hate to admit it, it was almost always the slightly rumpled, kind of quirky guys that I had the best times with.  They were the ones that made me laugh and feel special.  They had substance.

Oddly enough, I’ve found the same thing to be true when it comes to desserts.  I can’t count the times I’ve drooled over a display of stunningly perfect pastries or cakes, only to be disappointed when I took that first bite.  Sadly, they don’t often taste as good as they look.   I guess looks aren’t everything in the world of sweets either.  This Chocolate Pavlova Torte with Raspberry Dream Cream is a good example.  On the outside, it looks kind of craggy, drippy and messy.  It wears its flaws for the world to see.  But on the inside, it is crunchy, creamy and chewy all at the same time.  It has personality up the wazoo.  And, it is truly sublime! 

A pavlova is a meringue-based dessert with a crisp, crackly outer shell and a lovely, soft, pillowy center.  It is said to have been created in honor of the famed 20th century Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova.  It’s a light and ethereal dessert that is often served covered with fresh fruit and whipped cream.  In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’ve taken it a step further, studding mine with bits of rich dark chocolate and smothering it with an incredible silky and luxurious raspberry cream.

My Raspberry Dream Cream is inspired by Pierre Herme’s Extraordinary Lemon Cream found in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home To Yours. I am absolutely mad about that lemon cream! So, when it came to finding a filling for my chocolate pavlova, I decided to adapt Dorie’s recipe using raspberries instead.   The method for making the cream is similar to that for making a fruit curd.  The difference is that the butter isn’t cooked with the other curd ingredients.  Rather, it is added in after cooking and cooling them, creating an emulsion.  Dorie says that because the butter doesn’t melt and re-firm, as it does with curd, the resulting cream is lighter, richer and well… creamier.   I can’t vouch for the science involved, but I can say that the cream definitely lives up to its name.  It is extraordinary, and it tastes like a dream!

To make the pavlova shells, I used my favorite recipe by Nigella Lawson.  They aren’t really difficult at all to make, but baking them can be a little tricky.  It is important to cool them completely inside the oven after baking to avoid having them collapse.  They are still delicious even if they do fall.  But, why not avoid that if you can.

You can see from the photos that my pavlova shells did not turn out perfectly.  Honestly, I didn’t dare cut it before I photographed it for fear of it falling apart!   Unfortunately, when dealing with large hunks of baked meringue, some cracks and dings are inevitable.  I like to think that these are part of their charm.   That said, it is amazing what copious amounts of cream and fruit can hide.  Don’t ask me how I know this.  Just take my word for it.

So, there you have it – an imperfect dessert that is just perfect as it is, flaws and all.  With this much personality, looks really aren’t everything.

On New Year’s Eve we celebrated Mini SGCC’s 18th birthday.  That’s right.  My baby is now legally an adult.

Of course, that means nothing to me. In my mind, she will always be my little curly-haired cherub.

One would think that Mr. SGCC and I can now sit back, relax and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.  But, I have a feeling that our headaches aren’t over yet!  Mini SGCC is a good kid, but she is fiercely independent and knows her own mind.  That is how we raised her to be.  Hopefully it won’t come back to bite us in the butt, now that we can’t really tell her what to do anymore.

I find it ironic that we parents spend all those years worrying and fretting over our kids, only to worry and fret even more when they grow up!  I now understand what my parents were talking about all those times they said that “A son is a son till he takes him a wife, but a daughter is a daughter for all of her life.”

In honor of the occasion, I decided to bake Mini SGCC’s favorite cake: a Black Forest Cake. I’d never baked a Black Forest cake before, and frankly, the prospect made me a little nervous. It’s a fancy schmancy German confection consisting of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and brandied cherries between each layer. Originally called Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, the entire cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. When made well, it is a masterpiece. When made by me – I wasn’t so sure!  

The base of a Black Forest cake is a rich chocolate cake. Most of the recipes I found used a Devil’s food cake, so that is what I decided to do.  I used the Devil’s food cake recipe from Baked Explorations, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Everything I’ve ever made from that book has turned out great, so I was confident that this cake would as well.

Although traditional Black Forest cakes are made with sour cherries, I went with sweet Bings.  The canned sour cherries I found in the market were just sad, little grayish blobs that tasted like crap.  Very unappetizing!  Besides, we like big, fat Bing cherries better.  Plus, they are easier to find around here.

Since I would be serving the cake to children, I soaked the cake in a syrup that I made by reducing the cherry liquid and Kirschwasser, a cherry liqueur, instead of just using the liqueur alone.  I think it tasted better that way.

A Black Forest cake usually has several layers.  However, in the interest of time (and my sanity), I opted to only make a two layer cake.  It was fine, though.  This cake was plenty rich just as it was.

I frosted the whole cake with freshly whipped cream and decorated it with some Maraschino cherries and shaved dark chocolate.  I think it turned out very pretty, if I do say so myself.

Mini SGCC’s boyfriend’s birthday is just a few days after hers, so the cake was kinda for him too.  Here are Mini SGCC and The Boy blowing out their candles, as Mr. SGCC looks on with a grumpy look on his face.  All together now:  AWWW!

I have to say, I don’t know what I was so worried about with this cake.  It was really quite easy to make, and it was amazing.   The cake layers were wonderfully dense and moist, and the cherry filling was absolutely to die for!  Everyone who tried it was wowed.

If you’re looking for a fancy cake for a special occasion, I highly recommend this Black Forest cake.  While it looks like it took all day to make, it actually can be pulled off in just a few hours.

Ever since Mini SGCC’s accident, it has been a crazy, hectic time around here!  Most of my time has been filled up with driving her back and forth to school, taking her to doctor’s appointments, physical therapy and everywhere else she needs to go.  In the midst of all that, Mr. SGCC had the audacity to develop pneumonia.  Can you imagine?  What nerve!  And, let’s not forget that we also had to get through the Holidays, which managed to pop up at the most inconvenient time.  Just between you and me, I feel like I’m living in a house of cards.

Cooking these days has consisted of throwing things together and dropping them on the table.  Trust me, there hasn’t been much I’ve wanted to share with you.   Those leisurely days of simmering, braising and roasting as I snapped photos along the way seem like a distant memory.  I know that eventually I’ll be able to get back into my normal routine, but it ain’t happening anytime soon.   And, boy is it frustrating!  

One interesting thing that I did manage to make are these healthy and delicious breakfast cookies.  They’re made with whole wheat flour, and are chock full of great breakfast-type ingredients like rolled oats, Cheerios, peanut butter and bananas.  To keep them a little healthier, I only used a minimal amount of butter, adding moisture with mashed bananas and applesauce.  Of course, the benefit of that was probably canceled out when I decided to add chocolate chips.  Oh well.  It’s the thought that counts… isn’t it?

Breakfast cookies are a great alternative to packaged granola bars.  They’re self-contained and portable, so you can grab one on the go.  They’re also full of wholesome, all natural ingredients, which you can customize according to your own tastes.   Plus, who doesn’t love the idea of having cookies for breakfast?

These breakfast cookies are very easy to make.  All you do is mix together your wet ingredients, mix together your dry ingredients, then put them all together and bake.  The cookies are dense and chewy, with a little crunch from the cereal.  I’m not saying that they’ll ever edge out a gooey glazed doughnut as my breakfast of choice, but they’re a satisfying alternative.  And honestly, at 6:00 in the morning, I could chew on a cardboard box and not really know the difference!

When Mini SGCC was a little girl, there was one Christmas Eve ritual that we never missed.  We would always bake one special kind of cookie for Santa Claus to enjoy as a snack when he stopped by our house during the night.   We had a special plate designated just for him and would leave the cookies on it, along with a glass of milk, under our tree before we went to bed.   We figured that with all of that racing around on his sleigh and heavy lifting all night long, he could probably use a little sugar rush by the time he got to our house.  After all, Santa is no spring chicken anymore!

On Christmas morning,  Mini SGCC would rush out to see if the cookies were gone, thus verifying that Santa had indeed been there.  I remember one year we forgot to take the cookies off of the plate.  Mini SGCC was a little upset.  She assumed that Santa didn’t “eat” them because he didn’t like them.  After that, we were never allowed to make that same cookie for Santa again.

I’m not sure where the tradition of baking Christmas cookies began.  Some say that their history can be traced back to medieval times in Europe.  Whenever and wherever the practice originated,  baking Christmas cookies has become a cherished holiday tradition for families in just about every corner of the world.  It’s a lucky thing for Santa too.  He must make out like a bandit!   

In the aftermath of Mini SGCC’s accident, there hasn’t been much opportunity for cookie baking.  Too many doctor appointments, physical therapy sessions and other running around have gotten in the way.  I have been able to make a few bathes of cookies, here and there, but not nearly what I usually do.  I’ve also had to pack up most of my makeshift photography studio for the time being.  Bella has been banished to my bedroom so that she doesn’t accidentally knock Mini SGCC down.  So, the cameras, lights and fragile props had to be moved to higher ground.   It’s definitely not an ideal situation for a food blogger!

Fortunately, I have some great Christmas cookie ideas from the SGCC archives to share.  I hope that you enjoy them and are inspired to go forth and bake!   I also hope that I’ll be back soon with some new recipes to share.

One of the more annoying things about living with a food blogger is that they rarely make the same recipe twice.  This is especially irksome when a dish is particularly fabulous, because the blogger’s poor family knows that the chances of enjoying it again are virtually nil.   But hey,  I’m not heartless.   I realize that there are certain dishes that are favorites and beg to be made again – like these killer candied sweet potatoes.  They are absolutely to die for!  That’s why I always include them on my Thanksgiving menu -  and you should too. 

The original recipe for this dish was given to me by my mother.  It was one of her Thanksgiving specialties when I was growing up.   She only made them once a year, and believe me, they were worth the wait!  Earthy sweet potatoes are bathed in a pool of rich, gooey brown sugar syrup and baked until meltingly soft and caramelized.   Then, they’re topped with marshmallows and popped back in the oven just long enough for the marshmallows to puff up like crazy and get all browned and toasty.   It’s like eating candy for dinner.  Oooooh!   I get verklempt just thinking about it!

I’ve tried making this dish a couple of different ways, and I’ve found that it is best to partially cook the sweet potatoes before adding the syrup.  You can either boil, steam or bake them for about fifteen minutes or so.  I prefer baking the potatoes first because that leaves one less pot for me to wash, and I’m all about efficiency.   Also,  there’s less risk of the potatoes falling apart that way.   It doesn’t matter which way you choose.  You really just want to reduce the “candying” time so that the syrup doesn’t burn.

While I almost always use both light and dark corn syrup to make this dish, I have tried it with maple syrup instead of the dark corn syrup. It is really delicious that way too. In my experience, the syrup doesn’t get quite as thick, but the maple flavor is really wonderful.   One year, I also added some chopped pecans to the syrup, for a little crunch.   I liked it and would definitely do it again.

Woo Hoo!  Look at those marshmallows puff!   My salivary glands are in overdrive right now just looking at them!

I have to tell you that while I love sweet potatoes in any way, shape or form, these are something special.  Maybe it’s because they conjure up lots of sweet memories of Thanksgivings past for me.   Or maybe, it’s from the anticipation of waiting a whole year to eat them.  Whatever the reason, Thanksgiving at my house just wouldn’t be the same without my mom’s  candied sweet potatoes.

While cupcakes will always hold a special place in my heart, the newest trend in sweet treats these days is whoopee pies.  Yessiree folks, whoopie pies are hot, hot, hot!  And, it’s no surprise either.  What’s not to love about a creamy, cloud-like filling sandwiched between two moist and tender disks of cake?

The origin of the whoopie pie is a subject for debate. It is claimed to have been invented in both New England and Pennsylvania Dutch country, depending upon whom you ask.  The most likely scenario is that Amish groups migrating to Maine in the early 20th century brought the whoopie pie to the area with them.  According to some food historians, Amish housewives would bake these desserts out of leftover cake batter and slip them in their husbands’ lunch pails.  When the men would find the treats in their lunch, they would shout “Whoopie!”.  Wherever they came from, whoopee pies have become a very popular and much loved snack food all over the country. 

The traditional whoopee pie consists of two round slabs of chocolate cake filled with a fluffy vanilla frosting.  Since Halloween is just around the corner,  I’m sharing this more seasonal version.  The pumpkin cakes are lightly spiced with cinnamon, ginger and clove, and the filling is made with cream cheese and jarred caramel sauce.  Trust me.  The combination is divine!

These whoopee pies are great little self-contained treats that would be perfect for hungry trick-or-treaters or just about anyone at all.

Anyone remember the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercials?  In them, two unsuspecting souls would be strolling down the street – one eating peanut butter and the other eating a chocolate bar -  and would somehow collide with each other, smushing the peanut butter and chocolate together.  Each would be outraged, but after tasting the resulting chocolate/peanut butter concoction, they would be be smitten and wander off together,  hand in hand, licking their lips.

Take a look.

Yeah, I know. Who the heck walks down the street eating a jar of peanut butter? The Hershey Company, which owns Reese’s must be doing something right, however. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are one of the top selling chocolate bars of all time, generating approximately $398.9 million in revenue last year. That’s a whole lot of peanut butter and chocolate!

The point is that peanut butter and chocolate is a wildly popular and much-loved  combination, not only in candy bars, but in all kinds of sweets.  And, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example than these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

There are tons of peanut butter cookie recipes floating around the web, and many of them are very good.  But, my all time favorite is the one from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook.  The recipe is easy to make and the cookies are divinely soft and chewy. The addition of peanut butter chips (Reese’s, of course) to the dough really amps up the peanut butter flavor.

The original recipe calls for chunky peanut butter.  I like to use the super chunky kind.  Those little peanut bits add a nice texture and extra crunch to the cookies.   Magnolia’s recipe also doesn’t include chocolate chips, but I say – why not?  Adding the chocolate chips just puts these cookies way over the top!  And, what’s not to love about that?

If you’ve never baked your own peanut butter cookies, this is a great recipe to start with. They truly are the best I’ve ever eaten.   I highly recommend having a nice icy cold glass of milk handy when you eat these cookies to help wash down all of that peanut buttery and chocolate goodness.  These cookies are rich, rich, rich!

]]> http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2011/10/25/irresistible-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/feed/ 19 http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2011/10/21/maple-pumpkin-cheesecake-bars/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=maple-pumpkin-cheesecake-bars http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2011/10/21/maple-pumpkin-cheesecake-bars/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:41:33 +0000 Susan http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/?p=3947 Remember the joys of early air travel?  You know, those days where they showed you a movie that you could hear without having to pay for ear buds,  stowed your luggage without a fee and actually fed you a free meal on any flight that was longer than two …]]>

Remember the joys of early air travel?  You know, those days where they showed you a movie that you could hear without having to pay for ear buds,  stowed your luggage without a fee and actually fed you a free meal on any flight that was longer than two hours?   I’ll admit, the food wasn’t exactly fine dining, but depending on the airline, it wasn’t bad.  I remember flying to Rome on Alitalia many years ago and being served a pretty darn tasty veal cannelloni and a nice Pinot Grigio to wash it down with too.  Oh, yeah. Those were the days…

Now, all you get for free is a plastic cup filled with watered down soda or juice, and a choice of peanuts or cookies.  Seriously!  Have you seen those tiny packets of peanuts?  They’re miniscule!  The cookies are a much better bet.  At least you get two full-sized cookies.  And, they’re really, really good cookies too.  In fact, those cookies have become so popular, that the company that makes them now imports them all over the world – including my very own local supermarket. 

Biscoff Cookies are made by  Belgium-based Lotus Bakeries.  They are crispy, crunchy little spiced cookies, very similar to gingersnaps.   And, I’m telling you people, they are addictive.  They also make a very nice piecrust, which is where I was going with this story.

Now that we’re firmly entrenched in Autumn, I was looking to make something with pumpkin – maybe a pie or a cheesecake.  Since I had several boxes of cookies lying around, I figured that I could use some of them to make the crust.   I ended up deciding on Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with a Biscoff cookie crust.

The recipe for these bars is super easy and virtually foolproof.   I essentially took a basic pumpkin pie recipe and tweaked it by adding cream cheese and maple syrup to the filling, and of course, by using my Biscoff cookies for the crust.  I also saved a little time and minimized the clean up by mixing up both the crust and filling in my food processor.  Who wants to wash a bunch of extra dirty bowls?

I loved, loved, loved these!  The bar format worked out great.  I could cut them into any sized squares I wanted and decorate each square individually.  They were also neater and easier to eat than a pie or cheesecake because you didn’t really need a fork.  And, the taste?  My, oh my, did these taste amazing!  They were like a silky, smooth pumpkin cheesecake laced with spice and a hint of maple.  Topped with a splotch of whipped cream and candy corn, these bars are a perfect little Halloween treat!