Three-Layer Lemon Bars

Three-Layer Lemon Bars - made May 17, 2011 from My Five Men blog, found on Sweets for a Saturday #16

It's time to try another recipe that I saw from Sweets for a Saturday.  I have a list a mile long of recipes I see linked up there every Saturday that I want to try but given I've got my own baking books to go through, I have to limit myself to trying a few here and there.  In the meantime, I bookmark the links, promising myself that I'll go back "someday" to try out all these wonderful-looking concoctions.

I met some friends for lunch and dinner on Wednesday and with both groups, my lemon bars have been a hit in the past.  This time around, I thought I'd try something slightly different for them and use this recipe that Betsy posted.  The picture just looked so good.  The basic ingredients are almost the same as in my recipe but mine doesn't have the glaze on top.  What could it hurt?

The main thing I changed from Betsy's posted recipe (click on the title at the top to go to the original recipe on her blog) was I baked the crust at 325 degrees instead of 300.  At 300 degrees, in the first 10 minutes of baking the crust, it seemed like the butter in the crust was only melting, not baking so I raised the oven temp slightly. During the baking with the filling, I lowered it to 315 for the first 20 minutes then back down to 300 for the last 20.  These got a little crusty and brown on top so it might've been better to stick with 300 degrees the whole way once the filling was added.  My glaze isn't showing up as white as Betsy's and that could be because I applied the glaze only a couple of minutes after I took the lemon bars out and they melted into the top.  If you look closely, you can still see the glaze but I think it would look better had they remained more uniformly white.  Next time I would let the bars cool to lukewarm then apply the glaze.

Overall, I really liked the taste of these lemon bars.  The glaze was a sweet offset to the tartness of the lemon filling and I actually liked the crust on top that was enhanced by the glaze to provide a bit of a texture contrast to the lemon filling.  The glaze was great - I like it better than sprinkling powdered sugar on top like most lemon bars have.  The bottom crust could've been baked a bit more before the filling was added so I'm posting how I would adapt this recipe below.  Otherwise this had great flavor.  It probably also helped that my lemons were from my aunt's tree so they were homegrown.  I'm looking forward to the day I can use my own lemons for this recipe.

In any case, I'm very glad I tried this recipe.  This is exactly why I keep trying out new recipes even for desserts I already have perfectly good recipes for.  You never know when you might discover something even better and come up with a new favorite. I want to make this recipe again with my modifications to see if it really is going to usurp my old lemon bar recipe.  I suspect it might.

Crust

½ cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour

2 sticks (1 cup) cold butter

Filling

4 eggs

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups sugar

Zest from 2 lemons

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon lemon extract

Glaze

2/3 cup powdered sugar

Lemon juice

1.     To make the crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Place the crust ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined.  Press into greased 9 x 13” baking pan lined with foil.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until edges are golden brown.

2.      To make the filling: Whisk filling ingredients together and carefully pour over hot crust in an even layer.

3.      Bake 40-45 minutes until nicely brown and knife comes out clean when inserted in the center.

4.      To make the glaze: whisk glaze ingredients together.  It should be thin enough to drizzle.  Let lemon bars cool to just a bit warmer than lukewarm.  Spread over bars and let set.  Cool completely before cutting.

Chocolate Chunk Coconut Macadamia Cookies

Chocolate Chunk Coconut Macadamia Cookies - baked May 17, 2011 from The Buttercup Bake Shop  Cookbook by Jennifer Appel (book #108)

The last time I was in New York City, I went to every bake shop in Manhattan that I could conceivably walk to - and believe me, I can walk a lot when there are baked goods involved.  I'd heard about the Magnolia Bakery and its sister bakery, the Buttercup Bake Shop, and visited both.  At Buttercup, the best thing I ever ate was a slice of their red velvet cake.  When I came back from my trip, I bought several of their baking books which had been published by that time.  This was one of them.  I normally make coconut macadamia cookies as they're a family favorite but I decided to try the chocolate version of them with this recipe.  As I think of heading back to work, I also want to stockpile some cookie doughs to have ready in the freezer that I can bake off whenever I need them.  Some people advocate baking cookies and freezing them until needed but I prefer to freeze the cookie dough (already portioned into dough balls) and bake them off when I need them.  A freshly baked cookie trumps a freshly thawed cookie any time.

This recipe is fairly standard and easy to put together.  I did what I almost always do with cookies - I make the dough ahead of time, portion them into dough balls and put them in the freezer.  Then I bake them at least a day later, right before I need them.  This was part of a baking drop off at my old company so I baked them the same morning I delivered them.  I think they were barely cool before I piled them on a plate and brought them over.  As with all chocolate cookies, I actually timed this one in the oven since it's hard to tell when chocolate cookies are done since you can't go by how "brown" the edges look.  And there's nothing worse than overbaked, dry chocolate cookies.  I like to underbake mine just slightly so when they cool, they're nice and fudgy.  The quality of your cocoa matters since this is where the chocolate flavor comes from.  I use Pernigotti from Williams Sonoma but any high-quality cocoa should do.

I like this cookie - the richness of the chocolate is offset by the sweetness and chewiness from the coconut and complemented by the macadamia nuts.  Wonder of wonders, I didn't even mind the nuts in these cookies and you know I hardly ever like nuts in my cookies.  Macadamia nuts are the rare exception though as long as the cookie is thick and chewy or fudgy.  I don't think I would feel the same if this had been made with almonds or pecans (and I love those too - just not in cookies)

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups (2 2/3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ to 2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks

1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts, unsalted

1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

1.      Preheat oven to 350˚F.

2.     In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

3.     In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugars until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs and mix well.  Add the chocolate, milk, and vanilla and incorporate thoroughly.  Add the dry ingredients and beat well.  Stir in the chocolate chunks, nuts and coconut.

4.     Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies

Chocolate Velvet Cakes

Chocolate Velvet Cakes - made May 16, 2011 from Petite Sweets by Beatrice Ojakangas (book #107)

I think these were meant to be the same as red velvet cakes but without the red food coloring.  The basic ingredients are the same as in a red velvet, including the cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor and the buttermilk.  The white vinegar in addition to the buttermilk is a bit unusual since typically, the buttermilk has enough tang without adding more acidity.  Fortunately, that's offset by the baking soda.

I like the concept of little bite-sized desserts and am always on the lookout for stuff to serve at dessert buffet parties.  You can enjoy one little dessert and move on to the next offering for something different.  Or, if you like it, you can have another one without doing too much caloric damage.  Just don't have 20.  I'm a believer in portion control and I'm also a believer in having a little of the real thing rather than a larger portion of a low-cal, low-fat version (unless you actually like that stuff - I usually don't).

The recipe says this makes 24 mini muffin size cupcakes.  In my 24-mini-muffin pan, I filled the cavities almost to the top and still had enough batter left over for a small ramekin.  Depending on the size of your mini muffin pan, you may get slightly more than 24 mini cupcakes.  Don't overfill these or you'll end up with muffin tops spilling over and you don't want that since these are little cupcakes, not little muffins.  They're also harder to get out of the pan if the tops overflow since the cakes are more fragile than muffins.

I really liked these mini cakes.  They weren't too chocolatey and their texture was light and moist at the same time.  They're perfect as a bite-size since they're also a little fragile.  I think if they were a larger size, they'd fall apart more easily.  They were so good that you can easily serve them without frosting as well.  I wasn't overly impressed with the frosting on this one but that could've been my fault.  The flour & milk mixture was supposed to be chilled.  I put it in the refrigerator to cool but I think I added it to the butter mixture too soon and the butter got a little warm and tried to separate.  I put the whole thing back in the fridge after I mixed it in and beat it again once it really was chilled.  I also added almost half a cup more powdered sugar in an attempt to get it to bind better.  But to no avail - the frosting still looked like it was going to melt even though it was literally chilled.  Definitely not a smooth frosting.  But the mini cupcakes were good so if you have a vanilla frosting you like better, use that instead.

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup buttermilk

1 ½ teaspoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Vanilla Frosting

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ cup milk

1 cup powdered sugar

8 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1.      Preheat oven to 350⁰F.  Coat 24 miniature muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or line with miniature paper liners.

2.      Cream butter and add the sugar; beat until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg and mix in the cocoa.  In a small bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  In a 1-cup measure, mix the buttermilk, vinegar and vanilla.

3.      Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture.  Beat until batter is smooth and fluffy.  Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing equally.  The batter will come nearly to the top of each cup.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cakes feel firm when touched in the center.  Remove from the oven and cool.

4.      Make the frosting: In a small saucepan, combine the flour and milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.  Cover and chill.  In a medium-sized bowl, beat the sugar, butter and vanilla until thick and light.  Add the chilled flour mixture to the creamed mixture and blend until smooth.

5.      Frost each cooled cake and garnish with nuts or mini chocolate chips or sprinkles if desired.

Mocha Cream Cheese Brownies

Mocha Cream Cheese Brownies - made May 16, 2011 from The Fearless Baker by Emily Luchetti

I'm cranking through my to-do list this week to get ready to go back to work next week.  Took my car in for servicing, got a car wash (and promptly got rained on on my way home - awesome), got the batteries in my watches replaced (they both decided to die at the same time - further awesomeness), and am hitting the baking.  You'd think I'd focus solely on the baking books I have in order to further my baking challenge instead of getting distracted by whatever new cookbooks I can check out at the library.  But like any shiny new object, this newly released cookbook by Emily Luchetti caught my eye and I couldn't resist checking it out and thumbing through it.  I earmarked a few recipes to copy and bake in the future.  For now, I'm going with this brownie recipe as something straightforward to make and a good addition to the goodie bags I'm making for friends this week.

Both the brownie batter and the cream cheese batter are almost equal in amount so you can conceivably make this as a two-layer brownie.  But I followed instructions and swirled the two batters instead although I mostly swirled the top layer and kept the bottom brownie layer mostly intact.  This didn't have the extraneous addition of nuts or even chocolate chips and I liked the idea of just a straight brownie.  Since I'm not a big cream cheese fan, I also liked flavoring the cream cheese batter with coffee.  I used espresso powder instead of instant coffee granules and I dissolved them in the vanilla extract first before adding to the cream cheese batter.  It just blends better in the batter that way and you don't have to worry about the granules getting concentrated in one part of the batter or not melting appropriately.  I ended up baking mine for 40 minutes (every oven is different) - the cream cheese part hadn't quite set but the brownie part was done.

Because the cream cheese batter is equally predominant, this is not a brownie you want to serve warm as it'll be too gooey.  Let it cool to room temperature and even chill it if you want to give it more of a cheesecake texture.  I love the chocolate part of this brownie and didn't mind the cream cheese part - the mocha flavoring definitely helps the cream cheese go down easy.  But next time I'd probably do a better job of swirling both batters together so there's not such a huge swath of cream cheese all at once in any given piece.  If you like cheesecake, swirl as little as you please.  If you don't, swirl away.  As always, use the best quality chocolate you can (I used Lindt) as that'll make a big difference in how these taste.

Chocolate layer

9 ounces dark chocolate (58 to 62% cacao), chopped or broken into 1-inch pieces

10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Large pinch of kosher salt

Coffee-Cream Cheese Layer

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons instant coffee granules

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1.       Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray or butter.

2.       Chocolate layer: Melt the chocolate and butter in the top half of a double boiler.  Stir and scrape the side of the saucepan occasionally with a rubber spatula until the chocolate is smooth and evenly melted.  Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

3.       In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs until smooth.  Stir in the melted chocolate, then the flour and salt and mix until well blended.  Turn the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with the spatula.

4.       Coffee-Cream Cheese Layer: In another bowl, mix the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth.  Add the eggs and stir until combined.  Scrape down the side of the bowl with the rubber spatula.  Stir in the instant coffee and vanilla until everything is well blended.

5.       Using a rubber spatula, spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the chocolate layer, then run a table knife through the cream cheese to swirl it into large white ribbons throughout the brown batter.

6.       Bake, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownie comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

7.       Let cool to room temperature, then cut into 16 (2-inch) or 9 (3-inch) squares.

Also linked to:

 

Espresso Coffee Cake

Espresso Coffee Cake - made May 14, 2011 from Caprial's Desserts by Caprial Pence (book #106)

In case you've ever wondered why I seem to have so much time to bake and blog about what I'm baking and thought, "Doesn't this woman ever work??", wonder no more.  I've been taking an extended sabbatical since I left my job late last year.  Besides traveling, walking literally miles and miles, exercising, baking, gardening and reading everything I can get my hands on from my local library, I have been looking for a job...sort of.  Okay, I haven't been looking that hard really since I was in no hurry to go back to work and was fully prepared to enjoy all of 2011 at my leisure.  But sometimes you just find the right opportunity or it finds you.  Or both.  I just accepted a job offer last Friday and will be heading back to work in a little over a week.  It's been an awesome 6 months but alas, I can't retire quite yet so it's back to work I go.

In addition to getting all the normal pesky errands and chores taken care of (take in the car for service, get some pants tailored, get the batteries replaced in my watch, weed the garden....again, declutter and do a Goodwill dropoff, laundry, cleaning, yada yada) and fun stuff of cramming in dinners and lunches with friends, I have 8 days of madly baking left!  Not that I won't be baking for my new office and new coworkers once I start working again but I won't have the time I do now to experiment in my kitchen and further my baking challenge.  So it's game on this week.  I'll have to pace my postings or else I'll end up posting 2-3 times a day for a week then nothing for the first few weeks at work.  But let's see how much I can bake this week.  I've already got lunches and dinners planned with friends that will entail goodie bags and I've given my former coworkers a heads up that I'll be doing my last baking drop off to them next week.  Then I switch allegiance to the new company :).

First in the line up is Espresso Coffee Cake.  I only made a half recipe and baked it in an 8 x 8" pan. Normally when you think of coffee cake, you think of streusel on top of a vanilla butter cake.  This is a little different in that it doesn't have streusel but it does have an espresso glaze atop an espresso and vanilla cake.  As you can tell from the picture, it rose up and cracked straight down the middle so the glaze rushed into that space.  Aside from that though, this was pretty good cake.  It had the right texture and was moist.  The glaze wasn't too thick which, as a non-frosting person, I like.  Surprisingly the espresso taste wasn't that strong, considering how much espresso is actually in it.  I don't like or drink coffee but I like coffee-flavored baked goods so this was just right for me.

Cake

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups sour cream

¼ cup instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons hot water

Espresso Glaze

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1.     Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Grease a 9 x 13” pan; set aside.

2.     To prepare the cake, place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add about half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add about half of the sour cream and mix well.  Add the remaining dry ingredients followed by the remaining sour cream, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing well after each addition.  Combine the instant espresso powder and hot water in a medium bowl, add about a third of the batter, and mix well.  Spread about half of the plain batter in the prepared pan.  Top with the espresso batter, and then cover with the remaining plain batter.  Bake until the cake slowly springs back when touched lightly in the center, about 45 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes before glazing.

3.     To prepare the glaze, dissolve the instant espresso powder in the vanilla extract.  Place the powdered sugar in a bowl, add the espresso mixture and the milk, and mix well.  (If it’s too thick, add a bit more milk.)  Pour the glaze over the cake and spread it out to the edges.  Serve warm.

Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake

Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake - made May 10, 2011 from Luscious Lemon Desserts by Lori Longbotham (book #105)

(ARGH - since Blogger went down on Wednesday/Thursday, it looks like it "ate" my last entry and only left an old draft that didn't get posted.  Re-writing and re-posting.  This should've gone before the ensaimada recipe.)

Although the lemons I used for this recipe came from my aunt's lemon tree rather  than my own (mine is still in the budding stage), making a lemon dessert gives me an excuse to post a pic of how my lemon tree is doing.  I planted a dwarf lemon tree back in January (dwarf because my backyard isn't very big) and it's grown about a 25-30% bigger than it was when I first planted it.  Last week I was gratified to note it's got a tiny little lemon growing out of what used to be a blossom.  That's rather  thrilling.  Of course, it's also rather tiny at the moment so it's probably going to be awhile before I can actually harvest any lemons from my own tree.  But still, it's kind of cool to see how it grows and where it comes from.  Truth be told, I never gave it that much thought before and probably wouldn't have if I wasn't growing it myself.  In the meantime, I'm still well supplied from the lemon trees of friends and relatives.

This is a fairly standard pound cake recipe - the tender texture comes from both the cake flour and creaming the ingredients together to incorporate more air.  The lemony flavor comes mostly from the lemon soaking syrup you brush over the hot cake after it's baked.  Brush a first layer over the cake, wait for it to be absorbed, and brush again until you've used all the syrup.  This cake is actually better the day after it's made, to give time for the lemon to be fully absorbed into the cake and for the flavors to meld.  It's a sturdy cake and can be used for picnics or care packages without worrying too much about it in transit.

3 ½ cups sifted cake flour (not self rising)

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

2 ¼ cups sugar, divided

6 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ cup fresh lemon juice

1.      Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 300⁰F.  Butter and flour a 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan.

2.      Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together twice.

3.      Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in 1 ¾ cups of the sugar, about 3 tablespoons at a time, and continue beating until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the milk in batches, beginning and ending with the flour.  Stir in 1 tablespoon of the zest, the lemon extract and vanilla.

4.      Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Bake for 1 ½ hours or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

5.      Meanwhile, bring the remaining ½ cup sugar, 2 teaspoons zest, and the lemon juice to a boil over medium-high heat in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

6.      Turn the cake out onto the rack and immediately brush the hot syrup over the hot cake.  Let cool to room temperature.  Serve the cake cut into wedges.

Linked to Everyday Sisters blog

Ensaimada

Ensaimada - made May 12, 2011 from my mom's recipe

I'm still revisiting Filipino baked goods from my childhood.  Ensaimada is a sweet roll lavishly buttered once it's baked and still warm then sprinkled with sugar (my favorite topping from childhood).  Think of it as the Filipino version of brioche as it's essentially an egg bread, similar in texture to challah or brioche.  This was my mom's recipe and something she made regularly when I was a kid.  It's also sold at Filipino bakeries like Goldilocks or Red Ribbon, oftentimes topped with shredded cheese in addition to butter and sugar but I prefer mine with just butter and sugar.

When my mom made this, it was my job to brush the little round foil pans with softened butter for the shaped ensaimada to rise in.  My aunt is currently visiting from the Philippines, my sister's in town and my parents were bringing both of them over to my house so it seemed like a good time to try out my fledging ensaimada-baking skills on a captive audience.  Using 6 egg yolks is an opportunity for egg-white omelets for breakfast later on or else plan to make something like an angel food cake to use up the whites.

Individual-sized foil round pans available at the grocery store

Put in for the 2nd rising

After the first rising of the dough, cut off equal-sized portions of the dough and roll into "ropes", generally 6-8 inches long but depending on how big you want your ensaimadas.  Coil into a round like a cinnamon roll and place in individual foil baking rounds that have been buttered.  Let them rise until they double in size or are over the top before baking.

Best eaten warm!

1 tablespoon yeast

¼ cup warm water (105⁰ – 110⁰ degrees)

4 cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk, at room temperature

3/8 cup sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

6 egg yolks

1.      Melt yeast in warm water.  Let stand a few minutes until mixture is foamy.

2.      Sift the flour and the salt together.  Add 1 tablespoon sugar and ½ cup flour to yeast and water and set aside.

3.      Cream butter, add sugar and continue beating until well blended.  Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well.  Add flour, milk and yeast mixture.  Beat thoroughly until smooth and elastic (I switched to a dough hook after I added the first cup of flour).  Place in greased bowl.  Cover with clean towel and let rise until double in bulk.

4.      Separate into small equal portions.  Roll out each to a thin rope of consistent thickness.  Roll into a coil and place in buttered individual round foil pans.  Let rise until double in bulk.

5.      Preheat oven to 350⁰ and bake until golden brown.  Once golden brown, brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.  

Pesto with Shrimp Pasta

Pesto - made May 10, 2011 from The Professional Chef, 7th edition, from the Culinary Institute of America (book #104)

My first basil harvest

Last month, I had noted that I planted some basil along with a few tomato plants so I can make my own tomato sauce and pesto sauce.  It hardly seems possible but in just a few short weeks, my largest tomato plant has already got a few tomatoes growing and I snipped my first basil harvest yesterday.  I never thought I'd like gardening and I still don't consider myself a "gardener" but I have to admit there is something satisfying about nurturing plant life and literally reaping the fruits (and even veggies) of your labor.  I also planted some strawberry plants and sweet corn seedlings and so far they seem to be flourishing.  You can't imagine how exciting it is that I haven't killed any of them yet.

The basil plants are growing taller and, like most novice gardeners, I ended up planting them too close to each other so once they start growing, I could look like I've got a basil jungle growing.  Fortunately, they're growing tall as opposed to wide so as long as I stay on top of the growth, I think it'll be fine.  Not to mention it gives me an excuse to make small batches of pesto on a regular basis.  Plus I love the smell of basil.

The first tomatoes have started to grow

For my first harvest, I turned to one of my few cooking behemoth books, The Professional Chef, from the Culinary Institute of America.  Don't ask me why I invested in such a huge book that I've never used and am not likely to use that often unless I turn into a cook (doubtful).  Maybe because I went to the CIA and ate some of these recipes made by the chefs on the hot side.  Maybe because this was back in the day when I just kept buying cookbooks.  In any case, it's coming in handy now for a quick and basic pesto recipe.

Pesto is pretty easy to put together when you have a food processor.  I used chicken broth in place of half the olive oil just to cut the fat and calories slightly and it seemed to work okay. I used the sauce with some pasta and shrimp and it was probably one of the easiest things I've actually cooked.  I'm starting to see why people get into this gardening stuff.  Growing the basil was fun and harvesting, aka snipping off the leaves, was easy.  I've also learned you can make the pesto and freeze for future use so you don't have to eat it all at once.  Now that's going to come in really handy.

2 ounces/60 grams basil leaves

3 tablespoons/45 ml toasted pine nuts

¼ ounce/7 grams garlic paste

¼ ounce/7 grams salt, as needed

2 to 4 fluid ounces/60 to 120 ml olive oil (I used half olive oil, half chicken broth)

2 ounces/60 grams grated Parmesan cheese

1.      Rinse the basil well, dry thoroughly and chop coarsely.  Transfer to a food processor or mortar and pestle.  Grind the basil, pine nuts, garlic and salt together, adding oil gradually, to form a thick paste of a saucelike consistency.

2.      Adjust the seasoning with salt and add the Parmesan cheese as close to serving time as possible.

My grandmother plus revisiting another kind of bibingka

Bibingkang Galapong - made May 9, 2011 from Memories from a Philippine Kitchen by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan (book #103)

Nanay

I've been thinking of family and my heritage lately.  Partly because of Mother's Day and wanting to make something (puto) to note my mom's hometown in the Philippines.  And partly because Mother's Day this year, May 8, was also the death anniversary of my paternal grandmother, Nanay Berta.  Although the Filipino word for grandmother is "Lola", we all called my grandmother Nanay, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and more "greats" alike.  My paternal grandfather (Tatay Andres) and my maternal grandmother (Lola Valerie) died before I was born and my maternal grandfather (Lolo Miller) died when I was a teenager.  So Nanay was the dominant grandparent figure in my life.  Even if she hadn't been, I suspect she would've made a strong impression anyway as she was always a force to be reckoned with.  Orphaned at age 7, she dropped out of school to go to work and, regardless of having only a second grade education, she went on to successfully build her own business and raised, fed, clothed and educated 9 children to adulthood.  She was widowed young so she was a single parent much of her life as well.  She embodied a strong work ethic and was never afraid to speak her mind, including cussing out anyone she thought should be cussed out.  That may be one of the things I miss most about her - life with Nanay always had some color in it.  Nanay passed away on May 8, 2004 at the age of 94 so she's been gone for 7 years now.  But she was a strong matriarch and, to those of us who were lucky enough to grow up with her and still remember her, she was such a vibrant presence that she literally lives on in each of us, in our lives and in our memories.

In thinking of Nanay and remembering those times with her, I had a hankering to re-visit some of the desserts from my childhood.  Perhaps more to recapture memories of simpler times and carefree days than for the actual desserts themselves.  Or maybe just to honor the heritage I came from and remember my familial roots that helped shape who I am today.

Earlier this year, I had first posted a recipe for the sticky kind of bibingka, a Filipino cake, and alluded to a more cakey version that's spread with melted butter and sprinkled with granulated sugar once it's baked.  My mom always made it when I was a kid, in a round foil pan lined with banana leaves.  The cake itself wasn't very sweet but that butter & sugar combo on top of warm cake was hard to beat for a kid with my sweet tooth.  Unfortunately I couldn't find that original recipe.  I vaguely remember it had Bisquick, milk, sugar and eggs but beyond that, nothing struck a chord.  It's been years since I've made it myself and I drew a complete blank on the recipe. My mom didn't know where it was as she hadn't made it in years either and I searched fruitlessly for it amongst her recipe clippings in an old recipe box she had at home.  But nada. So I turned to this cookbook of Philippine recipes that a friend had given me for my birthday a few years ago to see if I could resurrect something similar.

Place foil cake pans on a baking sheet in the oven

Their recipe has cheese and an optional salted duck egg incorporated into it as is traditional.  I don't believe in duck eggs or cheese in my cakes so I've left those out.  On the advice of my mom, instead of processing the galapong (short grain rice) as instructed in the recipe, I skipped that step and used sweet rice flour (mochiko) instead.  I did adjust the amount of rice flour though since it's meant to be more concentrated and was drier than galapong.  I decreased the amount to a little over 1 cup, perhaps 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of mochiko.  The batter was a bit stiff so I also increased the milk by 2 tablespoons. I only got 3 cakes out of this rather than 4.  Be sure to use banana leaves to line the pans as that's part of the taste and tradition.  You can find banana leaves in sheets or rounds at any Asian grocery store.

Brush the warm cake with butter and sprinkle with sugar

After the first 10 minutes, I also decreased the oven temp to 400 degrees.  The tops were browning but the middles weren't done on the inside and I didn't want the tops to burn.  I took them out after 20 minutes but I think they were just slightly underdone.  They were moist but a bit dense.  I think next time around, I would add a little more milk and bake an extra 5 minutes.  Overall, it was still pretty good though, despite my taking some liberties with the original recipe.  For those who don't have much of a sweet tooth, this cake isn't particularly sweet but has good flavor.  But I do have a sweet tooth so even after all these years, my favorite part is still the melted butter and crunchy sugar on top of the warm cake.

Galapong (rice batter)

1 ¾ cups short-grain rice

Bibingka

Softened unsalted butter for the pie shells

Four 6-inch banana leaf rounds to line the pans

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup plus 4 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups galapong (I substituted 1 cup + 2 tablespoons sweet rice flour)

4 eggs, separated

¾ cup coconut milk

¼ cup whole milk (if substituting the sweet rice flour for the galapong, increase milk by another 2 tablespoons)

1 salted duck egg, quartered (optional)

½ cup grated Gouda cheese

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, for brushing

½ cup freshly grated coconut

1.      For the galapong, rinse the rice under cold running water, drain, and place in a medium bowl with cold water to cover.  Refrigerate overnight.  Drain and rinse again, then drain in a colander for 30 minutes.  Transfer to a food processor and process until the mixture is finely ground, about 1 minute, scraping up the sides of the processor as needed.  Work through a coarse sieve.  Return the solids that did not go through the sieve to the food processor and process again, then work again through the sieve.  You should have about 1 ½ cups galapong.

2.      For the bibingka, preheat the oven to 450⁰F.  Brush the four 6-inch pie or tart shells with softened butter and line with banana leaf rounds.

3.      Sift together the flour, ¼ cup sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.  Whisk in the galapong and make a well in the center.  With a whisk, beat the egg yolks, coconut milk and milk in a separate bowl.  Pour into the well and with a rubber spatula, mix slowly until smooth.

4.      In the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Fold the whites into the galapong mixture.

5.      Divide the mixture among the lined pans.  If you’re using the duck eggs, nestle a quarter into the middle of each cake.  Sprinkle each cake with 2 tablespoons of the Gouda followed by 2 tablespoons of the feta, and finally 1 teaspoon of the sugar.

6.      Set the cakes on the top rack of the oven and bake until firm and set and lightly browned on top, about 20 minutes (after the first 10 minutes, I decreased the oven temp to 400 degrees).  If the bibingka are set but not browned, preheat the broiler and broil them about 6 inches from the heat source, watching carefully, until bubbly and lightly browned, about 3 minutes.

7.       Brush the bibingka with the melted butter while still warm.  Unmold each bibingka onto a serving plate.  Serve with the grated coconut.

Puto - a steamed Filipino vanilla cake

Puto - made May 7, 2011 from an old family recipe

My mom is from a small town in the Philippines that's known for its puto, a steamed white cake best eaten warm with melted butter and a sprinkle of fresh coconut on top.  I remember when I was a kid in the Philippines, whenever we visited my mom's side of the family, we always had "Puto Binan" which was the town's local specialty.  The cakes were flat and in a rough rectangular or oblong shape, wrapped in banana leaves to keep fresh.  There are many varieties of puto and the mark of a good puto is its fluffiness.  You get the texture from steaming the cake rather than baking it.  Steamed "baked" goods are common in parts of the world where the majority of home kitchens don't have ovens, as is the case in the Philippines.  It's also common for puto to contain rice flour instead of wheat flour since rice is a staple there rather than wheat.

Best eaten warm with butter & coconut

Ironically, this recipe is made with Bisquick so I don't know if I can call it really authentic.  But this is one of the recipes from my childhood so I'm sticking with it here. My mom used to make this when I was a kid and in honor of Mother's Day, I thought I would use the old family recipe and bring it over to my parents' house. Despite Bisquick as the main ingredient, this doesn't taste like fluffy pancakes like you'd expect from using Bisquick.  Instead, it really is a vanilla cake.  The directions are sparse but it's still an easy thing to put together.  Make sure you steam them thoroughly - if the puto is underdone, it'll be heavy and too moist.  Because you're steaming them, it's harder to overcook puto but don't leave them in there too long or they'll be tough.

Puto doesn't have a long shelf life so they're best eaten the day they're made.  If you have any left over, wrap in plastic and store in an airtight container.  When you reheat them, it's better to re-steam them.  If you're going to microwave them, cover with a wet paper towel and microwave for only a few seconds at a time until they're warm enough.  Don't leave in too long or the texture will toughen up and/or dry out.

2 cups Bisquick

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.      Mix all ingredients together and spoon into small greased ramekins.  Puto will rise so only fill the ramekins 2/3 full.

2.      Steam for 10 to 15 minutes in a steamer or until done, depending on the size of your ramekins (toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean).