Orange Velvet Cake

Orange Velvet Cake - made May 28, 2011 from A Piece of Cake by Susan G. Purdy

As I'm now (I think) at least a dozen cookbooks past the halfway point for my baking challenge (finally!), I'm starting to get into cookbooks I've either never used, rarely use, or haven't used in a long time.  Which always begs the question, why do I still have it/them??  Not a new question.  But no matter, we slog forward anyway.  This is an old book and I have no memory of when and where I bought it or why but I must've been on either a cake kick or a Susan G. Purdy kick since I have multiple cake books and several cookbooks by Susan G. Purdy.  I've hardly made anything from this cookbook so I can't assess (yet) how good it is or not.

I still have oranges from my mom's orange tree to use up and there are many more oranges left on her tree so this was a good time to try out orange recipes.  My earliest memory of orange cake was in the 4th grade when a friend was bringing a sheet cake of orange cake with frosting to share with her class.  She gave me a sneak preview taste in the morning while we waited for the bus and to my childish taste buds, that was the best cake ever.  In retrospect, it was probably some kind of boxed cake mix with canned vanilla frosting but to my 9-year-old bad self, it was divine.  I've gotten infinitely more finicky about baked goods since then but I still have a soft spot for orange cake to this day.  Not orange pound cake (although I like that too) but cakey orange cake, like cake with the tender texture of a boxed cake mix but with the fresher (and better) taste of real oranges.  So I was both anxious and hopeful for this cake to turn out.

I don't think I baked this cake as long as I should have.  The texture was a bit dense so it was more pound-cake like (though not as heavy as a pound cake) rather than cakey-like.  The glaze or soaking syrup moistens the cake and makes the texture more dense so it wouldn't hurt to bake this cake for the full amount of time.  Nevertheless, I thought it turned out pretty well.  I only made a half recipe so it only came out to one layer which makes for a pretty flat cake.  But since it wasn't a fluffy texture, it was fine.  You wouldn't want a dense, two-layer cake.  I liked the flavor and even the denser texture.  Fresh oranges make a big difference in providing a citrus-y flavor.  The glaze sets once it cools and it complements the cake nicely.

1 ½ cups sifted cake flour (5 ¼ ounces)

½ cup sifted cornstarch (2 ¼ ounces)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, separated

½ teaspoon orange extract

Grated zest of 1 large orange

½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Glaze

½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange

1 tablespoon butter

Orange Buttercream

½ cup unsalted butter, softened but not melted

1 large egg yolk (optional)

Pinch of salt

Grated zest of ½ orange

4 to 4 ½ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

5 to 6 tablespoons orange juice, or as needed

1.      Prepare 2 8- or 9-inch round cake pans: spread solid shortening on bottom and sides of pans then dust evenly with flour; tap out excess flour.  Preheat oven to 350⁰F.

2.      Sift together dry ingredients.  Set aside.

3.      In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and smooth.  Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat in the orange extract and grated zest.  Alternately add to batter the flour mixture and orange juice, beginning and ending with flour.  Beat slowly to blend after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl often.

4.      In a clean bowl with a clean beater, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Stir about 1 cup of whites into the batter to lighten it, then gently fold in remaining whites.

5.      Turn batter into prepared pans.  Level the batter, then spread it slightly from the center toward the edges of the pan so it will rise evenly.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, and the top is golden and lightly springy to the touch.

6.      While the cake bakes, prepare the orange glaze.  Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, and stir to dissolve the sugar.  Set the glaze aside, but warm it just before using.

7.      When the cake is baked, set the pans to cool on a wire rack.  With a bamboo skewer or 2-tine roasting fork, prick holes over the cake.  With a pastry brush, paint the warm glaze all over the hot cake, wait a few minutes, and apply remaining glaze, dividing evenly between the two layers.

8.      Cool the cake completely, top with another rack, invert and lift off pan.  Fill and/or frost with Orange Buttercream.

To make Orange Buttercream:

1.      In an electric mixer or food processor, cream the butter until soft, then beat in the egg yolks, if using, the salt and grated zest.  With the mixer on low speed or pulsing the processor, add about ¼ cup of the sugar.  Beat smooth.  Alternately add the juice and remaining sugar, blending smooth between additions.  Scrape down sides of bowl.  Add more orange juice if too stiff.  Chill the icing to harden if too soft.

Orange Shrimp

Orange Shrimp - made May 28, 2011 from I Can't Believe It's Not Fattening by Devin Alexander

I'm always on the lookout for easy to make recipes of "real food" so that I'm not just injecting sugar into my veins with baked goods.  Since I'm back to work, I mainly cook on the weekends then just portion everything out for individual meals throughout the week.  It makes life and time management so much easier.  I usually like to bring my lunch if I'm not meeting friends or going out with coworkers for lunch so it's nice to be able to have some meals ready.  Plus the last thing I want to do when I get home from work at night is cook dinner.  Much easier to microwave something minutes after I walk in the door.

I have Devin Alexander's Most Decadent Diet Ever book and have made several good dishes from it.  Her recipes are straightforward and easy to follow for those of us who don't cook very much.  I checked this one out of the library in my effort to be less acquisitive and spendy.  On the heels of the Orange Chicken dish that turned out so well, I wanted to make Orange Shrimp this time, especially since my mom's orange tree is so heavily weighted with fresh oranges and I could use them for the juice.  They look like lemons but she assures me they're really oranges.

This is a snapshot of only part of my mom's orange tree

A close up of some of the oranges

Despite the yellow color on the outside, inside they're appropriately orange, sweet and full of juice. Perfect to use in cooking and baking, not to mention drinking "straight". This recipe couldn't be easier to put together.  I added some chives for garnish and flavor but overall, this was a simple, summery dish.  Much healthier than a breaded-chicken version (I'm a sucker for Panda Express' Orange Chicken) so you can indulge and get summer-shape ready at the same time.

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 cup 100% orange juice (not from concentrate, preferably no pulp)

1 ¼ pounds 21-25 count shrimp, peeled and deveined

Salt and pepper, to taste

Olive oil spray

2 teaspoons crushed garlic

1.      Put the cornstarch in a medium bowl or measuring cup.  Whisking constantly, add enough orange juice to the cornstarch to form a paste.  Whisk in the remaining juice and continue whisking until the cornstarch is completely dissolved.  Set aside.

2.      Season the shrimp with salt and pepper.

3.      Place a large, nonstick skillet over high heat.  When hot, lightly mist the pan with the spray and add the shrimp in an even layer along with the garlic.  Cool for 1 to 2 minutes per side, or until the shrimp turns pink and is no longer translucent.

4.      Pour the orange juice mixture over the shrimp, gently stirring it until the sauce has thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.

Brown Butter Cookies

Brown Butter Cookies - made dough May 21, baked May 27, 2011 from Tried and True Recipes from Allrecipes.com (book #114)

Allrecipes.com is where I got the recipe for Best, Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies and it was my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies for awhile.  Until I made the browned butter version of Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies and that became my latest go-to recipe - at least for now.  But still, allrecipes.com has some very good recipes.  The issue is sometimes there are so many recipes for the same type of cookie and the reviews can be really mixed, depending on the recipe, the baker, their tasting audience, etc that it's hard to tell which ones are good, bad or truly great.  I bought their cookbook as it presumably lists their top reviewed recipes in the hopes of having them do some of the weeding out for me.  (For the record, the recipe for Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies is in this book.)

Since I'm having this newly rediscovered love of brown butter, I couldn't resist choosing this recipe to try out.  It's a fairly simple butter cookie recipe but the brown butter adds the extra flavor.  I made a half recipe with this one too and omitted the nuts.  I was curious to see how this compared to Bakewise's Butter Cookies.  I made this recipe ahead of time, chilled it in the refrigerator before putting in the freezer then baking it off the day I needed it.  The recipe calls for browning the butter all at once and reserving 1/2 cup for the frosting.  Since I wasn't going to bake or frost the cookies the same day I made the cookie dough, I only browned just enough butter for the cookie dough then browned the butter I needed for the frosting.

Oh my.  This is one rich but good cookie.  Don't underbake it too much or it'll be too gooey.  But don't overbake it either.  It has a rich brown butter taste and it was almost like eating a chewy, rich, buttery chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips or a dark brown sugar/toffee/caramelized cookie.  Not for the calorie conscious but definitely for the browned butter lovers.  I left off the browned butter frosting for the taste test cookie as it already has plenty of flavor but I'd be curious to see if the sweetness of the frosting cuts some of the richness from the butter cookie.  It's an entirely different taste and texture from the Shirley Corriher Butter Cookie recipe but also good in its own right.

2 cups butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup chopped pecans

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

½ cup hot water

1.    Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.

2.    Heat butter over medium heat for 5 minutes or so, until it turns nut brown in color.  The foaming and bubbling is part of the browning process, but watch it carefully so that you don’t burn the butter.  Remove from heat, and cool slightly.  Reserve ½ cup of the butter for the frosting.

3.    Pour remaining browned butter into a large mixing bowl.  Beat browned butter with brown sugar until the butter is no longer hot.  Mix in eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Beat thoroughly.  Mix in flour and chopped pecans.  Drop tablespoons of dough onto ungreased baking sheets.

4.    Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown around the edges.  Cool.

5.    In a medium bowl, mix the reserved ½ cup browned butter with 2 teaspoons vanilla, confectioners’ sugar, and hot water.  Beat until smooth, and use to frost cooled cookies.

Pennsylvania Dutch Soft Sugar Cookies

Pennsylvania Dutch Soft Sugar Cookies - made May 22, 2011 from Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri (book #113)

I've baked a few recipes from this book and it's well worth having.  The recipes are varied, the directions straightforward and they generally come out pretty well.  My only "problem" with it is there are so many good-looking recipes in it that I always have a hard time choosing only one at a time to make from it.  I almost made the Orange Dream Cookies from it and plan to get to that one someday but this time around, I went with this recipe to use up the last of my buttermilk.  I've seen variations of this sugar cookie in various recipe books.  Because of the ingredients list, I was expecting something soft and cakelike.  Sure enough, even the dough was more like a stiff cake batter or a very soft cookie dough.  I chilled the whole thing in the fridge first before I even scooped them into dough balls for the freezer.  Otherwise I think they would've been too soft to hold a round shape.

I made up the cookie dough last Sunday before I went back to work so I had the dough balls ready in the freezer to be baked at a moment's notice whenever I felt like it.  Normally I don't really like cakey cookies.  I've said before, if I wanted cakey, I'd make a cake, not cookies.  But I have to admit, these weren't bad.  I'd classify them more as a cake in cookie form than my idea of a real cookie but they were pretty tasty.  Like little vanilla cakes rather than sugar cookies.  They don't spread much but they do puff out.  Do not overbake these and err on the side of underbaking them.  Otherwise they'll easily become dry.  They're not that sweet and since they're cakey, they'd probably be pretty good frosted.  Top with your favorite vanilla frosting or any other type of frosting and eat the same day you bake them. Treat them like cakes and assume they'll dry easily if left too long.

You can see how cakey it is on the inside

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1.      Set the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 375⁰F.

2.      In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; stir well to mix.

3.      In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and the sugar until combined, then beat in the vanilla.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating smooth after each addition.  Lower the speed and beat in a third of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, and another third of the flour mixture.  Scrape the bowl and beater often.  Beat in the remaining buttermilk, then the remaining flour mixture.

4.      Scrape the bowl and beater, then remove the bowl from the mixer, and give the dough one final mixing with the large rubber spatula.

5.      Drop tablespoons of the dough 3 or 4 inches apart onto the prepared pans.

6.      Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, or until they spread and rise – they should be lightly golden.

7.      Slide the papers off the pans onto racks.

8.      After the cookies have cooled, detach them from the paper and store them between layers of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.

Browned Butter Banana Cake with Butterscotch Chips

Browned Butter Banana Cake - made May 21, 2011 from Absolutely Chocolate from the editors of Fine Cooking (book #112)

As summer approaches and more seasonal fruits become abundant, you might find yourself neglecting the ubiquitous, available-year-round banana and find them ripening faster than you can eat them because you've been indulging yourself on strawberries, apricots, cherries, peaches and other spring/summer bounty.  Never fear, that's what banana baked goods are for.  I've been going through a browned butter fixation lately and looking for recipes that use it.  I've made banana cakes before but never with browned butter and I wanted to see what that flavor combination was like.  So this recipe was perfect for experimentation with the overripe bananas I had hanging around.

The original recipe for this cake called for using miniature semisweet chocolate chips but I substituted chopped up bits of butterscotch chips instead as I like butterscotch paired with banana more than a banana and chocolate combination.  I haven't used this recipe book much (or at all) before but I remember looking through it when I first got it and finding a lot of good-looking recipes to try.  Then I stuck it on a shelf with more of its brethren and somehow forgot about it or never went back to it.  Hence once again why my baking challenge is good for me.

This cake was delicious - the brown butter complements the banana, although the banana flavor is more dominant, of course.  But it does have a subtle caramelized flavor.  I love the butterscotch chips as more of a complement rather than a contrast which is what I think chocolate chips would've been.  I'm glad I made the substitution.  The texture was cakey and moist, actually similar to my banana bread recipe but a bit more cake-like.  It's not too sweet either.  Overall, thumbs up and a great way to use overripe bananas.

8 ounces (1 cup) unsalted butter; more for the pan

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup finely mashed ripe bananas (2 medium bananas)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

7 ½ ounces (1 2/3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for the pan

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

2/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used butterscotch chips)

1.      Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Butter and flour a 10-cup decorative tube or bundt pan.  Tap out any excess flour.

2.      Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  Once the butter is melted, cook it slowly, letting it bubble, until it smells nutty or like butterscotch and turns a deep golden hue, 5 to 10 minutes.  If the butter splatters, reduce the heat to low.  Remove the pan from the heat and pour the browned butter through a fine sieve into a medium bowl and discard the bits in the sieve.  Let the butter cool until it’s very warm rather than boiling hot, 5 to 10 minutes.

3.      Using a whisk, stir the sugar and eggs into the butter.  Whisk until the mixture is smooth (the sugar may still be somewhat grainy), 30 to 60 seconds.  Whisk in the mashed bananas, vanilla and salt.  Sift the flour and baking soda directly onto the batter.  Pour the chocolate chips over the flour.  Using a rubber spatula, stir just until the batter is uniformly combined.  Don’t overmix.

4.      Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with the rubber spatula.  Bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs clinging to it, 42 to 45 minutes.  Set the pan on a rack to cool for 15 minutes.  Invert the cake onto the rack and remove the pan.  Let cool until just warm and then serve immediately or wrap well in plastic and store at room temperature for up to five days.

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken - made May 20, 2011 from This Woman Cook's blog

I loved how this looked on Christina's blog (click on title for the recipe on her blog) and it was just the kind of cooking I can do: mix stuff up, put in a slow cooker and leave it alone until it's done.  And now that I'm working, I also needed to figure out some simple, easy meals I can make or have ready when I get home from work.

As easy as crock pot cooking is, I rarely do it.  For one thing, I have the regular size which is rather largish for one person so when I do use it, it means lots of leftovers and eating the same thing in the future, even if I freeze some.  For another, invariably, whatever I make turns out soupy.  It might be tasty-soupy but soupy nonetheless and sometimes I just don't want soupy.  I end up eating too much rice to sop up the sauce. But I couldn't resist this recipe because I love orange chicken and it was so easy to make.  I'm glad I tried it because it was good and incredibly easy to put together.  It did come out a bit soupy and I tried to thicken it with a little cornstarch but there was still a lot of soupy sauce.  But that's okay as I figure I can always cook more chicken to go with the sauce. 

Oh, and how your sauce turns out is of course going to depend on the ingredients you use so use your favorite barbecue sauce (I used Trader Joe's Kansas City-Style Barbecue Sauce) and marmalade (I used Dundee Orange Marmalade - also from TJ's).  Thanks, Christina, for the recipe!

Charlie's Afternoon Chocolate Cake

Charlie's Afternoon Chocolate Cake - made May 18, 2011 from Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard (book #111)

There are many decadent-sounding recipes in this cookbook, accompanied by mouthwatering pictures.  The picture of this cake in the cookbook looks like the creamiest baked fudge so it was almost inevitable that I had to make it.  Notice the relatively short list of ingredients and how prominently chocolate figures into it.  To sound like a broken record, please use high quality chocolate on this one.  It'll make all the difference and render the calories worth it.  I used Valrhona - $2.99 for a 3-ounce package at Trader Joe's. I needed these to pack in goodie bags which is harder to portion out when you bake something in a round pan so I made this in a 9" square baking pan.

This has no chemical leavening and the instructions don't call for beating it a lot so I didn't expect it to rise much, if at all.  It spread into a thin layer in a 9-inch pan so next time I'd bake it in an 8-inch pan just to have it a little thicker. If you do that, be sure to adjust for the baking time.  I followed the recipe exactly with regards to the size of pan and the baking temps and times so I didn't even bother with the toothpick test on this one.  The chocolate set as it cools and it has a fragile texture but a great taste (from the "good" chocolate).  It was just a trifle too sweet for me so next time I'd use a darker chocolate than 60%.  I like my chocolate candy and truffles to be milk chocolate but chocolate baked goods to be a deeper, richer chocolate.  But this is a crazy-easy cake to put together so if you need to whip up something fast, this is a good choice.  If you do bake in a 9-inch pan, the thin squares would make a good base for a scoop of ice cream.  Just sayin'....

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 ounces 60% chocolate, chopped

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1.      Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Spray the sides and bottom of a round 9-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Dust it with flour, shaking off the excess and set aside.

2.      Bring the butter to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir a couple of times to prevent it from burning.  Remove from the heat and add the chocolate to the pan.  Stir the mixture until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

3.      Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until well combined.  Add the flour and mix well.  Add the chocolate to the batter and stir until the mixture is just combined.  Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

4.      Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 300⁰F and bake for an additional 8 minutes.  Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely in the pan.  Unmold and serve.