Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cake

Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cake - made May 25, 2015 from Goodies by Anna

It’s out of season for lemons but try telling that to my lemon tree. It doesn’t listen to me either when I also tell it it’s supposed to be a dwarf lemon tree. When the tallest branches hit 9 feet, I prune it to take it down a notch. But I generally leave the blossoms and lemons alone. If it wants to produce when I don’t expect it to, nothing to be done about it but snip the lemons when they’re nice and yellow.

A couple of weeks ago, it actually yielded a couple of really big lemons. Actually there were three but one fell before I could get to it so I didn’t want to take any more chances and harvested the other two. I had some sour cream to use up and having lemons and sour cream just cried out for a pound cake. Pinterest to the rescue and I found this luscious looking lemon sour cream bundt cake. Honestly, it was the beautiful glaze work that sucked me into making the cake. Click on the blog title to take you to the original recipe and you'll see what I mean.

So it was unfortunate that my glaze work was a far, far, far cry from the original. Sigh. I actually wonder if the picture matched the recipe because the recipe calls for including lemon zest in the glaze but in the picture, I don’t see any zest. Zest provides wonderful flavor but it does prevent having a smooth glaze like the picture. So maybe my glazed cake isn’t as pretty as the original blog's picture but it is a more faithful rendition of the recipe, lol.

Overall, this was a good lemon pound cake. I ran short on lemons so I didn’t have enough to make the lemon simple syrup but I think I got good lemon flavor from the zest, juice and extract in the batter and from the zest and juice in the glaze. This is a nice summer picnic cake if any of those are coming up on the horizon. The only caution is I found this difficult to get out of the bundt pan intact (as I’m sure you can tell). The outside was a bit crusty which is a sign that beating the batter after the eggs were added contributed to a meringue-like crust which crumbled and clung to the pan. So you might want to make sure you generously grease your Bundt pan and use a nonstick pan.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
grated zest of 2 lemons
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Lemon Simple Syrup
1 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Lemon Glaze
lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
powdered sugar

1. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pay with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated.
4. Beat in the extracts and zest.
5. On low speed, alternately add the flour and sour cream in 3 additions. Beat in the lemon juice until batter is smooth. Spread batter evenly in the pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
6. Lemon simple syrup: while cake is baking, combine lemon juice, sugar, water, zest and lemon extract in a small saucepan set over medium high heat. Bring mixture to a boil and cook until reduced down to approximately 1/2 cup of syrup, around 15 minutes. Let syrup cool before brushing onto warm cake.
7. Poke holes into cake while still warm from the oven. Brush liberally with lemon simple syrup. Let cake cool for 15 minutes then invert cake onto cooling rack. Poke holes into top of cake and brush liberally with more simple syrup. Let cake cool completely on wire rack.
8. Lemon Glaze: While cake is cooling on a rack, in a small bowl, add lemon juice a tablespoon at a time to 1 cup of powdered sugar until a thick glaze comes together. Add lemon extract. Drizzle glaze over cooled cake. Let glaze set up for 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Store in airtight container.

Tcho Chocolate

Tcho Chocolate - visited factory store on March 3, 2014

I’ve had these pictures for well over a year but never got around to blogging them until now. My niece and I had spent a day in San Francisco and part of our 10+ miles of walking around the city included stumbling upon the warehouse building at the pier that housed Tcho Chocolate’s factory store. I’d heard of Tcho Chocolate before this but even if I hadn’t, let’s face it, I would have wanted to go in anyway.

There were industrial-looking wire shelves that held an assortment of various Tcho Chocolate products available for purchase, a little table where you could try out some samples (bonus!) and a larger, roped off part of the warehouse structure that looked like it was where they made at least some of the chocolate. I wasn’t sure though as at the time, that section was closed off and we weren’t there at the time when they offered tours. Actually, I think we caught them at the tail end of their San Francisco location as, according to their website, their new production facility and factory store moved to Berkeley last year, shortly after we were at this San Francisco location.

I first sampled Tcho when I ordered from Treatsie. They billed themselves as “New American Chocolate”. I just wanted to buy their product and support them because they were local in the Bay Area. Plus, and more importantly, they focus on Fair Trade and even “beyond Fair Trade”. If you check out their FAQs on their website, it tells you more about that. But having once spent a week in the jungles of Belize learning about cacao production and meeting a local cacao farmer, it’s sensitized me a lot more about buying Fair Trade chocolate.

As much as I like chocolate, it might sound funny for me to say I don’t eat as much of it in pure chocolate bar form as you might think. Probably because I bake a lot and know so much more can be done with chocolate than unwrapping and consuming a chocolate bar. I’ve tried their cocoa powder, their chocolate “wafers” that I’ve melted and used for baking in cookies, cakes and brownies and yes, their chocolate candy bar form. I thought they were all good. I’m not sure I can pick it out in a blind taste test amongst a bunch of like-caliber chocolate but Tcho holds its own in terms of taste and quality. They’re still not as widely available as other brands of chocolate but they’re available online and, if I look hard enough, I can also find them locally, mostly at Whole Foods.

Soft Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Soft Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies - made dough May 16, 2015 from Crazy for Crust

The only reason I made these cookies is so I could use those mini peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s. It isn’t like I love peanut butter cups either because I could take or leave them. Usually I leave them. But these mini ones are cute and I pick up a package once in awhile because I know I want to make some kind of cute cookie with them. That’s pretty much all it takes for me to try out a new cookie recipe.

These are literally chocolate cookies with peanut butter cups in them. Not to be confused with a chocolate peanut butter cookie or a peanut butter cookie with chocolate in it. Nope, it’s a chocolate cookie that contains peanut butter cups. Which means if you’re indifferent to peanut butter but don’t mind it, this is fine because it’s also a good chocolate cookie. Soft, chewy, chocolaty. I gave my nieces a goodie bag of them and one said she inhaled two. While already full from dinner. Let’s hear it for millennials and metabolism.

If you like cookies that bake up thicker, as always, portion the cookie dough into dough balls and freeze them for at least several hours before baking. I also like to hold back some of the mini peanut butter cups when I make the dough and when I portion into dough balls, I press the mini peanut butter cups on the outside so they’re more prominent rather than hiding within the dough. If you don’t have access to mini peanut butter cups, you can use regular-sized peanut butter cups and just cut into chunks. If you want a pure chocolate cookie with nothing to interfere with chocolaty goodness, you can leave off the peanut butter cups, mini or otherwise, and just use chocolate chips. They won’t look as cute though but chocolate is chocolate after all.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 box (3.4 - 3.9 ounces) instance chocolate pudding mix (not sugar-free)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cold brewed coffee or water
1 1/2 cups mini peanut butter cups plus more for garnish

1. Cream butter and both sugars in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix in vanilla and egg. Add cocoa powder and dry pudding mix; mix until smooth,
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients and coffee or water to the creamed butter mixture and mix until just combined.
3. Add mini peanut butter cups to cookie dough and fold in. Scoop dough into golf-ball=size dough balls, pressing mini peanut butter cups on the outside, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Bake 11-12 minutes or until middles no longer look wet and edges are done. Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Newark Buffet

Newark Buffet - lunch on April 29, 2014 (that's not a typo, I'm just really overdue on posting this)

I’m clearing out all the old blog posts that I’ve had in “draft” status for months now, including this one for Newark Buffet. It's been so long I almost forgot I hadn't written it up before. I don’t go here that often because I’m rarely in that area during the week and their weekend buffet prices are higher so my parents and I don’t go there for our post-church Sunday lunches.

The last time I was there when I took these pictures is when I had a day off and my mom and I were flying back from visiting my sister. We landed near the middle of the day and met my dad for lunch. It’s very similar to World Gourmet in that it has a lot of selections, it’s “good enough” food for a buffet but I wouldn’t consider it haute cuisine. 

My buffet experiences are mostly around finding a few dishes I like and consuming normal portions of those. I’m not one to pile a lot of different foods on my plate since my palate is not that adventurous nor can I consume a lot of food in one sitting. I’m more of a snack-throughout-the-day kind of person than a 3 big-meals-a-day sort. So it’s safe to say my ROI on a buffet is on the low end of the investment spectrum.

Still, my parents like to go to them for simplicity and the variety of dishes offered and I can usually consume enough to make the $9.99 price tag for lunch sufficiently worth it. I think this is average, on par with World Gourmet. If you’re looking for French Laundry, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for a reasonably-priced place to bring a large group and you don’t want to worry about picky eaters starving (anyone can find something to eat at a buffet), then this is a decent choice. 

Cheese Sausage Strata

Cheese Sausage Strata - made May 16, 2015 from Taste of Home

We had our monthly potluck lunch at church a couple of weekends ago and I tried another savory dish instead of a dessert. I know, shocking, right? But I was still trying to make sure we had enough “real food” as opposed to a dessert table at the potluck. I was tempted to do pasta again since it’s so easy, especially since my level of cooking means you buy a jar of sauce, some fresh pasta plus a few other random ingredients and throw them together. (Italian grandmothers just rolled in their graves.)

But I made myself do something only just slightly more involved with this strata. Truthfully, it’s really a savory bread pudding but strata sounds more complicated so that’s what I’m going with. Like a typical bread pudding, you cut the bread into cubes, soak it in a egg-milk mixture and bake until done. For the savory element, there’s not only no sugar in this but you also brown some ground beef or pork and add some cheese. I took some liberties with the original recipe and did a combination of lean ground beef and ground pork sausage. The cheese was the Quattro fromaggio I had leftover from the Cheesy Tortellini Bake from last time.

To illustrate how infrequently I cook, when I was scouring the depths of my freezer before I started this recipe, I kept unearthing half-full bags of frozen shredded cheeses I’d used for other cooking attempts. Cheddar Cheese. Parmesan Cheese. Mozzarella Cheese. Sadly, the most “recent” one had an expiration date of July 2014. Oops. I had to chuck them all to avoid food poisoning for the church folks. How would that have gone over?? Fortunately, the Quattro fromaggio was recent and well before its expiration date. I used it all up too so I wouldn’t find it in my freezer a year from now.

I thought this turned out pretty well. I timed the bake so that it would be done right before I left for church, covered it in foil and wrapped it in a thick beach towel to keep it warm, and stowed it in my trunk while I sat in church. After the hour-long service, I was pleasantly surprised that it was still warm enough to make handling the baking dish with my bare fingers a little dicey. Savory bread pudding is best served somewhat warm and this survived the length of time from oven to table remarkably well.

From a taste perspective, it might be a bit bland for most people’s taste buds but for mine, it was fine. If you want it a little more spicy, I’d suggest using a hot sausage or adding more spice to the ground beef. I left off the dry mustard in the original recipe since I don’t like mustard and I thought it tasted good without it. It seemed like a hit with the church folks too as by the time I left, there was only 1 piece left.

1 1/2 pounds bulk pork sausage
9 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups milk
9 slices bread, cubed (I used a 1-pound loaf of challah)
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese (I used quattro fromagio)
1/2 pound sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 1/2 teaspoons ground mustard, optional

1. In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the eggs, milk, bread, cheese, bacon and mustard. Transfer to a greased shallow 3-quart baking dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight,
2. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-65 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. If it appears to be getting too brown but still isn't done, cover loosely with foil then remove foil for the last 5 minutes of baking. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Buttermilk Biscoff Pancakes

Buttermilk Biscoff Pancakes - made May 17, 2015, adapted from The Biscoff Cookie & Spread Cookbook by Katrina Bahl

Continuing the cookie butter recipes. For a change of pace, let’s turn to breakfast food. I had high hopes for these pancakes because you know it goes without saying that it was another excuse to spread cookie butter onto something warm and let it melt before consuming. I do draw the line with my cookie butter obsession that I don’t eat it straight out of the jar. But that doesn’t mean I don’t look for something for the cookie butter to sit on while I consume it.

Unfortunately, these pancakes didn’t turn out the way I had expected. The first sign of trouble was how thick the batter was after I had mixed it. It had the density of a brownie batter. Not even the more fluid cake batter or the more liquid hallmark of a good pancake batter. Brownie batter. I knew it would come out too thick but I fried a pancake “as is” with how the recipe was listed even though I knew I should add more buttermilk to get a less dense pancake.

Turns out I was right. The pancake not only wasn’t thick because I couldn’t spread it thinly enough in the hot frying pan but it also cracked dry in the cooking. A thin layer of cookie butter hid those sins but because the batter was so dense and the pancake was so thick, I had to cook it awhile and it was a bit dry. Who the heck makes dry pancakes? Me.

2nd attempt

For the next try, I added more buttermilk to the remaining batter so I would guess I had doubled the buttermilk from the original recipe. The batter was still thick but not so dense. This one turned out more pancake-like but it was still pretty thick and came out more like a flat cake than a fluffy pancake. But the texture was still good. It just made for a generous portion and I couldn’t finish it all. The taste was good (c’mon, it’s cookie butter) though so this recipe is worth salvaging. I’d start with the buttermilk I’ve listed which is double the original recipe, then keep adding more until the batter is the consistency you want. Depending on how much you add, you might want to increase the baking soda by a ¼ to a ½ teaspoon as well to neutralize the acidity of the buttermilk and give the pancake a lighter texture.

I didn’t make the cookie butter syrup since I was good with just spreading a knife-ful of cookie butter over the pancake and letting it melt into gooey goodness. Either way, I think it’s a good complement to the pancake.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup creamy Biscoff spread
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

1. Whisk together dry ingrediens.
2. Beat buttermilk, Biscoff spread, oil, vanilla extract and eggs until just combined.
3. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Heat frying pan or griddle over medium heat and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Pour 1/2 cup of batter (more or less depending on the size of pancakes you want) into circle and let cook until edges are brown and bubbles form in the middle, 2-3 minutes,on one side before flipping over. If pancake is getting too brown, lower heat.
5. Spread with cookie butter and serve warm.

Restaurant Review: Macaroni Grill

Macaroni Grill - lunch on May 11, 2015

For Mother’s Day lunch, I took my parents out to Macaroni Grill. We’ve been there before but don’t go that often since it’s farther afield than they normally like to go for lunch after church. Going out to eat on Mother’s Day is almost always an inevitably crowded affair since everyone takes their mom out for her day. We hadn’t made a reservation so I hurried over there after church to secure a table. Fortunately, it was only just past 11 so the restaurant was still fairly empty although every table would be occupied by the time we left.

What sucked us into Macaroni Grill the first time we’d ever gone there was the amazing bread they served when you first sit down. It was not too crunchy on the outside but nicely dense and mealy on the inside. It was served warm with a slathering of melted butter or oil lightly brushed on top, just enough to get your fingers greasy and your taste buds salivating. This time around, either their bread has changed or my taste buds decided to get picky but I didn’t think the bread was as good as before. Couldn’t tell you why though but a sure sign was I only had a small piece and didn’t hanker for more. Huh.

Sole

The menu, in conforming with local law, also listed the calorie count next to each entrée. Always a nice appetite killer. I appreciate the information so I can make an informed choice but seriously, a major downer that you can no longer kid yourself that the dishes you most want are more than half a day’s calories on a plate. I’m used to expecting high calorie counts at all restaurant meals but even I was thrown by Macaroni Grill’s numbers. Amongst the entrees, there were maybe 2 meals under a thousand calories. One proudly had an “LC” designation for Low Calorie and proud it should be for being a lone standout. The other one I could find that wasn’t LC-designated but still a rarity under a thousand calories was Lobster Ravioli for 860 calories. Everything else was in the range of 1200-2000+. Eeep.

Paste di Mare

I went with the Lobster Ravioli as the almost lesser of all calorie evils. Plus I like lobster ravioli. My mom got the Pasta di Mare (scallops, mussels, shrimp, fettuccine in a white wine sauce with pomodoro and garlic) and my dad got the sole. The high calorie counts on all of the entrees was partially explained by the generous portions that came out. No portion control served here. Fortunately my parents aren’t big eaters and, with their consumption, each plate was at least 2-3 meals for them. No cooking that night for my mom on her day.

Lobster Ravioli

Dessert was a warm chocolate cake with chocolate sauce poured over it, hold the whipped cream. It was a good, if somewhat unimaginative, dessert and as we spooned it up, my mom makes the same claim she always makes when we order dessert, “you can make this.” Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

Warm Chocolate Cake

With chocolate sauce