Barefoot Bloggers – Peach Berry Crumble

This recipe is the best part of a food fantasy. It seems healthy, but it’s not.

It starts with a goodly volume of fruit, kissed with sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. It’s topped with the simplest crumb mixture scented with cinnamon. I doubled the crumb topping, and increased the fruit (I used peaches, cherries, blueberries and blackberries) by about half. The crumb topping melts into the fruit somewhat, so your crumb topping ends up being thinner than you thought it would be. Don’t let this worry you at all. The merging of the fruit with the topping, particularly around the edges, creates an unctuous buttery fruit experience… Excuse me. I need a moment to collect myself.

Where was I? Oh yes. I served this crumble as a breakfast treat, and it was a hit. It would have been far better served warm with vanilla ice cream, but ice cream for breakfast seemed a little over the top, especially when you’re already eating buttery fruit.

I love Barefoot Bloggers. We make recipes from Ina Garten, and they are consistently some of the best things I cook and bake. They’re almost always calorie laden, which is why I resisted her recipes for so long. But they’re always good great. This week’s recipe was selected by Aggie of Aggie’s Kitchen. I love her blog and I encourage you to spend some time there. You can find the recipe here or here. And if you’d like to join us as we cook through Ina’s truly delicious recipes, we’d love to have you! You can find out how to join us here.

TWD – The Perfect Lemon Party Cake

It’s here! The Perfect Party Cake was finally chosen, by Carol of mix, mix…stir, stir. This is the cake that I looked at again and again in the book and thought “I could never pull off something that looked that good.”

I was right.

I made the ugly duckling of Perfect Party Cakes.

Since I cut the recipe in half, I wanted to find a suitable pan to use so I could still make four layers. I knew I wanted this to be a lemon party cake, so I opted for Dorie’s lemon cream instead of raspberry preserves. Checking out the volume of the 9″ round cake pan, I found that an 8×8 pan has the same volume. This was good news since I could cut the cake in half before dividing the halves to get 4 layers. It would make a nice loaf cake size but without the sloped sides that my loaf pans have. I was confident, enthusiastic, eager to get to baking.

I read and reread the recipe and Dorie’s post on Tuesdays with Dorie a few weeks ago. Dorie posted some tips to help us all have successful Perfect Party Cakes. I had all my ingredients at room temperature and was ready to go.

First, I made the lemon cream. It was mostly uneventful, except for the part where Dorie says to strain the curd into the jar of a blender. I must have an excellent strainer, because it didn’t let anything, curd or lemon zest, get through, so in frustration I just dumped everything in there and hoped that several minutes of blending at high speed would eliminate any traces of zest.

Later the same day, I started on the genoise. I was so excited because all of my ingredients were measured and at room temperature, and I just knew it was going to be a great baking experience. The genoise came together easily and I tucked it into the prepared 8×8 pan, smoothed the top and popped it in the oven. Since the pan was a little different shape and I didn’t want any surprises, I set the timer for 28 minutes (the recipe calls for baking it 30-35 minutes). When the timer went off, I turned on the oven light and saw it had pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Yikes! How could this thing be pulling away from the sides already?!? I yanked it out of the oven, noticing it hardly rose at all. Crushed, despondent and generally experiencing the classic stages of grief (NO! This didn’t just happen! Why me? It can’t be! This is so unfair!…), I resolved to push on and complete the blasted thing, thinking all the while “THIS is what I do to relax on a Sunday? I mean, really?” Great attitude, huh?

Poor little genoise.

Guess I didn’t smooth the batter in the pan so well after all. I set about making the buttercream, which was fairly easy, and a good upper body workout to boot. When it was finished, I looked into the bowl and wondered how on earth I would get that small amount of buttercream to fill and cover the entire cake. I retrieved the lemon cream from the fridge, whisked it like crazy to loosen it up, then sliced open my pathetic little cake.

I had plenty of the lemon cream, not so much of the buttercream, and the ridiculously tiny layers. All went well until I got to the very top layer. Dorie says to place the cut side down, and since my cake was very suntanned when I rescued it from the oven, I had a hard time covering the browning with the light buttercream. By this time, the buttercream was very soft, and every time I took a swipe at it with the offset spatula to fix one area that was showing, I took off a large swath of the frosting in that area. Argh! Finally, I surrendered to the coconut, figuring it’s a great concealer.

Immediately, I photographed my homely Imperfect Party Cake and then sat down to enjoy a slice (was it for dinner? pre-dinner? snack?) I was blown away by the wonderful combination of lemon flavors with the different layers of textures. Personally, I thought the coconut detracted from my transcendent lemon experience, so I will leave that off next time.

I had considered making this a chocolate perfect party cake, because if you’re talking about perfection and cakes, chocolate’s a requirement in my house. But I resisted and I’m glad I did because the lemon was so light and refreshing.

(I must have taken 20 photos of this slice of cake. 18 had that worm-looking thing on the bottom. Why did I not notice this when I was taking the photos??)

I know you’re wishing you could kill off a bunch of eggs and butter on a relaxing Sunday afternoon, so you should join us. We’re accepting members again, and the best thing is that you get to cook along with some mighty great bakers, from Dorie Greenspan‘s book Baking From My Home to Yours. Check out the website for more information on joining. We’d love to have you.

TWD – The Perfect Lemon Party Cake

It’s here! The Perfect Party Cake was finally chosen, by Carol of mix, mix…stir, stir. This is the cake that I looked at again and again in the book and thought “I could never pull off something that looked that good.”

I was right.

I made the ugly duckling of Perfect Party Cakes.

Since I cut the recipe in half, I wanted to find a suitable pan to use so I could still make four layers. I knew I wanted this to be a lemon party cake, so I opted for Dorie’s lemon cream instead of raspberry preserves. Checking out the volume of the 9″ round cake pan, I found that an 8×8 pan has the same volume. This was good news since I could cut the cake in half before dividing the halves to get 4 layers. It would make a nice loaf cake size but without the sloped sides that my loaf pans have. I was confident, enthusiastic, eager to get to baking.

I read and reread the recipe and Dorie’s post on Tuesdays with Dorie a few weeks ago. Dorie posted some tips to help us all have successful Perfect Party Cakes. I had all my ingredients at room temperature and was ready to go.

First, I made the lemon cream. It was mostly uneventful, except for the part where Dorie says to strain the curd into the jar of a blender. I must have an excellent strainer, because it didn’t let anything, curd or lemon zest, get through, so in frustration I just dumped everything in there and hoped that several minutes of blending at high speed would eliminate any traces of zest.

Later the same day, I started on the genoise. I was so excited because all of my ingredients were measured and at room temperature, and I just knew it was going to be a great baking experience. The genoise came together easily and I tucked it into the prepared 8×8 pan, smoothed the top and popped it in the oven. Since the pan was a little different shape and I didn’t want any surprises, I set the timer for 28 minutes (the recipe calls for baking it 30-35 minutes). When the timer went off, I turned on the oven light and saw it had pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Yikes! How could this thing be pulling away from the sides already?!? I yanked it out of the oven, noticing it hardly rose at all. Crushed, despondent and generally experiencing the classic stages of grief (NO! This didn’t just happen! Why me? It can’t be! This is so unfair!…), I resolved to push on and complete the blasted thing, thinking all the while “THIS is what I do to relax on a Sunday? I mean, really?” Great attitude, huh?

Poor little genoise.

Guess I didn’t smooth the batter in the pan so well after all. I set about making the buttercream, which was fairly easy, and a good upper body workout to boot. When it was finished, I looked into the bowl and wondered how on earth I would get that small amount of buttercream to fill and cover the entire cake. I retrieved the lemon cream from the fridge, whisked it like crazy to loosen it up, then sliced open my pathetic little cake.

I had plenty of the lemon cream, not so much of the buttercream, and the ridiculously tiny layers. All went well until I got to the very top layer. Dorie says to place the cut side down, and since my cake was very suntanned when I rescued it from the oven, I had a hard time covering the browning with the light buttercream. By this time, the buttercream was very soft, and every time I took a swipe at it with the offset spatula to fix one area that was showing, I took off a large swath of the frosting in that area. Argh! Finally, I surrendered to the coconut, figuring it’s a great concealer.

Immediately, I photographed my homely Imperfect Party Cake and then sat down to enjoy a slice (was it for dinner? pre-dinner? snack?) I was blown away by the wonderful combination of lemon flavors with the different layers of textures. Personally, I thought the coconut detracted from my transcendent lemon experience, so I will leave that off next time.

I had considered making this a chocolate perfect party cake, because if you’re talking about perfection and cakes, chocolate’s a requirement in my house. But I resisted and I’m glad I did because the lemon was so light and refreshing.

(I must have taken 20 photos of this slice of cake. 18 had that worm-looking thing on the bottom. Why did I not notice this when I was taking the photos??)

I know you’re wishing you could kill off a bunch of eggs and butter on a relaxing Sunday afternoon, so you should join us. We’re accepting members again, and the best thing is that you get to cook along with some mighty great bakers, from Dorie Greenspan‘s book Baking From My Home to Yours. Check out the website for more information on joining. We’d love to have you.

TWD – Blueberry (and Candied Apple, and Chocolate Chip) Crumb Cakes

Yes, you read that right. This was the day I lost my mind.

First of all, I promise this won’t be a marathon TWD post like last week’s Yogurt Cake. Because, truly, I’m exhausted from this week’s assignment. Oh, it’s an easy cake to put together and all that. But when you’re crazy like I am, and the voices in your head refuse to be silenced, it can get a little out of control. Especially when you decide to make all three versions you’ve been considering. On the same morning. On a weekday. Before work. Let’s just say that even if I round down, I was still half an hour late for work.

My three ideas were Dorie’s original blueberry, a vanilla bean version with chocolate chips, and one that I’m calling candy apple. I did almost all the prep work the night before, including making a triple batch of the crumb topping. I left the apple prep and making 3 batches of the batter for the morning. My plan was to caramelize the apples in a saute pan with butter and sugar. I have used this technique for apple pies since I read about it in the New York Times several years ago, and I love how the deeply browned apples absorb the cinnamon that is stirred in at the end. Pink Stripes had the same idea and offered it up in the P&Q.

I did the blueberry version first, and it looked like Smurf cake when I put it in the oven. I used frozen berries since fresh really aren’t in season yet, and they colored the batter a lot. Mentally, I figured it was good I was making two other cakes since purple isn’t the most appetizing color for a crumb cake. Then I sliced and sauteed the apples with butter and sugar and set them aside to cool. For the chocolate chip version, I added the contents of 1/2 a vanilla bean to the batter. I tossed the crumb topping on there and put it in the oven. Lastly, I added the cooled caramelized apples to the batter and put that in a pan, throwing all the remaining crumb mixture on top, smoothing it some and putting it in the oven.

During all of this, the crumb topping mix was sitting out on the counter.

The first cake baked uneventfully for 65 minutes before it tested done. It puffed up uniformly and the crumb topping browned beautifully. Success! When I was fetching it from the oven, I noticed the other two had butter slicks of varying sizes. Uh oh.

It took FOREVER for the chocolate chip version (which had been the second cake to go in the oven) to test done, and by that time, it was overdone. This was distressing, not just because I was late for work, but because the knife kept coming out with wet goo on it when I tested it. I realized that the crumb topping had somehow separated and the butter slick made it seem like the cake wasn’t done even though it was. It was the butter slick that wasn’t testing done.

We discussed the pool of butter problem on the P&Q, and we’re still in the dark about why it happened. I thought leaving the crumb mixture out on the counter meant it wasn’t cold enough to set properly, but Barbara took hers out of the fridge and put it on her cake and into the oven immediately, and she had a small pool of butter. So it’s a mystery for all you food scientists out there.

After all the drama (less than last week, but still not uneventful), all three cakes were a hit. The chocolate chip version was in the oven for about 85 minutes, so its bottom was a little too brown, but it still got raves (I couldn’t really taste the vanilla, so maybe I need to add more). The blueberry was the first to disappear, and the purple color didn’t show in the finished product (magic!). The apple was amazing, the caramelization adding both sweetness and bite to the meltingly tender apples. If you’d like to try this version, here’s how you do the apples (they’re also great on top of vanilla ice cream):

Caramelized apples (adapted from the New York Times)

5 Gala apples, cored, peeled, sliced lengthwise into 6 pieces, each piece sliced crosswise 1/4″ thick
4 T butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Melt the butter in a large skillet (not non-stick) over medium heat, then add the apples. Overcrowding the apples will keep them from browning properly. Sprinkle with the sugar and stir to distribute. Cook, stirring only occasionally, until the apples have taken on a deep caramel color. As the apples brown more, they require more attention. If they get a little sticky or the pan seems unusually hot, add a pat of butter. Once the apples are well-browned and tender, remove pan from the heat. Stir in cinnamon. Set aside to cool before adding to the batter.

To use these apples in Dorie’s recipe, eliminate the extra 2 teaspoons of flour, the blueberries and the lemon zest. The cinnamon for the apples is in addition to what is called for in the cake.

We have Sihan of Fundamentally-Flawed to thank for this versatile and delicious recipe. Check out what the other TWD bakers did here. I can’t wait to see how they interpreted Dorie’s recipe!

TWD – Blueberry (and Candied Apple, and Chocolate Chip) Crumb Cakes

Yes, you read that right. This was the day I lost my mind.

First of all, I promise this won’t be a marathon TWD post like last week’s Yogurt Cake. Because, truly, I’m exhausted from this week’s assignment. Oh, it’s an easy cake to put together and all that. But when you’re crazy like I am, and the voices in your head refuse to be silenced, it can get a little out of control. Especially when you decide to make all three versions you’ve been considering. On the same morning. On a weekday. Before work. Let’s just say that even if I round down, I was still half an hour late for work.

My three ideas were Dorie’s original blueberry, a vanilla bean version with chocolate chips, and one that I’m calling candy apple. I did almost all the prep work the night before, including making a triple batch of the crumb topping. I left the apple prep and making 3 batches of the batter for the morning. My plan was to caramelize the apples in a saute pan with butter and sugar. I have used this technique for apple pies since I read about it in the New York Times several years ago, and I love how the deeply browned apples absorb the cinnamon that is stirred in at the end. Pink Stripes had the same idea and offered it up in the P&Q.

I did the blueberry version first, and it looked like Smurf cake when I put it in the oven. I used frozen berries since fresh really aren’t in season yet, and they colored the batter a lot. Mentally, I figured it was good I was making two other cakes since purple isn’t the most appetizing color for a crumb cake. Then I sliced and sauteed the apples with butter and sugar and set them aside to cool. For the chocolate chip version, I added the contents of 1/2 a vanilla bean to the batter. I tossed the crumb topping on there and put it in the oven. Lastly, I added the cooled caramelized apples to the batter and put that in a pan, throwing all the remaining crumb mixture on top, smoothing it some and putting it in the oven.

During all of this, the crumb topping mix was sitting out on the counter.

The first cake baked uneventfully for 65 minutes before it tested done. It puffed up uniformly and the crumb topping browned beautifully. Success! When I was fetching it from the oven, I noticed the other two had butter slicks of varying sizes. Uh oh.

It took FOREVER for the chocolate chip version (which had been the second cake to go in the oven) to test done, and by that time, it was overdone. This was distressing, not just because I was late for work, but because the knife kept coming out with wet goo on it when I tested it. I realized that the crumb topping had somehow separated and the butter slick made it seem like the cake wasn’t done even though it was. It was the butter slick that wasn’t testing done.

We discussed the pool of butter problem on the P&Q, and we’re still in the dark about why it happened. I thought leaving the crumb mixture out on the counter meant it wasn’t cold enough to set properly, but Barbara took hers out of the fridge and put it on her cake and into the oven immediately, and she had a small pool of butter. So it’s a mystery for all you food scientists out there.

After all the drama (less than last week, but still not uneventful), all three cakes were a hit. The chocolate chip version was in the oven for about 85 minutes, so its bottom was a little too brown, but it still got raves (I couldn’t really taste the vanilla, so maybe I need to add more). The blueberry was the first to disappear, and the purple color didn’t show in the finished product (magic!). The apple was amazing, the caramelization adding both sweetness and bite to the meltingly tender apples. If you’d like to try this version, here’s how you do the apples (they’re also great on top of vanilla ice cream):

Caramelized apples (adapted from the New York Times)

5 Gala apples, cored, peeled, sliced lengthwise into 6 pieces, each piece sliced crosswise 1/4″ thick
4 T butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Melt the butter in a large skillet (not non-stick) over medium heat, then add the apples. Overcrowding the apples will keep them from browning properly. Sprinkle with the sugar and stir to distribute. Cook, stirring only occasionally, until the apples have taken on a deep caramel color. As the apples brown more, they require more attention. If they get a little sticky or the pan seems unusually hot, add a pat of butter. Once the apples are well-browned and tender, remove pan from the heat. Stir in cinnamon. Set aside to cool before adding to the batter.

To use these apples in Dorie’s recipe, eliminate the extra 2 teaspoons of flour, the blueberries and the lemon zest. The cinnamon for the apples is in addition to what is called for in the cake.

We have Sihan of Fundamentally-Flawed to thank for this versatile and delicious recipe. Check out what the other TWD bakers did here. I can’t wait to see how they interpreted Dorie’s recipe!

TWD – French Yogurt Cake

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie pick is French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze. It was Liliana’s turn (of My Cookbook Addiction) to pick, and she really hit it out of the park. I proved that is it impossible to mess up this cake, as did a few other bakers, judging by the comments on the P&Q.

I made this recipe twice. The first time, I doubled the recipe as I needed to be able to serve twenty ladies with it. It requires no butter, and mixes in one bowl!! It rose as it baked and looked pretty spectacular. I let it cool five minutes before running my thin knife around the edges and dumping it out of the loaf pan. It didn’t want to come, didn’t want to come then POP! it came out and landed on the rack. I say came out, but that’s not the whole story. Most of it came out. The rest stayed in the pan. Why oh why did I spray not butter as Dorie recommended?

I may have said a bad word at this point. I mean, when will I learn not to start baking at 8:25 on a Sunday night? I oh so carefully extricated the second one with a thin, flexible silicone flipper and pondered my options. I would have to make another cake. 

As I was measuring the almond meal, I realized that when I doubled the first recipe, I quadrupled the almond meal. So my first two loaves, even the one I eased out of the pan without incident, weren’t going to be fit to eat. I forged on anyway, again doubling the recipe to make two cakes, baked and cooled them and went to bed (it was almost midnight, and the next day would be the first work day after the time change). I figured I would make lemon curd to serve with the cake and all would be well.

I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 to make lemon curd for the yogurt cake. I had skipped the marmalade glaze as I couldn’t find lemon marmalade and I’m not big on orange marmalade. I had exactly enough eggs for a double recipe of lemon curd (this is one of my insanities; I double everything I make for social gatherings). I figured I would use the egg whites to make meringues as a fallback, pick up whipping cream at Safeway on my way home from work, and let the meringues sit in the oven all day while I worked. This is another of my insanities. Time is very elastic in my mind. I have to be at work at 8, and I do have to shower, dress, and drive to the office. Any reasonably sane person knows you’re not going to pipe out 25 meringues and bake them, make lemon curd and get in to the office before 10:00. But that was my plan. And it hinged on not goofing up on cracking any of the eggs and thereby polluting the pristine whites, which have to be completely free of fat to whip to their airy best. Miraculously, I didn’t have any yolk breakage, and all went according to plan with the curd, except I didn’t cook it long enough and it was slightly eggy. I have existential difficulties in serving a dessert that isn’t perfect.  Eggy lemon curd? Not perfect.

This was when I went to plan C. I gave up on bringing a home baked dessert and went to Costco on my way home to buy a cheesecake and a chocolate cake. This I did even though I didn’t yet know if the lemon curd was truly too eggy to serve. So I toddled on home, sliced a piece of the French Yogurt Cake, spooned the lemon curd over it, supplemented it with sliced organic strawberries, said a little prayer and took a bite.

It was amazing. The cake is perfect…it isn’t exactly a pound cake, but it’s not like a quick bread either. It has some lemon zest that hints at lemon without hitting you over the head. I made peace with the lemon curd. I washed and sliced the strawberries and relaxed. The world did not end.

But this, dear readers, is not the end of our story. The next day, I tasted the loaf with double the almond meal. It was wonderful, nay, almost better than the one I didn’t screw up. I quickly threw together a batch of hot fudge and took it to work (with the leftover lemon curd). The Costco cakes I purchased but didn’t need? They went to work, too. They were good, but not Dorie-good. As we know, that’s a whole different level of flavor.

So this cake is not only good, it’s easy, darn near impossible to mess up and it’s beyond versatile. That’s a real keeper in my book. I can’t wait to make it again with cinnamon instead of lemon, or with maple syrup to replace some of the sugar. Or with chai spices. Or…

People ask me all the time “How are you not as big as a house with all the baking you do?” Even though I’m doing battle with an extra 20 pounds, I try to eat fairly healthy and one of the best tools for me has been recipes by Ellie Krieger. Maybe you’ve seen her on Food Network. I always thought she was a little smug, but once I tried her recipes, that girl can be as smug as she wants! Her food is delicious and healthy. She cuts out the unnecessary bad stuff and keeps the flavor, and most of her recipes are ridiculously simple.

Why am I telling you this? There’s a group of us who make her recipes and blog about it. We call it Craving Ellie in My Belly. We take turns picking the recipe and we all blog about it on Thursdays. It’s the perfect antidote to the poundage from Tuesdays with Dorie. If you’d like to join us, email Sara and Nick at cravingellieinmybelly@gmail.com. Ellie got me to eat, and even enjoy, brussels sprouts!

TWD – French Yogurt Cake

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie pick is French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze. It was Liliana’s turn (of My Cookbook Addiction) to pick, and she really hit it out of the park. I proved that is it impossible to mess up this cake, as did a few other bakers, judging by the comments on the P&Q.

I made this recipe twice. The first time, I doubled the recipe as I needed to be able to serve twenty ladies with it. It requires no butter, and mixes in one bowl!! It rose as it baked and looked pretty spectacular. I let it cool five minutes before running my thin knife around the edges and dumping it out of the loaf pan. It didn’t want to come, didn’t want to come then POP! it came out and landed on the rack. I say came out, but that’s not the whole story. Most of it came out. The rest stayed in the pan. Why oh why did I spray not butter as Dorie recommended?

I may have said a bad word at this point. I mean, when will I learn not to start baking at 8:25 on a Sunday night? I oh so carefully extricated the second one with a thin, flexible silicone flipper and pondered my options. I would have to make another cake. 

As I was measuring the almond meal, I realized that when I doubled the first recipe, I quadrupled the almond meal. So my first two loaves, even the one I eased out of the pan without incident, weren’t going to be fit to eat. I forged on anyway, again doubling the recipe to make two cakes, baked and cooled them and went to bed (it was almost midnight, and the next day would be the first work day after the time change). I figured I would make lemon curd to serve with the cake and all would be well.

I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 to make lemon curd for the yogurt cake. I had skipped the marmalade glaze as I couldn’t find lemon marmalade and I’m not big on orange marmalade. I had exactly enough eggs for a double recipe of lemon curd (this is one of my insanities; I double everything I make for social gatherings). I figured I would use the egg whites to make meringues as a fallback, pick up whipping cream at Safeway on my way home from work, and let the meringues sit in the oven all day while I worked. This is another of my insanities. Time is very elastic in my mind. I have to be at work at 8, and I do have to shower, dress, and drive to the office. Any reasonably sane person knows you’re not going to pipe out 25 meringues and bake them, make lemon curd and get in to the office before 10:00. But that was my plan. And it hinged on not goofing up on cracking any of the eggs and thereby polluting the pristine whites, which have to be completely free of fat to whip to their airy best. Miraculously, I didn’t have any yolk breakage, and all went according to plan with the curd, except I didn’t cook it long enough and it was slightly eggy. I have existential difficulties in serving a dessert that isn’t perfect.  Eggy lemon curd? Not perfect.

This was when I went to plan C. I gave up on bringing a home baked dessert and went to Costco on my way home to buy a cheesecake and a chocolate cake. This I did even though I didn’t yet know if the lemon curd was truly too eggy to serve. So I toddled on home, sliced a piece of the French Yogurt Cake, spooned the lemon curd over it, supplemented it with sliced organic strawberries, said a little prayer and took a bite.

It was amazing. The cake is perfect…it isn’t exactly a pound cake, but it’s not like a quick bread either. It has some lemon zest that hints at lemon without hitting you over the head. I made peace with the lemon curd. I washed and sliced the strawberries and relaxed. The world did not end.

But this, dear readers, is not the end of our story. The next day, I tasted the loaf with double the almond meal. It was wonderful, nay, almost better than the one I didn’t screw up. I quickly threw together a batch of hot fudge and took it to work (with the leftover lemon curd). The Costco cakes I purchased but didn’t need? They went to work, too. They were good, but not Dorie-good. As we know, that’s a whole different level of flavor.

So this cake is not only good, it’s easy, darn near impossible to mess up and it’s beyond versatile. That’s a real keeper in my book. I can’t wait to make it again with cinnamon instead of lemon, or with maple syrup to replace some of the sugar. Or with chai spices. Or…

People ask me all the time “How are you not as big as a house with all the baking you do?” Even though I’m doing battle with an extra 20 pounds, I try to eat fairly healthy and one of the best tools for me has been recipes by Ellie Krieger. Maybe you’ve seen her on Food Network. I always thought she was a little smug, but once I tried her recipes, that girl can be as smug as she wants! Her food is delicious and healthy. She cuts out the unnecessary bad stuff and keeps the flavor, and most of her recipes are ridiculously simple.

Why am I telling you this? There’s a group of us who make her recipes and blog about it. We call it Craving Ellie in My Belly. We take turns picking the recipe and we all blog about it on Thursdays. It’s the perfect antidote to the poundage from Tuesdays with Dorie. If you’d like to join us, email Sara and Nick at cravingellieinmybelly@gmail.com. Ellie got me to eat, and even enjoy, brussels sprouts!

Yogurt, elevated

One of my biggest obstacles to losing the last 10 20 pounds is my love of all things dairy. I have friends with varying degrees of lactose intolerance, and I am sincerely sorry whenever I think about what they are missing.

When I crave something creamy and delicious, I often reach for yogurt in one form or another. I lean to fat free and low fat, and fat free Greek yogurt is frequently the one I go for. It’s thick and creamy, and good with both sweet and savory adornment. This week, I got to indulge my love of lemon and my love of yogurt by utilizing some left over lemon curd. Yes, I made my own lemon yogurt. Here’s how you do it:

Put desired amount of yogurt (I used low-fat Stonyfield Farms Organic Vanilla) in a bowl. Pour leftover lemon curd over yogurt to taste. Sprinkle with toasted nuts or granola. Eat. Repeat. Lick bowl (only if no one is looking). Feel virtuous for using up leftovers AND getting in a calcium serving.

Yogurt, elevated

One of my biggest obstacles to losing the last 10 20 pounds is my love of all things dairy. I have friends with varying degrees of lactose intolerance, and I am sincerely sorry whenever I think about what they are missing.

When I crave something creamy and delicious, I often reach for yogurt in one form or another. I lean to fat free and low fat, and fat free Greek yogurt is frequently the one I go for. It’s thick and creamy, and good with both sweet and savory adornment. This week, I got to indulge my love of lemon and my love of yogurt by utilizing some left over lemon curd. Yes, I made my own lemon yogurt. Here’s how you do it:

Put desired amount of yogurt (I used low-fat Stonyfield Farms Organic Vanilla) in a bowl. Pour leftover lemon curd over yogurt to taste. Sprinkle with toasted nuts or granola. Eat. Repeat. Lick bowl (only if no one is looking). Feel virtuous for using up leftovers AND getting in a calcium serving.

Barefoot Bloggers – Chicken Picatta

This week’s Barefoot Bloggers recipe is Chicken Picatta, chosen for us by Lindsey of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings. I was excited about this one as it is easy and inexpensive.

I did take a short cut. I bought sliced chicken breasts, so I didn’t have to pound them. This is such an easy recipe that dinner was ready early…that never happens! I served it with brown rice and steamed broccoli. The pan sauce was delicious with the chicken (and the broccoli). The sauce tasted a little too lemony on its own, but with the chicken it was spot on flavor wise.

There are one or two things I will do differently next time. After sautéing, the chicken bakes on a sheet pan with parchment paper. That made the bottom of the chicken soggy. I think I’ll bake it on a rack over the sheet pan so the bottom gets heat and stays crisp. I would also double the sauce since it was so good and such a natural to put over your veggies. I might also saute some spinach in that pan sauce and pour the whole thing over the chicken.

Give this one a try! It’s awesome and easy, a perfect Tuesday night dinner.

You can find the recipe here. If you’d like to join us in cooking and blogging about Barefoot Contessa recipes, here’s how you do it.