Skip the coffee, go straight to coffee cake

Here's the thing about coffee cake. All that stuff you find in grocery stores and even most bakeries has nothing to do with real coffee cake.  Real coffee cake is rich and the texture is out of this world.  You find yourself thinking about it for the rest of the day- what the heck was in that? And how can I get some more? I really hope you try this recipe. It might just change your life. Or at least impress your mother-in-law.

The recipe is not difficult, but it takes a few steps, and you really do need buttermilk- the lactic acid in buttermilk is what turns the cake from ho-hum into holy moly. I think this recipe is a bit easier than others because it combines the making of the crumb topping with the making of the cake. Another item to note- I use both a Kitchen Aid mixer and a Cuisinart food processor. These tools are not necessary, but they sure make it a snap.

The other great thing about coffee cake is that it is incredibly flexible. Once you see how easy the basic recipe is, you can start adding your own variations- add blueberries! Mini chocolate chips sprinkled over the top! Crumb topping in the middle! The sky is the limit here. 

Ingredients

To prepare the pan:
Butter or cooking spray
1 tblsp flour for dusting

Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 cup + 2 tblsp sugar
1 tsp salt
10 tblsp unsalted butter, cold
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temp
1 large egg, at room temp
2 tsps vanilla extract
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


My mother asked me how I get the topping so crumbly. I process it in the food processor. That's all.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Prepare the pan. I use a 9 inch spring form pan. If you don't have one, or have no idea what I'm talking about, use a 9x9 square baking dish. It's just a bit easier to get out with the spring form pan. Spray or grease the sides and bottom of the pan, then lightly dust all over with the 1 tblsp flour.
3. Now, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in your mixer or by hand until combined.
4. Cut the cold butter into small pieces.
5.Put the flour/sugar/salt/soda/powder mixture in the Cuisinart. Toss in the butter. Process for 15 seconds or until it is a coarse meal. Set aside 1 cup of this butter/flour mixture for your crumb topping.
6. Put the rest of the mixture back in the Kitchen Aid mixing bowl. Add the room temperature buttermilk, egg and the 2 tsps vanilla. Mix everything until it is smooth, and it will resemble frosting, (as my daughter pointed out). The batter will be super thick and smell so good!
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
8. Make the crumb topping by adding the brown sugar and the cinnamon to the reserved flour/sugar mixture. Mix with a fork until blended will but still a little crumbly. Sprinkle the crumb topping over the cake batter.
9. Bake the cake at 350 until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, and/or the middle is firm to the touch. Takes approximately 55 minutes, depending on your oven.

Be sure to cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then take it out! Don't leave in the pan too long, or try to take it out immediately. It takes about 2 hours to cool completely, although we can never wait that long. And it's even better after a day or so! Enjoy.

Cold Quinoa Salad with Pumpkin Seeds and Sugar Snap Peas

You are most likely sick of hearing about quinoa. In an article about the politics of food companies, a grouchy journalist took this swipe at the grain; "For some consumers, that would spoil the taste. Or would, if it were possible to make quinoa taste worse"*.  But really, quinoa is a good deal, food-wise. I like the crunchy mouth feel and the taste is bland enough to be a bit of a canvas for other flavors. It is quite nutritious, cheap and versatile....it is a good grain to have in rotation. I especially like it for to-go lunches. You can make this recipe in advance and then bring it with you to work for a healthy, hearty, and relatively low calorie meal.

Full disclosure on this recipe. My kids tried it, and decided they didn't like it. However, I consider it a victory, as they didn't make a face, or gag. Which means that if I make another 10 times they will probably eventually forget that they don't like it.

Also, I apologize for posting this recipe as sugar snap peas are more of a spring vegetable. I love them though, and my kids actually like them as well, so I included them. You could use bell peppers for a nice crunch instead. I'm hoping that the oh-so-seasonal pumpkin seeds make up for this transgression.

Ingredients
1/2 lb sugar snap peas
1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained**
1/4 cup olive oil, extra virgin
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, roasted and salted
1/2 cup minced chives
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a small saucepan full of salted water to a boil. Add the sugar snap peas and simmer for about a minute. (If you want to really bring out the green color, drain and dump into an ice bath for a few minutes. This is one of my mother's best tips.) Drain and cool. It's probably best to cut into bite size pieces, but I sometimes leave them whole because they are just so pretty.

Bring the quinoa and two cups of water to a boil. Turn heat to low and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Put the quinoa in a large bowl, fluff it with a fork and leave it to cool to room temperature.

While the quinoa is cooking, combine the oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper. Add the pumpkin seeds, cooled peas, pumpkin seeds, chives and dressing to the quinoa- stir and add more salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate after making.



*"Voting with your wallet." The Economist, September 13th, 2014. Page 38.
** You may ask yourself, how the hell do I rinse these teeny little suckers? They get everywhere! I lay them in a clean dishcloth, make a little open bag out of it, and run water over them. Then I scrape them off the dishcloth into the pot with a knife. If anyone knows a better way, let me know.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

My daughters love making cookies with me. I like to think it is because we are spending time together and learning math through application. But perhaps they are more results oriented than I care to admit.  Regardless, we do enjoy it and are always looking for excuses to bake.  A few months ago, my preschooler and I decided to make cookies for her class picnic.  She loves oatmeal for breakfast, and often requests it as an after school snack.  I was surprised when she objected to my suggestion of oatmeal raisin cookies. Evidently she has become anti-raisin because "they stick in my teeth". However, she suggested using chocolate chips instead. I tinkered with the recipe on the Quaker Oats canister and the result was quite a hit with the entire class.  

You will need:

1/2 cup plus 6 tblsps unsalted butter (almost 2 sticks)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups of old fashioned oats (I never use quick, I prefer the texture of the old fashioned)

1 and 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make sure the butter is nice and soft. Put it in a mixer with the sugars, until it is well combined. Add the  eggs and the vanilla. 

Mix together the flour, soda, salt and oats in a separate bowl. Add to the wet mixture. Toss in the chocolate chips. Stir until just nicely blended. Don't stir too much! Over stirring will make them tough. 

Line the cookie sheet with a silpat mat. Trust me on this- they are worth the investment. (See my previous post on the topic.) 

For the next part, I use a small ice cream scoop, the kind that you squeeze.  The scoop really helps keep the size uniform so that the cookies bake evenly. Scoop a ball of dough with the ice cream scooper. This next part is optional, but it makes the cookies look very nice. With clean, wet hands, roll the dough ball in your palms until it is smooth and even. Then put it on the cookie tray lined with the silpat mat and smoosh it a little bit flat with your hand. Bake for 9-15 minutes- this really depends on the size of your cookies and then oven. If it is a teaspoon size ball of dough, it will run closer to 9 minutes. The ice cream scoop ones will be more like 12, and really big cookies are about 15 minutes. 

Once the cookies are lightly browned, remove from the oven. Cool on a cookie rack. 

Lentils?

I discovered my daughter had low iron levels at her last well child visit. I found this totally shocking. Apparently, hemoglobin levels are NOT correlated to willpower. The pediatrician advised me to increase iron-rich foods, and listed in rapid-fire succession foods my daughter would never, ever eat....and lentils. I realized I had never made lentils for my daughter. In fact, I wasn't sure if I had ever made lentils for myself. Inspiration struck! I picked up a box of French Le Puy Lentils at random, and began experimenting. 

Here's what I learned. These tiny green French lentils are much tastier (in my opinion) than the bigger ones. They have a more pleasing texture. In addition, unlike many legumes, they don't need to be soaked or any sort of big fuss. You just cook them up. They are great warm, with fish for dinner. Then I eat them cold the next day for lunch. The best thing of all, they are low in calories, and high in protein and iron.  Here's my favorite way to make them. 

French Lentil Salad

1.25 cups of French green lentils (I use the Roland brand)

1 bay leaf

a few sprigs of fresh thyme (I'm sure you can sprinkle a pinch of dried instead)

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

2 stalks of celery, diced (if you like fennel, you can also use this, but I find celery more kid friendly)

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

lemon wedges

lots of sea salt and black pepper

Rinse the lentils. This is trickier than it sounds. I wrap them up tight in cheesecloth and run the water through the bundle. These little guys have a way of sneaking all over your kitchen if you don't contain them in the rinsing process! Put the rinsed lentils in a large saucepan and cover with water by 3-4 inches. Add the bay leaf and thyme. Bring the concoction to a boil, and then reduce heat. Now add a dash of salt (in my case, a lot of salt!) and simmer them for about 20 minutes.

While they are simmering, saute carrots, onions and celery (or fennel) in olive oil. Season them with salt and pepper until tender. Drain the lentils- you can use the cheesecloth for this too- and discard the bay leaf and thyme.

Then you combine the veggies and the lentils, stir up a bit, add more salt and pepper to your taste. Add an additional 1 tbsp of olive oil. Serve with lemon wedge, so your little diners can decide if they want the extra zing of lemon.  If you want a real treat, add crumbled goat cheese. Delicious.

Who knew those Belgians can cook chicken, too?

I have been trapped in a cooking funk as of late. A big part of the reason is that my children are on some sort of demented hunger strike, refusing to eat almost anything that isn't chocolate or pasta.While on some levels this is a perfectly rational response to an uncertain world (why roll the dice on something new when you KNOW you love chocolate), it was driving me freaking berserk  With the the amount of advance planning and hands on time required in cooking a decent meal, it just becomes depressing when your diners refuse to eat it. And so maybe, just maybe, I was feeding the kids pasta every night and skipping dinner myself for the most part. Maybe.

However, the online grocery service I use actually has a recipes section, and they do this really cool thing where they link a recipe to the groceries needed. So if you want to try a recipe all you have to do is click on the ingredients you need and it is automatically added to your grocery list! Awesome. One day when I was shopping for say, pasta and chocolate online, I started browsing the recipes. My funk was broken. Inspiration struck in the form of a recipe for braised chicken and tomatoes, from a book called "Everybody Eats Well in Belgium" by Ruth Van Waerebeek . Of course, I had to adapt it. I used my slow cooker instead of an enameled dutch own, and used only fresh ingredients so it doesn't have that tinny, processed taste that many slow cooker recipes have. And unbelievably, my kids loved it.  I had to share.

Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 whole roasting chicken (3 to 4 pounds), cut into 8 serving pieces, rinsed and patted dry, all visible fat removed
1 teaspoon paprika
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed, and halved or left whole if very small
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
1 1/4 cups dry white wine
2 ripe large fresh beefsteak tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded, and chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook the chicken parts until golden brown all over, about 10 minutes. It's important not to crowd the chicken, because then the meat gets steamed instead of seared. Do this in 2 batches if necessary. Remove the browned chicken to a platter and season with salt, pepper, and paprika. This means sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper to taste and the 1 tsp of paprika. Set aside.
2. Pour out all but 1 1/2 tablespoons fat. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, over high heat until softened. This takes 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. De-glaze by adding the wine and scraping up all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken pieces and add the tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, and bay leaf.
3. Cook on the slow setting of your slow cooker for 6 hours.

More inspiration from the 67th St Farmer's Market

Earlier this fall, to my horror and delight, my 5 year old daughter marched confidently into her first day of kindergarten. She attends a New York city public school that has an extremely active and clever PTA. The PTA raises an enormous amount of money every year to pay for all the extras that the Board of Education cannot. One of their fundraisers is the 67th street Farmer's Market. http://east67thstreetmarket.org/

I go there nearly every Saturday to pick up some beautiful, fresh produce from local farmers. There is nothing like digging into an apple barrel to find that the apples are still wet with dew! 

This weekend I saw these little cippolini onions and couldn't resist buying them. These onions are very pungent but small and are heavenly roasted with potatoes. The recipe I used was adapted from Giada De Laurentiis of the Food Network. I prefer thyme to her rosemary, but feel free to use either. This is perfect to throw into the oven with a roast chicken. 

Cippolini Onions and Fingerling Potatoes

Serves about 6 people, or 4 people who really love potatoes.

You will need:

2 pounds fingerling or yukon gold potatoes 

1 pound cippolini onions, peeled

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cippolini Onions and Fingerling Potatoes- before cooking
and still need to be spread out more to brown perfectly.

Then I just toss all the ingredients together on a baking sheet, then spread it into a single layer.The single layer keeps the potatoes from steaming, so they brown up beautifully. I baked mine on foil so I didn't have to clean up. This is lazy and environmentally incorrect behavior which I do not condone, unless you are just really having a bad day.

Bake until the potatoes and onions are golden brown and cooked through, usually about 40 minutes. 

Hey Pumpkin

Pumpkin Muffins

I don't have to tell you that the days are getting shorter and the air is getting chillier. It's harder to get out of bed. You definitely need something to look forward to in the morning, and these moist, decadent muffins will do the trick. Normally I avoid recipes that call for things like buttermilk, because I never have it on hand. Ever. But I found this recipe on the Fresh Direct website, and since I was already shopping, I could just order it. I've altered it- of course, I am compulsive like that! But it really had way too much pumpkin pie spice in the original. However, I'd like to note that I was using brand-new pumpkin pie spice. If yours is infrequently used, then you might want to bump it up a bit.

Makes 18 muffins

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (unless it's been sitting around since last Thanksgiving, then 1.5-2 tsps!)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips (I really prefer mini- they add a bit of chocolate to each bite!)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
2 large eggs
18 baking cup liners! Don't forget these- we had to run out in our aprons to get some.

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Stir together the dry ingredients:  flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. In a separate mixer bowl, beat the brown sugar, pumpkin, buttermilk, vegetable oil, molasses, vanilla extract and eggs. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture, stirring only until moist.Don't over beat them- they get tough.
4. Fill the 18 lined muffin cups about 3/4 of the way up. Bake for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Remove muffins from pans immediately and cool on a wire rack before serving.