Strawberry Cake

This is the story of a very forgiving, easy cake, and I have the photos to prove it. I discovered this recipe last summer and made it twice, with different, equally delicious results.

Today I discovered the strawberries I had sitting on the counter had to be used today, with no further delay, and this recipe came to mind again. Only this time, I mis-read the recipe and used 50% more flour than I should have. And it still turned out fine. Denser, but still delicious.

June is the time that local strawberries come on the market, and there is no point in buying them any time that they are not local.  Since this recipe uses fresh strawberries, it is an ideal summer cake.







The first time I made this recipe I followed it exactly, including a mix of all-purpose and barley flour. It turned out perfect, with a soft crumb and delicate flavour. I made it in a cake pan, and the batter ended up buckling around the fruit on top.

The second time I made it in spring-form pan, but the fruit ended up sinking to the bottom, but it tasted great and I just managed to take a picture before the rest of it was consumed.

The third time I made it in a deep dish pie plate, I didn't have any barley flour and it was too early in the morning, so I rushed though the instructions and added 2.25 cups of flour instead of 1.5 cups. I also used buttermilk instead of milk. The cake ended up being denser, perhaps more muffin-like than cake like, or like a cobbler. I can imagine serving it with some warm custard served over it.

Strawberry Cake

Once again, this recipe is adapted from  Smitten Kitchen.

225 grams (1 1/2 cup)   flour (up to 50% barley flour)

1/2 teaspoon                  baking soda

1 teaspoon                     baking powder

1/2 teaspoon                  salt
85 grams                        butter

190 grams (7/8 cup)      sugar

120 ml (1/2 cup)           buttermilk

1                                    egg

1 teaspoon                     vanilla extract

300 grams  (3/4 pound) strawberries

1 tablespoon                 sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, and butter a 9-10 inch cake pan, a 9-inch deep dish pie pan, or a spring form pan.
2. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla and mix until just combined.
5. Gradually add the flour and mix until just combined.
6. Pour into the greased pan, then stud the strawberries over the batter. Depending on how many strawberries you have, they may totally cover the batter, or be spaced a bit.
7. Sprinkle a tablespoon og sugar over the top.
8. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to 325F and bake for another 50-60 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a tester comes out clean.
9. Once it cools, you can sprinkle some icing sugar on top. This looks especially nice if the fruit dropped to the bottom and the top is quite smooth.

This is what the batter is supposed to look like

This is what the batter looks like with too much flour (and strawberries!)

Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread

The number of over-ripe bananas accumulating in my freezer had reached critical proportions (8!) so I thought it was about time to do some baking.

I have 2 favourite recipes for banana bread, but I've made them so often I decided to look for some new inspiration, and naturally came to think of peanut butter.

Peanut butter and bananas are a great combination. For breakfast or dessert, I've been known to just slice a banana in half length-wise and smear peanut butter between the two layers. And of course toasted peanut butter and banana sandwiches are classic, so I thought a PB riff on banana bread would not be misplaced.

This  turned out to be a vegan banana bread, made with peanut butter and seroendeng. (I have an industrial-size jar of seroendeng that needs to be used up, and the amount of nasi goreng I can consume is limited.) I also made a classic banana cake with eggs and butter.

My testers (aka colleagues) turned out to be very divided on which one they liked better. Half preferred the one and half the other, and the comments were very interesting. One thought the peanut butter flavour was too dominant, another couldn't identify what the extra flavour was; one preferred the banana-y flavour of the cake, another found it too straight and mild.

My personal opinion? Mwah. I find that vegan cakes tend to be slightly drier than normal cakes, and denser. There is just no substitute for eggs. It tastes best smeared with a bit of butter (which of course makes it non-vegan). Ultimately, I think my other regular banana bread recipes have the edge over this one, but for those who like spiced banana bread, this makes a good variation.

Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread

I adapted this from here, omitting the chocolate chips, substituting brown sugars for white, and adding cinnamon and seroendeng.

2 tablespoons flax seeds, ground
6 tablespoons warm water

1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/5 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup seroendeng, optional *

1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup yellow sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (demerera), loosely packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 over-ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup peanut butter


* Seroendeng kering is an Indonesian condiment of toasted coconut, peanuts, sugar, and salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
2. Grease a 9 cup cake form, such as 12x4.5 inch loaf pan, a bundt cake pan, and dust with flour or fine bread crumbs.
3. Combine the ground flax seeds and hot water in a small bowl and set aside. I use a coffee grinder to grind the seeds. (This is a  substitute for 2 eggs,  so if  you are not constrained, feel free to use eggs instead. )
4. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and seroendeng in a medium large bowl.
5. In a large bowl, mix the oil, brown sugars, vanilla, bananas, peanut butter and flax seed mixture (or 2 eggs). Mix thoroughly (I used a mixer). 
6. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until the dry ingredients are just wet. Do not over-mix.
7. Spoon the batter into the greased pan and (optionally) sprinkle the top with another tablespoon or two of seroendeng. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Lemon Almond Cantuccini (Biscotti)

In North America, we call them biscotti, in Italy and the rest of Europe they're called cantuccini (or cantucci). There was recently a recipe for them in one of the local papers which inspired me to try my hand at them.

This version uses no butter, which means the cookies become very hard and are best eaten dunked is some sweet wine, coffee or tea. They also keep well (if they last so long!).

Lemon Almond Cantuccini

Adapted from Cees Holtkamp

125 grams flour
125 grams sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
large pinch of salt
1 teaspoon lemon peel
2 medium eggs
100 grams almonds, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 325F/170C and prepare put parchment paper on a baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon peel.
3. Lightly beat the 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, and add it to the dry ingredients. Reserve the remaining egg white as an egg wash.
4. Use your hands to lightly knead the eggs into the flour until it forms a dough.
5. Add and mix in (still with your hands) the chopped almonds. I used blanched almonds, but using unblanched almonds would look pretty.
6. Break the dough into two lumps and roll each lump out to a length of 10-12 inches on a lightly floured surface. A fatter roll will yield bigger cookies. For small cookies, you could break it into 4 skinny rolls.
7. With a brush, apply a wash of egg white to yield shiny cookies.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until light golden brown. The dough will spread out quite a bit.
9. Turn the oven down to 300F/150C.
10. Remove from the oven and put the baked plaques on a cutting board. While they are still warm and a bit soft on the inside, diagonally cut the plaques into pieces about 1 inch/2 cm wide. Place these pieces on their side on the parchment paper and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
11. Let the cookies cool and then store in a jar or tin, theoretically for a month or so.
12. Serve as dessert with a sweet wine like vin santo or white port for dunking, or with coffee or tea.

Bakewell Tarts

It's a stupid reason to make tarts, but I was looking for a recipe that uses jam in it. I had some mediocre jam that I wanted to find a use for, without having to put it on my toast. So I thought of a Bakewell Tart, which has a layer of jam under a frangipane filling. But there's a reason for that old adage of using the best ingredients you can. In the end, I just couldn't bring myself to ruin a lovely pastry with jam that lacked any kind of decent flavour. Unless I'm struck with a brilliant idea soon, I'm going to throw the stuff out. (Mea culpa, mea culpa!)

I was surprised by the variety of recipes out there for Bakewell tart, especially the number of eggs required. Some of them have so many eggs, it must be more of a custard. I ended up using a recipe from one of my most reliable sources—Deb Perlman of Smitten Kitchen.

Bakewell Tarts 

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen. 

Yield:  five 4-inch tarts or one 9-inch tart.  Serves: 8-10 (I only have four small tart pans, so I had extra tart dough and filling left over—enough for one more tart. I've put it in the freezer, ready for use.)

Be warned, both the filling and the dough spend a few hours in the fridge/freezer, so this is a good candidate for preparing ahead of time and baking when required.

Tart filling:

1 cup blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

2/3 cup sugar

110 grams unsalted butter, cool room temperature

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons orange or lemon zest 

4 tablespoons raspberry conserve

Tart dough:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup bastard sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

110 grams (partially) frozen unsalted butter

1 large egg

Tip: Put the butter for the tart dough in the freezer for a half hour or so before you start.

1. Make the tart dough.
   Butter the tart pans. In the food processor, mix the flour, sugar, and salt.
   Cut the cold butter into small pieces and scatter over the flour mixture. (The butter has to be very cold, but butter that is frozen solid is harder to cut,  so I always use butter that has been frozen for 30-45 minutes.)
   Pulse just until it forms a course meal (the largest pieces should be the size of a pea).
   Using about 1/5 of the dough for each tart, press it into each tart pan and up the sides. Try to press and handle as little as possible, just enough to get the dough stuck together in the form.
   Prick with a fork and put back into the freezer for an hour or two.
2. Make the frangipane.
   In a food processor, finely grind the almonds and flour, then add the sugar. Add the butter, almond extract, and grated lemon rind and mix until smooth.
   Add the eggs, blending thoroughly.
   Transfer to a bowl or container, then cover and chill for 3 hours.
   Clean the food processor, as you'll need it again.
3. Pre-bake the tart shells.
   Preheat the overn to 375F/190C.
   Take some aluminum foil and cut it into squares that roughly pit the tart shells.
   Butter the shiny side of the foil, fit it into a tart shell, buttered side down.
   Place the tart pans on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
   Remove the foil. If the pastry has puffed a lot, press it down a bit with a spoon.
   Return the tart shells to the oven bake for another 5 minutes.
   Remove and let cool.
4. Assemble and bake the tarts.
   Preheat the oven to 350°F/180C, and take the frangipane out of the fridge.
   Spread a generous tablespoon of jam in the bottom of each tart shell.
   Spread the chilled frangipane over the jam. I used by my fingers to break it into little pieces and a knife to carefully spread it out. You don't need to make it too smooth, since it will flatten out while baking.
   Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the top of the tarts.
   Bake them for 30 to 40 minutes until golden. A cake tester inserted into center of filling should come out clean.
   Let cool and then remove the tarts from the pans (this is where removable bottoms really make things easy!).
5. Optionally, sift some icing sugar over the tarts before serving.

Fish Pie

Fish pie is a classic English dish of the comfort food variety—a mashed potato topping over fish in a creamy sauce. As with any classic dish, there are innumerable variations, ranging from the type of fish and type of sauce, the choice of vegetables (if any) and herbs, to the technique (to pre-cook the fish or not).

Most recipes also call for part of the fish to be smoked white fish of some sort, something that is difficult to come by here. You can easily get smoked mackerel, smoked herring, and smoked salmon, but these are oily fish and have such a distinctive flavour (especially smoked salmon) that I don't think they work properly for fish pie.

Fish pie is prone to a number of problems, such as overcooked fish, bland flavour, and colourless appearance, so I've been on a quest for a fish pie that tastes great, uses sustainable and obtainable fish, and retains its character as down-home comfort food.
I decided to use salmon as a strong-tasting fish to use instead of smoked white fish, ignored suggestions for luxury items like shrimp and scallops, and added a layer of spinach to provide color, flavour, and nutrition. I really enjoyed the result!

Fish Pie

500 grams floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
25 grams butter
splash of milk
1 tablespoon chopped dill and/or parsley
500 grams spinach
250 ml fish stock
100 ml cup white wine
small bunch of parsley
250 grams white fish fillets (hake, pollock, haddock)
125 grams salmon fillet
25 grams butter
3 shallots, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
100 ml cream
1 anchovies, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tablespoon breadcrumbs (optional)
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, finely grated (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
2. Make the mashed potatoes. Cook the potatoes and smashed garlic in salted water until the potatoes are cooked, through. Drain the potatoes, then mash with some butter and a splash of milk. Mix in the chopped herbs, season to taste, and set aside.
3. Prepare and cook the spinach. While the potatoes cook, clean the spinach, removing any course stems. Using just the water that clings to the leaves, cook it in a large pot until it is all wilted. Drain and squeeze as much water out of it as you can, then chop finely. (Alternatively, you can use frozen spinach.) Set aside.
4. Barely cook the fish. Combine the fish stock (or use a fish bouillon cube in water), wine, and parsley in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the fish fillets and simmer for 3-5 minutes, depending on the size of the fillets. You want the fish to impart some juice and flavour to the broth but to be a little underdone. Remove the fish to a plate and break into large pieces. Remove and discard the parsley. Pour the stock into a measuring cup or bowl so you can reuse the saucepan.
5. Make the sauce. After rinsing out the saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, and sauté the shallots for 3 minutes. Add the flour and cook it, stirring, for a few minutes. Gradually stir in the fish/wine stock and bring it to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Take the sauce off the heat, stir in the cream, dill and anchovy, then season to taste.
6. Assemble and bake the pie. Add the fish to the sauce and mix gently. Put the fish in its sauce in a baking dish. Put the spinach as a layer over the fish, and top with mashed potatoes. Use a fork to draw pretty patterns. Sprinkle some paprika over the top, then bake for 35 minutes. (Optionally, bake for 20 minutes and then top with breadcrumbs and cheese before baking for the final 15 minutes.)

Salmon Croquettes

Say "salmon croquettes" in my family and you see faces lift, eyes light up, and virtual tails wag, like a dog that has scented a rabbit. Salmon croquettes are one of my mother's specialties and a universal favourite on the supper table. They are also a "company's coming" dish—unusual, attractive, comforting, and delicious.

They are easy to make, but require some time in the fridge to stiffen up, so it's ideal to do most of the preparation earlier in the day (or the night before) so that all you have to do is deep fry them for a few minutes just before serving. And they are frugal, stretching one can of sockeye salmon to feed four people.

I've tweaked it a bit, adding onion, celery, and dill to punch up the flavour a bit, but this is essentially my mother's recipe.

Salmon Croquettes

Serves 4 (2 croquettes each)
Note: Please don't substitute pink salmon for the sockeye. The deep red color and rich flavour of sockey are really needed here.

1 cup (aproximately) canned sockeye salmon (I just use a 213gr tin)
1/2  small or medium onion, very finely minced or grated (optional*)
1/2 stalk celery, very finely minced or grated (optional)
1 teaspoon  lemon juice
1 tablespoon  parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons dill, chopped
1 teaspoon  salt
1/2 teaspoon  pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3/4 cup  oatmeal
2 tablespoons  butter
4 tablespoons  flour
1 cup  milk
2  eggs, beaten
1 cup  bread crumbs

* The original recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon grated onion(!), so Mom opts to omit it and I add more.

1. Drain the salmon and put it in a medium to large bowl. Flake it, crushing any bones with your fingers. (You can remove the bones and skin if you want, but I never do. It's a waste of good calcium and bulk.)
2. Add the minced onion and celery, the oatmeal, and the parsley, dill, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly, then set aside while you make the white sauce.
3. In a small saucepan or in the microwave, heat the milk until little bubbles begin to form. Don't let it boil. The point is to heat it up to minimize lumps in the sauce.
4. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and then add the flour, stirring for a couple of minutes to cook it and get rid of the ray flour taste.
5. Gradually add the heated milk to the roux of butter and flour, whisking all the time. Continue whisking as the sauce thickens and cooks, for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the white sauce to the salmon and mix thoroughly. Cover with cling film and put into the fridge for an hour or two to let the mix stiffen up so it is easier to handle and shape. The stiffer the mixture, the easier it is to roll, shape, and bread.
7. While the salmon mixture chills, whisk the 2 eggs in a bowl and pour a cup of breadcrumbs onto a plate.
8. After the salmon mixture has stiffened, take it out of the fridge and divide the mixture into 8 (more or less) even balls. Oil your hands with some vegetable oil, and roll each ball into a cylinder. 
9. Roll the cylinder in the bread crumbs, then into the beaten eggs, and then in the bread crumbs again. Be gentle, but make sure everything gets a double coat of bread crumbs, including the ends. 
10. Lay the croquettes on a plate and cover with cling film, then put it in the fridge again. 
11. When you are ready to cook the croquettes, remove them from the fridge. Pour a vegetable oil that can withstand high temperatures, such as peanut oil,  in a deep sauce pan or deep fryer (if you're lucky enough to have one) to a depth of about 3 inches. Heat it to 170C (350F).
12. Adding 2-3 croquettes at a time (depending on the size of your pan), fry them for about 3-4 minutes until they have turned golden brown on the outside and are heated through on the inside.
13. Drain on paper towels and then serve. 

Bundt Cakes

I have a new plaything—a lovely bundt cake form from Nordic Ware. It's an American company with a generous variety of such playful, heavy-duty cake pans that I understand the people who like to collect them!

My pan's crisp swirls are tempting me into the new repertoire of bundt cakes, and my colleagues are very grateful. I'm providing two cake recipes here, one for a vegan chocolate cake using a quickbread method, the other for lemon cake using the traditional cake method. Both cakes feature an unusual ingredient—beets in the chocolate cake, white pepper in the lemon cake.

Vegan cakes need something to provide the moisture and tender crumb that eggs contribute to ordinary cakes; fruit or vegetables can help bridge the gap, so I was not surprised to see recipes that involve applesauce or beets. Chocolate cake with beets is something I've known about for years and forms the basis of our family recipe for Black Forest Cake, so a vegan variant is a logical step.

The lemon cake recipe is even more interesting because it calls for 1-2 teaspoons of white pepper. This results in a sophisticated cake that leaves your tongue tingling long after the cake is gone. In fact, you barely even notice the pepper in the first bite or two, and then the tingle begins. I find it enchanting, as did my colleagues.

Lemon Ginger and Pepper Cake

I adapted this recipe from the one that came with the bundt cake form, but based on some internet research, it looks like the original recipe came from  Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts. Although the recipe list contains fresh ginger,  it's flavour is not noticeable. I presume it is there just to give some of that spicy tingle. I reduced the sugar by at least 1/4 cup.

--
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated (1-inch piece)
2 teaspoons finely-grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3 cup sifted flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons ground white pepper
1 cup buttermilk
--
Lemon glaze:
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (180°C).
2. Grease the bundt pan with the margarine and dust with the breadcrumbs (I used paneermeel)., 
3. In a small bowl, mix the lemon juice, grated ginger, and grated lemon zest and set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and white pepper.
5. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
6. Add the eggs, one-by-one, beating after every addition.
7. On low speed, add the flour mixture on third at a time, alternating with half of the buttermilk, and ending with the flour, mixing well after each addition.
8. Stir in the lemon-ginger mixture.
9. Spoon into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 75 minutes,  or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
10. While the cake bakes, heat the lemon juice and sugar in a small pan until the sugar is dissolved. 
11. Place a piece of waxed paper under a cooling rack.
12. After the cake has cooled for 10 minutes, turn the cake out onto the cooling rack.
13. Brush the cake with the lemon glaze until all of it is absorbed. 

Note: One of my colleagues found the cake too sweet and too lemony, probably because of this glaze. The rest of us loved it!

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Beets

I adapted this recipe from Epicurious, adding a quarter cup of cocoa powder and reducing the sugar.

--
1 tablespoon of vegetable or soy margarine
2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
1/2 cup neutral-tasting oil
1 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 cups puréed cooked (boiled or steamed) red beets (about 3 medium-size beets)
90 grams (nondairy) semi-sweet chocolate
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (look for aluminum-free)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Grease the bundt pan with the margarine and dust with the breadcrumbs (I used paneermeel).
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
4. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar and oil, then add the puréed beets, melted chocolate, and vanilla extract.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet beet mixture, and stir until just combined.
7. Pour into the prepared bundt pan, and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack. 

I find the shape of my bundt pan so pretty, I don't bother with a glaze, but a white chocolate glaze would also be very attractive. Or just dust with icing sugar when it is cool.