BAKING
Anyone who knows me knows I love to bake. Baking to me is the epitome of comfort and joy. No matter what kind of day I am having I always enjoy creating something. For the holidays this year, I baked up a storm! Here are a few of my favorite things:
Clementine Cake adapted by Deb at smittenkitchen.com
My husband, Rick, and I were invited to a friend's home for Christmas Eve dinner. I wanted to make something that wouldn't take away from the hosts dinner and desserts nor be too flashy, but still have good flavor and presentation. I have tried a couple recipes from smittenkitchen.com, one of my favorite food blogs, and always enjoyed Deb's spin on dishes. I belong to her email DL, so receive updates from her blog regularly. After a quick search of winter desserts, I selected the Clementine cake recipe for its simplistic presentation and unique concept. I knew even if the cake didn't turn out, I would have an interesting story to tell at the party! Since I was baking quite a bit time was limited, so this simple cake seemed the right choice.
Even though it takes almost 3 hours to make (two hours of boiling the whole clementines to remove the bitterness) it was well worth the effort. The bulk of the time was spent regularly checking the water level while the clementines boiled, so I ha plenty of time to work on other projects. I highly suggest checking the water level regularly as the water in the pot can boil away quickly and you'll have a mess on your hands. The rest of the prep was easy and the cake came together quickly.
Some things to consider:
- Deb notes the original recipe calls for an 8" pan, but she used a 9". I used a 9" pan, as well, and followed her timing recommendations. My oven bakes cool, so I always have to bump up 5 degrees for baking. The cake finished at about 35 minutes at 355F degrees.
- Deb includes weights for the dry ingredients, as well as volume measurements. With baking, if you have the option between volume and weight, always choose weight since volume can be arbitrary. You will have more successful baked goods if you utilize the weights. Get a good quality kitchen scale which has both US and metric, and also weighs to two decimals for accuracy.
- If you dust the cake with powdered sugar, like I did, I suggest waiting until you present the cake to dust it. The cake is incredibly moist and sucks the powdered sugar up! It essentially glazes itself, so if you would like a dusting for presentation, wait until the last second.
I ground the almonds in my food processor first as finely as they would grind. Almonds won't turn into a flour consistency due to their high fat content, but you should be able to get it fairly powdery. You'll get a less gritty texture if you grind finely.
Overall, this was a great choice for a dinner party. Everyone enjoyed the cake and had fun discussing how they were eating whole clementines; pith, peel and all!
We all have many variations of the standard loaf bread recipe, but this is my new favorite pumpkin version. The recipe makes two loaves, or 2 dozen muffins, though I haven't tried the muffin variation yet. I have churned out two batches of this recipe and both times had perfect loaves! On the Epicurious recipe site where I found this, you can find hundreds of suggested variations on the basic recipe in the comments section. The recipe I post is altered to my taste, but please check out the basic recipe here, and be sure to read through a couple dozen suggestions from Epicurious readers. Spiced Pumpkin bread was a wonderful gift for friends this year!
Serve one of these loaves the day you make them. Wrap the other in foil and freeze up to one month so that you'll have it on hand for unexpected company. Be sure to use fresh ground nutmeg for a more complex flavor. My favorite part of this bread is the crunchy, caramelized crust! Toast it and eat with honey butter.
Yield: Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup melted unsalted butter, slightly cooled
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanila
- 1 15-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
- 3 cups (scant) all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs, vanilla and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in walnuts, if desired.
Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.
