Coconut Cupcakes with Mango Curd Filling

Have you ever tried to construct a make-shift double boiler from a mishmash of kitchen items? Even if you don’t own a “real” double boiler, like this, in a typical kitchen it’s usually pretty easy to find a metal or glass bowl that fits nicely into a saucepan. Imagine doing that when the selection in your mishmash of kitchen items consists of exactly two small saucepans and two enormous glass bowls. And no whisk. This was the situation I found myself in last week as I prepared to make mango curd. But I’m not one to let the lack of a silly bowl stop me, so I embraced this slightly challenging situation and got creative.

From my two saucepans and two large glass bowls, I selected the smaller of the bowls and the larger saucepan. This was far from an ideal match. The bowl was about twice as big as the saucepan and a very small portion of the bowl was actually sitting in the pan, which meant that I had to boil almost a full pot of water (instead of the typical couple inches in a double boiler) in order for the water to be anywhere close to the bottom of the bowl. I also jammed a wooden spoon between the bowl and the saucepan to allow for at least a little steam to escape. So I had a giant, unstable glass bowl sitting on top of a saucepan full of boiling water. Hmm. Not ideal, and probably the craziest looking double boiler I’ve ever used, but it worked! It took a little longer for the curd to thicken, but it turned out quite nicely. And it was so delicious.

I’ve mentioned my lack of proper kitchen equipment before, usually in the context of being a poor college student with an inadequately equipped kitchen. But this isn’t quite the case anymore, as I graduated in May and have now joined the “real world.” Except I moved to the coast of California to live with my sister, brother-in-law, and three tiny nieces, so my place in the “real world” currently feels like an awesome extended vacation during which I get to go to the beach weekly, bake whenever I want, and play with my three amazing, gorgeous little nieces every single day. This makes the small inconvenience of missing kitchen supplies TOTALLY worth it.

Let me explain. My sister and her family recently moved here from Korea. And sometimes, even if the United States Army is in charge of moving your belongings, it still takes the boat more than TWO months to deliver your things. So although they left Korea at the beginning of May, the majority of their household items and furniture have still not reached their new home. This explains the mishmash of kitchen items that we’ve been dealing with. But we have the basics, which have been more than enough to enjoy many tasty dinners and baked goods. And two days from now will be a glorious day: we’re finally going to receive the shipment from Korea! I will then have access to a more well-equipped kitchen than I’ve ever had in my entire life. I can’t wait. (We will also cease to live as “floor people,” as my sister not-so-fondly refers to us. The best part about this will be having a dining room table where we can sit for meals and at last avoid the six grabby hands of two toddlers and a crawling baby.)

A couple weeks ago my sister asked me to make mango coconut cupcakes. I immediately began researching recipes and all too soon there were way too many options. Mango cakes with coconut frosting? Coconut cakes with mango frosting? Or coconut cakes with mango filling and coconut buttercream frosting? Fill them with mango curd or mango whipped cream? The combinations were endless and unfortunately they ALL sounded delicious. But I was intrigued by the idea of fruit curds–something I’d never made but seemed like an excellent cupcake filling. Fruit curd is a smooth, pure, intensely-flavored-like-chosen-fruit, pudding-like deliciousness. A fruit curd generally consists of fruit juice or puree, sugar, egg yolks, and butter. What doesn’t sound good about that?! I finally settled on coconut cupcakes filled with mango curd, which turned out to be a great choice. This mango curd is close to perfect, and it was wonderful stuffed inside these moist, dense coconut cupcakes.

I was going to frost these cupcakes with coconut buttercream frosting but I ran out of patience (and butter). Since I had a surplus of mango curd anyway, I decided to top the cupcakes with the curd as well, then sprinkle on a little coconut for a finishing touch. I really think the mango curd was the best part and I think I’m in love with fruit curd. I see many more in my future, especially as soon as I have a regular double boiler to work with.

Coconut Cupcakes with Mango Curd Filling

Cupcake recipe adapted from Une Deux Senses; Mango Curd recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Coconut Cupcakes–makes 12 cupcakes (I think this could safely be doubled to make 24)

2 large eggs
1/2 c. sugar
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla
1 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 c. sweetened, flaked coconut
1/2 c. coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with 12 liners. Whisk eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until combined well. (Or, if your whisk is still on a boat in the Pacific Ocean, a fork works great too!) Add vanilla and melted butter, whisk until combined.

Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt; mix until well combined. Add coconut milk and stir until smooth. Last, fold in coconut flakes. (If you would prefer smaller pieces of coconut in the baked cupcake, chop a 1/2 cup of shredded coconut into smaller pieces before adding it to the batter.) Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full and bake for 12-16 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Mango Curd

1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 c. sugar
3 Tbsp lime juice
pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
1/4 c. unsalted butter, cubed

Add mango, sugar, lime juice, and salt to a food processor, puree until well combined. (A blender would also work in place of a food processor.) Add egg yolks and puree until combined, about 15-20 seconds.

Add puree to the bowl of a double boiler (metal or glass bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). Whisk puree until it thickens, about 10-15 minutes.  (If you have a thermometer, it should reach 170°F. I didn’t use a thermometer and the consistency changed pretty dramatically, so it was easy to tell when it was sufficiently thickened without knowing the temperature.) Remove the bowl from the saucepan and whisk the butter into the curd, one piece at a time. Cover curd with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

This was the perfect amount of curd to fill and top 12 cupcakes. If you are making 24 cupcakes, you will want to double this recipe. Even if you have leftover curd, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of ways to enjoy it!

Assembling the cupcakes

When the cupcakes are completely cooled, use a sharp knife to cut a circle in the top of each cake and scoop out the center. Set the top of the cake aside and reserve the crumbs from the center for snacking. Spoon mango curd into the hollowed out cupcake, then replace the top of the cake. Spoon a little more curd on top of the cupcake as “frosting,” then sprinkle with coconut flakes. Enjoy!

Apple Pie

What better week to share my apple pie recipe than Thanksgiving? I know that almost everyone has a beloved apple pie recipe. This is my family’s. It’s simple and delicious, which is all an apple pie needs to be.

Apple pie was probably the second pie I added to my list after I learned to make cherry pie so long ago. Apple pie has always been popular with my friends at school and I loved making it all during this beautiful fall. There is something so incredibly comforting about smelling an apple pie as it bakes. The smell and the taste of tender sweet apples covered in juicy, cinnamon-y goodness bubbling in a perfectly flaky crust are so familiar.

Though I do adore apple pie and fully intend on making a classic one this Thursday, I must admit that even I, the ever-resistant-to-change traditionalist when it comes to things like this, was intrigued when I saw this recipe for Cranberry-Apple Pie in the Thanksgiving issue of Cooking Light. Well, at first I wasn’t interested. At first my jaw dropped, my eyes widened, and I let out a little cry of indignation. Cranberries AND apples? together? in a pie?! Outrageous. Why would I ever change something that is already so delicious? But then some little devilishly curious part of my brain got the better of my change-hating self and I actually stopped to consider the recipe. I love apples….and I love cranberries. Maybe they WOULD make a delicious pie. But it seemed risky. I was intrigued.

But not quite intrigued enough to take the risk of making something so different for my family’s very classic annual Thanksgiving feast. I think some other tradition-loving members of my family might have something to say about it if I did :) Maybe next year I’ll feel like switching things up. Or maybe cranberry apple pie will be a project to try out on my always hungry housemates back at school. Either way, I hope you enjoy an apple pie or your own favorite Thanksgiving dessert this Thursday.

A special love apple pie I made one summer with my niece and nephew :)

Apple Pie

5 – 6 c. apples (peeled and cut into chunks or thin square-ish slices)
2/3 c. white sugar
½ tsp salt
1½ Tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp cinnamon
1 prepared pie crust (not pre-baked, see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 450º F. Mix apples with sugar, salt, cornstarch, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Pour apples into prepared crust (9 inch) and cover with a top crust. Finish the edges, cut slits in the top, and sprinkle with sugar.

Put strips of foil on the crust’s edges. Bake the pie for 15 minutes. Then turn down the oven to 350 degrees and bake 20 more minutes. Take off the foil and bake 15 more minutes. The crust will be a light golden-brown and the juices bubbling when the pie is done. (*Sometimes apple pie takes a tiny bit longer than this, but usually not more than 5-6 minutes.)

Perfect Pie Crust

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups shortening
1 egg
2 tablespoons vinegar
3 1/2 Tablespoons water

Using two knives (I use two dinner knives) or a pastry blender, cut shortening into flour and salt until you have crumbs about the size of small peas.

In a small bowl, beat the egg. Add water and vinegar to the egg.  Add this mixture all at once to the flour, salt, and shortening. Gently mix together with your hands until the dough comes together. Roll out the dough on a floured board.

Makes enough for two double crust pies.

Mississippi Mud Pie

Crumbly chocolate cookie crust. Dense chocolate cake. Topped with silky rich chocolate pudding. This is one deliciously decadent and amazingly good chocolate pie. I made this tasty treat for my very dear, chocolate-loving friend Wing for her 21st birthday. I knew I was going to make her a chocolate pie since she adores chocolate (almost more than anything else) and likes pie more than cake, but I wanted to do something more special than your typical chocolate pudding pie with a cookie crumb crust.

So I went to my good friend foodgawker and was not disappointed, I almost immediately found this recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie. Don’t be intimidated by its length. It is an undertaking and takes lots of bowls, spoons, beaters, and chocolate covered surfaces, but it’s quite doable and very much worth the effort. Taken individually, each of the three steps is very straightforward. I made the cookie crust the night before, then made the cake and pudding during a less than 2 hour midday lunch break, so that the pie was all ready to put together and serve after dinner. I like to take my time when I bake and make sure I’m doing things right, so if I could make this pie that quickly, then you certainly can too.

As I mention in the recipe directions, the flourless chocolate cake will puff up A LOT when you bake it (see picture below). I was a bit horrified when I pulled it out of the oven and worried that it wouldn’t deflate. I also couldn’t stop thinking about how much it looked like the souffle that Queen Celeste makes in a beloved book from my childhood, “Babar Learns to Cook.” I think souffle is next on my list of desserts to make. Anyway, as the cake cools it will deflate and leave plenty of room for the delicious chocolate pudding topping.

The story of this pie would not be complete without a few words about my lovely friend. I made this pie for Wing because she is one of my very best friends. For me, it was one small way of saying thank you to her for our friendship. Besides teaching me math (most memorably Calculus II over the phone one summer) and dealing with the raw meat when we cook dinner together (my germaphobic self appreciates this so much), she is insightful, smart, extremely funny, my official taste tester in the kitchen, and the best critic of any food I make. This girl has supported, comforted, and been there for me in more ways than I could ever list. Not only that, but she understands and puts up with me as well. I am so, so thankful for our friendship.

So make this pie for your best friend, for someone you love, or for someone who simply loves chocolate. I promise they will appreciate it.

P.S. Speaking of friends, all the photos in this post (except the one above) were taken by my wonderful and extremely talented friend Carrie Sloane. Thank you Carrie!

 

Mississippi Mud Pie

Recipe adapted from Bake Me Blush, where it was adapted from Baked Explorations

Crust
1 package of Oreo cookies (about 35 cookies), crushed
5 Tbsp butter, melted

Flourless Chocolate Cake
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
6 oz dark chocolate, chopped, or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-2 Tbsp instant coffee crystals
1/4 c. strong coffee, at room temperature
1/4  tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 c. sugar

Chocolate Pudding
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
4 large egg yolks
2 1/2 c. milk
3 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 oz dark chocolate, chopped, or semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the crust

Preheat the oven to 300° F. Spray, grease or butter a 9-inch springform pan. (*Note: I used a 9 inch pie plate since I don’t have a springform pan with me at school, and it worked very well. Just be careful not to make the crust too thick, you will not need all of the cookie crumbs.)

Using a blender or food processor, grind the cookies until they are very small crumbs. In a medium bowl combine the cookie crumbs and melted butter, stir well.

Press the crumbs into the springform pan or pie plate. Leave about a half inch between the top of the crust and the top of the pan. Freeze the crust for 10 minutes, then bake for 10 minutes. Cool before filling.

For the Flourless Chocolate Cake

Increase oven temperature to 350° F. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler. Let cool.

Whisk together the instant coffee crystals, coffee, salt, and vanilla in a small bowl.

In a standing mixer, beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup of the sugar. Beat until it has doubled in volume and is light, for about 4-5 minutes. Add the melted butter and chocolate, beat until combined, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Then add the coffee mixture and beat until combined, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl again.

In a clean bowl with clean beaters (*make sure everything that touches the egg whites while they are being beaten is VERY clean or soft peaks will not form), beat the egg whites until they are foamy. Increase the speed and add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Beat until soft peaks form.

A cup at a time, scoop the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate using a rubber spatula. Continue adding egg whites and folding in until everything is just combined. (*At this point the batter will change to a much lighter brown color from the addition of the egg whites and will be very airy and almost foamy.) Be careful not to overmix!

Pour this batter into the cooled cookie crust and bake 36-42 minutes. (*Since I used a pie plate instead of a springform pan, I couldn’t fit all of the cake batter into my crust. Pour as much as will fit into the crust, making sure to leave an edge of crust exposed all along the top edge.)

The cake is done when it looks set but jiggles slightly when moved, it might not look fully cooked. The cake is going to puff up a lot, like a souffle! Don’t worry though, it will shrink and deflate as it cools and leave enough space for the chocolate pudding to go on top. Cool the cake completely be wrapping in plastic wrap and refrigerating at least 3 hours or overnight.

For the Chocolate Pudding

In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa power, cornstarch, and salt. Then add the egg yolks and whisk everything together until well combined. Next slowly pour in the milk, whisking constantly until combined.

Put the saucepan over medium heat and bring it to a boil, whisking CONSTANTLY the entire time, or you will have sad burned chocolate pudding and nothing to top your lovely pie. Boil the pudding for 30 seconds (it will get thick and gloppy and start to actually look like pudding; also be careful of bursting bubbles and boiling chocolate pudding, it hurts if those land your your arms!)

Transfer the pudding to a medium bowl and add the butter, vanilla, and chocolate, whisking until everything is well combined. Whisk the pudding a bit longer to help it cool down. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then press plastic wrap onto its surface (this prevents a skin from forming) and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours.

Assembling the Pie

Stir the pudding a bit to loosen it, then pour it on top of the cake, spreading it into an even layer with a spatula. Refrigerate about 30 minutes longer (if you’re pressed for time I think you could pretty safely skip this step).

Decorate with whipped cream if you like. I thought the chocolate pudding was so pretty and chocolately on top that it didn’t need any whipped cream decoration, so I just served it on the side with each slide.

Blackberry Pie

It’s about time for another pie post. Blackberry pie is the perfect summer pie.

Last August I went blackberry picking with my mom, sister, niece, and nephew. It was a fun, prickly, and sweet adventure.  It was an hour or two drive to the wild blackberry bushes lining the sides of an old railroad track outside a tiny little town somewhere in Idaho. I sat next to my niece in the car (she was 3 and a 1/2 at the time) and she entertained us both by taking pictures with my camera the entire way there (and back). Her chosen attire for the day was also amusing: she was wearing her fancy red velvet Christmas dress with white satin bows on the front. She absolutely refused to change, despite her mother’s and grandma’s urges, but she did finally agree to add jeans to the outfit (stubbornness runs in the family).

We were all very excited when we finally got to the blackberry bushes and saw those plump little berries dangling on the massive green bushes. But it takes a bit of a fight to get those gems, you have to battle the prickly thorns that are just about everywhere. My mom, sister, nephew, and I went straight to work. My nephew especially took his job very seriously, he filled several buckets before getting tired. But my dressed-up darling little niece was a different story. After picking for a little while (and eating every berry she picked), she decided to lie down in the middle of the path (in her Christmas dress!) and start throwing rocks and banging them together while singing loudly with her tongue sticking out. Obviously the natural thing to do when one is tired. She’s such a little cutie than she can get away with almost anything. I remember laughing to myself while avoiding the prickly vines (we were all well protected with long-sleeves and jeans) and piling my buckets with as many blackberries as they could hold.

 

 

 

 

Those blackberries were SO good. I thoroughly enjoyed myself by baking them into several pies, topping my favorite goat cheese tarts with them, and snacking on them almost every day. This summer I sadly didn’t get to go blackberry picking, but I did buy some nice berries at the farmer’s market. I was craving pie before the craziness of school hits me full force in just a few days. So I enjoyed a peaceful Saturday afternoon in my happy-pie-baking-state-of-mind with my plump purple berries and a nice flaky crust. I used an almost identical recipe as the cherry pie.

Blackberry Pie

1 quart fresh blackberries (= 4 cups, but I found that about 3 cups is sufficient
2 1/2 Tbsp tapioca (OR 2 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water or berry juice until smooth)
2/3 – 1 cup sugar
1 prepared pie crust (not pre-baked)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and let stand 15-20 minutes while you prepare the crust.

Depending on how sweet the berries are and how sweet you like your pie, use anywhere from 2/3 cup to 1 cup of sugar. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and let them sit for 15-20 minutes while you prepare the crust.

Pour the berries into the prepared crust and cover with a top crust. Finish the edges, cut slits in the top, and sprinkle with sugar.

Place strips of foil on the crust’s edges.

Bake for 15 minutes. Then turn down the oven to 350 degrees and bake 20 more minutes. Take off the foil and bake 15 more minutes. The crust will be a light golden-brown and the juices bubbling when the pie is done.

Perfect Pie Crust

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups shortening
1 egg
2 tablespoons vinegar
3 1/2 Tablespoons water

Using two knives (I use two dinner knives) or a pastry blender, cut shortening into flour and salt until you have crumbs about the size of small peas.

In a small bowl, beat the egg. Add water and vinegar to the egg.  Add this mixture all at once to the flour, salt, and shortening. Gently mix together with your hands until the dough comes together. Roll out the dough on a floured board.

Makes enough for two double crust pies.

Chocolate Eclairs

Chocolate eclairs are beautiful and delicious, the very best combination. I first tried making eclairs a couple of years ago, when I was inspired by a fancy cookbook a dear friend gave me for Christmas: Best-Ever Pastry Cookbook. It’s a fancy British cookbook with chapter titles like “Elegant Fruit Pastries” and “Rich and Indulgent Pastry Desserts,” filled with colorful, glossy photos of all sorts of pastries, tarts, parcels, and pies both sweet and savory. It was my dream come true. By the 1st of January I was done drooling over the elaborate recipes and gorgeous photos and ready to try making something. The eclairs were the first recipe I tried from the cookbook and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the process was.

At first glance an eclair seems an intimidating dessert to make–that impressive, beautifully shaped puffy pastry, the fluffy whipped cream, and the silky chocolate topping. But in reality, each component requires only a simple, straight-forward process. I truly believe that if you can read and possess enough common sense, you can be successful making almost any recipe. Even a chocolate eclair.

You can make a beautiful chocolate eclair even if you don’t own a pastry bag. Here’s my sad little story: I was at home during Christmas break of my freshman year of college and I wanted to make eclairs. But there was not a single pastry bag in the house. Which seemed very necessary for piping the pastry and the cream. But then my mom suggested that I use a ziploc bag and cut one of the corners off. I was slightly mortified (and certainly never dreamed of admitting this fact to so many people on a blog), but I agreed that it was the way to solve the problem. And guess what, a ziploc bag works wonderfully. Obviously I’m not professional and I’ve never tried it with a pastry bag, but in this case a substitute works just fine.

For me, eclairs are just fun to make. Although it’s a straight-forward process, it does require attention to detail. But you end up with an impressive looking and extremely tasty dessert. In the time that it takes the choux pastry to bake, you can easily whip the cream and melt the chocolate. Give it a try, you might be surprised just how easy it is.

Chocolate Eclairs

Recipe adapted from Best-Ever Pastry Cookbook, by Catherine Atkinson

Makes 7-9 eclairs.

For the Choux Pastry

9 Tbsp all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup butter, diced
2/3 cup water
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper (you can skip the parchment paper if you don’t have any).

Sift the four and salt onto a sheet of parchment paper or into a small bowl. Then heat the butter and water in a saucepan over low heat, until the butter melts. When the butter has melted, increase the heat to medium-high and bring it to a rolling boil. Take the pan off the burner and add the flour and salt all at once. Beat this mixture thoroughly with a wodden spoon, until all the flour and salt is mixed in.

Put the saucepan back on the burner over low heat and beat the mixture until all of it leaves the sides of the pan and forms a big ball. It will look something like this: (it all sticks together, kind of like a big glob of sticky playdough)

Then set this pan aside to cool for 2-3 minutes. After the mixture is somewhat cooled, add the beaten eggs, in about 2 or 3 additions. After each addition, beat the dough well. You will have a thick, smooth, shiny paste after all the eggs are added.

Transfer the choux pastry into a pastry bag (or a ziploc bag) with a 1 inch tip (or one corner cut off to the length of 1 inch) and pipe lengths of pastry approximately 4 inches long onto the baking sheet. You can use a dull knife dipped in water to cleanly cut the pastry from the pastry bag. You can also use wet fingers to smooth over any imperfections in the piped choux pastry shapes.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and well-risen (check them after 25 minutes!). Take the pastries out of the oven and use a clean, sharp knife to cut a slit along the side of each pastry (this releases the steam). Bake the pastries for about 3-5 minutes longer. Then cool them on a wire rack.

For the cream filling

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tsp confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla until it holds its shape. Be careful not to overwhip. Fill a pastry bag (or ziploc bag) fitted with a 1/2 inch nozzle (or a corner cut off to a 1/2 inch) with the cream and fill the cooled eclairs.

For the chocolate topping

4 oz semisweet chocolate (or chocolate chips)
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp butter

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and water. Stir until smooth. Remove the pan and gradually stir in the butter until everything is melted and smooth.

Carefully spoon the melted chocolate on top of each cream-filled eclair. Allow the chocolate to set, then eat as soon as possible (or refrigerate for up to 2 days at the most).

Fudge

This is another of my grandma’s very tasty recipes. To me, the taste of this fudge means Christmastime. We usually only make it at Christmas, along with hundreds and hundreds of Christmas cookies and various types of sweet breads. Why not have a little taste of Christmas in August? It’s only four months away! ;)

This fudge recipe is very easy to make and so rich and chocolatey. It’s so easy that it was one of the few desserts I’d make when I still lived in a dorm. It’s also college-student friendly in that you can use any shape of cake pan for the finished batch. I usually end up putting it into round cake pans because for some reason none of us own square cake pans. It’s delicious with or without nuts–I usually make a double batch and add nuts to one pan. It’s important to use a really big pot (5 or 6 quarts) if you make a double batch though, otherwise you’ll end up with a hot, sticky, marshmallow mess all over the stove-top. Not fun to clean up.

As I sit here writing about fudge, there are two things one my mind. Neither of which have the slightest to do with fudge or even food. Those things are: the first day of my 17th consecutive year of school is one week from tomorrow. Also known as the first day of my senior year of college, at a school that I love, which is filled with wonderful people I also love. It’s going to a be a doozy of a year. But in a great way. I can’t wait!

The second thing (which oddly enough is occupying my brain more than the prospect of school starting next week) is that I have three adorable little cactus plants sitting on the table staring at me as I type this. I bought them on a whim today at Home Depot (one of MANY trips to Home Depot this summer, it’s a long story). I chose two of them based on their names (Baby Toes and Little Jewel. How awesome is that?!), just like I judge paint colors and mixed drinks by their names. When I was ten I begged my mom to buy me a cactus that I fell in love with at Rite Aid (it was the most stereotypically-cactus-looking cactus you can imagine and about three inches tall). I named him Harold (or maybe Oscar?), lovingly planted him in a hand-painted ceramic pot I’d made earlier that week at Girl Scout Day Camp, then promptly forgot about the poor thing. These new little guys will hopefully relieve my guilty conscience over Harold/Oscar’s fate so many years ago. I’ll keep you updated on their progress and likely post a picture soon :)

But enough about cacti, go eat some fudge and enjoy your last few days of summer!

Fudge

**If you double this recipe use a 5 or 6 quart pot or it will boil over and make a HUGE mess. A single recipe can be made in a 3 quart pot. **

Put the following ingredients into a large bowl:

6 oz chocolate chips
1 stick of butter or stick margarine
1 cup walnuts (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put the following into the proper size of pot:

2 cups sugar
6 oz of evaporated milk (which is half a normal, 12 ounce can that you’d buy at the store)
part of the stick of butter from the bowl

Bring these three ingredients (sugar, evaporated milk, part of the butter) to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring the whole time. When the mixture is boiling, add:

10 large marshmallows or 1 cup miniature marshmallows

Boil for 6 minutes, stirring vigorously the whole time. Until the mixture looks a little something like this:

Pour the marshmallow mixture from the pot into the bowl with the chocolate chips. Stir together until melted everything is melted and well-combined, then pour into pan. (A single batch will fill one square or round cake pan, a double batch will fill two square or round cake pans or one 9×13 rectangular pan.)

Molasses Cookies

If cherry pie was the pie of my childhood, then molasses cookies were most definitely the cookie of my childhood. They are another dessert introduced to me by my grandma, her molasses cookies have always been my very favorite cookie.

Every single time I visited my grandparent’s house my grandma had molasses cookies for me (even more often than the cherry pie) because she knew they were my favorite. If they weren’t freshly baked then she would pull some out of the freezer and they tasted just as good. I loved walking into my grandma’s bright, forever-squeaky-clean kitchen with its little vases of violets on the window sill next to the shiny blue glass bird, the brown stool next to the old phone where I would sit and watch people cook, and pulling one of her cookie jars out of the cupboard. And inside the cookie jar: those delicious, crunchy on the edges, soft and chewy in the middle, gingery, molasses cookies. Heaven. I also love that she had cookie jars. My mom never had one, we always kept our cookies in a tupperware type box in the drawer, if they lasted that long–cookies do disappear quickly with four girls in the house. My grandma’s cookie jars weren’t fancy, but I remember them exactly: one squat, perfectly smooth and white with a silver handle; the other a simple tin canister with a black lid. But the contents of those jars were the real treasure–mmm, it couldn’t get any better than my grandma’s cookies. I’m pretty sure my nephew knew where those cookie jars were kept by the time he was two.

I have so many lovely memories of being at my grandparent’s house. They lived about four hours away from us, so we went there pretty frequently. Almost every summer my sisters and I would stay with them for a week without our parents. Their house was always sparkling clean and so very quiet, until we got there anyway. Everything was always exactly the same and very predictable–something that my young, adverse-to-change little self quite appreciated. I can still imagine the smell of their house perfectly (if you can imagine a smell?), although I’m not sure I can describe it very well: old but clean, freshly-baked cookies, and like my grandparents. I loved the room that was my mom’s growing up. It had two twin beds, one on each side of the room, covered in identical pink bedspreads. They reminded me of cake. (And you know I love pink cake.) There was a vanity with a huge round mirror; in front of it there was a piano shaped music box, the ballerina inside had a real tulle skirt and danced to Für Elise.

The closet in that bedroom was full of all kinds of cool old toys that had been my mom’s: old board games like Go to the Head of the Class and Uncle Wiggly, one of the original Barbies with lots of clothes made by my mom and grandma, stuffed animals and a Thumbelina baby doll that could move her head, big baby Mary (a toddler sized plastic baby doll with such a pretty little face and the BEST clothes–she had little dresses with matching diapers and bonnets, all of which were neatly hung in the closet), and best of all, the little Kiddles. And I know this has absolutely nothing to do with food, but my sisters will appreciate this (this is for you, Julia), I photographed the Kiddles the last time I was at home. They are these adorable little dolls that lived in plastic houses and had all kinds of accessories.

That closet always freaked me out a little bit though: you could walk inside it and shut the door–which made it too easy to become accidentally shut inside (or have a big sister shut you inside….). Not to mention the furnace that occupied half of it, which likely scared me because my sisters had taught me that the furnace at home was haunted by a ghost named the Jolly Baker. There were never any ghosts assigned to the slightly scary closet at grandma and grandpa’s house, but I was always sure to leave the door wide open when I went in.

But back to the cookies: I decided to do a dessert post today partly in celebration of my sister’s birthday–Happy 31st Birthday Julia! (She assures me that she still doesn’t feel a bit old); and partly because it’s also my half birthday! I’ve always enjoyed the fact that my oldest sister and I are exactly nine and a half years apart. I like it when things work out so exactly :)

To this day I still can’t make molasses cookies exactly the way my grandma used to. I’ve tried plenty of times, but they always turn out smaller and less sugary. Though I must admit, still very tasty. I do love these cookies and they make me miss my grandma very much. She passed away about a year and a half ago and lately I’ve found myself thinking about her more while I’m working in the kitchen. She was the sweetest and most dear grandma a person could ever have and she did everything with such love. I like to remember her when I’m baking, remember how graciously and lovingly she baked and cooked and raised her children and adored her grandchildren. I’m glad that I can remember her in such a meaningful way by baking her delicious cookies.

Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup mild-flavor molasses or full-flavor molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar

With a wooden spoon, mix shortening, brown sugar, molasses and egg thoroughly in large bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients except granulated sugar. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 374 and grease a cookie sheet. Shape the dough into about 1 1/4-inch balls. Dip the tops in granulated sugar. Place the balls, sugared sides up, about 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle each with 2 or 3 drops of water. (If you want the tops to be really sugary, sprinkle a tiny bit more sugar on the ball of dough after the water.)

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or just until set but not hard. Remove from the cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.

Pink Lady Cake

Last month I went home for a couple of weeks to see my family. My entire family (minus one brother-in-law) was in the same place for two whole weeks, which is a rare, but very happy occasion. During that week, besides playing with my twin one-year-old nieces, kayaking, lounging on the patio with my family, playing Bananagrams, and eating all day long, we celebrated my older sister Laura’s 28th birthday.

Birthday cakes have always been a pretty big deal in my family. I remember poring over our enormous collection of old Family Fun magazines, looking for the perfect cake idea for my birthday party. One of my favorites was the time my mom and I made a “slumber party” cake, with twinkie-bodied, vanilla wafer-faced girls covered by a white frosting, candy-flower blanket. We even decorated the vanilla wafer faces to look like me and my friends who were coming to the party.Castle cakes were another family specialty—an elaborate structure made up of cake, ice cream cones, pink frosting (alwayspink), and gummy bears to guard the doors. During my monkey-obsessed phase, my mom and I made a cartoon-like monkey head cake. I adored that cake and undoubtedly wore one of my (many) monkey shirts on the day of the party. (You don’t need to know how old I was at that point.)

During the time I was home last month, we also watched old (some of it almost 30 years old!) silent videos of when my oldest sisters were little, which had been recorded onto video cassettes from my parents’ old super 8 camera. There were countless clips of birthday parties: tiny girls in dresses seated around the dining table, the birthday girl’s eyes sparkling as she eyed the special cake that mom had made—frequently a pink cat cake with red whiskers, eyes, and nose.

The special birthday cake tradition has continued into the next generation; my oldest sister Julia has made several lovely birthday cakes for her kids: an impressive Harry Potter cake (Harry, Ron, and Hermione very accurately portrayed in gel frosting) for my nephew and an Elmo cake for my niece, just to name a couple of them.

Anyway, I wanted to make Laura a very special birthday cake, not only because this was the first birthday she’d actually celebrated at home in years, but also because she traveled over 5,000 miles from Korea with her husband and twins to be at home with us. Oh and she’s pregnant! It was a very special occasion. And I found the perfect cake for the occasion, a Pink Lady Cake, recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

This was an excellent cake: not too hard to make, not to mention wonderfully light and fluffy with an awesome cream cheese frosting. And I love pink cake, it’s so elegant. With its creamy white frosting, all this cake needed was a rose on top. I picked a rose from our backyard because I am absolutely in love with these roses and their gorgeous pink-ish, orange-y, coral-y color (see the picture at the top of the post!). With a little help from my sister Kathleen, this Pink Lady Cake turned out to be the perfect birthday cake for Laura.

Pink Lady Cake

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen, where it was adapted from the cookbook Sky High

4 1/2 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pureed frozen strawberries
8 egg whites
2/3 cup milk
2 to 3 drops red food dye

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare three 9-inch round cake pans: grease with vegetable shortening or butter, lightly flour the pan, then line with waxed paper.

Put flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix on low speed about 30 seconds to a minute, until all ingredients are combined. Next add the butter and pureed strawberries. (It’s MUCH easier to puree frozen strawberries if they’re somewhat thawed, especially if you’re using an ancient blender from the 60’s like I was.) Mix the ingredients on medium for about 2-3 minutes, until well-combined.

In a different bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk, and red food dye until blended. Add about a quarter of the egg white mixture to the cake batter, mixing only until incorporated. Continue adding the egg white mixture, a little at a time, mixing until incorporated each time; until it looks something like this:

Divide the batter evenly among the three cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. (Check the cakes after the first 30 minutes, then bake another 2-3 minutes at a time as needed.)

Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes then invert onto wire racks (carefully remove the waxed paper at this point) and allow to completely cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Cream the cream cheese and butter using an electric mixer. Add the vanilla, then slowly add the confectioners’ sugar, a little at a time. Refrigerate any extra frosting.

Assemble the cake, decorate as desired, and enjoy!

Cherry Pie

It all started with pie. Cherry pie.

For me, cherry pie conjures up memories of summers spent picking and pitting the pie cherries that grew abundantly in our yard. It was an event. Four cherry trees means lots of cherries. Lots and LOTS of cherries. And lots of hot summer days picking those little red gems (which involved battling the every-present and always cherry-hungry robins and squirrels—squirrels who believed they could fly and braved the four foot leap between the garage roof and our biggest cherry tree). And after the picking was done, there was lots of sticky, sticky cherry juice during the pitting process.

And cherry pitting was quite the process. Our basement was strategically converted to a plastic-covered, cherry-juice-proof cherry pitting factory. My sisters and I (and the occasional visiting cousin or next-door-neighbor-friend who happened to get wrangled into the task) would change into our designated cherry pitting clothes: the oldest, rattiest pair of jeans you owned, paired with an old, ugly t-shirt from whichever summer camp, school event, or after-school activity you despised the most. Nothing you ever cared to wear again, ‘cause those clothes were going to get STICKY.

Sticky is somewhat of an understatement. My designated cherry pitting t-shirt (a hideous baby pink shirt emblazoned with garish neon green letters) ended up covered in stains a sickly shade of brown, the residue of many afternoons spent pitting cherries. But the fruit of our labor was worth it: quart after quart of fresh cherries. Ready for pie.

Cherry pie was the dessert of my childhood. Besides all the picking and pitting at home, cherry pie also brings me memories of my dear grandma and her pies: her tender, flaky crusts and perfect filling that was all at once tart, sweet, and absolutely delicious. She baked a cherry pie almost every time we came to visit. My grandma and her pies are the reason I started baking my own pies when I got older. And ever since, pie has been my dessert.

So when I finally gave in to my sister’s urgings to start a food blog, it only seemed fitting that the title should have to do with pie. Much ado about pie, in fact. I helped my grandma, mom, or one of my three older sisters bake from the time I was little. I started baking my own pies somewhere around age twelve. In high school, I enjoyed baking pies for my closest friends’ birthdays. I started teaching my niece (who loves to help bake) how to roll out pie crust when she was three.

Put simply, I love baking pies. I love that it’s a process requiring time and thought. I love letting myself get lost in making a pie, my brain lets go and I can focus very completely on making something beautiful and delicious. I love that making a pie makes me think of my grandma, and that it’s something I can do just like she did. I love the whole process: from cutting shortening into flour and salt until it’s just the right consistency to carefully pulling a golden brown pie out of the oven. There’s something very special about a freshly baked pie. Something that I find irresistible.

And so I give to you the first of what I hope will be many recipes and musings on food: my grandma’s cherry pie. I’ve never used anything but my grandma’s pie crust recipe. I’m not sure where it originally came from, but it always makes a perfect, delicious crust (as indicated by its very fitting name). The filling is also my grandma’s recipe, another fool-proof one that will never be replaced.

Perfect Pie Crust

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups shortening
1 egg
2 tablespoons vinegar
3 1/2 Tablespoons water

Using two knives (I use two dinner knives) or a pastry blender, cut shortening into flour and salt until you have crumbs about the size of small peas.

In a small bowl, beat the egg. Add water and vinegar to the egg.  Add this mixture all at once to the flour, salt, and shortening. Gently mix together with your hands until the dough comes together. Roll out the dough on a floured board.

Makes enough for two double crust pies.

Cherry Pie

1 quart frozen or fresh pie cherries (if frozen, pour out half of juice)
2 1/2 Tbsp tapioca
3/4 – 1 cup sugar
1 prepared pie crust (not pre-baked)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Depending on the tartness of your cherries and how sweet you like your pie, use anywhere from 3/4 cup to 1 cup of sugar. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and let them sit for about 15 minutes.

Pour the cherries into the prepared crust and cover with a top crust. Finish the edges, cut slits in the top, and sprinkle with sugar.

Place strips of foil on the crust’s edges.

Bake for 15 minutes. Then turn down the oven to 350 degrees and bake 20 more minutes. Take off the foil and bake 15 more minutes. The crust will be a light golden-brown and the juices bubbling when the pie is done.