Iggy

And I hung out with this little guy tonight. Meet Iggy. He is the newest addition to the Shrews family, but I hope to be a close second aunt. I want four of him.

Summer Galette

My apartment has felt like the subtropics as of late, making baking a thing of the past. I was able to get a respite from the heat last week when I visited the great Northwest. It was a perfect few days in Seattle and was topped off with summer fruit galette at the coast.

There is a little treasure in Manzanita that gets me every time. It is the Manzanita Fresh Foods grocery store. Here you will find 25 cent pony rides out front, and without fail, gourmet cooking products inside. Really, it always has what you need. Outside there are baskets of fresh fruit from around the area that smell unbelievable. We picked up Ian's favorite fruit combo--blackberries and nectarines to make something at home. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and is incredibly easy to follow.

Dough
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup ice water

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt; pulse to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds. (To mix by hand, combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then cut in butter with a pastry blender.) Add cold water with machine running. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.

Filling
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 medium nectarines, each pitted and cut into 16 slices
1/2 -pint basket blackberries
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, still not sure if I liked it in there)
1 egg, beaten to blend (for glaze)

Make filling: Stir sugar and cornstarch in medium bowl to blend. Mix in fruit and vanilla. Let stand until juices are released, stirring fruit occasionally, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375°F. Transfer baking sheet with dough to work surface. Let stand 8 minutes to allow dough to soften slightly if too firm to fold. Spoon fruit and juices into center of dough. Fold border down over fruit (center 6 inches of fruit remain uncovered). Brush folded border with egg glaze; sprinkle with raw sugar.

Place baking sheet with tart in oven. Bake until crust is golden brown and fruit filling is bubbling at edges, about 55 minutes. Remove from oven; slide large metal spatula under tart to loosen from parchment. Brush fruit with preserves. Slide tart onto rack. Cool 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.

Here is the end result, and the smell was amazing. In addition, we had some wonderful wine that made the trip complete.

This galette brought back all the good feelings of desserts baking away in the kitchen. I am so looking forward to breaking in our new kitchen come September. In other news, we are moving! Very exciting. Hyde Park, you will sorta be missed. Updates to follow.

Mini Bundt Cakes

I made these delicious mini bundt cakes after seeing the recipe on one of my new favorite websites, food52. I had planned on bringing them to work, or to a friend's birthday party, but alas, it didn't work out that way. I would like to say they all looked like the picture above, but instead they mostly looked like the picture below:

There clearly was not enough butter in the pan. I am facing the sad reality that excessive amounts of butter are the true secret to perfect baked goods. This recipe is too good not to post despite my failed attempt. They came out just as described and I was immediately sold when the ingredients included chocolate and coffee. I halved the recipe and used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. The recipe calls for sour milk, and after some research, found that combining milk and lemon juice makes sour milk. Let stand for five minutes. Another cool trick is to whisk the flour in the bag/container and scoop from the whisked flour to get a correct measurement.

Recipe:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cups dutch process cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup sour milk
1 cup freshly brewed strong black coffee
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

- Preheat oven to 350. Butter a bundt pan and dust the inside with cocoa powder, set aside.
- Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside.
- In a mixer on low add the milk, coffee, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla one at a time. mix until everything is incorporated. Then, with the mixer still on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once all of the flour mixture is added, mix the batter for a full four minutes on medium speed.
- Then, pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes (or 20 minutes for mini bundt cakes), or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Then, dust with powdered sugar and serve.

And Then There Was One

Over the course of one week, it seems most things have changed. First year of law school is over, it finally started to feel like summer, and lastly, Ian has left for the summer. The last change is the toughest, and the thought of baking for one sounds a little sad on top of dangerous to the waistline. Until now; Oatmeal Muffins from 101 Cookbooks. I love Heidi's recipes because they are light and healthy and this recipe is no different. I don't feel so bad having these around when their ingredients include yogurt, wheat flour and oats. They are incredibly delicious.

I love those recipes where every ingredient is readily available in your kitchen. This is an extremely rare scenario for me, but I am planning to keep the kitchen stocked for the summer of baking. Hopefully there won't be such a lag between posts, as seen in the past (whoopsie). The summer fruit that should be hitting the markets soon inspires numerous summer baking endeavors. Next up, popsicles and fudgesicles.

Recipe:
Crumble topping:
scant 3/4 cup / 3 oz / 85 g whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup / 1.5 oz / 45 g rolled oats
1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g natural cane or brown sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/3 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g unsalted butter, melted

Muffin batter:
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g rolled oats
3/4 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
7/8 cup / 7 oz / 200 g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g natural cane or brown sugar
1 1/2 cups / 12 oz / 350 ml plain yogurt
2 large eggs, whisked

Preheat oven to 350F / 180C. Butter one or two muffin pans generously. I didn't use paper liners, and I'm glad I didn't. Place oven racks in top third of oven.

Get your crumble topping for your muffins started first. Use a fork to combine the flour, oats, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter. Divide the mixture into three portions, and use your hands to form into three flat-ish patties. Place the patties in a bowl in the freezer for about ten minutes.

Now, onto the muffin batter. In a medium bowl combine the oats, flours, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Whisk in the yogurt, and then the eggs. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir just until combined. Do your best to avoid over mixing.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Pull the crumble from the freezer and break it up into small and medium pieces. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with crumble, place the muffins in the oven and bake 30 - 35 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool just a minute or so, then turn out onto a cooling rack - important!

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen muffins.

Prep time: 10 min - Cook time: 35 min

Spring Favorite

Spring is finally making an appearance here in Chicago, although reluctant, and with new seasons comes new vegetables. I signed up for one of those weekly vegetable baskets and love it. We received your typical root vegetables, but I can sense the spring veggies coming. Ian got excited about the coveted ramps that came and immediately made us a delicious dinner. I digress.

Right now asparagus is everywhere, and it is fantastic. As I have mentioned before, homemade pizza is a fan favorite around here. So, with that said, why not combine the two? Cue Smitten Kitchen's shaved asparagus pizza.

This recipe is super simple. Make your favorite pizza dough and top with a dusting of corn meal and add parmesan and mozzarella. The recipe didn't call for turkey bacon, but really, what food couldn't use some turkey bacon. I placed the bacon and asparagus on the top to finish. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 450 degrees. When the pizza comes out add some chopped scallions. Here is our new spring favorite. Enjoy!

Milwaukee!

Last month, Ian and I decided to get out of Chicago and go to Milwaukee for the weekend. Everything was in our price range and it was only a hop, skip and a jump away. So we took our little electric blue Zipcar up north to Wisconsin, where its official state motto is 'forward.' I kid you not. Wisconsin is so weird (I am looking at you cheese castle right across the border)!

Who knew what a cute little city Milwaukee was? There are so many breweries there, it felt like we were in Portland. I only got a few pictures, but we will be back.

Disclaimer: Most everyone tells you to visit the Lakefront Brewery when in Milwaukee. Don't. One, it isn't even near the lakefront, it is in some weird housing development off the beaten path. Two, they serve their beer in plastic cups, which is just wrong. Three, they only take cash and the atmosphere is college-esque. You have been warned.

Oaxacan Cinnamon Chocolate Macarons

I have recently become obsessed with food52.com. If the name didn't give it away, it is a blog all about food. Home cooks share and post their recipes, or adaptations of recipes for people to peruse at their own leisure. Since I am a lover of all things pickles, I was sold at 'Foodpickle,' an open forum for questions and answers on anything you might come across when cooking or baking.

Following, what seems to be my beginner's luck macaron, I attempted them again on three separate occasions with the same result: blech. There were ones that didn't rise, ones that weren't the right consistency and the list goes on an on.

For a party last weekend, I gave the Oaxacan Cinnamon Chocolate Macarons a go. The first batch failed miserably and were all grainy. The second batch, which I managed to salvage somewhat, had cracked. There were a couple good ones, but they cracked. They also didn't get the little feet they talk about around the edges.

There are various reasons as to why macarons crack; you overwhipped the whites, the heat was too high, the rack was too low, or you didn't stack two baking sheets when baking. This just goes to show that these delicious little French delicacies are complicated. I won't give up. Until next time, macaron.