New tea pot

I'm pretty into tea. And by that I mean I'm very, very into tea.

Ritual included, but leaves alone as well.

That is, in part, why I was so excited to get a new, elegant tea-for-one set:

Thanks, David's Tea, for the pot and the picture.

Caramel apple cider cookies

I love apple picking. In Charlottesville, Virginia during college (with the ever-delicious Carter Mountain cider donuts). In Ipswich, Massachusetts while teaching (with a picnic next to a chilly orchard). I like that it's sunny, but that it's crisp outside. I like those long apple-picking arms that are a pain to carry around. I like that you have to buy your keep in bushels. 

So now, even on the west coast, where it's never very fall, I declare that fall approacheth! And with that, I'm now going to put apples on and in everything.


Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (7.4 ounce) box spiced apple cider instant drink mix (like hot chocolate packets; don't use the sugar free version)

2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract


1 (14 ounce) bag soft caramels, unwrapped (Kraft, Werther's, etc., just make sure it's not hard candy)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. 

2. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. (Depending on the thickness of your cookies, the melted caramel may stick to the bottom of the pan.)

3. Pre-mix dry ingredients: In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.

4. Using a mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt and all packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy. 

5. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well. 

6. Gradually add dry mixture into wet mixture. Mix until just combined.

7. Scoop out a cookie dough ball roughly the size of a large walnut (about 2 tablespoons). Split the ball into two equal pieces and flatten each. Press an unwrapped caramel onto one, cover with the other, and seal the edges of each little raw cookie sandwich.

8. Place cookies on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges.

9. Once you pull the cookies out, slide the parchment paper off of the baking sheet right out onto a heat-resistant counter or woodblock. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist them off of the parchment paper, flip them, and allow to finish cooling upside down.

I prefer to eat these pretty hot, but they are also good when totally cool or, after reheating for about 3 seconds in the microwave.

Thanks, Gimme some Oven, for the recipe.

Compare to these salted caramel chocolate monstrosities.

Chocolate breakfast pudding

This past week was my first (and final!?) week back at school after a long summer. In an effort to cut down the brain energy I had to devote to food each day without compromising deliciousness, I planned and made much of my breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Sunday before the week began. So adult. Much wow.

This week's breakfast: a [refined-sugar-free] chocolate chia pudding!

Because of it's sweetness and its adaptability, it makes an equally good breakfast, snack, or dinner.

Ingredients

8 dates, pitted (could substitute other sweetener here)
3 cups milk of choice (I used almond milk and it was still perfectly rich)
1 cup fresh strawberries
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cacao powder
Generous pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup chia seeds

Topping ideas
Fruit 
Dried fruit
Nuts
Coconut
Matcha
Raw Oats
Chocolate or cacao nibs

This recipe made enough for five individual breakfasts.

1. Boil water. Add pitted dates and continue to boil for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, discard water and add dates to blender.

2. Except for chia seeds and toppings, add all ingredients to the dates. Blend until very smooth.

3. Add chia seeds. Pulse briefly ten times. Fully incorporate chia seeds by hand with a whisk.

4. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. Stir or shake to prevent clumping.

5. Return to fridge for at least three more hours.

6. Top and serve cold. 

Copied off of Sprouted Routes.

Strawberry basil soda

In the continuing saga of summer strawberries (strawberry jam, strawberry oatmeal, chocolate tort with strawberries, etc.), today I made some homemade strawberry basil soda. And ate it with some fennel, orange shortbread.

Ingredients

4-5 cups (~1 pound) strawberries, washed and trimmed
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3/4 cup loosely packed basil leaves, washed
1 cup sugar
Carbonated water

1. Using a blender, puree strawberries until smooth.

2. Using a cheesecloth or fine sieve, squeeze strawberry juice into a bowl. Discard pulp and seeds. This should yield about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of pure juice.

3. In a sauce pan, add strawberry juice to lemon juice, whole basil, and sugar.

4. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes. This yields a simple syrup.

5. Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes.

6. Using a sieve or a strainer, strain simple syrup. Discard solids (basil).

7. To serve, add 2 tablespoons of simple syrup to a full (8 oz) glass of carbonated water, taste, and add more syrup according to taste. Garnish with lemon slices and basil.

Adapted slightly from The Kitchn.

No-bake chocolate tort with strawberries

This is intensely chocolatey. I’m into that. That is all.

Ingredients

Crust

32 Oreos cookies (or gluten-free Oreo-like chocolate cookies)

1/2 cup (110g) butter, melted 

Filling

300 grams milk or bittersweet chocolate (or a mix of the two)

7 oz (200 ml) of heavy cream

Topping

Strawberries

chopped nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios), optional

1. Wash strawberries. Cut tops off. Dry thoroughly.

2. Use a food processor to blend cookies until evenly crumbed.

3. Add melted butter to food processor and blend until smooth.

4. Press cookie mixture into the base and up the sides (3/4”-1”) of a tart pan. Freeze while working.

5. Heat heavy cream on medium until very warm, but not boiling.

6. In a separate bowl, pour heavy cream over chocolate. Let sit for 3 minutes.

7. Using a whisk, mix chocolate and cream until smooth.

8. Retrieve tart pan from freezer. Pour chocolate and cream mixture into tart pan.

9. Press clean, dry strawberries into tart.

10. Sprinkle on chopped nuts, if applicable.

11. Refrigerate at least two hours and until served. Note: Keeping the tort in the refrigerator for longer than a few hours may cause some condensation to form.

Some ideas for variations:

Cut the strawberries.

I like chocolate. Don’t get me wrong. But I if you like the taste of fruit and chocolate together better than you like chocolate (like I do), I recommend revisiting this tort's current strawberry-to-chocolate ratio. In particular, rather than sticking whole strawberries in the pour, I would slice the strawberries and arrange them to cover a significantly larger portion of the surface. [I presented this idea to someone who consumed this tort and was met with, “No. No. This is CHOCOLATE TORT. With some strawberries.”] 

Use white chocolate instead of milk or bittersweet.

Use soy, almond, or cashew milk for less dairy (and admittedly less richness and creaminess).

Pre-dip/cover/decorate strawberries in chocolate before pressing into tort.

Stolen from Home Cooking Adventure. 

Banana bread crusted plum tart

I was walking in the grocery store recently and stumbled on some “French prunes,” which were 1) actually plums rather than prunes, and 2) reminiscent of the little plums used in the German Pflaumenkuchen (plum cake). These are reasonably difficult to find in the U.S., so I bought a pound or two and stared at them for a few days.

I have two images of Pflaumenkuchen that I tend to think about. [Let’s clear this one up quickly: Yes, I think about cake.]

The first: When I was younger (and not gf), there was a time in my life when I could wander into a German bakery, pick up a big 4”x5” hunk of the doughy pastry, and scarf it down before you could say all four syllables. If only for the Pflaumenkuchen, I honestly wish that I was still in that time of my life.

The second: About ten years ago, my Oma died, and my dear Opa began cooking and baking for himself. When I speak with him on the phone, he likes to tell me what he’s baked. One time, he described a huge baking sheet of Pflaumenkuchen. How he’d bake it on Sunday. How he’d eat it the rest of the week. How he’d do the same the next week with some other fresh fruit. You have to understand that this represented—at least I imagine—a huge departure from the norm for my Opa, who had had Kaffee und Kuchen with his wife every day for Xty+ years. And I thought that was really beautiful.

Also, to be clear, it involved a favorite cake of mine.

In homage to Pflaumenkuchen, in an effort to experiment with a new kind of crust, and in the interest of using some of the most excellent, but most crumbled banana bread, I decided to adapt a plum tart recipe. Because the original recipe called for a lemon shortbread, the product was decidedly sweet rather than tart, and a bit softer than a shortbread.

Crust Ingredients

Previously baked banana bread, dried out and crumbed

8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes, frozen

Tart Ingredients

1/3 cup + 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

24 small plums ("French prunes"), each pitted and sliced into 4 slender wedges

2 tablespoons tart fruit preserves

Crust - Take One

1. Dry out and crumb banana bread until cookie-crumb-like in texture. This make take a few days on its own, or can be expedited by re-baking the crumbed bread on low heat (200 F) until dry.

Filling - Take One

2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the 1/3 cup of sugar, the cornstarch, kosher salt, and lemon zest together. 

3. Add the plums to the bowl and stir with cleans hands to evenly coat. 

4. Cover the plum bowl and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Crust - Take Two

5. Preheat oven to 375 F.

6. Butter/grease the bottom and sides of a springform or tart pan (around 9.5" in diameter).

7. Add dried banana bread to food processor and pulse until crumbly. Add the frozen butter cubes to the mixture and pulse until combined and crumbly.

Filling - Take Two

8. Using a colander over a small bowl, drain the plums. 

9. Pour the juice into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for a few (3-4) minutes until the cornstarch is activated and the juice becomes very thick.

10. Scrape back into the small bowl and let cool.

11. Add the preserves to the saucepan. (I used our homemade strawberry, but anything will do.) Heat the preserves until liquid and syrupy.

12. Brush liquid preserves over the bottom and sides of the tart. 

13. Brush plum juice over the preserves on the bottom of the shell.

14. Starting at the edge and working towards the center, arrange the plum slices in tightly overlapping in concentric circles. (I ended up just piling some up at the center.)

15. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of sugar over the plums.

16. Bake the tart until the plums are tender when poked with a knife and caramelized along their edges, and any juices look syrupy and bubbly, 40 to 50 minutes. 

17. After you remove the tart from the oven, use a pastry brush to brush the unset juices onto any dry plums.

18. Cool the tart for at least 2 hours before unmolding. Slice with a sharp knife.

Adapted from FineCooking.