Walnut Jam Cake

This is a delicious cake with perfectly balanced flavors of butteriness, nuttiness, tartness and sweetness (which is to say, barely sweet, just how I like my snacks!). I've made it a few times over the years from this recipe but I have never made it with the whipped cream. It is really delightful with just the jam, and frankly, the cake would be tasty enough on it's own. It's that good. I had a handful of  fresh cranberries leftover from Thanksgiving so I boiled them with a little sugar and lemon juice and it made the perfect quick jam for this cake.

Cake:
1 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven, and cooled
2/3 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping:
1/2 cup jam (use whatever you've got!)
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a round cake pan (Deb says 8", I used a 9" pan and it was fine).

Pulse cooled walnuts and sugar in a food processor until finely chopped. Add butter and process until combined, then add eggs and vanilla and process till combined. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and pulse till just incorporated. Spread batter in pan.

Bake until wooden pick inserted into cake comes out clean. For me, in the 9" pan: I cooked it for 20 minutes, turned off the oven and let the cake sit in the oven for an extra 5 minutes and it was done.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Spoon jam over cake.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Since I posted my tried-and-true chocolate chip banana bread bread recipe a few weeks ago, in the spirit of trying new things I sought out a new banana-based treat for this week's snack. I'm so glad I did because this recipe is destined to be in my regular rotation now. Added bonus is that my toddler thinks she is eating chocolate cake when really these muffins are (relatively) healthy.  I found the recipe here but made a few tweaks of my own. In the future I might even dial back the sugar even more than I did because they are very flavorful and delicious and need not be overly sweet. Still moist and fresh-tasting on day 3! I liked having the walnuts in this recipe but it goes without saying that they could be made more decadent if you used 1 cup of chocolate chips and skipped the nuts.

3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar (could probably do 1/2 cup for equally delicious results)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine bananas, oil, and egg in mixer.

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add to banana mixture.

Stir in chips and nuts until just combined.

Spoon into greased or lined muffin tins. This yielded 15 muffins for me.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Tasty!

THANKSGIVING EDITION - Apple Cake and Cranberry Pecan Pie

This was our first year of hosting Thanksgiving at our house, and we killed it! Thanks to Martha Stewart and Deb at Smitten Kitchen for having awesome recipes to work from (we made a turkey we bought from our CSA, garlic and sour cream mashed potatoes, this gravy, these brussels, this corn pudding, and this stuffing). A friend offered to bring a sweet potato pie, and since I think every successful Thanksgiving should have at least three desserts, I decided to make this apple cake and this cranberry pie because I am a HUGE fan of tart, fresh cranberries. Everything was delicious!

I served both desserts with Graeter's vanilla bean and salted caramel ice creams.


Apple Cake 

5 apples
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup OJ
2 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a bundt pan. Peel, core and chop apples into small chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down bowl to incorporate everything well.

Pour half of the batter into prepared pan. Spread half of the apples over it. Pour remaining batter over the apples and rearrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely before running a knife between cake and pan, and unmold onto a large serving tray.

Sooo moist and tasty; picture does not do it justice!

Cranberry Pecan Pie 

Crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 table salt (I only had coarse so I used closer to 1/4 tsp)
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/4 cup very cold water

Filling
4 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
Orange zest (Deb says "a few gratings" but I used probably 2 tablespoons worth)
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Streusel
2/3 rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp coarse salt
3/4 cup pecans, toasted
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For dough: In the work bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse meal and the largest bits of butter are the size of tiny peas. Turn mixture out into a mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup cold water and stir with a spoon until large clumps form. Use hands to knead dough together in the bottom of the bowl.  Wrap dough in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour or up to 48 hours.

Form the crust: On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a 12-13 inch circle. Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate. Trim overhang to about 1/2 an inch. Crimp. Refrigerate until ready to fill.

Heat oven to 375.

Make filling: Combine all filling ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. After about 5 minutes, berries will leak juices. Cook 5 minutes more until filling is loose. Transfer to a bowl and letter cool slightly.

Make topping: If using whole oats, grind them to a powder in a food processor. Add pecans and grind too. Add remaining ingredients except the butter, pulsing a few times to combine. Add butter until crumbles form. Sprinkle over cranberry topping.

Bake pie: For 45-50 minutes until juices are slightly bubbling. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Sooo tart and crumbly! A perfect pie and a bad pic

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

You know a recipe is a favorite when the page on your recipe book is splattered with cooking stains. Well this is one of those instances! A cousin of mine organized a cookbook for her son's school when she was a PTA member, and since she was the organizer, she included a lot of family recipes in the book. This is great for me as I have a little sampling of family recipes from various cousins all in one place. One of her submissions was this bread which I make often. It's easy and delicious and comes out perfect every time.

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
generous 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350.

In a food processor, beat oil and sugar together. Add eggs and bananas and beat well. Add flour, baking powder, soda and salt and beat just till incorporated. Add vanilla. Stir in chips. Bake in a greased loaf pan for 50-60 min until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on rack.