Molasses kicks asses

The boy's mom has a tendency to give us food things and one of the things she gave us recently was a bottle of blackstrap molasses. I am not a molasses devotee by any standard, but I like it to some degree. I stashed the bottle and decided to eventually find a recipe for it. The molasses sat accusingly, glaring at me with its sticky darkness, willing me to use it in something. Its day would come and it would be a boon to this website as well as all those who partook of its greatness.

One of my favorite sites is a food and drink lovers' paradise. It is called Chow and I love perusing their articles and recipes. I was looking through for new dinner ideas because we have a tendency to have the same things over and over again until I can barely tolerate them. Naturally I ended up looking at the desserts section. Lo and behold, I find a cookie recipe that uses molasses. They do not call for blackstrap per se, but it will work. Super-Sized Ginger Chewies it is.

When I finally had time to make the cookies, I decided against making them "super-sized" because I do not have a super-sized disher.* Heaven forbid I actually use spoons to portion out the dough. Ever since I started using dishers for cookies, I eschew anything else. They are so fast and precise. Cookies are all the same size and therefore they cook evenly and at the same rate. The recipe does not make very many cookies, only about 18 even with my less than super scooping. The next time I used the recipe I doubled it and it worked beautifully. I was now the proud owner of 3 and a half dozen cookies. Very shortly I was down by two who had been gleefully inhaled by yours truly.

The surviving cookies made their way to work where they were scooped up and well received. The boy adores them and I am a big fan. I will probably try making them with non-blackstrap molasses at some point. The taste is very pronounced which may turn off some people.


*A disher are often called cookie scoops, like so. The one I use for almost all my cookies is a 40, or 1 1/2 Tbsp. I also have a 60, and they completely rule.

Ginger Chewies

Silly Cookbooks

I never realized how much I skim cookbooks until I was typing in the Chiffon Cake recipe. I didn't even notice the silly bit about aluminum foil until I was typing it. I also could have sworn it said a dusting a confectioner's sugar not streusel. I had typed it out and everything, then checked the books and was like, oh, oops. Who dusts with anything other than powdered sugar?

Nectarine Upside-down Chiffon Cake

From Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan

The Topping
1/2 stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3 to 4 ripe medium nectarines (the number will depend on the size), each cut into 8 pieces*

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut the butter into 3 or 4 chunks and toss them into a 10-inch springform pan that's 3 inches high. Place the pan directly over a medium-low heat and melt the butter, tilting the pan so that the butter covers the bottom evenly. Remove the pan from the heat and scatter the brown sugar evenly over the butter, patting it down with your fingertips. Arrange the nectarine pieces in concentric circles over the sugar. For a fancier effect, alternate the ways the nectarines face from circle to circle. Wrap the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil to catch any butter that might drip during baking and set aside.**


The Streusel
1/4 cup unblanched whole almonds
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 stick (2 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup quick-cooking (not instant) oats

Put the almonds on an ungreased jelly-roll pan and bake them until golden brown and fragrant, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently so that they toast evenly.*** To test for toastiness, break one open--it should be light brown in the center. Cool the almonds before proceeding.

Line the jelly-roll pan with parchment paper and keep at the ready.

Put all of the streusel ingredients, including the almonds, into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse just to mix the ingredients and chop the almonds and butter. The mixture will be rough and crumbly. Spread the streusel out on the pan and, if you'd like to have a few largish lumps for textural interest, squeeze some of the streusel lightly between your hands and then break the big clumps into smaller bits.

Bake the streusel for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool while you make the cake. (Keep the oven at 350 degrees)


The Cake
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, preferably kosher
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup vegetable or safflower oil
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large egg whites

Ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Sift together 1 cup of the sugar, the flour, baking powder and baking soda onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper; add the salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, oil and lemon juice until blended. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the yolk mixture, whisking all the while; set aside.

Beat the 6 egg whites in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or work with a hand-held mixer. at low speed, beat the whites until they're foamy and form soft peaks. Increase the speed on the mixer to medium-high and gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, beating until the whites are thick and shiny and hold peaks. (If you run a finger through the whites, it should leave a smooth, even path.) Fold about one third of the whipped egg whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it, then turn the yolk mixture into the whites and fold it in gently but thoroughly.

Pour and scrape half of the batter into the fruit-lined pan. Smooth the top using an offset spatula, and sprinkle over the streusel, keeping a little in reserve for decorating the finished cake. Top with the remainder of the batter, smoothing it with the spatula, and place the pan on a jelly-roll pan. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick**** inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake to a cooking rack and let it cool for at least 25 minutes before inverting it onto a cardboard cake round or a serving platter.

Serve the cake with ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream if desired and a dusting of the remaining streusel.

This cake is best served just warm or at room temperature the day it is made. However, you can cover the cake and keep it at room temperature overnight.


*I cut the peaches into 12 pieces. 8 seemed kinda massive.
**See! Stupid springform pans. You do not have to worry about dripping butter with a normal cake pan.
***I never toast nuts in the oven anymore, too much hassle. I put them in a brown paper bag and microwave them in 30 second intervals, shaking the bag between nukes.
****At a bakery I worked at, they used bamboo skewers (you know, for tasty shish kebabs), instead of toothpicks, and boy-howdy do I love them for that now.

The Trials of a Very Ripe Peach

I work in a restaurant and we have a very sweet couple who comes in every Friday night. They have been doing so for years, and I have gotten to know them a fair amount. Apparently they have a peach tree in their yard and it was producing fruit like the dickens. They very kindly decided to bring me peaches since they had run out of ideas for them.

Me, being the glutton I am, devoured the first peach straight out of hand. Yummy, but rather acidic for my delicate system. I decided since low-acid is better for my angry tummy, I would cook the peaches.

The next night I came home from work at roughly nine o'clock at night and diddled around as usual. About ten thirty I realized I still had very ripe peaches that desperately needed to be cooked or thrown away. I was not about to waste such lovely fruits, so I scoured for a recipe that I would not need to buy anything for. I found a cake from my well-loved Baking with Julia that I had seen before, but had never been able to try. Fresh fruit does not usually last very long in our household and I do not often buy items to try out recipes for no special occasion. The original recipe calls for nectarines, but they say that almost any fruit can be used, even bananas, oddly enough. Peach Upside-down Chiffon Cake it became and away I went.

First off, the recipe calls for a ten inch springform pan three inches deep. Now I do not like springform pans aside from they are neat to play with clicking the ring on and off the base. They are fussy and often leak, so I do not keep them around. I can buy cake pans cheaper and they work just as well with proper greasing. This decided, I looked for a ten inch cake pan. And looked, and realized, I have no ten inch cake pan. Eight inch it is.

Apparently I wasn't paying too much attention to the ingredients either, because I was missing far more than I thought. The first crisis was the brown sugar, of which I had none. But brown sugar be damned! I had white sugar in spades. Surely the two could be swapped. I plodded on, artfully arranging the peaches and setting it aside to make the streusel. Once again brown sugar was needed, but I used white. Now here the recipe called for almonds and I could have sworn we had some. I was wrong. Not an almond in the house. No worries, I have oodles of pecans. Pecans and streusel are best friends. I was not fazed.

Streusel baking away, I turned my attention to the cake. Chiffon cake is fun to make and uses a lot of neat baking tricks. It is made with oil, which presented a problem I will go into shortly, instead of butter so the leavening is dependent upon baking powder, soda and whipped egg whites. You mix up egg yolks, oil and lemon juice into a thin liquidy goo. When the dry ingredients are added it thickens up and the acid activates the soda causing it to bubble and thicken. It was neat to watch and would be a great teaching tool for kids, but I digress.

A half of a cup is the lemon juice called for and I knew I had most of a lemon in the fridge and bottled lemon juice as backup. I do not know if you realize how much half of a cup truly is. It is a lot. Like, way more than I figured. I run out of lemon and run out of backup juice and am momentarily stumped before realizing, hey, is that lime juice? Limes are like lemons. Lime juice! It is mostly lemon juice so that is what matters, right?

The oil called for is safflower or vegetable oil, so basically a tasteless oil. When I went to the cabinet to get the oil, I realized too late that I only had olive oil. Granted, I had three bottles of olive oil, but who wants an olive peach cake. Italians make cakes with olive oil, so I thought what the hell and picked the least "olivey" of the oils. The most expensive of them won the battle for being the most subtle.

At this point I am a little nervous as to the integrity of the cake. I am moving along at a fair clip and go to pour in the batter eying my smaller than desired cake pan dubiously. I have a lot of batter. In fact, I have so much batter that I would doubt it would fit in the pan without the peaches or the streusel. It is a little too late to stop now and in goes the batter and streusel with the extra batter going into another cake pan.

Fortunately the cake does not rise as much as I feared and by some miracle manages to not overflow its pan. The problem is the cake is taking an age to cook and the top is browning and browning and burning. The surplus cake turns out beautifully. It is light, fluffy and tender with an odd olive aroma on the inhale, but the finish is lightly citrusy and lovely. It is improved by simple syrup made with some whiskey. Soak the cake and let it refrigerate and I am in love. Not overly sweet and fluffy as hell, it is divine. A little whipped cream slathered on the top with fresh raspberries and it could reach true elegance.

When the cake is finally done, it has to cool for a least twenty-five minutes before flipping it out of the pan. It is now about one a.m. and I decide I might as well spend the time taking a shower. The burned bits present a problem. Sure you will not be able to see them when the cake is flipped, stated by the boy, but I am worried you will taste them. I trim them off and they sort of peel off which is surprisingly satisfying. When the cake is flipped out, with no liquid sugar burns I am happy to report, it is glorious. I am proud of its appearance and even if it tastes like crap, I can still take pictures of its glory and fake it.

It does not taste like crap, quite the opposite. The cake is beyond moist, it approaches gooey status, but in a cooked, delightful way. The chiffon cake has a layer of the streusel in it and the peaches on top. I do wonder how it would have turned out with brown sugar, but I could not complain about the results. I plan on making this recipe again and when I do, look out produce section of my mega-mart, I am going to raid you.

Peach Upside-down Chiffon Cake