Persimmon Pudding Cake

After the success of the persimmon bread I made I decided to try out a persimmon dessert recipe: persimmon pudding cake. It's as easy to mix up as the bread was-easier in fact as there are no dates to pit and chop!

Sherlock wanted in on the baking action

I do love persimmons but they are a bit of a pain to work with. Often if I can find persimmons with perfect skin I just chop them into quarters and give them a whir in the food processor. However this last trip to the market didn't result in the nicest of persimmons; they were all fairly heavily damaged so I had to skin them before tossing them in the food processor.

Despite my annoyance with the state of the persimmons; I love the cozy feeling I get from baking in the autumn and winter. Part of it is that the window in my apartment doesn't seal so it's freezing in my kitchen. Strong wind often forces it open, knocking over my electric kettle and making a mess of my (admittedly only sometimes) clean counter. So keeping the oven working, especially when it emanates the rich, warm aromas of cinnamon and clove not only heats up the kitchen but makes the entire apartment feel that much warmer.

Using fleur de sal, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove

This recipe by Simply Recipes is a nice, quick little bake that results in a really moist, slightly spongy cake that I enjoyed not only as dessert but for breakfast. Aside from anything involving bacon, dessert for breakfast is one of my favorite things. I had to use a few short cuts from the original recipe skipping spices that I don't have but it still turned out pretty well, especially when highlighted with fresh whipped cream. Although what doesn't fresh whipped cream improve?

Persimmon Pudding Cake (adapted from Simply Recipes)

• 2 cups Hachiya persimmon pulp (about 4 persimmons)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp fleur de sal (or 1/2 tsp regular salt)
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp clove
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the persimmon pulp, eggs, melted butter, milk, and vanilla (I used Tahitian).
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (expect the nuts).
4. In three additions, incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet then fold in the nuts.
5. Bake in a square pan for about 50 minutes*.

*My cake ended up more cake than pudding so I think I let it bake a little too long. Maybe check it first at 40 minutes then keep an eye on it.

Persimmon Date Walnut Bread

It's fall! Today it really feels like it; the temperature in Istanbul dropped about 10 (Celsius) degrees overnight. So now it's cold and grey but cold fall weather means fall baking! Fall also means persimmons which I love.

Homemade orange blossom water from Lebanon!

We only get one kind of persimmon here, the hachiya persimmon. For me the trickiest part about working with these persimmons is making sure to not smash them while getting them home! Hachiya persimmons aren't at their full ripeness until they're so soft they feel like they've rotted.

Thank goodness this recipe calls for persimmon puree because there's no way a fruit this soft and delicate is getting sliced nicely! Other than chopping the dates this was a super fast and easy recipe. I ended up using mini loaf pans to bake it and shared it around with my friends-I think this is the most popular thing I've ever made! Everyone went nuts for it. It is really good; it tastes like autumn.

 

Pitting and chopping the dates takes forever, they're so blasted sticky. Between that and the molasses I'm not sure I'll ever de-stick my counter. Brown sugar as we know it in America doesn't exist here so I have to make my own; which I can do thanks to the gift of molasses from a friend in Germany (as regular molasses also doesn't exist here) and the food processor E&M lent me that I kind of never returned. Oops.

The other great thing about fall baking? It warms up the apartment! My building has central heat which is annoying on several levels but it only works in two rooms and the window in my kitchen doesn't quite close so it's always cold in there.

Between the bread's resounding popularity, how blasted easy it is to make, and the warm and cozy feeling I get with the baking aromas wafting out of the oven...yeah I'll be making this again!

Persimmon Date Walnut Bread (adapted from The Little Epicurean)
Makes one 9 inch loaf pan or five mini loaves

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp fleur de sal*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
several dashes of ground clove
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla (I used Tahitian)
4 eggs, room temp and slightly beaten
1/4 cup orange blossom water*
2 cups persimmon puree (about 4 hachiya persimmons)
2 cups toasted, chopped walnuts
2 cups chopped dates

*optional

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour, salts, baking powder, cinnamon, clove, and sugars).
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the melted butter, beaten eggs, and persimmon puree. Whisk until combined. Fold in the walnuts and dates.
4. Pour into greased loaf pan(s) and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Brutti Ma Buoni - My Trials and Tribulations

In November when I was in Rome L and I had the most magnificent cookies called brutti ma buoni - literally ugly but good. I have tried several times now to recreate them and are consistently turning out far more brutti than buoni. I shall persevere!!

Both attempts had good and bad points. The first recipe I found was, I now believe, miswritten. No way one egg white was enough so I did some guesstimating and randomly threw in a few more egg whites. I also went the whole nine yards with roasting whole hazelnuts then putting them through a food processor with confectioner's sugar.

I'm sure it was an ingredient  proportional issue but these baked flatter than a pancake. Brutti ma buoni should be puffy and round, kind of like a coconut macaroon. Sans the coconut.They were both brutti and buoni but brutti in a completely different way than they should have been. But wow did they taste good.

For my second batch I used a completely different recipe. I also skipped a step and used prepulverized hazelnuts that I found at Carrefour. Even the method with these cookies was much different and involved hand whisking the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler-which I think made a big difference in how the cookie turned out.

I knew as soon as I scooped these onto the cookie sheet that I had a better chance this time of making them look right. The meringue was fluffier and the raw dough stayed put instead of migrating into the surrounding cookies.

This recipe also called for a significantly less amount of hazelnuts so that explains why they may have looked slightly better (well, better = the way they're supposed to) but did not have the big hazelnut flavor that the first batch did. I also think I let them bake like two minutes longer than they needed. My new oven and I are still learning how to get along.

So the first batch wins for taste but the second sort of wins for looks. I think my next attempt will be with the below recipe which is the one I used for the second batch but with some tweaks.  When made correctly these cookies are amazing and totally worth all this trial and error to get right!

Brutti ma buoni

Ingredients:

• 200 grams whole hazelnuts
• 1 cup (200 grams) sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3 Tbs (30 grams) flour

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the hazelnuts on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes (or until fragrant) and skins begin to flake. Remove and place on a clean dish towel. Roll up the towel and let them steam for about 10 minutes then rub the (still in the towel) briskly to remove the skins. Let them cool completely then coarsely chop (or run through a food processor).
2. In a heatproof bowl placed over a shallow pan of simmering water combine the sugar and egg whites whisking constantly until opaque in color.
3. Remove from heat and beat with a hand mixer until thick and glossy. Beat in the vanilla then fold in the flour and chopped nuts.
4. Place heaping tablespoonsful on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 12-ish minutes then check and bake more or not.

These are best the day of but will keep for a day or two in an airtight container. 

Orange Cake with Mascarpone Frosting, Pomegranate Seeds, and Candied Orange Peel

Last week I was blown away by the revelation that you can whip ganache. I don't know how I didn't know that but it changes everything. This week's revelation is mascarpone frosting.

I love baking under just about any circumstances, but I love being challenged with an ingredient. I visiting friend requested something with pomegranate and after some puzzling we decided on an orange-pomegranate combination. As an added bonus they're both winter fruits so I was able to get fresh, seasonal produce from my favorite local market.

I dream of one day having my own house built. the kitchen will take up a good chunk of the floor plan and will include double ovens built into the wall and simply acres and acres of counter space. In the meantime I made do here with a mini oven borrowed from my neighbor and only enough counter to put the cutting board. Baking usually requires a fair amount of shifting as everything that normally lives on top of the mini oven has to be taken off and put on the range or the small space between the sink and the counter. However for this recipe I needed not only the oven but also the range and the number of steps it involved outnumbered my mixing bowls requiring me to do a complicated dance of rearranging, mixing, washing, cooking, and baking.

A complicated dance that takes place in a space as small as my counter allowance and that usually also involves dodging Sherlock who, if not monitoring my actions from her perch atop the microwave is usually trying to climb up my legs.

Aside from the flavor, which was rather marvelous, one of the best things about this cake is the bright colors! Like many of my past cakes it wasn't the most well decorated creation ever but the intense colors of the pomegranate seeds and candied orange peels made up for it.

Recipe (adapted from BBC Food):

To decorate:

• 1 orange
• seeds from 1 pomegranate
• 50 g/1 3/4 oz sugar

For cake:

• 1 orange
• 275g/9 3/4oz self-rising flour*
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 275g/9 3/4oz sugar
• 275g/9 3/4oz butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon

For frosting:

• 50g/1 3/4oz butter, softened
• 175g/6oz powdered sugar
• 250g/9oz full-fat mascarpone cheese

Instructions:

1.  Zest the orange (I use a plain old vegetable peeler and chop the resulting strips small). Place in a small pan and pour boiling water over the zest. Add half the sugar and let boil for just a couple minutes. Strain out the zest, arrange in a single layer as much as possible on non-stick paper, sprinkle remaining sugar over it, and set aside. To seed the pomegranate, I prefer the water method but do whatever works best for you. Set aside the seeds.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Zest the second orange. Using a food processor, combine zest and sugar to make orange sugar. This isn't necessary but I think it's a nice touch.
4. Separate the fruit from what remains of the orange peel and chop up the fruit in a food processor (or if you don't have one mash it up however you like). Set aside.
5. Blend the orange sugar and butter with food processor, stand mixer, or hand mixer until fluffy and add eggs one at a time. Blend in the dry ingredients. Finally fold in the mashed up orange.
6. Separate the mixture between 2 8in baking pans and bake at 180C/350F for about 30 minutes. After the cakes are done, turn off the oven and put in the orange peels that you candied earlier. With the oven off they won't cook but the heat will help dry them out a lot faster than just leaving them lying about.
7. While the cakes cool put together the frosting. Blend the butter and powdered sugar. BBC Food says until "smooth"...I got no smooth, just powdered sugar that resembled damp sand. If that's what you get don't worry about it, you're fine. At wet sand stage blend in the mascarpone cheese. 
8. To assemble the cake: if your cakes rose/you have mad slicing skills halve the cakes to make four layers. Divide the frosting between however many layers you have, stacking them with frosting and pomegranate seeds between each layer. Top the cake with frosting (and frost the sides as well if you have enough) and decorate with pomegranate seeds and the candied orange peels.

*I don't have self-rising flour so I substituted with regular flour and some additives. For every 8oz of regular flour add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. It worked fine but my cakes didn't rise very much so I made a two, not four layer cake.

Strawberry Basil Cake with Balsamic Frosting

It is strawberry season! The strawberries we get here are gorgeous and I could eat them on their own a kilo at a time; but that does not mean that I don't like a strawberry dessert from time to time. I've played in the past with strawberry cupcakes and balsamic frosting and strawberry basil sorbet and this time decided to combine all the flavors.

Finally got a real measuring cup!

Even though I got an oven sometime ago it is only recently that I've really started baking. Part of the what's held me back is how difficult some key ingredients are to get; like vanilla. Sure I could buy vanilla beans at a spice shop, over pay by about 300% for a bottle of good vodka and make my own...but I just cannot pay that awful mark-up on alcohol. Luckily for me I found Simply Nicki's. She makes peanut butters, vanillas, extracts, and all sorts of good things. When I lived in the US I was a devotee of Mexican vanilla but Nicki turned me onto Ugandan vanilla and it is fantastic. I think I need to get some Tahitian vanilla from her as well.

The last few years I have been very picky about the ingredients I use for my desserts but that was not always the way! When I was younger I was unaware that there even was a difference between baking powder and baking soda. We (i.e. my dad) planted a ton of strawberries every year so strawberry short cake was a pretty common dessert in our home. Heck there were days when that's all dinner was too! I remember once, I must have been in middle school, I wanted to make the biscuits for the shortcake. They came out of the oven and were gorgeous. Fluffy, just the right shade of golden brown...I was so impressed with myself. Then we put the strawberries on them. Everything turned purple and started to fizz. It was a little like eating Pop Rocks. That's when I learned that baking powder and soda are two very, very different things!

I promise you really do need baking powder for this!

Recipe:

• 400 ml flour
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/8 Teaspoon salt
• 150 ml olive oil
• 175 ml sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 100 ml milk
• 1 1/2+ Cups sliced strawberries
• 2+ Tablespoons chopped basil*

• 230 grams cream cheese (or labne)
• 115 grams siftened butter
• 3+ Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 100 ml powdered sugar

1. Sift (or not, I'm lazy so I don't) the flour, baking powder, and salt then set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk or beat together the oil and sugar. Then beat in eggs one at a time then the vanilla.
3. Into that add, in 5 parts, the dry ingredients and milk (flour-milk-flour-milk-flour).
4. Fold in berries and basil.
5. Bake in greased 8x8 pan at 190C for about 20-25 minutes.

*Don't be afraid of the basil! I always forget that basil's taste is much milder than the scent and I chickened out and didn't put in enough.

Butterscotch Cheesecake

I've started doing a fair amount of baking now that I am both getting used to using substitutes and have had a few people coming from the US bring groceries for me. I've also struck an agreement with M that he hauls water up my five flights for me if I bake for him. I think I'm getting the better end of that bargain frankly.

Two of my recent baking obsessions have been cheesecakes and vegetable cakes (carrot and zucchini especially). Both of these require cream cheese-not an available ingredient here. If you go to the grocery store you will find cream cheese (krem peynir) but that far more resembles those jars of spreadable, bright orange "cheese" that always seem to be popular around Christmas? I have no idea what that stuff really is but I always kind of liked it. However that is not a suitable substitute for American cream cheese.

Your best bet is to use labne, which is a super strained yogurt. The downside of using labne is that if you play with it too much it loses its integrity and thins out again. I've largely had good luck with it but a couple weeks ago I was making cinnamon cream cheese frosting for zucchini cake and it fell apart. So we had zucchini cake with cream cheese drizzle instead. It's easier with cheesecake since it gets baked.

Of course I got so distracted while writing the blog that I forgot to check the cheesecake and the pecans got a wee...singed. Always remember to check the cheesecake.

It's a good thing I'm bellydancing again because dessert is now a one-two time a week thing now. At least I'm not eating them all myself now! I make sure that E&M take leftovers.


Recipe:

Crust:

• 1 Cup crushed Graham Crackers or cookies
• 2 Tbls Sugar
• 3 Tbls butter, melted

1. Combine crushed Graham Crackers, sugar, and butter and press into the bottom of a greased 8x8 pan.
2. Bake at 325F for 10-15 minutes.
3. Remove from oven, set aside, and increase oven temperature to 350F.

Cheesecake:

• 12 ounces cream cheese
• 1/4 Cup sugar
• 2 Tbls flour
• 2 eggs
• 10 ounces butterscotch chips
• 2 Tbls milk
• Flaked coconut
• Chopped pecans

1. Combine milk and butterscotch chips in melt, stirring fairly often, in a double boiler over low heat., When melted, remove from double boiler and set aside.
2. Whisk cream cheese, sugar, and flour.
3. Add butterscotch.
4. Once those are combined, whisk in eggs, one at a time.
5. Pour over crust an bake for 20-ish minutes. Until the top looks semi-set up.
6. Remove from oven and sprinkle coconut and pecans on top. Bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Salted Caramel Sticky Buns

A funny thing happened to me on the way to a friend's.

After two years in Turkey I've experienced a number of odd incidents but I think this one takes the cake (or sticky bun if you prefer). I was headed to a friend's place in Şişli which requires a trip on the metro. As I was headed toward the exit I noticed a group of three or four men, also headed toward the exit turnstiles, veer away from the exit to where a security guard was standing. Thinking nothing of it, I passed through a turnstile and veered left to the exit I needed. Then the world exploded! The men I'd noticed earlier attacked a security guard. Several more guards rushed in as the brawling group moved quickly across the station (in the same direction I needed to go). And then the gun came out.

The guard pulled his gun and started waving it around. That is when the majority of bystanders who moments ago were merely curious as to what was going on, myself included, hit the walls. I stood with a group of people near a bank of ATMs, hoping that the machines would take any bullets instead of me. All I could think was, "Fantastic. The absolute last thing I need is to get shot in fracking Turkey." And to my absolute bewilderment, while 85% of people in the station were doing their best to stay clear of whatever the heck was going down, the other 15% apparently had no sense and/or self preservation instincts because they continued to mosey on past the gun waving group of fighting idiots.

It's moments like this when I really wish my Turkish were better. I am really curious as to what made these guys decide to attack an armed man. Eventually the other guards separated the fighters and wrestled the idiots out of the station; unfortunately out the same exit I needed though. I stayed put by the ATMs until dude (who was still waving around his gun while yelling at the departing idiots) also left the station. I've never been so glad to be of drinking age and helped my friend sample the vats of punch she'd made (vodka, satsuma (clementine? whatever) juice, and thyme gets two thumbs up).

All that and I was still the first person to arrive! While waiting for the situation to clear I was at least happy that, were it my time, I would have died after enjoying the successful labors of my first ever attempt at making sticky buns. While I usually eschew short cuts like mixes or pre-made doughs, my inability to find many/afford certain ingredients and implements has made me get over myself a little. When I found a recipe for sticky buns using defrosted phyllo dough I was more than happy to try it.

Dude. Phyllo dough, puff pastry, something in the family...whatever it was I bought created some sort of salted caramel sticky bun baklava chimera. A beautiful, nutty, gooey, sticky, chimera. Life as I know it will never again be the same.

Recipe
Salted Caramel: (here)

Sticky Buns:

• 1/2 butter
• 1/2 brown sugar
• pecans, walnuts, etc as desired
• cinnamon
• frozen puff pastry or phyllo dough (thawed)

1. Pre heat oven to 350F and grease a 9x9 baking dish.
2. Melt the butter and whisk in the brown sugar. Pour into dish and sprinkle with chopped nuts.
3. Sprinkle cinnamon to taste and pre made salted caramel on the dough. Roll into some sort of approximation of what a sticky bun should look like. Be careful that you don't handle the dough too much as it will quickly lose its integrity.
4. Place buns in the dish in the butter/sugar mixture.
5. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the uncovered part of the buns are a nice golden brown.
6. When they come out of the oven, spoon some of the caramel mixture over the top buns a couple times. After they've cooled slightly (don't let them cool too much because the caramel might harden in the pan) turn over on to a plate and scrape remaining caramel over the buns.

Pear Apple Crisp

It's autumn! Even here in Turkey. Every year for the last 12 years that I haven't lived in Michigan I long to be home for fall. At least early fall, it does have the tendency to snow stupidly early. There were many a Halloween I'm not even sure why we bothered with costumes to Trick or Treat since they were covered with heavy winter coats, scarves, mittens, and boots. However, for the brief time it is fall in Michigan it's a glorious thing.

Fruit, nuts, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Glorious.

When the trees turn the colors are amazing: gold, orange, red all burning against skies so blue they almost hurt. In the country you can smell people burning their leaves, after of course you've had a good time jumping into the leaf piles. Hayrides, you-pick pumpkins, apples, pears, stopping at road-side stands for some of the best apple cider on the face of the earth (unpasteurized if you're really lucky); this is how we do in Michigan. I don't miss much about my home state but I do miss that.

Michigan is becoming more and more well known as a beer state with micro breweries are popping up all over. What a lot people don't know though, because it so rarely makes it out of the state, is that Michigan is also full of wineries and cideries. I may have made up 'cidery'. Michigan hard cider is as coveted and amazing as the soft stuff. Throw in some sugared doughnut holes from a local bakery and life is bliss.

Feeling saucy and threw in some fried cranberries

Mixing by hand

Ready for the oven!

I always feel nostalgic in fall. One of my 18 uncles owned an apple and pear orchard and he would drop off bushels of them every once in a while during the season. I had no idea what the majority of produce cost until I moved to DC where I spent a minimum of $20 a week on Honeycrisp apples; far less than a bushel of them to boot. Because we always had such a surplus, crisp was a pretty frequent dessert at home. It's a little harder to make here because I can't find oatmeal. I believe Carrefour carries steel cut oats; but they are not the same and of course the price is highway robbery. Through visiting friends and my trip home in August I've built up a supply, albeit a dwindling supply.

My last Turkish class was last week and I took the opportunity of a class potluck to make a couple crisps. Normally what I would actually do is double the batch of crisp and press some into the dish as a crust as well as put it on top. However since oatmeal is a precious commodity here I put it only on the top.

Mmmmm

I was not ready to stop there though! Crisp on its own is a wonderful thing but I wanted to go the extra mile and make caramel to pour over the top. I found a recipe that has no need for sweet & condensed milk or Karo syrup, the former being difficult to find here and the latter impossible. Sugar, butter, and cream - ingredient-wise it couldn't be easier! Making it was a slightly different story but the promise of luscious caramel beckoned.

It's not hard per say, just time consuming because sugar takes buggering forever to melt. And who makes pots and pans with metal handles?! Because while the sugar was heating so was the pot! Eventually I had to fold up a dish towel and use it to hold onto the pot handle which then ran the danger of the cloth catching on fire from the gas flame...

Oh it was beautiful. Baking is therapy for me and making two crisps (one for class one for me!) and making the caramel was soothing. But eating it was better! I ate crisp for breakfast for days. I might keep making this until my oatmeal supply runs out.

A crisp autumn day and a warm gooey dessert go together whether your view is of the chilling Bosphorus or of colorful fall leaves.

For the Crisp:

2 each pears, Granny Smith, and red apples*
2-3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
Dash of salt
Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove to taste

Peel an slice or chop all the fruit, mix in dry ingredients, and set aside for a few minutes

Topping:
1/2 Cup Oatmeal
1/2 Cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 Cup flour
Cinnamon to taste
6 Tablespoons cold butter

1. Preheat oven at 350F
2. Butter an 8x8 baking dish and pour in fruit
3. In the same bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for the topping then use your fingers or a pastry cutter to blend in the butter. Once everything is incorporated, sprinkle over the top of the fruit.
4. Bake for 40-60 minutes depending on your oven. I'd check it after 40 and let it go longer as needed. You want the crumble top to be golden/browned but obviously not burned.

*The type of apples you use will affect both the flavor and consistency of the dessert. Some apples cook mushy while others retain a crispness. The sweeter the apple you use the less sugar you need. You can also add nuts, dried dates, (dried or fresh) cranberries...go wild.

For the caramel:
1 Cup granulated sugar
8 Tablespoons butter
120 ml (1/3 Cup-ish) heavy cream

1. Over low heat, heat the sugar, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. This is going to take forever. Just keep going. Stirring constantly is important because you really don't want this to burn. When melted it should be a nice golden brown, well...caramel color. 
2. Add the butter and stir until it is all incorporated. Be careful with this part because adding the butter will make the melted sugar go crazy. It will splatter so watch your hands.
3. Once butter and sugar are fully incorporated, slowly drizzle in cream which will make the mixture boil and rise.
4. Let boil for one minute then remove from heat.
5. Optional: add salt to taste if you want salted caramel

The caramel can be stored for up to two weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You'll probably have to reheat it before pouring over anything. Or you could just spoon gooey caramel goodness and eat it straight. I'm not saying I did that...but you could.