So then, let’s start the summer with a little loafing.  I came across this recipe for a cream cheese butter cake while researching another recipe.  Now, I know I have at least one other butter cake recipe on this blog but this one had to be made.  I simply couldn’t imagine what cake with not only butter but cream cheese would taste like.  Heaven?  Nirvana?  Paula Dean if you licked her arm?

True to its name, this loaf recipe starts with about 1 1/2 cups of butter and another cup of cream cheese.

If it makes you feel any better, all that dairy does go into two loaves.

And what comes out of the oven is beautifully buttery golden.

I knew that if the cake tasted anything like I’d imagined, we were going to need a acidy to counterbalance the heft of the crumb.  Enter fresh strawberries, some lemon juice,  a little sugar and some heat.

This recipe is solid and would stand up well to whatever summer fruit you’d like to throw at it.

Soundtrack

I can’t stop listening to the Glee version of Shake it Out.  Don’t really understand it myself.

Cream Cheese Butter Loaf

Ingredients

• 3 C all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 C butter, softened
• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.  Grease and line with parchment, two loaf pans.
2. Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.
3. Using a stand mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add-in sugar and beat an additional 3-5 minutes.
4. Beat-in eggs one-at-a-time.
5. Gently fold-in flour until just combined.  Divide batter between pans.  Place pans on a jelly roll pan.
6. Bake until inserted toothpick comes-out with crumbs.
7. Allow to cool on racks for 10 minutes.  Run a butter or table knife around the edges of each cake.  Gently remove and allow to cool completely on wire baking racks.

Strawberry-Citrus Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 1 /2 lbs strawberries, cleaned and halved.
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 TBS lemon or orange juice
• zest of 1 lemon (or half a navel orange)

Directions

• Combine all ingredients into a heavy-bottom sauce pan.  Simmer strawberries over medium heat until sauce reduces and becomes thick, 5-10 minutes.  Allow sauce to cool.  If desired, blend some of the sauce, leaving some strawberry chunks for texture.  Store in sealed container in the fridge.

Not a lot of process photos here because, well, browned butter isn’t very attractive on its own and at its core, this recipe follows basic chocolate chip cookie protocol (go here if you really need additional photos on how to make this cookie).

Two notes. Browned butter will form some sediment during the delicious smelling browning process.  To keep this out of the dough I strained the cooled butter before using.  Second, I prefer to toast my nuts in a pan rather than in the oven so that I can keep an eye on them (I know, I know).  Heat a large pan over medium head, add nuts tossing occasionally until the start to smell toasty.

 Soundtrack

….aaaaaand we’re back to Coldplay.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I get a weekly recipe email for Southern Food from Diana Rattray.  Who knows why I get the email but I always look at the recipes…mostly because I am amazed by what people eat in the South (at least according to Diana Rattray and Paula Dean).  This recipe is adapted from one of those weekly emails.  Who knew?

Directions

And guess what?  You can make your own.  No really, you can.  Because I did.  And if I can make them, so can you.

A couple of years ago I (like everyone else it seems) became smitten with the oft  soft ottomans and thought that a certain set of Kitchen Gods might enjoy one or two strategically placed in front of windows.  After some scouring of the internet, I found an Amy Butler pattern for something she called “Gumdrop Pillows.”  I didn’t post my process at the time because I figured I was on the back-end of a trend…not the front.

After ordering the patterns and sufficient time on Fabric.com, I had the necessary tools.

The first one I made went into the loft.  While I have a first-rate sewing machine, I haven’t ever really advanced past straight lines.  So, on the first try, I didn’t even consider the notion that I should match-up the patterns.

Luckily, the orange brocade was forgiving and you can only see the mismatch at the seams if you are really paying attention.

The second one I made for the office for use as an ottoman.  Even using the bigger pattern, it’s still a little low, but stack another pillow on top and you are good to go.

By this time I had figured out how to match the pattern but of course, had only ordered the amount of yardage listed in the pattern and so couldn’t do it all the way around.  So, if you don’t want to cut of your parrot’s head like I do, add an extra yard or two when purchasing fabric for your tuffet.

By the time I got the to pouf for the master bedroom, I finally succeeded in working with the eight seams.  I love this fabric and wanted to make a duvet from it.  Alas, none was to be found a year later when I was ready for the task.

Kids love these things.  So do the Kitchen Gods.  Though, typical to their kind, they refused to model for this post (can you find the retreating tail?).

One word of caution.  If you do decide to make these, watch the prices on fill.  If not careful, you could easily spend $100 to give these poufs their plump.  I bought mine from Joanne’s Fabric and lucked-out that they were having a sale.  An alternate (that I didn’t think of until I was finished with all three) might be to purchase inexpensive pillows and pull the fill from those.  Be sure to pack the guts really tight to get a perky pouf.

Growing up my parents would take my brother and I out of school each fall and for a couple of weeks, we’d camp our way up and down the Pacific Coast as suburban gypsies.  We’d hit that sweet spot in between Labor Day and Thanksgiving when the weather was  beautiful but the National Parks nearly empty.

Each year it seemed like the further we wandered up the Pacific Northwest, the more abundant the wild blackberry bushes.  They’d be heavy with ripe fruit and, in a move that would probably qualify as child abuse today, my mom would not only let us eat the berries but encourage us to pick what seemed like thousands of the little ruby jewels.  One year she even made jam.  Out of wild blackberries.  While camping.  Bohemian or what?

Of course, in warmer Southern California, blackberries come into season in the spring.  So, we don’t have to wait for the fall to enjoy them.

And, to be honest, I still had streusel on the brain.

So, what happens when you take fresh blackberry preserves (any berry would do).

And marry them with (lots of) oat streusel?

Fairly delectable blackberry oat squares.

Soundtrack

Don McLean.  While there is a good chance that my early childhood memories have blended together, Don McLean always reminds me of driving down the road in mid-October, chasing thunderstorms.

Blackberry Oat Bars

Adapted from Gourmet, July 2000

Ingredients

For base and topping

• 3 C old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 C + 3 TBS all-purpose flour
• 1 C  packed light brown sugar
• 1  TBS finely grated fresh orange zest
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2  sticks (16 TBS) unsalted butter, melted

For filling

• 2 C blackberries (3/4 pound)
• 1/3 C granulated sugar
• 2 TBS fresh orange juice
• TBS cornstarch

Another is that every once in a while I get a glimpse into the “cool” stuff the kids are eating and drinking. While I don’t have any research to back up this up, over time I’ve noted that college towns I’ve visited and worked in often have a higher density of ethnic/ alternative restaurants relative to the general composition of the area’s population. Part of this, I think, is because colleges and universities bring with them diversity that may not be native to the area. Another piece goes back to the relative socioeconomic status of college students. Frugality can breed creativity and maybe, just maybe, a population more willing to try new things–especially if they’re cheap. To this end I’ve got one word: Mongols. But, as usual, I’ve drifted off-topic.

Which brings me to dirty chai.

I know what you are thinking, and I think it too every time I order one. That’s part of the fun. As introduced to me by an undergraduate, a dirty chai is a chai latte with a shot (or two) of espresso. In a word, it is a revelation. Seriously. The chai contributes its signature spicy and sweet while the espresso adds a certain robustness of the “you complete me” caliber. Naturally, the first thing I thought upon trying the dirty chai is “how can I make this into something else?” So, I give you the dirty chai shortbread. In the (hopefully) never ending quest to perfect my shortbread/sable technique, I experimented with yet another recipe.

I’ve had a good recipe for chai shortbread for a long time.  Unlike the earl grey cookies these don’t actually utilize tea.  Instead, a chai spice combo of cinnamon, cardamom, clove and black pepper is used to achieve the complex sweet-spicy profile.  To make it dirty, I added a about a teaspoon and another half (for good measure) of espresso powder.  We have a Nespresso machine that uses those lovely jewel-like capsules.  They come in a million flavors but to be honest, TD and I can’t tell the difference between them.  I just buy the different colors because they look pretty.  But anyhow, if you use Nespresso, you could just cut into one of the capsules and the espresso is of a fine enough grind it’s ready to go.  Alternately, finely ground regular expresso or even instant espresso powder would all get the job done.

These are unusual, but also a little adventurous.

Soundtrack

The Shins.

Dirty Chai Shortbread Cookies

Adapted from Cooking Light, December 2007

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp finely ground espresso powder (instant or regular)
• Dash of ground cloves
• Dash of freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 10 tablespoon butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon ice water

Directions

1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (through sugar), in a food processor and pulse to combined.
2. With processor running on low, add-in butter a tablespoon at-a-time until dough begins to look like lumpy sand.
3. Sprinkle dough with 1 tablespoon ice water and pulse until dough just comes together.
4. Divide dough in half. Shape dough into 2 (6-inch-long) logs; wrap each log in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour or until very firm.
5. Preheat oven to 375°.
6. Unwrap dough logs. Carefully cut each log into 12-18 slices using a serrated knife. Place dough circles 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes. Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

We brought coffee cake.  And, if you are looking for a recipe for Easter brunch, this might fit the bill.

We begin with streusal.  And really, you could put streusal on a shoe and it would be tasty.

I had originally planned to use fresh blackberries but of course, when I bought ingredients, not a single fresh berry was to be found.  So, I stuck to the recipe and utilized frozen (and then defrosted) cherries.  Really though, you could use any fruit with a hearty meat.  The original calls for a cup…next time I’ll use a cup plus another half cup. The cake is hearty enough that it will easily absorb the extra liquid.

Speaking of batter, it has a sour cream base.  I love cake recipes that utilize some sort of dairy in them, be it milk, buttermilk or sour cream.

Half of the batter goes into a buttered tube pan (you could use a plain bundt but remember that the streusal on top will mean that it has to be served upright, not flipped.  To measure out dough, I used my trusty kitchen scale.  And, I’m glad I did because the first half really didn’t feel like enough batter.  Trust me, it is.

Top the fruit, carefully, with the other half of the batter and then get down with the streusal.  The recipe calls for a cup.  I used the entire recipe (maybe 2 cups?).  Adjust your stresual basec on your own affection of it.

Out of the oven, just one more step.

A little milk and confectioner’s sugar makes for a lacy adornment.

But really, it’s about the streusal.

Soundtrack

Gotye’s Making Mirrors album.  What can I say, I’m a consumer.  And I like the album.

Cherry-Streusal Coffee Cake

adapted from Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Cake Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1  1/2 cup frozen sour cherries (or other fruit), thawed and drained well
• 1-2 cups streusal, as preferred  (recipe to follow)

Streusel Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown or confectioners’ sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Directions

1. To make streusal: In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt; cut in butter using a pastry blender, until large, moist clumps form.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch tube pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the sour cream and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Spoon about half the batter into the prepared pan. Arrange the cherries in a single layer on top of the batter; avoid placing any cherries against the pan’s edge, as they may stick or burn if not fully encased in batter.
5. Top with the remaining batter, making sure it is evenly distributed, and smooth with an offset spatula. Sprinkle streusel evenly over the top of the batter.  Gently push struesal into cake batter.
6. Bake until cake is golden brown and springs back when touched, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and let cake cool 10 to 15 minutes. Invert cake onto rack, then re-invert (so streusel side is up), and let cool completely.
7. Spoon glaze over the cake, letting it drip down sides. Let cake sit until glaze is set, about 5 minutes, before serving. Cake can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic, for up to 4 days.

This is also one of those no-heavy lifting or serious kitchen tools required sort of recipes.  At least, the cake part is.

The resulting batter will be very dark and very thick.

And really difficult to not stick your fingers into.

Out of the oven, the cake looks a lot like a brownie.  But don’t be fooled.  This baby is all cake.

The frosting is a basic buttercream recipe with a lot of peanut butter thrown in.  Be prepared to be able to smell nothing but peanut butter for the rest of the day after making a batch of this confection.

Enough whipping (and air) and the color fades to a nice, mellow Tuscan beige.

And then the real fun begins.  We happened to have house guests the weekend of TD’s birthday.  So, I enlisted a mini-pastry chef to decorate.  She used salted peanuts, mini peanut butter cups and chocolate curls.

Here our chef spreads a nice thick layer of buttercream.

A border of baby cups.

She spelled-out the birthday boy’s name in peanuts…but was very artistic about it.

And that my friends, is a very fun cake.  I would have liked to hire Kate on permanently but her dad said something about kidnapping and child labor laws.

Soundtrack

All kids songs all the time.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fun Cake

Bon Appetit, March 2012

Ingredients

Chocolate cake:

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup finely chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (3 1/2 ounces)

Peanut butter buttercream:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup egg whites (from about 2 large eggs)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4″ cubes
• Kosher salt
• 1/4 cup chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (about 1 3/4 ounces)
• 1/4 cup chopped unsalted, dry roasted pinenuts  (TMH note: I believe this is a typo–I used salted peanuts)
• Mini peanut butter cups (a TMH addition, optional)

Directions

For chocolate cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat bottom and sides of pan with nonstick spray; line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Whisk flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Add oil, vanilla, and 1 1/4 cups water; whisk until smooth. Fold in chopped chocolate. Scrape into prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until a tester comes out clean when inserted into center, 35-40 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

For peanut butter buttercream:
Combine sugar and egg whites in a medium metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture is hot to the touch, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat; using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until cool and thick, 5-6 minutes. Beat in vanilla, then peanut butter. With mixer running, add butter a few pieces at a time, beating to blend between additions. Season with salt.

Run a thin knife around pan to release cake. Invert cake onto a serving plate. Spread peanut butter buttercream over top. Garnish with chopped chocolate and peanuts. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

Cut into 2″ squares.

Beginning with the first source: chunky peanut butter.  Or, use smooth, your call.  In our house, peanut butter doesn’t get utilized very much outside of baking (but when it does, there is always a peanut butter jelly time dance, I promise).  In fact, a jar will last us about a year.  So, I pick my peanut butter carefully and go all-in for the Skippy.  We’re classy like that.

This recipe calls for a good creaming. And, by the time all of the wet ingredients have been incorporated, the color will lighten considerably.

This recipe has a secret ingredient if you dare (nut reference #2…and no, I’m not talking about a Californian politician).

And then we get to the good stuff.  This recipe stands-up just fine without the add-ins.  But, I was feeling a little spunky when I made these and threw in some salted peanuts (#3), peanut butter chips (#4) and dried cranberries.

The batter will be thick and fragrant.

Don’t forget to roll each dough ball in sugar and then flatten with a fork.

These cookies freeze incredibly well.  And, not that I would know, they even taste good frozen.

Soundtrack

I was testing out a new workout playlist while baking these cookies.  Let’s just say that in my workout world Kanye and Taylor Swift get along just fine.

Peanut Butter Crisscrosses (‘ll make you jump, jump)

adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 C all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pinch of freshly ground (or grated) nutmeg
• 8 ounces (16 TBS) unsalted butter at room temp.
• 1 C peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
• 1 C packed light or golden brown sugar
• 3/4 C sugar
• 2 large eggs, room tempt
• 1 C chopped salted peanuts
• 1 C peanut butter chips (optional)
• 1 C dried fruit such as cranberries, cherries or chopped apricots (optional)
• 1/2 C additional sugar for rolling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
3. Working in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle (or electric hand mixer), beat the butter on medium for a couple of minutes. Add-in the peanut butter and beat until smooth.  Add the sugars and beat for an additional 3 minutes.
4. Add-in the eggs, one-at-a-time, scraping down the bowl in-between.
5. With the mixer on low, combined the dry ingredients until they are just mixed-in to the dough.
6. Fold in (by hand) the peanuts, chips and dried fruit.
7. Pour the 1/2 C sugar into a small bowl.
8. Working with about a TBS of dough at a time, roll each into a ball and then roll in the sugar.
9. Place on baking sheets with 2 inches in between each.  Dip the tines of a fork in the sugar and smoosh down the balls in a perpendicular “X” shape with the fork.
10. Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.  Cookies will be lightly colored and a bit soft.  Let the cookies sit a minute or two before transferring to cool completely.
11. I think these cookies just get better over time!

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I’ve got a little clip to tide you over.  It appears I may not be the only Misanthropic Hostess out there.

I too refuse to be a Steppenwolf Wife!

On Saturday I speant some time playing Goldilocks.  I found options #1 and #3 in-store and liked neither.  Alas, option #2 was nowhere to be found.  After a quick trip to Crate and Barrel, I decided to swing by Ethan Allen…mostly because my mother told me to.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Ethan Allen.  I’d love to have a house full for furniture by Ethan Allen.  However, for this project, I thought the man was over my budget.  But, you know moms.  So, I stopped in, took half a lap and there it was.

The Chair.  In a perfect neutral fabric with enough texture to make it interesting.  It was even backlit with the natural light coming through the window behind so it sort of, you know, glowed.  To be fair, I wandered through the entire store before returning to The Chair.  I sat in it and there was clearly enough room for myself, a Kitchen God on the side and another on the lap.  I then took a deep breath and looked at the price tag.

Guess what?  The floor model was on sale.  For nearly half-off.  Which meant, I got really great chair bones for a total of $20 over my budget (including deliver).   Done.  And done.  It’s the Monterey Chair, pictured here on their site (photo credit, Ethan Allen)

And here, our office:

Since I like the lighting in front of the balcony doors better than against the wall, I swapped the desk and chair.

we’ve had the chair for nearly a week and while I admire it every time I walk by the office, I have yet to have time to have a seat and enjoy.  C’est la vie.