Archive: Baking
Kind-Hearted Cake
Last month in this space, I wrote about a dear friend who had undergone coronary bypass surgery and how it has forced the issue of quality of life and diet to the front burner. A little slice of heart-healthy heaven. (Kim O'Donnel) Flash forward six weeks, my buddy Pop Rocks is 20-some pounds lighter with a good report from the doc and has been given the green light to return to work. Yesterday, a group of us at washingtonpost.com celebrated his first day back on the job. The question, though, was: How to fete a hardcore cake lover with a health-appropriate crumb? Although equipped with an armory of heart-healthy cookie recipes, I realized that my heart-healthy cake repertoire is quite lean, and I had better get on the stick. After all, for the unofficial cake cutter at washingtonpost.com, there could be nothing other than cake. Without a tube pan in...
By Kim ODonnel | July 1, 2008; 10:09 AM ET | Comments (10)
Not the Same Old Flourless Chocolate Cake
While in pursuit of a new twist on a Passover-possible dessert, I stumbled upon something really cool: a chocolate loaf cake made with amaranth and quinoa flours. Quinoa (KEEN-WAH), a leafy plant (chenopodium quinoa) that is native to Andes mountainous regions in Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, has become very trendy in U.S. culinary circles as a versatile, gluten-free, high- protein "grain" which isn't a grain at all. In fact, the seeds are more like a cereal, which can be boiled in water like rice and dried and ground into flour. Not only is it high in protein, it's a complete protein, containing all nine essential amino acids. For celiacs, quinoa flour is a gluten-free dream come true, and in the course of my research, have learned that it's considered acceptable Kosher for Passover fare. Chocolate-quinoa-amaranth cake. (Kim O'Donnel) The very savvy Bea Peltre, the blog mistress at La Tartine...
By Kim ODonnel | April 14, 2008; 11:46 AM ET | Comments (13)
Vegan Cupcakes That Can Fool April
I'll make this snappy because I don't want to keep you from what I predict will be a life-changing experience. Vegan chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes. (Kim O'Donnel) What if I told you it was possible to bake the most outrageous chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes cloaked in a chocolate ganache frosting -- but without a drop of dairy, a smidge of eggs or a spoonful of sugar. That means that the most outrageous chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes in the world are also: a) cholesterol-free and b) diabetic friendly (the sweetener on duty is the low-glycemic agave nectar). If you're feeling a disconnect, I feel you. It is bizarre that rich, chocolate and tender crumb can be uttered in the same sentence as virtuous -- and vegan-undetectable. In fact, I daresay that these cupcakes would make the ultimate April Fool's Day (next Tuesday, April 1) treat -- you literally could fool the pants off all...
By Kim ODonnel | March 27, 2008; 11:44 AM ET | Comments (57)
The Hamantaschen Project
The Jewish holiday of Purim is in progress as I type these words, and last night, after sunset, when festivities kicked off, I was making dough for hamantaschen, the quintessential Purim sweet. As an O'Donnel growing up in a largely Jewish community outside of Philadelphia, hamantaschen (hah-mahn-tash-en) became part of my cultural vernacular like corned beef and egg creams. One of the best parts about my weekly ballet class was a visit to the adjoining Jewish bakery on Haverford Avenue, where I'd pick out the best-looking cherry-filled hamantaschen on display, leaving the traditional poppy seed or prune varieties for the old folks. Sour cherry jam-filled hamantaschen.(Kim O'Donnel) If you've never had the pleasure, hamantaschen are triangular-shaped cookies, made from a sweet soft dough, and filled with fruit, poppy seeds, cheese or chocolate (which is considered untraditional). But what I love most of all about these hand-held treats is the story....
By Kim ODonnel | March 21, 2008; 11:36 AM ET | Comments (14)
Brilliant (and Vegan) Banana Bread
Have you heard the word about agave nectar? It's a plant-based sweetener from the same plant that's used to produce tequila. Cookbook writer and food blogger Heidi Swanson raves about it in her "Super Natural Cooking" and offers Webby recipe ideas here. I've been tempted to take the agave plunge, but with a surplus of local honey, I've waited until the pantry could afford the space. A nice wholesome twist on an old classic: banana bread sweetened with agave nectar and dates. (Kim O'Donnel) Equipped with a copy of "Baking With Agave Nectar," a fresh new title by natural foods chef Ania Catalano, I can no longer procrastinate; her collection of 100 recipes using agave as the primary sweetener is too tempting to ignore. What I like is that she's taken on baked good classics -- brownies, morning muffins, fruit pies, cake frosting -- and reduces their glycemic load with...
By Kim ODonnel | March 14, 2008; 07:41 AM ET | Comments (13)
Popovers: A Kitchen Experiment
In response to a reader request, the popover is the subject of today's little ditty. The popover, ladies and gents, is a culinary relic, a descendant of Yorkshire pudding, the 18th-century English batter pudding seasoned with meat drippings and originally eaten with gravy (before the meat course) to help curb the appetite. Popovers, just out of the oven: Quick, before they deflate! (Kim O'Donnel) By the next century, the popover made its way into kitchens on this side of the Atlantic, albeit smaller and more of a handheld treat that could be eaten for breakfast. In fact, the first documented popover recipe in this country appeared in Mary Newton Foote Henderson's 1876 cookbook, "Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, " in which she refers to them as "breakfast puffs or pop-overs." Simple and straightforward, the batter is primarily composed of milk, flour and at least two eggs, which act as the...
By Kim ODonnel | February 26, 2008; 10:30 AM ET | Comments (36)
Neighborhood Crumb Cake
There's a place near Casa Appetite, a place where the Mister and I like to go if nobody feels like cooking. It's become our neighborhood joint, even though it's too far to walk and it's not really a joint at all. I grew up just outside of Philadelphia, where diners and delis were (and still are) an integral part of the cultural landscape. This kind of localized, community eating is harder to come by in a cosmo city like Washington, so when you do find a neighborhood spot, you latch on real quick and don't let go. Crumb cake, a reminder of the good ole days. (Kim O'Donnel) The place in question is The Liberty Tavern, a renovated historic building (a Masonic lodge in a former life) on a corner in Clarendon, Va. The cool kids probably know it more as the 'in' place for a drink, but we've managed...
By Kim ODonnel | February 15, 2008; 10:32 AM ET | Comments (8)
Fruitcake Date
Sunday, Nov. 4: Day 17 of my fruitcake fruit bath. I could let my "mash" keep going, but when I popped open the jar and nearly passed out from the fumes, I knew it was time to put a halt to the booze biz and start making cake. In preparation for the batter step, I consulted two resources for ingredient ideas as well as technique: Nigella Lawson's "How to Be a Domestic Goddess" and "Caribbean Recipes Old & New" from my friend and Barbados chef LaurelAnn Morley. Fruitcake, out of the oven, ready for a few weeks of dark storage. (Kim O'Donnel) Because this was my maiden fruitcake journey, I'll admit I was a little nervous, but what helped was a deep cleansing breath and gathering and measuring all of the ingredients (mise en place) from get-go. Morley's recipe, below, calls for "browning," a cooked caramel-colored syrup found in many...
By Kim ODonnel | November 5, 2007; 09:24 AM ET | Comments (14)
Breaking the Fast With Aunt Rita's Cake
After an early, pre-sunset dinner this Friday, Sept. 21, Jews will begin to observe Yom Kippur, the day of atonement that may include reflection, prayer and a 24-hour fast. By Saturday night, everyone is ready to chow and break the fast among family and friends, a repast that's usually heavy on the dairy and eggs. Aunt Rita's marble cake. (Kim O'Donnel) Over the past week, I've surveyed a bunch of friends about breaking the fast, and many of the menus looked the same - a carb-o-licious spread of bagels, cream cheese, smoked fish, noodle kugel and cake for dessert. But I liked the way my pal "Mister MG" describes the meal that he shares with his family every year: "It's a giant spread of bagels, cheeses, smoked fishes, noodle kugel and more. A great, fresh bagel, with smoked whitefish or sable, a slice of red onion, tomato and some sweet...
By Kim ODonnel | September 18, 2007; 10:57 AM ET | Comments (13)
The Cobbler-Top Debate
A summer without cobbler is like ______________________ For me, it's like a morning without coffee, a Sunday without the paper, a kitchen without garlic. Something feels amiss, not quite right. (Feel free to fill in the blank and weigh in below in the comments area.) Blackberries cobbled with topping, Nigel Slater's way. (Kim O'Donnel) It's right around this time of year when blackberries and peaches are bursting at market that I get a yen for cobbler. Last Sunday, I brought home 2 pints of blackberries with drupelets (the small clusters of small fruits) taller than my thumb, resembling a beehive hairdo that Marge Simpson might envy. (By the way, the fruit clusters are not called brambles, as I had mistakenly assumed. The bramble is the actual plant, which is a thorny bush, and to bramble means to pick wild blackberries.) They are almost too pretty to eat, but don't waste...
By Kim ODonnel | August 3, 2007; 09:40 AM ET | Comments (22)
Jamaican Patty Party
A few days ago, my friend B. who lives out in the country asked if I had a recipe for "interior meat pie." At first, I thought she meant something along the lines of steak and kidney pie, and I racked my brain over which cuts of meat would be most appropriate. Did she mean organ meats or something along the lines of haggis, perhaps? When she realized that I was knitting my brow over the word interior for far too long, B. clarified. "No, something hand held, like a snack, using ground beef." Jamaican patties just out of the oven. (Kim O'Donnel) Ah! A patty is what she's talking about. Or maybe not. There's a different word for nearly every continent to describe the notion of stuffing meat inside pastry (now I get the "interior" reference) -- empanada, empandinha, saltena, fetayer, samosa, simbusak, calzone, pasty, and of course, the...
By Kim ODonnel | May 16, 2007; 07:54 AM ET | Comments (10)
Adventures of a Cupcake Fairy
In Tuesday's blog space and in this week's chat, I suggested looking to the kitchen as a place of comfort and solace as we, as a nation, mourn and try to make sense of the massacre this week at Virginia Tech. In the chat, I mentioned my search for a cozy companion to a pot of tea, particularly with the recent wintry weather. Immediately afterwards, I pored through a bunch of trusted cookbooks, my stream of consciousness mumbling scone...biscotti...biscuit...nah...coffee cake?...cupcakes...Yes! The recipe that stopped me in my tracks -- "Lemon Cupcakes With Milk Chocolate Frosting" - comes from "Perfect Light Desserts," a book by Nick Malgieri and David Joachim that I've come to rely on since its release last fall. I liked the idea of yin-yang-ing a citrus flavor batter with a cloak of chocolate, particularly with the tangy additions of buttermilk and sour cream (which I replaced with an...
By Kim ODonnel | April 19, 2007; 10:40 AM ET | Comments (17)
Banana Muffins for a Good Cause
Today's post is for banana lovers only; if you're not a yellow-peeled fan, I apologize in advance (plus, I come without ideas for substitutions). However, the recipe in question, which comes from Heidi Swanson's "Super Natural Cooking," asks us to re-evaluate our pantries in the spirit of more wholesome, healthful eating. Swanson goes the extra mile to source out more wholesome ingredients for her recipes, which, in some cases, bear some explanation. Banana-walnut muffins flavored with a jolt of espresso. (Kim O'Donnel) To wit, the Espresso Banana Muffins that I tried out over the weekend call for natural cane sugar rather than regular ole white granulated stuff and white whole-wheat flour rather than all-purpose. Although I'm a regular user of natural cane sugar (sugar from sugarcane -- not from beets -- with a natural brown color), it was my first time working with white whole-wheat flour, and for that I...
By Kim ODonnel | March 19, 2007; 11:01 AM ET | Comments (16)
