Maple Drop Scones

This past Winter I made batch after batch of Maple Drop Scones, developing and perfecting the recipe for the Spring issue of the new Edible Green Mountains.  The scones are now a family favorite and I hope a favorite of many Vermonters who picked up the Spring Issue of Edible Green Mountains.  A friend who tried the recipe was impressed that she finally found a scone recipe she could make at home that produced a moist scone that did not fall apart.  They were created to celebrate the Spring crop of Vermont Maple Syrup, but they are perfect any time of the year.  I have grown to love them with rhubarb jam dolloped on the top but I also love them plain.

Scones have always been a breakfast favorite in my house, easy enough to bake even without having had any coffee yet. However these maple drop scones can even be made the night before, because the maple syrup helps them retain their tender crumb without drying out. I spent two weeks baking several variations of these scones before I found the balance I was looking for. By the final batch I began to fear my family would grow tired of them and refuse to eat them for months. After eating the last scone my 7 year old glared at the now empty baking tray, complaining that there were none left. It is rare to find any baked good that can be coveted by my picky children after eating it several times a day for two weeks!

The maple in these is admittedly subtle; however, none of my testers would allow me to think about adding more. “If you hadn’t told me these were maple scones, I would not have known what the amazing flavor came from. Don’t change a thing, though; they are perfect. I don’t usually think of food as making me happy, but eating this is making me happy.” I think the scones are a balance between sweet and rich with a slight nutty flavor from the wheat and an elusive taste from the maple syrup. Every person I have shared them with has loved them, never noticing the whole wheat flour. A first grader, who was not my child, took a bite and stopped running, looking down at the scone in his hand with a look of surprise. “Whoa! This is so good.” I have to remember to give food to other people’s children more frequently. Although my kids did each give me 20 digits up (yes, I scored fingers and toes), there wasn’t the same level of surprise and awe.

Maple Drop Scones

When I make these scones I use a measured scoop to portion the dough. Measured scoops look like ice cream scoops and are available in a range of sizes at kitchen supply stores. I always hated the fiddly task of scooping dough with one spoon and then using a second spoon to scrape it out. The end result is never even and places sticky dough all over me and my kitchen. With these, I just scoop, and then squeeze the trigger to release the dough. If you don’t have a scoop, you can always use a small measuring cup and a spoon to measure the dough.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 cup cold, unsalted, butter cut into chunks or tablespoons

1 egg

1/4 cup grade B maple syrup

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 375° (or 325° if using convection)

Pulse the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor to mix. Add the cold butter and pulse the food processor until the mixture is broken into course crumbs with no large pieces of butter. Add the heavy cream, maple syrup and egg to the dry ingredients and pulse again until the dough is mixed and comes together. Use a light hand when mixing the wet ingredients in; if you mix the dough too much, the scones will be tough.

Scones can also be made by hand: Mix the dry ingredients well in a large bowl before adding the cold butter cut into chunks. Use a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your hands to mix the butter into the dry ingredients until it is broken up into coarse crumbs with no large pieces left. Beat the egg lightly and add it with the maple syrup and heavy cream, mixing thoroughly but gently. Be careful not to mix the dough anymore than what is necessary to combine everything evenly. Extra mixing will lead to tough scones.

Scoop out the dough onto two half sheet pans, using a commercial scooper, leaving 1 ½ inches between scones. Use anywhere from a #16 (5 ½ tablespoons) to #30 (2 ½ tablespoons) scooper. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes depending on size, or until some of the scones are toasty brown around the edge.

Note: If you want a more obvious maple flavor, replace the sugar with ¼ cup maple syrup, and reduce the amount of heavy cream by 2 tablespoons. That being said, I suggest you try them as is first.

Creme Fraiche Rhubarb Pound Cake

The end of the school year is approaching and with it comes talk of summer plans,  classroom assessments, field trips, crazy hair day, school dances, the end of homework, and playing with rhubarb in the kitchen.  I have already created a rhubarb jam that is now my favorite topping for french toast, waffles, toast, ice cream and anything else I can think of.  So now I have been experimenting with rhubarb pound cake, playing with different flours and spices to balance the tart rhubarb.

This morning we had my most recent attempt for breakfast and at first both of my boys complained.  "It's not sweet enough.  Why is there no lemon in this.  You should have made the other one."  Once they were done complaining they both happily asked for seconds.  Personally this version is my favorite, the flavor is rich from creme fraiche and barley flour with juicy interruptions from chunks of rhubarb. The barley in the batter not only adds flavor but it also makes the crumb fine and light.  Plus, the lack of sweetness my boys complained about at first make this cake a perfect breakfast treat.

The crumb is so light the cake needs to cool completely in the pans before slicing or removing.  A fact I discovered when I tried to put one cake on a cooling rack, as you can see in the photo above.  Part of the lightness and fragility is from the barley flour, which contains very little any gluten and so does not have the structure of whole wheat flour.  With half barley flour you don't have to be so nervous about gluten formation when mixing, it would still be possible to toughen the cake with over mixing but it might take a little work. The barley also has a sweetness and rich flavor that pairs really well with the rhubarb.

Creme Fraiche Rhubarb Pound Cake

6 Tbsp butter, plus more for greasing the pan

1 cup barley flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground cardamom

3/4 cup whole milk

1/2 cup creme fraiche

1 egg

2 cups chopped rhubarb

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Generously butter a 1.5 qt loaf pan.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and set aside while you prep the other ingredients.  Mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom in a large bowl and set aside.

Add the milk to a clear 2 cup measuring cup and add the creme fraiche until the total volume of the milk and creme fraiche is 1 1/4 cups (3/4 cups milk plus 1/2 cup creme fraiche is 1 1/4 cups).  Add the eggs to the measuring cup and whisk the liquid ingredients well (I place the whisk in the measuring cup and spin the handle between my hands).

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir a few times with the whisk before adding the butter and mixing until everything is fully incorporated.  Add the rhubarb and fold in well with a spatula, making sure to fold all the way down to the bottom of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake in the center of the oven until a cake tester or sharp knife when inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes in my oven.  Allow to cool completely in the pan before serving or taking out of the pan.

Chocolate Marmalade Sandwich Cookies

I think as I was making these cookies I began to wish they would just taste average when they were done.  It's not that any of the steps are overly complicated, but they did require more then the usual mix, scoop, and bake.  So as a result I was not looking for a cookie that would make people stop after one taste and slow down, so they could savor every bite.  If I was only hoping for okay, these cookies landed about as far from that as they could.  These cookies combine a crumbly, tender, lemon scented cookie, with complex, tart, sweet, marmalade filling and then a dip in rich dark chocolate.  Trust me, this is a cookie that is worth the extra time.  They are even worth tempering the chocolate to dip them in.  Although as you may notice, I need to work on my chocolate tempering, and I know just the cookie I will practice on.  If it tastes this good with a failed tempering job...

Julian knew right away how special the cookies were, and so he counted how many there were before he ever got to taste one.  It often amazes me that my children can do division so quickly when cookies are involved.  "Eighteen cookies mama.  That means we each get four and a half cookies.  Four and a half cookies if mama had not decided to give a few away.  Every person who tried one had the same eye rolling, slow savoring response.  I can see why Sarabeth's Kitchen sells them for $25 a dozen. 

I have been sitting here trying to think of a transition between these cookies and a story of my boys during the holidays.  I finally decided the link is I wanted to share both the cookies and the story because both are helping me to enjoy the season.

Yesterday my boys each received $50 from relatives in England. In previous years I have bought a membership to a local science center with the money and told them the membership was a gift from Grandpa Stuart and Grandma Phyl.   But this year I thought the boys were old enough to choose this themselves (plus, the cards the money came in mentioned the checks enclosed).  So I told the boys our membership would expire at the end of this month and suggested they use their money to buy a new membership to The Echo Center.  When both boys hesitated and made a face I feared it was greed so I quickly mentioned they still would have the $20 a piece from their Gruncle and Graunty to spend on whatever they wanted.

Sebastian replied, "But I wanted to use the money to buy you a Christmas gift.  Is twenty dollars enough money for me to buy you something?  Something for you to cook with."

"Me too," said Julian, my 6 year old, "I want to buy you another thing to go on your KitchenAid mixer."

In most years Lewis and I do not receive gifts at Christmas, only the kids do.  I never seems like there is  enough money and so we have made it a kids holiday.  I guess the boys have noticed and decided they need to be my Santa.  The best gift I could ever receive is signs of my children's generosity.  (Don't worry, there are also stories of their seasonal greed for my to share on another post!)

Chocolate Marmalade Sandwich Cookies

From Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours (This book is rapidly becoming a favorite)

I used Tomato Orange Marmalade as the filling in these and it was perfect.  You can substitute any favorite marmalade or even a jam that would pair well with the bittersweet chocolate, such as raspberry or apricot.  If you have a quart of home canned tomatoes that were acidified with citric acid or lemon juice you can use that to make Tomato Orange Marmalade.

The cookies need to be baked and filled a day before dipping in the chocolate to allow the cookie to soften and marmalade to set the sandwich.  If you try to dip them on the first day they are filled they will slide apart when you dip them.

The recipe calls for tempering 12 ounces of chocolate because tempering less is difficult.  When you have finished dipping the cookies spread the remaining chocolate on a sheet of parchment paper to set it can be retempered and reused another time.

Made 20 sandwich cookies for me (2 were eaten before being dipped in chocolate)

10 Tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1/2 inch cubes  (I cut mine into tablespoons and just beat it for a tiny bit longer)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or kosher salt
3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat
1/2 cup of your favorite marmalade, I used Tomato Orange Marmalade
12 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, divided

Put the butter in the bowl of a stander mixer and beat it on high speed with the flat beater blade until smooth (about 1 minute).  If you have a self scraping beater blade for your mixer use that instead of the plain one.  Slowly add the sugar while continuing to beat the butter on high speed.  Scrape the sides of the bowl down occasionally until the sugar is fully incorporated and the mixture s light in both color and texture.  It should take about 3 minutes.  Add the egg yolks, lemon zest and salt and mix until it is well mixed.  Reduce the speed to low before adding the flours a third at a time.  Mix on low speed just until the dough comes together and the sides of the bowl are almost clean.  If there is unmixed dry, crumbly dough at the bottom of the bowl turn the mixer off and stir well from the bottom before continuing to mix.

(Sarabeth has you carefully form the dough into a log before chilling and then slicing into rounds.  My dough was not a perfectly round log and so my cookies were flat on one side.  Next time I am going to experiment with rolling the dough out and then cutting square shaped cookies.  Even slightly misshapen they are still the most amazing cookie.)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Make the dough into a smooth ball before rolling it out into a 14 inch log that is about 1 1/2 inch in diameter.  Place the dough log on an 18 by 13 inch piece of parchment paper (here may be the first problem with my log rolling technique.  I only have Half Sheet Pan Precut Parchment Paper Sheets - 12 × 16½), with the long side of the paper and the log facing you.  Fold the parchment paper over the dough log.

Hold the edge of a yardstick securely along the long side of the log, pull the top layer of the parchment paper under the yardstick to tighten the paper and lightly compress the log. The log should now be 16 inches long. Unwrap the log. (Technique number 2, I did not have a yardstick so instead of wrapping the log up with a yardstick I carefully rolled my log until it was 16 inches long).  The dough will have a seam on it,  roll the log lightly on the paper to smooth out the seam out.  Reroll the paper around the log. Do not twist the ends closed, as this dough is soft. Refrigerate until the dough is chilled and firm, at least 1 hour.

Position the racks in the center and top third of the oven before preheating to 350°F.  Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper (which is much easier with my Half Sheet Pan Precut Parchment Paper Sheets - 12 × 16½).

Unwrap the dough log and use a thin sharp knife to cut 3/8 inch thick circles of dough.  (I marked 3/8 of an inch on a small piece of paper to use as a guide for cutting).  Keep the circles of dough in order when placing on the parchment paper.  It is easier to form sandwiches later with the circles that were next to each other on the log.  Place the cookies about 1 inch apart on the sheets while making it clear which circles are pairs.

Bake the cookies, switching the position of the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking, until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool completely on the baking pans.

Once cooled turn all the cookies over so the undersides face up. Spoon a rounded 1/2 teaspoon of marmalade onto one of each pair of cookies, and sandwich the flat sides together. Let the cookies stand overnight at room temperature to set the marmalade and soften the cookie.

(I followed all of Sarabeth's tempering instructions perfectly but my chocolate still bloomed.  I realized later that part of the problem might have been the frigid temperature of my house.  Chocolate tempering expects a room temerature of 68° to 72°.  Next time I am going to try David Lebovitz's instructions for tempering chocolate.)

To temper the chocolate, bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat to very low. Place 8 ounces of the chocolate in a wide, heatproof bowl. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan, being careful not to touch the bottom of the bowl to the water. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate reaches 110° to 112°F on a thermometer. Remove the bowl from the heat and place on a kitchen towel. Add the remaining 4 ounces of chocolate and stir until melted. Let stand, stirring every minute or so, until the chocolate reaches 88°F.

Line a half-sheet pan with fresh parchment paper. One at a time, dip a cookie in the chocolate, letting the chocolate come about one-third up the sides of the cookie (I dipped half of the cookies in the chocolate and see no reason to change next time.  Who doesn't want more chocolate?)  Shake the cookie gently to remove excess chocolate before carefully placing on the pan. Push each cookie with your finger to move just 1/8 inch from its original position.  This dislodges and removes the “foot” the chocolate has formed. Let the cookies stand until the chocolate sets. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container, with the layers separated by parchment paper, for up to 5 days.  (I stored mine on a covered cookie sheet for a week with no loss of quality)

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

I found this muffin recipe on my friend Ann's blog Thibeault's Table.  The idea and description were so appealing I set out to try them right away.  Conveniently forgetting my sinuses were blocked plaguing  me with an inability to taste my food.  Besides from the obvious frustration caused by not tasting my food for over a week, I was also unhappy to discover I still eat more than I should when food has only texture, sweet and salt.  So as the rest of my family exclaimed over their goodness I was able to detect the correct level of sweetness, enough salt and a perfect texture.  The scent of blueberries, the flavor from the 3 types of flours and the browned butter were all lost on me.  However I still knew I had finally found my blueberry muffin recipe and I would share it here later (once I had tasted them).  The rest of my family could taste them and both boys happily ate them for breakfast 3 mornings in a row, something that never happens.

By the end of last weekend I could smell and taste again and so on Mother's Day I made a batch of these muffins.  Lewis was going out of town, yes on Mother's Day, and I wanted an easy no argue breakfast the next day.  I reduced the sugar because I knew we would prefer it and to test if I could make them for the preschool.  Federal reimbursement guidelines require that in baked goods, sugar be no more than half the volume of flour.  (Although you can serve all the trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, fried food and flavored milk you want!)

When I browned the butter and poured it into the batter the aroma of caramel drifted up.  The finished muffins do not taste of caramel, instead the browned butter adds intensity and a nuttiness that tempers the sweetness.  The 3 flours add their own flavor plus keep you from being hungry 20 minutes later.  The more I play with whole grains in my baking, the more I love the dimension they add.  Not the heavy wheat flavor we all remember but rather an actual flavor where white flour is just blank.  Of course this assumes you are using flour that has not gone rancid.

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Thibeault's Table

I have made these with both frozen local blueberries and frozen wild ones.  Both worked wonderfully, just taking longer to bake.  I am also going to make them with raspberries, frozen for now and fresh in a few months.

14 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat

1 cup spelt flour

4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (if using frozen berries leave them frozen)

Put the oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 375°.  Line muffin tins with 24 liners and set aside.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat (it is really best to use a light colored saucepan so you can judge the color of the butter, I used a dark blue one because it was the perfect size and regretted my choice).  Watch the butter closely once it is melted.  Continue to cook until the crackling subsides and little brown solids form in the pan.  It should smell nutty when done.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

Whisk together milk, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla until combined.  Add Browned butter and whisk until fully incorporated.  Add sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk in well.  Add flours all at once and stir gently, stirring to the bottom of the bowl under the batter to incorporate all the flour.  Gently fold in the blueberries until they are evenly distributed.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and bake until a wooden pick or knife inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown.  They should take about 18 to 20 minutes when made with fresh blueberries and 32 to 35 minutes when you use frozen  (I used convection  for the last 5 minutes to brown the tops and because I was getting bored with checking on them).

Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Browned Butter Brownies (with or without pecans)

This past Wednesday the Burlington School district had their first snow day since Sebastian (my third grader) was in kindergarten.  It could not have come at a better time for my family.  Right in the middle of a small school vacation drought.  Early in the day on Tuesday most of the surrounding school districts declared the following day a snow day before a single flake had fallen.  Burlington however has a higher percentage of poverty and in the winter school means heat and food for many children, and for that reason rarely close for a mere snowstorm.  I was sure if we had a snow day it would be declared at the last possible minute.  However shortly before 7 PM we received the robocall canceling school and I did a little dance at my seat.  (I really did, I think I might have been even more excited then my children).

My husband played hooky from his work as well and we got to steal a midweek day in the snow.  We began, shortly after a breakfast of Liege Sugar Waffles, by stepping out our front door to X-county ski to the park with our sleds.  We returned home starving and snowy, which for most families means breaking out mugs and making hot chocolate.  The only problem is Sebastian only likes the idea of hot chocolate. When faced with a mug of his own, even when I make it with milk, melted bittersweet chocolate and sugar,  he only takes a few tentative sips before allowing his brother, the liquid chocolate addict, to finish his share.

These brownies can happily satisfy a post snow adventure for my whole family, and you can even take them with you as an easily transportable snack.  I like that they rely on cocoa powder, which for most people is far more easy to stock then bakers, bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate.  Somehow I still needed to rely on my neighbors pantry for some of the cocoa powder called for.  Brownies aside, it was a great snow day.  After the sledding we played monopoly and then the boys went outside with a neighbor flopping into patches of untouched snow.   The editing of memories are already whitewashing any whining of overtired boys that happened and focusing only on the day spent playing. I am sure my boys will remind me of this day for long to come, "remember the snow day when we skied to the park, played monopoly, ate sugar waffles for breakfast...?"

One more note on these brownies, which I am not going to say "Are the best brownies ever" as was stated by many commenters on Bon Appetite's website.  Personally I have many brownie recipes that I love and I refuse to trouble myself with declaring a favorite.  Instead I choose to make whichever recipe suits my mood at any moment.  These are suitably rich and decadent even though they use cocoa powder in place of chocolate because of the browned butter.  Browned butter is nutty, richer and sweeter because the sugars have been caramelized and the flavors intensified.  However given my deep love of brownies and love to play, next I am going to try these olive oil brownies.  Maybe I will make my friend Heather's decadent mint layer brownies instead...

I made the browned butter brownies in 2 pyrex loaf pans so I could make half of the batch with pecans and leave the other half naked for my heathen children.  If you enjoy nuts in your brownies they really do help balance the richness of this recipe.  Although neither of my boys complained once about their version without the nuts.  They did not even notice how much less height, and therefore deliciousness there was without the nuts.  I made these using only whole wheat pastry flour as I realized several years ago a good brownie recipe has enough chocolate to allow you to use any flour you want without anyone knowing the difference.  Not that these can now be classified as health food, but I see no reason not to add more whole grains to my diet any time I can.

Browned Butter Pecan Brownies

Adapted from Bon Appetite

Nonstick cooking spray (I used Reynolds release foil and eliminated this step)

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, chilled

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat

1/2 to 1 cup pecan pieces (I used 1/2 cup for half of the batch, use 1 cup for all nut brownies)

Preheat to 325°F with a rack in the lower third.  Line either one 8x8x2-inch pyrex dish or two 8x4.5x2 inch pans with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray (or don't bother if using nonstick foil). Melt butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan (my pan was 3 qts).  Cook the butter, stirring often, until it becomes golden brown and smells nutty, about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend and then allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Butter/cocoa mixture will still be hot, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one until no signs of egg are present before adding the next one.  When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes.  If making some with and some without nuts pour half of the batter into one prepared pan before stirring in the nuts and adding the rest of the batter to the second pan.  Otherwise add the nuts to the whole batch and pour into prepared pan.

Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes (I think mine were more like 35 - 40). Cool in pan on rack. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into up however you want. 

The recipe states these can be made 2 days ahead, perhaps that is the longest they were able to resist them in the test kithcens.  I was able to hide mine and store them for at least a week.

Sour Cherry Pound Cake

I don't really have much to say tonight.  Perhaps I should be more precise and say I don't have much to say that would be coherent, or even interesting.    So instead of a story of how hot it is or an anecdote of my children tying me up and locking me in the basement because I refused to buy anything from the ice cream truck (partially because this did not happen, yet...)   For tonight I am going to cut to the chase, leaving out the long winded tale of our lives and just tell you about the sour cherry pound cake I made with the cherries that did not make it into one of the many batches of sour cherry jam.

This pound cake is nothing more then a fruit substitution in the Blueberry Raspberry Kirsch Pound Cake I shared last summer.  It makes 2 loaves, every time I made the blueberry and raspberry version we froze one and enjoyed the other one right away.  The first time we thawed one and served it for breakfast the boys both looked at their plates and said, "Blueberries and raspberries, where did we get those?  It's winter."  How I love brainwashing!  While I love the blueberry and raspberry version the sour cherry one is even better, there are so many more layers of flavor and balances to it.  The cherries sweeten when they are baked while remaining tart enough to contrast with the sweet cake.  As a total surprise, everyone here, from 5 to 43, agreed with me.  This winter it will be wonderful to have both versions stored away for a taste of summer.

Sour Cherry Pound Cake
adapted from Orangette

5 large eggs at room temperature (you can just put them in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes)
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 Tbsp Kirsch
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for the pans
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plus 3 Tbsp white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 Tbsp all purpose flour (for mixing with the cherries)
2 cups pitted sour cherries, juices drained and added to any Sour Cherry Jam  you are making


Generously butter a 9 cup Bundt pan or two 4.5 cup/1.5 Qt loaf pans and then dust it with all purpose flour, shaking out the extra.

Beat the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the flat beater attachment until thick and smooth, about 1 minute. Add the kirsch and the butter in 1 Tbsp sized pieces and beat until it is thick and fluffy. This should take a couple minutes, stop once to scrape down the sides. Add the baking powder and salt and mix to combine well. Add both flours and turn the machine on and off on low in short pulses until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
Toss the sour cherries in a large bowl with 2 Tbsp all purpose flour before using a spatula to fold them into the batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan or pans and smooth the top. Place in the center of a cold oven and turn the oven temperature to 300°. Bake until a knife or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. For both pans for me this took 1 hour and 25 minutes. Cool in the pan or pans for 5 minutes before inverting on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

If you wish to freeze the cake wait until it is cooled completely and then place the cake in a freezer bag, make sure to label it.  To defrost just allow to defrost overnight at room temperature.

Dark Chocolate Rosemary Muffins and Schools

I was not originally planning on posting this recipe here.  The recipe it is based upon has already appeared on several food blogs but got mixed reviews from my family.  Lewis and I both thought it was pretty good but neither of us loved it, that might be because we are not huge rosemary fans.  Sebastian and Julian both felt it was a complete waste of chocolate, I think they questioned my sanity.

The day I served them for breakfast, there was a potluck to celebrate the last day of preschool for Julian's class.  I looked at the 14 muffins that remained after breakfast and decided to take them as our contribution for the many adults who would appreciate them.  The muffins where a huge hit with the staff, one of them "stealing" one to bring home to his wife and asking hopefully if I was going to feature them here.  I told him how to get the recipe and then listed most of the changes I had made.  I liked them better the next day as a snack instead of breakfast.  The rosemary is really very subtle, hard to even pinpoint what it is.  I know I will be playing with the recipe even more later.  For this week though I will be spending time away from my family and kitchen to attend interviews for a school principal at an Elementary school in Burlington.

The principal who is being replaced is stellar and she does not want to leave her job, the school, school board and superintendent do not want to replace her either.  She has no choice and neither does the school system thanks to federal legislation that desperately needs to be rewritten.  We need legislation that will help our schools instead of penalizing schools who serve the populations most in need.

The short story is please call your congressmen and senators and demand that No Child Left Behind and ESEA do not penalize schools for low test scores, especially as the legislation does not take into account individual student growth, home language or in the case of a child with an individualized education plan (IEP) the students actual goals.  How can a child who has moved to this country a year ago and does not speak English at home score well on a standardized test?  What if that child's home language is Mai Mai, which is not a written language?  Why are the tests administered in the fall when children's learning often loses ground over the summer?  Why are we expecting all students to reach the same goals at the same times, rather then looking for each child to make progress in their learning based on where they started.

If you are still here for this rant, thank you.  Now that you have read all the way through please make your voice heard before this legislation requires another top rated principal be replaced.  I attended a town meeting about this legislation with Senator Bernie Sanders where he was saddened to hear she needed to be replaced.  After the meeting his chief of staff, Huck Guttman spoke with myself and 2 friends and described her as,  "One of the top ten principals in Vermont."  She spent her free time working to improve her school, she helped in the cafeteria at lunch every day to help the students make healthy choices, because she understands how nutrition impacts learning.  She spent forty minutes on a parking lot telling me about her school and the exciting changes they have done as one of 2 magnet schools in Vermont.  Changes that will take years to show up in the test scores because children are not cars built in a factory.  When you change what you are doing on a factory floor the new products will be rolled off the line right away.  A school has to start where students are and help them to achieve more.

And now, if you are still there, let me reward you with the muffin recipe.

Dark Chocolate Rosemary Muffins
Adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce (I still don't have a copy so feel free to send me one, perhaps as a belated 40th birthday present.  I actually found the recipe on The Wednesday Chef.  You should go check out her post as well, she has the recipe posted as written, with spelt flour.  I would have used the spelt if I had it on hand.  Although I would have then subbed in white whole wheat flour for half the white flour.)

3 eggs
1 cup extra virgin olive oil or olive oil (the better the oil the better the cake)
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp fleur de sel (I am currently out of kosher salt)
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh rosemary very finely chopped
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp unbleached all purpose flour
6 ounces bitter sweet chocolate chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces (the original recipe calls for 5 ounces but I did not want to save the last ounce from the bar)

Preheat the oven to 350° and place liners in 18 or fewer muffin cups (I made 18 muffins with this recipe but wished the muffins were larger.  Next time I will make 16 muffins.

Whisk the eggs with the olive oil, milk, vanilla and rosemary until thoroughly blended.  Add the sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk to blend.  Add both flours and gently fold them in until just combined and then stir in the chocolate.

Divide the batter (it will be thinner then most muffin batters) between the prepared muffin tins and place in the oven.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester comes out moist but without any wet batter clinging to it.

Liege Sugar Wafles

For the past month Julian and Sebastian have been trying to work out what Julian wanted for breakfast on his birthday. Clearly they really are my children. There was talk about breakfast sandwiches, although that idea was really from Sebastian as Julian takes them apart and complains. They also mentioned french toast and chocolate croissants. Then 3 days before his birthday I made Liege Sugar Waffles and the boys began lobbying to have them for breakfast on Julian's birthday. The recipe calls for Lars Belgium Pearl Sugar but I substituted Lars Swedish Pearl Sugar because I had a package of it gathering dust in my cupboard for over 4 years now.

Both sugars will not melt in the heat of the oven (or waffle iron). The Belgium sugar is larger so the sugar will create pockets of crunchy, caramel sweetness in the waffle. With the Swedish sugar the sweet pockets were smaller and gave more of an overall sweet caramelized flavor to the waffle. That flavor combined with the almost deep fried texture and richness from the cup of butter in the batter was irresistible. So much so that my photo shoot the first time I made the waffles got interrupted by a thieving boy. They were so good, we forgot to save any for Lewis. Okay we remembered, but only after we had eaten all of them.

I made them with Swedish Sugar again this morning as the Belgium Sugar is not available locally. I will look for it the next time we are in New York City. I am sure both will be delicious. To make them for Julian's birthday I mixed up the dough the night before and let it rise slowly in the fridge overnight. This morning we took it out of the fridge and set the bowl in a bowl of warm water to bring it back to room temperature. It worked perfectly and then we delivered our children in their sugar comas to school.

To celebrate Julian's 5th birthday let me share this photo from when he was 2. This photo was taken on vacation in Cape Cod. The extension cord is one he claimed for himself that he found under the bed at the cottage we were staying at. It was his comfort object that week. Some children love dolls, some children love trains or cars, for Julian it has always been electricity. After he fell asleep we would tip toe back into his room and wind up the cord so he would not strangle himself in his sleep. Not letting him have the cord was never a possibility. Instead, as good parents, we bend out prongs and ask people from other countries to send us surge protecters and power cords. At 5 he is still strong willed and still loves cords and wires, and I am just proud that he is still alive. Good luck to his Kindergarten teacher next year, I hope she can keep up with him.

Liege Sugar Waffles

2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 package)

1/3 cup tepid water (105° to 110°)

1 1/2 Tbsp granulated white sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

3 eggs

1 cup butter melted and slightly cooled

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup pearl sugar (either Swedish or Belgium)*

Mix the yeast, water and granulated sugar in a small bowl and let it stand at room temperature until really foamy. This took about 5-7 minutes when I made them. Mix the flour and salt together in the bowl of your stand mixer and make a well in the center of the flour/salt mixture.

Pour proofed yeast into the well and mix with the flat beater blade on medium speed, adding the eggs one at a time. After each egg is well incorporated add the next one. Drizzle the melted butter in slowly while the mixer is still running to give the batter a chance to absorb it. Once the butter is fully incorporated add the vanilla and mix well. The batter should be thick and very sticky when you are done.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and put the cover on it or cover with a plate. If you wish to eat them that day allow to rise at room temperature until the batter has doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. If you plan on eating them the next morning put the bowl in the fridge and take the bowl out of the fridge and place in a larger bowl of warm-hot water to allow to come to room temperature, stirring to allow all of the batter to warm up.

Mix in the 1 cup of pearl sugar and allow to rest for 15 more minutes. Preheat your waffle iron while the dough is resting. I used this waffle iron and thought they were the perfect size. Any waffle iron will work though although a belgium waffle iron would be best.

For my waffle iron I used 2 Tbsp of batter per waffle. If you have a regular sized waffle iron experiment with what sized Liege waffles you prefer. Some recipes call for only using a 2 inch ball of dough in the center of the iron. These waffles are very rich and a full sized waffle might be too much. Do not grease the waffle iron before cooking, trust me these are self releasing.

* If you do not want to buy the specialty sugar crush about 60 sugar cubes in a plastic bag using a rolling pin, saucepan or meat mallet. Sift the crushed sugar and measure 1 cup of the large pearl and chunk pieces. This sugar will melt in the waffle iron so the taste will not be exactly the same but there will still be pockets of sweetness.

If you use crushed sugar cubes remember to clean the waffle iron right away while the sugar is still warm as the melted sugar will harden as it cools and be very hard to clean.

Banana Cocoa Pancakes

Last week I took Sebastian to have 3 baby teeth removed to allow the 2 adult teeth that came in behind them like a row of shark teeth space to move forward. This is just the start of our orthodontic road, one that I should have envisioned when I fell in love with a Brit, that is if the stereotypes are to be believed. Although his crooked bottom teeth could also have been a tip off. Sebastian had a panoramic jaw x-ray that shows a future where space issues will not be so easy to solve.

In preparation for the removal He was given a sedative and as it began to take effect I found myself with very mixed feelings. After all he was honestly hilarious saying things like, "Whoaaaa, this chair is floating. How do I stay on?" After his teeth were removed he asked for a mirror to see the new him. After staring at his new smile in a kind of removed glazed way he held the mirror up to the dentist light. When I asked him what he was doing he replied, "I'm letting the light see itself." When he was going through the prize box he put on one of these bracelets and said, "Mommy look, it's like a slinky." Then he floated his arm through the air saying, "Wheeeeeeeee." The problem I have is with it is, now, thanks to an oral surgeon, I have seen what my 7 year old would be like stoned.

But in the end the whole morning was an opportunity to reconnect with Sebastian. As he gets older we are moving away from the relationship we had when he was a baby. He is still cuddly and affectionate, loving to hug and sometimes it seems wanting to be attached to me. But somehow it is still different, he is still 7 and independent, not needing me for all of his needs. Holding my hand to walk to school until a friend joins us and they want to run and climb trees When we left the office he was helpless and dependent again as I carried him to the car and drove him home. Like a toddler he sat in the back asking the same questions over and over.

Apparently the sedative they gave him affects memory, this way he will not have a memory of them actually removing his teeth. In the car on the way home it meant he had no memory of my telling him, five minutes ago, that his teeth were already removed and we were going home, so he kept asking. I am appreciative that he is growing up and our relationship is changing, but I still enjoyed the morning together that captured the best parts of our relationship when he was a baby, with out the unending work. It was a little like I imagine being a grandparent will be.

When it was time for him to eat something he ate an entire pint of home canned applesauce, and then he and I shared a stellar omelette. The omelette had cheddar, cilantro, smoked ham and avocado and had him rolling his eyes back with joy. Julian doesn't like omelettes so we don't have them as much as Sebastian would like. However I am not going to share an omelette recipe with you, instead I am going to share the banana cocoa pancake recipe we had the night before for dinner. The one Sebastian enjoyed enough that he happily ate dozens of them, which was helpful as he could not have breakfast before the procedure.

I know I just shared a pancake recipe with you but in my opinion you can never have too many variations. Pancakes make a great quick dinner and in some houses are considered a special breakfast. Not to my spoiled children however, who think breakfast is not special if it took less then 30 minutes to make. If you want to make my two feel special you are expected to really work for it. This recipe is wholesome and different. It contains no sugar, relying instead on the super ripe banana for sweetness. The recipe contains both whole wheat flour (I upped the amount used when I made them) and wheat germ. As is often the case for a flavor rich dish you cannot taste the whole wheat in the final pancakes.

Banana Cocoa Pancakes

Adapted from Aimée at Simple Bites

1 cup plain full fat yogurt

1 banana (the riper the better, mine was brown)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk (to make sour milk add 1 Tbsp white vinegar to 1 cup milk, stir and let stand for 10 minutes)

2 eggs

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp wheat germ

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 cup butter melted

2 Tbsp coconut (optional, I did not use any)

Combine the yogurt and banana in a large bowl and puree using an immersion blender until smooth (you can also puree in a blender or food processor). Add the milk, eggs, vanilla, salt and cocoa powder to the yogurt banana mixture and blend.

Stir the baking soda, wheat germ and coconut if using into the wet mixture and stir well. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Add the melted butter and stir in until just incorporated.

Cook pancakes on a lightly greased griddle, non stick pan or cast iron pan. Serve warm with butter and maple syrup or nutella and banana slices if desired.

Gingerbread Pancakes and Community

I have been thinking a lot lately about food and community. Lewis is reading A Papa Like Everyone Else by Sydney Taylor to the boys, and I am reading it to myself. In one chapter Mama and her daughters, Szerena and Gisella go to make their Passover matzoh at the synagogue. They bring the flour that was specially ground for the purpose and a basket to carry home the finished matzo in. In the synagogue they work with the other women of the community to make all the matzo they will need for the 8 days of Passover. The scene is one of shared talk and work, a joyful gathering.

A modern Jewish family does not need to make their own matzo, they can just go to the store and buy as many boxes as they need. Somehow I cannot help feeling that we have lost something, not just a connection to our food, but also one to our neighbors. On my street we don't make matzo together or help tend the community cattle but we do share our food and lives more then I think is the norm.

We have one neighbor whose kitchen is like an extended pantry for us. Many times when I am preparing dinner and I realize I am out of one of the required ingredients and I call across the street to check if my neighbors have any. When I call to ask if they have some cumin, vinegar, garlic, carrots etc to share they often have a similar request. Growing up in Manhattan we never asked a neighbor for a cup of sugar or a quarter cup of rice wine vinegar. We just went to the grocery store and bought that one missing ingredient. I prefer the method I have now, which is often accompanied with a brief conversation about our children and either the fiendish things they are up to or a funny story.

My street is made up of small houses that are built almost on top of each other. In the summer this might be a problem for some of my neighbors as my boys keep up a constant chatter at them over the fence. Sunday I made Gingerbread Pancakes for breakfast and my boys shared the leftovers over the fence as barter. They gave our neighbor, Paul, a pancake and in return he let them shoot arrows in his yard and then fed us dinner. Our kitchen was unusable as Lewis was getting it ready for a new dishwasher coming today. Somehow that involved tearing out the counter and sink.

When Sebastian first tried the pancakes he said, "We should make these more often." Which means I just have to make them again, as this was the first time we have had them. He doesn't need to worry though, they will appear again. Besides their value as barter they were delicious for breakfast and made a fine snack later. Our poor chickens did not receive any of the leftovers as they all got eaten.

Gingerbread Pancakes

Adapted from The Pancake Handbook

Just in case you don't always read all the way through a recipe before proceeding, please notice that the batter needs to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cooking the pancakes. Before resting the batter will be too thin.

2 cups white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour (even if you hate whole wheat the strong gingerbread flavors will make this healthy flour boost completely unnoticeable)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup hot, freshly brewed coffee

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs lightly beaten (I did not beat mine before adding to the hot coffee mixture and they seemed to cook slightly but still incorporated fine)

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cocoa powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl add the sugar to the hot coffee and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the milk, molasses, butter and eggs to the coffee sugar mixture and stir or whisk to combine. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just to blend without over mixing. Let the batter rest for 5 to 10 minutes so it can thicken. Before resting it should be thin and pourable.

Heat a skillet or griddle over medium high heat (an electric griddle should be set to 375°) and grease lightly (I used butter and rubbed it around with a paper towel to provide only the thinest surface to the griddle). Ladle 1/4 cup portions of batter on to the hot griddle or skillet leaving space between them. A skillet is hot enough to use when a drop of water dances and evaporates right away on it's surface. The recipe calls for cooking them for 3 to 4 minutes on the first side until the top side is covered with bubbles and the underside is brown. My pancakes needed 6 minutes on the first side. Flip over the pancakes and cook for 2 minutes on the second side, until the second side is browned and set.

Dust the pancakes with confectioners sugar and serve with a dollop of whipped cream. Leftovers make a fine snack just served plain and eaten out of hand. You might even be able to barter with your neighbors using them as payment.

Blueberry Raspberry Kirsch Pound Cake

What a week, a broken fridge, an ancient car in need of repairs to pass inspection, fraudulent charges on our credit card and at the end a wonderful new cake. Maybe the week wasn't so bad after all. Well, you can be the judge.

At this point I could relate details of my week, the path I had to clear through my house for the fridge to be delivered. The four and a half hours I spent waiting for the fridge to be delivered willing the path to stay clear rather then returning to its natural state of clutter. I could also rant about the fraudulent charges, from my husband's card to an online dating service, in New Zealand. Aside from being puzzled at using a stolen card number for such a traceable thing there was the response when I called Yahoo Personals, the umbrella company for the New Zealand dating service, who wanted to know my yahoo ID number, the name of my favorite uncle, where I spent my summers as a child, address, alternate e-mail address.... Hello! The charges are fraudulent, therefore I don't have an account with you nor do I know any of the security info for this account.

But this cake is much more interesting then all of that. I have been dreaming of making this cake since I first read the recipe in April. It is from Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table, that I received for my birthday. Once I read the recipe all I had to do was wait until blueberries and raspberries were both in season. I had a hard time finding the kirsch called for in the recipe, but based on David Lebovitz's recent blog post on it I realized it was not an ingredient I should leave out. It really is integral to the cakes depth of flavor, what makes it more then just a pound cake.

As I have previously mentioned I sometimes make cakes to bring in to work and from the start I planned to make this cake for work, when both berries were in season. A normal person would have bought the fruit from the store and baked the cake during the day. However I have been told that normal is not the first word that pops into peoples heads when asked to describe me. So my boys and I went berry picking with friends and I baked this cake when they went to bed.

We delivered the cake to work, took a slice each, accepted compliments on the cake and then left. The one slice I had was not enough and that afternoon I baked the cake again for us. Molly states on her blog that this cake freezes well, so I made it in two loaf pans. We ate one, faster then I would like, and the second one I froze for the winter.

The version for work I made with all purpose flour, the one for us I used half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat flour. (my favorite whole wheat pastry flour is sold out until the farmer harvests more in October, the downside to buying local). With all that whole wheat goodness, the berries and the eggs we decided this makes a fine breakfast.

I mixed mine up in the stand mixer instead of the food processor that Molly uses. I have a food processor but it has a crack in the bowl, it still works fine for pesto and grating cheese, batters are out though. Other then that and the use of half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat flour for the cake flour, my only change was in technique. I add the baking powder and salt before adding the flour. I almost always mix cakes and muffins this way, you can make sure any dry ingredients other then flour are well incorporated without worrying about over mixing the flour and forming gluten. This means for other recipes I just ignore the step that calls for combining the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding. I add everything but the flour, mix well and then add the flour.

Pound Cake with Blueberries Raspberries and Kirsch

adapted from Orangette

5 large eggs at room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to warm up)

1 2/3 cups sugar

2 Tbsp kirsch

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter at room warm room temperature, plus more for the pan

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 Tbsp all purpose flour (for mixing with the berries)

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blueberries

Generously butter a 9 cup Bundt pan or two 4.5 cup/1.5 Qt loaf pans and then dust it with all purpose flour, shaking out the extra.

Beat the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the flat beater attachment until thick and smooth, about 1 minute. Add the kirsch and the butter in 1 Tbsp sized pieces and beat until it is thick and fluffy. This should take a couple minutes, stop once to scrape down the sides. Add the baking powder and salt and mix to combine well. Add both flours and turn the machine on and off on low in short pulses until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.

Toss the raspberries and blueberries in a large bowl with 2 Tbsp all purpose flour before using a spatula to fold them into the batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan or pans and smooth the top. Place in the center of a cold oven and turn the oven temperature to 300°. Bake until a knife or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. For both pans for me this took 1 hour and 25 minutes. Cool in the pan or pans for 5 minutes before inverting on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

If you wish to freeze the cake wait until it is cooled completely and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then place the wrapped cake in a freezer bag.