Hazelnut & Cocoa Nib Pound Cake

This cake was born after an afternoon spent looking through cookbooks, recipe binders, pins, and links, and not finding something that precisely matched the vague idea I had in my head.  I usually hate when that happens, but this time I'm so glad it did because it made me come up with this - this cake that was exactly what I wanted.  It's soft and dense, not overly sweet or fussy, nutty, and gently chocolatey - but with a fantastic sharp crunch from the cocoa nibs.  It was great with whipped cream, but would be outstanding with coffee ice cream, I think.  I wish I'd had time to get some before the cake was all gone!

Hazelnut & Cocoa Nib Pound Cake

adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Serves 12-14

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 8oz. package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped toasted hazelnuts
1 1/2 cups cocoa nibs

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.  Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan (I'm a big fan of the cooking spray with flour in it, like Baker's Joy, for Bundt pans.  Saves a ton of work and gets better coverage than I do with butter!)

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl, with an electric mixer), beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until smooth.  Add both of the sugars, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and very fluffy, at least five minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after every 2-3 eggs.  Add the vanilla and almond and stir briefly.  Add the flour, salt, and nutmeg all at once.  Beat until just incorporated.  Fold in the hazelnuts and cocoa nibs.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, shaking a little to smooth out the top and get rid of big air bubbles.  Bake for 60-75 minutes, until the cake is dark golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

4. Cool on a rack for 20 minutes, then remove cake from the pan and let cool completely. Serve at room temperature.

Brown Sugar Graham Cookies

These cookies are so simple, and SO good... I grew up with them, and I have no idea where my mom got the recipe.  Mom made them last Christmas, and we realized that while these cookies are good with light brown sugar, they are AMAZING with dark brown sugar.  It makes a big difference!  


Brown Sugar Graham Cookies
Makes about 48, depending on how you cut them


Ingredients:

1lb. box Nabisco graham crackers (3 packs), broken into squares

1 ½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks)

2 C. packed dark brown sugar

1 C chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.  
2. Spread 1 layer graham crackers in greased 10 x 15” pan.  You may need to break them into the small rectangles to get a full layer. 
3. Combine HALF of butter and HALF of brown sugar (3/4 cup and 1 cup, respectively) in small saucepan.  Bring to a boil and let boil 3 minutes.  Pour syrup over crackers; bake for 10 mins.
4. Meanwhile, combine remaining butter and brown sugar in the saucepan, making another batch of the syrup.  Add walnuts when it starts to boil. 
5. When the pan comes out of the oven, add another layer of grahams (It’s important to act quickly when adding the second layer, otherwise the layers don’t stick together). Pour syrup over, and bake 10 more minutes.
6. When slightly cool cut in strips.  If you wait too long to cut, they break.

Concord Grape Pie

I married into this pie - so to speak - and oh, I'm so glad I did. You've probably never heard of a grape pie - it does sound weird, doesn't it? But if you can find Concord grapes where you are, you should make this. It's like grape juice in pie form, and it's delicious. It tends toward the sweet, so it's best with vanilla ice cream or, in a pinch, whipped cream.

Concord grapes have a really short season here in Seattle, so grab the grapes when you see them! The season is usually sometime in September, but the weather has been so weird this year that I'm keeping an eye out now. Alas, Concord grapes are not seedless, so you have to get the seeds out of them before you can make the pie. Just put on some comfy shoes and some good music and you'll be done in no time!

Grape Pie

serves 6-10

Filling:

1 ½ pounds (~4 cups) Concord grapes

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Bottom Crust:

Your favorite crust, homemade or store-bought

Top Crust:

½ cup flour

½ cup sugar

¼ cup butter

Filling: Slip skins from grapes (just squeeze them and the insides will eject); set skins aside. Bring pulp to a boil; reduce heat &simmer for approx. 5 minutes (until grapes fall apart). Press pulp through sieve to remove seeds; addskins to pulp.

Combine sugar, flour, and salt; add to grapes. Add lemon juice and butter; mix well. Pour into pie shell.

Crust: sift flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over pie.

Bake at 400° about 40 minutes, until the top crust is just getting color around the outer inch or so.

Bonus: if you want to be able to make this pie when the grapes are not in season, you can can the filling in a hot water canner - just omit the flour and butter. When you open the jar to make the pie, stir in the flour, and then add the butter and dump the whole thing into the pie crust. It works great!

Peanut Butter Cream Pie - for Mikey

Sunday night, my Twitter stream sort of blew up with shock and sadness - I didn't know exactly what happened until Monday morning, but the food blogging community was reeling from the sudden loss of Mikey Perillo. His wife, Jennifer, is big in the food world.  I didn't read her blog, or follow her on Twitter, but I knew of her nonetheless. I knew she had young kids, and I was stunned by the news.

Later in the week, she posted about how fleeting life can be, and reminded us to treasure our loved ones while we can - don't put off loving them until tomorrow, because tomorrow is not guaranteed to arrive.  She asked that people make Mikey's favorite pie on Friday, and that we share it with people we love, because she'll never get to share it with him again.

So I did.  Peanut butter cream pie is not my husband's favorite (though I'm pretty sure he'll like it), so I'll make his favorite pie in the next few days.  For today, though, we have this pie, and we have each other and our son. And even though there are still things we long for in our life, today we'll remember to be thankful for life and love and the abundance we have been given.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Cream Pie

Strawberry Hand Pies

Today is my husband’s birthday (happy birthday, honey!), and he is a pie guy. He’d much rather have pie than cake, most of the time.  Conveniently, it’s also Pie Party day!

I love making small pies, especially strawberry – I love the flavor of the cooked, jammy strawberries, I love that everyone gets more crust, and I love that I don’t have to try to get the slices to hold together!

We just got back from camp yesterday, and I was running short on time and energy (camp is SO fun and SO exhausting), so I used store-bought crusts.  I used one Pillsbury and one from Grand Central Bakery here in Seattle, and the Grand Central ones held up MUCH better than the Pillsbury ones – I know which I’ll keep in my freezer from now on!





I got this fun little mini-pie maker a couple of months ago.  It’s supposed to make the pies round, with the filling area star-shaped, but the star shaping gets lost in the baking process.  I don’t really care – it’s still pretty fun and easy to use.  It has a cookie-cutter side to cut the dough, and is hinged to press the crust pieces together with the filling inside.







Strawberry Hand Pies
from Martha Stewart
Makes 8-10 pies

Ingredients:

• roughly 3 cups strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered, depending on the size of the strawberry
• 4 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp corn starch
• Pre-made pie crusts for 2 double-crust pies (4 rounds of store-bought crust)
• 1 egg
• water
• sanding sugar (optional; can also use granulated sugar)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. Stir together the strawberries, sugar, and corn starch in a medium bowl.  Let sit while you prepare the crusts.
3. Cut an even number of 5-inch rounds from the crusts.
4. Put about 2 Tablespoons of filling in the middle of half of the rounds.
5. Brush the edges of the filled rounds with egg wash.
6. Top each filled round with another unfilled round.  Press and crimp the edges to seal.  Place the pies on the prepared cookie sheets.
7. Cut a vent in each round.
8. Brush each pie with more egg wash, and sprinkle with the sanding sugar.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
10. Keeps in sealed container at room temperature for up to 2 days.