Upside Down Pear Cake

I am now about to start week 5 of my 7-day meal planning and I think we are doing pretty well sticking to it.  We have deviated a couple times, but not many.  J has already lost a couple pounds, and I am back to my pre-Christmas/Thanksgiving weight, but that’s about it.  I will say that my plan every day is 1500-1700 calories for me and most days I am actually not hungry in between meals and I’m satisfied after eating the food we’re eating, so that right there means a lot for me.  I am also not starving my husband, which this is actually a first time we have done some kind of structured “diet” and he has not felt hungry all the time.   So having a well made plan seems to be working well for us.

But last night we did make a rather significant unaccounted for addition to our calorie intake for the day, but as this turned out so well I think it was kind of worth it.   I worked a little harder on the elliptical this morning and probably made up for about ¼ of what I consumed last night.

For the topping
3 tbs butter
¾ cup brown sugar
Fruit of your choice – I used 2 pears cut in chunky slices with a handful of blackberries – You could do pears, apricots, apples, plums plus any berry you like to fill in the wholes

For the cake
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup milk
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat melt the 3 tbs butter.  Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar is melted and begins to bubble.  Remove from heat and let cool.
Once cool, arrange the fruit in a pinwheel design, add berries if desired.

To make the cake, beat  ½ cup butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time.  Beat until smooth.  Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together then add half to the egg mixture and stir to incorporate.  Add the milk, stir to incorporate, then finish with the remaining flour mixture.  Stir the batter just until the flour is incorporated, do not overmix the batter.

Spread the batter over the fruit and bake for 45-60 mins.  The cake is ready when it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and the center feels just set.

Let cool for 20 minutes then place a cake plate on top and flip the cake out of the skillet.  Be careful because it will still be hot, especially the caramel.

I of course didn’t bother with that nonsense because I wanted to eat it as soon as the caramel was no longer scalding and I didn’t care enough to get the whole cake out of the skillet for anyone to see it whole.  Sorry no pretty picture of the whole cake, it was too tempting, couldn’t wait the 20 mins.

Serves 8, 405 calories, 17 g fat, worth it, especially since I haven’t had much sweets in the past month

Almond Butter Cookies

After dinner the other night J decided he wanted dessert.  I didn’t really have a lot in the pantry for baking so I was pretty limited on what I could make.  Peanut butter cookies is usually his first suggestion, and I have recently stopped buying peanut butter because too frequently was I just eating it straight out of the jar for no reason.  I did in fact have a rather large bag of almonds because I am never a good judge of volume when I buy things from the bulk section, so I thought I would try to make almond butter cookies, and I was really quite pleased with the result.

1 cup almonds
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a food processer blend the almonds until a creamy paste forms, about 6-8 minutes, scraping down the sides periodically.
In a large bowl, blend almond butter and butter together, then add the sugars and blend well.  Add egg and vanilla and blend well.

In a separate medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the almond butter mixture in 3 additions until just mixed.

Roll the dough into 1” balls and place a few inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set but not hard.
Remove the cookies immediately from the hot cookie sheet to a wire rack to cool, they will dry out if they continue to cook on the cookie sheet.

Makes 24 cookies, 100 calories each

These cookies had crispy edges and chewy centers and had more the flavor of a rich, buttery sugar cookie than a peanut butter cookie.  I enjoyed them quite a bit, I will definitely be making them again.
I didn’t take any pictures because I was too busy eating them.

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

I bought myself a few pie pumpkins before Thanksgiving, so inspired to make a fresh pumpkin pie, and I just never got around to it.  I actually cooked the pumpkins and scooped out all the meat, put it in the refrigerator and still didn’t make the dang pie. I did the hard part and then never followed through.  So for a week or so I had this fresh pumpkin puree that I knew I had to use up quick and pumpkin pie just never sounded good again.  So one day I made pumpkin pancakes, which were a little more boring than I was anticipating so I haven’t even bothered writing it up, but a few days after that I made pumpkin creme brulee which I thoroughly enjoyed.  They actually tasted more like mini crustless pumpkin pies than they did creme brulee, but were very easy to make.  Actually it may have been easier than making the pie, which is why I was ok with making it, because I didn’t have to make a crust.  I don’t want to hear it about frozen crusts, it’s not the same I’m sorry.

8 oz pumpkin puree, or can pumpkin (not pie filling)
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup packed golden brown sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
4 tbs golden brown sugar


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk pumpkin, ¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup brown sugar in a bowl.  Whisk in egg yolks and vanilla, then spices and salt, set aside.  Bring cream just to a boil in a saucepan.  Gradually whisk hot cream into pumpkin mixture.
Divide mixture between 4 ramekins.  Place ramekins in a roasting pan and add enough hot water to pans to come halfway up sides of ramekins.  Bake until custards are just set in center, about 35 minutes for 5x1 inch ramekins or 50 minutes for 3x1 ¼ inch ramekins.

You can make this 2 hours ahead of time and stop here, cover them and keep in refrigerator.   When you are ready to eat, sprinkle 1 tbs brown sugar on each one and melt with a kitchen torch or put in the oven under the broiler until the sugar is a deep amber.

Some people like their creme brulee cold, and if you do, put it back in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill and let the sugar harden, but I like it hot, so I just try to let it sit for a few minutes to allow the sugar to harden and keep it from scalding my tongue because I have a hard time controlling myself.

This was super simple, well if you already had the pumpkin puree or if you used a can, but was very flavorful and had a nice thick and creamy consistency.  I made 4 and we had 2 one night and then the other 2 the next, but you could easily double this recipe for a dinner party and use 1 15-oz can pumpkin puree and I think I would use 5 egg yolks but double everything else.  That would be really easy to throw together without much time or effort, and you could do it ahead of time before you even start cooking so you don’t occupy the oven.

Classic Chocolate Buttercream

When I try to think of my “signature dish” the first thing that always comes to mind is my chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.  I absolutely love chocolate cake and I have developed what I think is the most perfect chocolate cake imaginable.  It’s light, fluffy, and moist with a really good flavor.   The “crack cake” is what one of my girlfriends calls it because it’s so addictive.  A coworker asked me for the cake and buttercream recipe so I thought I would make it.  Now I am sorry I am not going to divulge my secrets to the interwebs for the cake but I will tell you how to make the buttercream.

I use Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Classic buttercream recipe from the Cake Bible.  This buttercream does take some work, and would be a pain without a stand mixer, but it is totally worth it.  It is very light and fluffy and not overly sweet.  A lot of people have the idea that the so sweet your teeth hurt icing on a grocery store cake is buttercream, but they are oh so wrong, and as soon as they have this they realize what they’ve been missing.  This is uber fattening, because well it’s basically just butter and sugar, but just ignore that for a minute.  Go ahead and add an extra mile to your run tomorrow just from reading this recipe.

6 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 cups unsalted butter, must be softened

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Have ready a greased 1-cup heatproof glass measuring cup.

In a bowl beat the yolks with an electric mixer until light in color.  Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan (preferably nonstick) and heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is boiling.  Stop stirring and boil to the soft-ball stage (238 F).  Immediately transfer the syrup to the glass measuring cup to stop the cooking.

If using an electric hand-held mixer, beat the syrup into the yolks in a steady stream.  Don't allow the syrup to fall on the beaters or they will spin onto the sides of the bowl.  If using a stand mixer, pour a small amount of syrup over the yolks with the mixer turned off.  Immediately beat at high speed for 5 seconds.  Continue with the remaining syrup.  For the last addition, use a rubber scraper to remove the syrup clinging on the measuring cup.  Continue beating until competely cool.

Gradually beat in the butter followed by the cooled melted chocolate.  

A few tips

• The butter must be softened so let it sit on the counter for about an hour, do not put it in the microwave, melted butter and softened butter are not the same thing.  If the butter needs a little help softening and you are in a rush, hold it in your hands to soften it with your body heat. 
• Do not stir the sugar after the syrup comes to a boil or it will crystallize.
• This can be stored in an airtight container for 6 hours at room temperature, 1 week refrigerated, and 8 months frozen.
• If you store it let it come back to room temperature before using.  You can rebeat if necessary to restore the texture but do not rebeat chilled buttercream or it will curdle.
• When you separate the egg yolks and whites you can freeze the whites in a plastic bag for later.  Use in an omelet or in an egg white chocolate buttercream for a more airy and richer chocolate buttercream, I'll tell you how to make that another day.

You can use the basic recipe to make any flavored buttercream.  Instead of chocolate add 2-4 tbs vanilla extract for vanilla buttercream, 1/2 cup raspberry sauce for raspberry buttercream, or replace the water with freshly squeezed lemon juice and finish with 1/4 tsp lemon extract for a lemon buttercream.  Once you get the technique down you can do pretty much anything with this.

Snickerdoodles

I wasn’t really planning on making a desert tonight since I decided to forego my cannoli plan, but after dinner J wanted something and if I have eggs then I usually don’t mind baking, so I did.  He had yet another interesting request today.  Sometimes he really shocks me in what foods come to his mind.  Chocolate is always on my brain so I suggested brownies but he vetoed that and suggested “those cinnamon cookies”.   Being a Yankee I don’t think he had ever had snickerdoodles until I made them for him and I’ve only made them for him a couple of times, so I thought it was odd that he thought of them.

¼ cup butter, softened

¼ cup shortening

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cup and 1 tbs flour

1 tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

2 tbs sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cream together the butter, shortening, ¾ cup sugar, egg and vanilla until fluffy and the butter and shortening are not clumpy.  Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and ¼ tsp cinnamon.  Roll 1” balls of dough in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until set but not hard, the tops should look cracked from where they spread.  Remove immediately from the pan and allow to cool on a rack.

24 cookies, 95 calories, 4 g fat each

I was able to make this batter and was just starting to load my cookie sheet when the oven had finished preheating, so I have a real hard time understanding why people use mixes.  Making things from scratch always taste better and don’t always take more effort or time, so no excuses.

Lemon Blueberry Poppyseed Mini Muffins

Last night was our Bible study, so it was leftovers, no time to cook dinner.  I did make some mini muffins to take with us though.  I found this recipe a few months ago and have been wanting to try it but haven’t had anything to do with a batch of muffins other than eat them myself.   They turned out really well I think, and I assume everyone else agreed as they were all eaten.  Okay I may have eaten 4 of them before we even left, but hey that’s beside the point.

1 cup all purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ cup milk

1 tbs lemon juice

½ cup sugar

¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Zest from 1 lemon

1 large egg

1/8 cup poppy seeds

18 blueberries, frozen is fine

Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350.  Grease a mini muffin pan or line with paper liners.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  Whisk the milk and lemon juice in a bowl and set aside to curdle (this makes buttermilk just in case anyone was unaware).  Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and lemon peel until light and fluffy, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl.  Beat dry ingredients in 3 additions alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions.  Mix just until blended.  Mix in the poppy seeds.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin in heaping tablespoons.  Add a blueberry to the center of each muffin and smooth the hole over so the blueberry is covered.

Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  The recipe said 22-24 minutes, but mine were done in 16.  They also didn’t add blueberries so I guess that cut back on the time quite a bit.

Makes 18 mini muffins, each muffin is 85 calories and 3 g fat