Apricot and Cherry Cake

Less can be more. That’s my lesson after a recent baking experiment. I was poking through my cabinets to find inspiration when I came across a bag of dark dried fruit. I couldn’t figure out what they were. Not dates. Not prunes. Not figs. I then realized they were organic dried apricots. Without preservatives they turn brown after picking but they still taste the same.

I shuffled through my recipe collection and found one for apricot and cherry cake. However, it seemed a bit rich – lots of butter and eggs. To make it lighter, I reduced the butter and egg yolks and added yogurt. As I was beating the batter I noticed how fluffy it was – because of the egg whites.

The batter nearly filled the loaf pan. I thought about removing some of it, but figured it was unlikely to overflow.

Wrong. Halfway through baking, a burning smell reached the bedroom. Rushing to open the door, I saw that some batter had overflowed onto the bottom of the oven. It was blackening and starting to produce smoke. I’m sad to say this isn’t my first such experience so I knew what to do – I removed the cake, scraped the fallen batter, and placed the cake on top of a foil-covered baking sheet before sliding it back into the oven. In the end, it took much longer to bake and didn’t rise very much. However, it was delicious and reasonably light.

The lesson here is that by reducing the egg yolks and butter, I had created a fluffier cake which required a larger pan. Baking is a science so it’s important to understand the chemistry involved when experimenting. The other lesson is to trust your gut. When I saw how much batter there was I should have divided it into two pans.

The recipe below has been adjusted to produce just enough batter for a single loaf pan.

Please note I’ve created a new tag – Freezes Well – on the suggestion of one of my readers. I hope to add this tag retroactively.

Serves 12

Ingredients
1/3 cup dried apricots
1/3 cup dried cherries
1 1/3 cups cake flour (equivalent to 1 1/3 cups minus 2 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour + 2 tablespoons corn starch)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs
2 egg whites
2 1/2 tablespoons yogurt (flavored or plain)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

Directions
1. Submerge and soak dried fruit in warm water for 15 minutes. Drain well and cut apricots into quarters. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan with butter. Line the bottom with wax paper, and grease and flour the pan.
3. In a medium bowl mix combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl beat butter on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add sugar and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
5. Add whole eggs and beat until combined. Add egg whites and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
6. Add yogurt and vanilla and beat until just mixed.
7. Reduce beater to low and add half of the dry ingredients, then the milk, then the remaining dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold in apricots and cherries.
8. Transfer batter to the baking pan and smooth the top with the spatula. Bake for 45-60 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan. Then unmold and serve. Can be kept in an airtight container or a well-covered plate for 3-5 days at room temperature, and up to one week in the refridgerator. To freeze, seal with plastic wrap and place in a Ziplock bag. Will keep for 3 months. To serve, unwrap and warm to room temperature.

Pistachio Shortbread

Pistachios are native to Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan and the first archeological record of their consumption dates to 6760BC in what is present day Jordan. They were brought to Italy from Syria during the reign of Tiberius in the first century. The word derives from Persian and comes to English via Latin.

While Iran still leads in international pistachio production, the United States is a close second. Until the 1970s, most pistachio consumed in the U.S. were imported from Iran. After relations between the two countries deteriorated starting in the 1970s, Americans started growing these nuts on plantations in California.

Pistachios are often eaten whole – salted or roasted - and are a popular flavoring in sweets such as ice cream, cookies and puddings. They are even more common in confections from the Middle East and South Asia including baklava and burfi among many others. These nuts are also traditionally used to make mortadella, an Italian pork sausage flavored with spices, nuts and herbs, and widely used in savory dishes from India, Iran and North Africa.

Research shows that pistachios significantly reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase antioxidant level in humans. In rats, they increase HDL (good) cholesterol without decreasing bad cholesterol.

This recipe is my adaptation of nan khatai, an Ismaili shortbread previously featured on this site.

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature

3/4 cups white sugar

1 egg

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup semolina

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped

1-2 tablespoons milk
pistachios, for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Grease or line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix flour, semolina, baking powder, cardamom, nutmeg and pistachios. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. Add egg and mix well.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. It may take a few minutes to incorporate all the flour. Add milk to soften the dough.
5. To form cookies, roll 2 tablespoons of dough between the palms of your hands to form a circular disk (thicker in the middle than at the edges). Place on a baking sheet and flatten slightly.

6. To decorate, gently press a pistachio into the center of each cookie.
7. Bake for 20-22 minutes until you see a hint of color. Do not bake until golden brown. Remove immediately to a wire rack to prevent further baking. Once cool, cookies should break easily but not be crumbly. If the cookies are crisp, then they were over-baked.

Berry Cheesecake

In the United States, Memorial Day weekend marks the social beginning of summer (as opposed to the calendar start on June 21). One of the most delicious pleasures of the season is fresh fruit. My favorites include watermelon, peaches, and berries, which were featured in last week’s muffin recipe.

This week, I’ve decided to go back-to-back with another berry recipe. For this cheesecake, you can use one of several types of berries, or a combination. However, I favor blackberries, a generic term which describes several hundred species of dark red, purple or black berries native to the cooler climates of the Northern hemisphere. The berries can also be found in Australia, New Zealand and Chile where they are often considered invasive weed species. Oregon has the distinction of producing more blackberries than any other region in the world.

The earliest indication of blackberry consumption comes from forensic evidence from a 2500-year old Danish “mummy” discovered in a peat bog in the nineteenth century. These fruit contain high levels of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, folic acid and manganese. Blackberries are used extensively in cooking, especially in the production of jams, cakes and pies. The fruit is sometimes used to make sauces to marinate or glaze pork, chicken or beef.

In modern life, the word 'blackberry' more often refers to a wireless handheld device than the fruit. So named because of its dark color and a keypad that resembles a collection of seeds, the ubiquitous gadget is so addictive to users that it has been nicknamed the crackberry.

Serves 8

Ingredients
Crust
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
2/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup white sugar

Filling
1 lb cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs

Topping
4 pints berries (whole blackberries, whole raspberries and/or quartered strawberries), washed and at room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar (optional)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 F. If using a 10-inch springform pan, use the ingredient list above. If you don’t have a springform pan, make cheesecake in a 9-inch metal pie tin but use HALF of ALL the ingredients.
2. To make crust, in a large bowl mix graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar.
3. Using your fingers or the back of a spoon, pack the crumb mixture so that it evenly covers the bottom of the pan. If using a pie tin, make sure there is crust on the sides as well as the bottom.
4. To make filling, in a large bowl beat cream cheese, sugar and eggs until smooth. Pour into the pan and bake for 40 minutes or until the surface is very light brown. Let the cheesecake cool for 30-60 minutes at room temperature.
5. In another bowl, toss the berries, brown sugar and cinnamon. Spoon onto the warm cheesecake and serve immediately. You can also chill cheesecake in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. Either way, place berries on the cheesecake just before serving.

Berry Muffins

On Sunday mornings, we sleep in to balance our perennial 6am weekday alarm. Between blinding sunlight and circadian rhythms, however, we’re not always successful. For me Sundays are special because we have time to make a warm breakfast or brunch. Eggs are our regular fare, but once in a while we’ll make pancakes or waffles.

This past Sunday I got up early to create berry muffins, and they were just coming out of the oven when my boyfriend woke up. There’s nothing more divine than warm baked goods slathered in butter, jam, apple butter or cream cheese.

I used frozen blueberries for this version but you can also use strawberries, raspberries or blackberries. Also, flavored yogurt can provide an interesting twist. Try vanilla, banana, strawberry or peach.

Makes 12

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached, all purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), melted

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup yogurt (low fat and flavored okay)

1 cup fresh or frozen berries (chop strawberries, other berries can go in whole)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a muffin pan with foil cups and squirt each cup with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, mix flours, sugar and baking soda.

3. In a small bowl, mix butter, eggs, vanilla and yogurt.

4. Toss berries into flour mixture and then add yogurt mixture.

5. Mix well. The batter may appear slightly dry but do not add additional liquid.

6. Spoon batter evenly into muffin liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

7. Cool for 5 minutes and serve immediately. Will keep in an airtight container for 3 days. To reheat, microwave for 15 seconds. Serve with your favorite spread.