Dessert – Page 3 – From My Table…to Yours

Gingerbread Pudding Cake

As I look at the title of this post, I keep hearing Tweety Bird say “I thought I saw a puddy’cat!” Moreover, I am not sure “pudding cake” really sums up how incredibly scrumptious this dessert actually is. The very unusual baking method creates a cake with two very distinctive features – a beautiful cracked surface which recalls the floor of an ancient sea, long since dried up, and a moist bottom layer that gives way to an undercurrent of thick molasses syrup.

Today we received our most recent onslaught of snow (about 14 inches and counting), proving to me that we are not yet finished with winter and I can continue to – ahem – build up my winter coat with decadent desserts and can keep the deep and spicy flavors coming for at least a couple more weeks. This cake was a prize find of a couple of winters ago. I love how it recalls the familiar and nostalgic taste of gingerbread, yet also provides the unique and surprising texture of a molten chocolate cake.

Paired with a nice dollop of whipped cream – the rustic version – or possibly a quenelle of vanilla (maybe even coconut?) ice cream – the elegant dinner party version – this cake is a sure-fire crowd pleaser.

Gingerbread Pudding Cake, from Bon Appetit (not sure of the issue – it was a clipping!)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon clove
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons beaten eggs
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Top of the cake Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8×8 inch glass baking dish. Whisk flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and salt in medium bowl.
Using an electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup sugar in large bowl until blended. Beat in egg. Stir molasses and 1/2 cup water in a 1 cup glass measuring cup.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, butter mixture and molasses mixture together beating to blend. Repeat until all seperate mixtures are now one and transfer to prepared dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top.

Stir 1 1/2 cups hot water and melted butter in 2 cup glass measuring cup. Carefully pour over top of batter (don’t worry, there will be lots of liquid on the top). Bake until gingerbread is cracked on top, about 45 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream and top with extra sauce from the bottom of the pan.

Pudding cake

Spice Cake – No Box Necessary!

Spice Cake

Well, it is New Year’s Eve, and it is likely that many of you are beginning to think about your 2009 resolutions. I was starting to think about resolutions as I drove in circles around my gym’s parking lot yesterday, looking for a space. It seems that more people have been jumping on the exercise bandwagon since the glut of the holidays. Not good news for me, since if I spend more than 5 minutes waiting for a parking spot, I’m outta there! (my resolve is weak; I feel shame)

For rest of us, the people who are waiting until the last possible moment to declare the holidays over and the cleanse/dry-out/diet begun, I have a final sweet fix. And if you bake it within the waning hours of December, you can still eat it in the first days of 2009 without guilt, since wastefulness is no way to start a new year. Trust me – I used that justification in 2008, 2006, and 2005 with no qualms!

Spice Cake, from The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Baking by Carole Clements

(Serves 10-12)
1 1/4 c. milk
2 Tbs. dark corn syrup (I used 1 Tbs. light corn syrup and 1 Tbs. molasses)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. walnuts chopped (to omit walnuts, use 1 1/2 Tbs. more flour and add 2 tsp. vegetable oil to the butter) 1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 c. sugar Ingredients for Spice Cake 1 egg, at room temperature
3 egg yolks, at room temperature
2 c. flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. grated nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground allspice

Cream Cheese Frosting:
6 oz. cream cheese
2 Tbs. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 c. confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbs. finely chopped ginger
2 Tbs. maple syrup (maple syrup was my swap-in for ‘syrup from stem ginger’: feel free to use that if you can find/make it)

Cake pans with parchment lining Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two or three (depending on how many layers you want in your cake) 8-inch cake pans with wax/parchment paper and grease. I learned a trick once for lining a round cake pan – fold a square of parchment (or wax) paper in half, then fourths. Now bring the open edges together to form a triangle. Then position the point of the triangle in the center of the pan, as shown in my lovely photo. Cut the parchment paper at the place where it reaches the edge of the pan. Open up your sheet and you should have a perfect circle the size of the bottom of your cake pan.

In a bowl, combine the milk, corn syrup, vanilla and walnuts.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and egg yolks. Add the milk mixture and stir well. [At this point I should note that my batter was one of the ugliest and least promising-looking I’ve ever encountered. It seemed lumpy and greasy and looked like it was separating. I am sure it was due to my substitutions, but in any case the cakes came out really well. So if your batter looks funny, just power through and see what happens! You might get lucky, like I did!]

Baked Cakes

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and spices 3 times. Add the flour mixture in batches, and fold in carefully after each addition.Divide the cake mixture between the pans. Bake until the cakes spring back when touched lightly – about 25 minutes for 3 layers, a bit longer for 2 layers. Let stand 5 minutes, then unmold and cool on a rack.

For frosting, combine all the ingredients and beat with an electric mixer. Spread the frosting between the layers and over the top.

Then, eat up! I loved this cake, and RJ – a strong proponent of the Duncan Hines “Moist Deluxe” box – agreed that it was super moist and really flavorful. I hope that the below picture can convey that the crumb of this cake was large and not at all dry or dense. If you like walnuts, I think that the added crunch would have been welcome, but we aren’t nut lovers, so this one made us happy. Enjoy!

cake-slice

Let Them See Cake

Momofuku Chocolate Cake

Apologies, apologies. I still don’t have my camera cord, so I am on a break from posting new recipes. However, I have some stored pictures that I thought some of you might enjoy. Namely, the above picture of amazing cake. The first weekend in December, I spent in New York City visiting my brother and his girlfriend, Claire. They live on the Lower East Side, amidst a delectable collection of David Chang restaurants. Our first night in the city, we waited until midnight to eat dinner at Momofuku Ssam. And it was worth it. Every bite of pork belly in my steamed bun convinced me of that fact. A short walk down the hall is Momofuku Milk Bar, where I first encountered this counter:

momofuku cookies Don’t let the crazy names fool you – compost cookie, cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookie, and corn cookie are some of the best mouthfuls you’ll ever meet. In addition to cookies, the Milk Bar serves cakes and pies. “Crack Pie”, in case anyone’s wondering, is made of butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, corn flour, and a hint of nutmeg. Apt name, I’d say. I am of course not the first to laud the offerings of the Milk Bar – Adam of Amateur Gourmet named the Banana Cake his 2nd best dish of 2008, and Serious Eats gives you the full run-down of the offerings, but I am here to reinforce the ruling of ‘truly awesome’.

The cake you see above is a chocolate fudge cake with yellow cake icing. That’s about all I can say, until you taste it. The ‘cake’ part melds into the ‘icing’ part so it is just one incredible bite of soft, creamy, vanilla-and-chocolate-flavored scrumptiousness. Like I said, you have to taste it. If I haven’t convinced you to go, read Frank Bruni’s article. He really knows what he’s talking about. I just pretend to.

Jumbo Cranberry-Oatmeal Jumbles

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Though I have already leaked my favorite cookie recipe, this is a very VERY close second place. In addition to being highly flavorful in a subtle ‘what is that?’ sort of way, the other fabulous thing about these cookies is that they are modifyable. In fact, last night was the first time I have made them according to the directions! I have, in various iterations, left out the pecans because of a nut allergy, substituted cherries and/or orange-flavored Craisins for the dried cranberries, swapped in maple syrup for the corn syrup, and, almost always, I have ignored the call for cake flour and just used 1/4 c. regular all-purpose with 1 1/2 tsp. of cornstarch. Replacements, swap-outs and eliminations of any of the solid additives (dried fruit, chocolate, coconut, pecans) are fine so long as you maintain the 2 cup total. And I wouldn’t mess with the oats, since they are the structure and the texture of the cookie.

I should note that as cookies go, these involve fairly lengthy prep: toast the coconut, toast the pecans, chop the pecans, mix the all-purpose flour and the cake flour separately, form the dough into two-inch disks blah, blah, blah. There’s even a note suggesting that the cookies are better if you weigh all the ingredients rather than measuring with a cup. However, I can tell you that I have assembled these many times with far less attention to detail then I did last night and I haven’t yet been struck by lightning.

As I said, I’ve been making minor changes to these cookies each time I bake them based on people’s dietary restrictions and taste preferences. Honestly, though, this recipe is pretty incredible as written. The coconut is hardly noticeable unless you are sniffing for it, but it adds a distinct type of sweetness that isn’t just hum-drum brown sugar. The nuts are not overpowering, and they add a nice savory element to the bite. The white chocolate seems to be a natural continuation of the cookie batter, not a glaring sore thumb, and the cranberries are a far superior (and more universally appealling, I’ve noticed) alternative to raisins.

I made these this week for a cookie swap at work – if any of my friends from the museum are checking in, please let me know what you think of the results in the comments section!

Jumbo Cranberry-Oatmeal Jumbles, from Fine Cooking magazine, November 2005, Issue 74.
(makes 16-18 big, er, jumbo cookies)

cookie-mise 6 oz. (3/4 c.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 Tbs. light corn syrup
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
6-3/4 oz. (1-1/2 c.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 oz. (1/4 c.) cake flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/2 c. sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 c. rolled oats (old-fashioned, not quick-cooking)
1/2 c. pecan pieces (or coarsely chopped pecan halves), lightly toasted
1/2 c. sweetened coconut flakes, lightly toasted
3 1/2 oz. good-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Position two racks near the center of the oven and heat the oven to 325°F. Line three baking sheets with parchment.

cookie-batter In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl. Add the egg, corn syrup, and vanilla; beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Mix in half the all-purpose flour on low speed until thoroughly combined, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Scrape the bowl. Briefly mix in the remaining half of the all-purpose flour. Sprinkle the cake flour, baking soda, and salt into the bowl and beat on low speed until well blended, 30 seconds to 1 minute. With a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula, stir in the cranberries, oats, pecans, coconut, and white chocolate.

Cranberry white chocolate oatmeal coconut pecan cookies

Using your fingertips, shape 2-oz. pieces of dough (about a scant 1/4 cup) into 2-inch-diameter disks that are 1/2 inch thick. Space them at least 2 inches apart on the parchment-lined sheets. Bake until the cookies’ edges and bottoms are golden and the centers feel dry on the surface but still soft inside, 15 to 16 minutes. When baking two pans of cookies at once, switch the position of the pans after 8 minutes for even browning. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for at least 1 minute before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. These cookies will keep for three or four days at room temperature or for several weeks in the freezer.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies