Cornmeal and Fruit Loaf

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Caitlin of Engineer Baker. She chose the Cornmeal and Fruit Loaf. I really like Caitlin’s blog; she lives a very busy life and has had a number of challenges lately, but she still sticks with the group. I love that dedication! You can get the complete recipe for this fruit studded quick loaf on Caitlin’s blog. Make sure you also make a visit to the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see how all the bakers interpreted this week’s recipe.

I think I have liked the latter picks in Tuesdays with Dorie; the recipes are a bit more unassuming but have been diamonds in the rough. This recipe is a quick bread with cornmeal and fruit of your choice. I opted for apples and dried apple since I love baking with apples. I had dried apples already, so this was a great opportunity to use them. I’d also like to give this a try with pears, but the selection wasn’t quite as good at the store. I also opted for finely ground cornmeal; we’re not big fans of the coarse ground in our household.

This took less time to assemble than the oven took to preheat and it only messes up one bowl and a liquid measuring cup. I love that! My loaf didn’t rise very much and it seemed to be quite dark on the outside, but the loaf was still moist and not at all overbaked. The bread has the most subtle crunch from the cornmeal. I love the fruit in these, adding a little bit of sweetness without being overpowering. I think this bread would be great with honey butter, but it’s pretty great just on its own.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 43

Snickerdoodle Streusel Blondies

The third snickerdoodle recipe I made to celebrate my blog’s third anniversary is snickerdoodle streusel blondies. This recipe comes from the Flour Dusted blog. Briarrose always posts such good looking things and posts nice comments, so it was really a treat to make this recipe. When I first saw her recipe for these blondies, I was inspired to make different snickerdoodle treats to celebrate my blog. Thanks for the inspiration!

This recipe only makes an 8-inch pan worth of cookies, but they are very substantial. You could cut them in smaller bars, but why would you want to do that? The layer of cinnamon sugar sets them off nicely, but these bars are all about the streusel. When I was making these, I thought that there was an awful lot of streusel for such a small pan, but when they were finished, I realized that was the best part.

The butter and brown sugar flavors are very pronounced in these blondies. You do pick up the cinnamon flavor, but I loved the brown sugar. They are a bit crumbly when cutting, just the nature of the streusel. You probably won’t have to worry about the bars lasting too long, but if you happen to bake these as part of a snickerdoodle baking extravaganza and don’t eat them right away, they will keep for quite a while.

Snickerdoodle Streusel Blondies

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square pan.

To make the streusel: stir together both sugars, salt, cinnamon, and butter in a medium bowl. Stir in the flour until well combined. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix in the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg until just combined. Spread half the batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over batter. Drop small spoonfuls of remaining batter on top of sugar mixture. Spread dollops of batter gently to form an even top layer.

Crumble the streusel topping and sprinkle it over the top of the blondies. The streusel layer will be substantial. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the blondies are golden brown. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Flour Dusted

Maple Snickerdoodles

The second snickerdoodle recipe that I made to celebrate the third anniversary of my blog is maple snickerdoodles. I like maple a lot, and it makes me think of fall. As I’ve stated before, I’m so ready for fall and glorious fall baking! These are very similar to traditional snickerdoodles, but add maple syrup to the dough and maple sugar to the cookie coating.

I bought maple sugar this spring when I visited Philadelphia. It looks a lot like brown sugar, just a little lighter in color. My husband had purchased a different type of maple sugar at Whole Foods, but it is much coarser, and I didn’t think that it would work as well, since the maple sugar/sugar mixture needs to be fairly fine. If you can’t find maple sugar, you can order it from King Arthur Flour.

These are simple to put together, which is one of my favorite parts of making snickerdoodles. I like the combination of the cinnamon sugar and maple. The maple addition is subtle, but noticeable. They are lighter in color than traditional snickerdoodles, so it’s a bit of a challenge to know when they are baked through. This recipe makes two dozen cookies; I baked one dozen for about 12 minutes and the second dozen for about 15 minutes. Both are good! Like a chewy cookie? Bake it for the shorter time. Baking longer and the cookie will be crispier. You can’t really go too wrong either way!

Maple Snickerdoodles

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat the egg and maple syrup. Stir in the flour mixture.

In a separate small bowl, mix the sugar and maple sugar. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll them in the maple sugar mixture. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until golden brown and cracked on top, 12-16 minutes.

Recipe from Closet Cooking

Happy 3rd Blogiversary!

It’s by Third Blogiversary! I’m so happy that so many people drop by and are able to share the different treats that I make. To celebrate, I’ve made three variations of snickerdoodles: my favorite cookie! I’ll post the three over the next three days. First up: snickerdoodle cupcakes!

I’ve long had a handful of snickerdoodle cupcake and muffin recipes bookmarked, and it was really tough to figure out which one to try. I opted for Martha Stewart’s recipe because I’ve had good luck with her recipes and the recipe was quite simple. I didn’t make the seven minute frosting that her recipe called for, I instead opted for a version of the traditional buttercream frosting that I use all the time. This version has cinnamon and also meringue powder, which gives it a little something extra.

These cupcakes have a great cinnamon sugar flavor! They don’t quite have the same tang that snickerdoodles do, but I can’t really complain. I took these to work and shared them with my colleagues and some of our student workers and they were gone in a very short time. How can you go wrong with something so delicious?

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 ounces milk
Cinnamon sugar, for finishing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. This makes about 14 cupcakes.

In a small bowl, combine flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a large mixer bowl on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the tins for about 5 minutes and then remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely. When cooled, frost with snickerdoodle frosting and, if desired, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Snickerdoodle Frosting

½ cup butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 teaspoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy - about 2-3 minutes. Add sifted powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, meringue powder and cinnamon and beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar or milk to get the desired consistency. Spread or pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart
Frosting recipe from Mermaid Sweets

Coconut Apricot Icebox Cookies

This recipe features apricots and coconut. I use coconut quite a bit in my baking, but I don’t have too many recipes featuring apricots. I really like apricots, so I’m not sure why I don’t use them more frequently. For this last Friday in August featuring fruity cookies, I was tossing between this recipe and a Pillsbury Bake-Off bar cookie that uses apricot preserves. I have made a couple of bar cookies already this month, so I opted for these. Besides, refrigerator cookies are perfect for the summer as you can make the dough in advance and just bake them up when the moment’s right (and the house isn’t too warm).

I’ve rediscovered the cookbook Great Cookies by Carole Walter, which I had forgotten was on my bookshelf. It has some great recipes! It even has an international cookie chapter and many cookies that are just different. I love that, as I’m always trying to find something a little different. The cookbook also rates cookies by difficulty and other features such as shelf life, whether they travel well and other factors.

This cookie is rated as an easy cookie, and while nothing is too hard, there are a lot of steps (and many dishes to wash) for these cookies. I didn’t quite have enough coconut left when coating the exterior of the logs, so you may want to ration the coconut so you have an equal amount for all three logs. I love the combination of coconut and apricots in these. They smelled so heavenly when baking. The original recipe said to bake these for 12-15 minutes and don’t over bake. I had to bake them for closer to 20 minutes for them not to be doughy. Perhaps I cut them a little thicker, I don’t know. They taste like a coconut macroon, with fruity bursts of flavor from the apricots. I found that these cookies were really different and I liked them so much.

Coconut Apricot Icebox Cookies

10 ounces sweetened, flaked coconut
2-1/4 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
6 ounces dried apricots, chopped in 1/8” pieces
1 cup butter, slightly softened
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon coconut extract
1 egg white, beaten with 2 teaspoons water
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon milk

Place the coconut in a food processor. Pulse five or six times and then process until finely chopped. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Remove 2 tablespoons of the mixture and combine it with the chopped apricots. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until creamy. While the mixer is running, pour the sugar into the bowl in a steady stream; mix for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix one minute. Add the extracts and mix until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in 1-3/4 cups of the coconut. Add the flour in two in two additions, mixing just until the flour disappears. By hand, stir in the apricots.

Divide the dough into thirds; shape each piece into a log 8” long and 1-1/2” in diameter. Place the remaining coconut on a piece of waxed paper. Brush each log with the egg wash and roll in the coconut. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, up to three days.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Slice the dough into 3/8” thick slices and place on the prepared baking sheets. In a small bowl whisk together the egg yolk and milk and then brush the tops of the cookies with the mixture. Bake for 12-20 minutes, until very light brown around the edges. Do not over bake. Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Great Cookies by Carole Walter

Golden Brioche Loaves (Sort of)

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Margie of Tea and Scones and you can get the complete recipe on her blog. She chose Golden Brioche Loaves. I didn’t make the brioche this week because I had made the dough before and made Brioche Raisin Snails and Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. It was finally hot in Seattle these past few days and we had company, all things that didn’t bode well for making these loaves, which require many hours of rising time and overnight refrigeration. I’ll just remember what I had made previously!

Brioche Raisin Snails were picked long before I joined Tuesdays with Dorie, but I really wanted to give them a try. They are a refined version of American cinnamon rolls, with pastry cream and boozy raisins. I brought these to work to share with my colleagues and they were a big hit! The pastry cream disappears into the dough and makes for a beautiful, decadent treat.

I made the Pecan Honey Sticky Buns and served it to guest that we had staying with us. These are so gooey and rich, but worth all the work in every bite. It worked really well to prep the dough in advance and then bake them up in the morning. Nothing beats waking up to the scent of freshly baked sticky buns! Both of these recipes took a little more time, but certainly worth it in the end.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 48-50

Cherry Pie Muffins

Cherry pie in a muffin? How tasty! I stumbled on this recipe and wanted to make it as soon as I saw it. With a stash of fresh cherries at home, I got ready to make these. This recipe is a little bit different for me: it more closely follows the clean eating way of life, using more whole ingredients. Some of the ingredients are no issue such as oats, honey, and whole wheat flour. The new ingredient for me was coconut oil as a replacement for butter. This was a good opportunity to try something new!

These muffins are quick to put together, with the original recipe just adding everything together and stirring. I followed a more traditional muffin method: I mixed all the dry ingredients, then separately combined all the liquids and then stirred the two together. The cherries and fairly wet and delicate, so I folded them in last. You don’t want to be too tough with the cherries. (These use fresh cherries, which were pretty late to be in season in Seattle this summer. You could also use frozen cherries if you have them.)

This recipe only made 9 muffins, so if you are serving lots of people, you would need to double the recipe. Baked up, these were fairly soft and might do best to eat them with a fork off of a plate. I like the subtle coconut flavor that the coconut oil imparts, but I found that the coconut oil left a little puddle of oil in the bottom of the muffin tin. At any rate, these muffins are chock full of cherries and have great flavors. Very nice for a healthier-minded treat.

Cherry Pie Muffins

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup milk
2 cup fresh cherries, pitted & halved

1/4 cup ground almond
2 tablespoons oats
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1-3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper baking liners.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, 1/2cup coconut oil, ¼ cup honey and ¼ cup milk. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the cherries. Spoon mixed batter into a muffin tin prepared with cupcake wrappers.

In a medium bowl, use a fork to combine the ground almonds, oats, powdered sugar, ½ tablespoon honey and 1 tablespoon coconut oil until a coarse crumb forms. Sprinkle the streusel over the batter in each muffin tin, then bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the center of the muffins bounce back to the touch. Cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze: combine the powdered sugar, almond extract and enough milk to make the glaze the proper consistency. Glaze the muffins when they are cool.


Recipe from Cheeky Kitchen

Little Apple Pie Cookies

I’m really ready for fall to begin, and I’ve already started to plan my fall baking (and Christmas baking too, but you have to start early for that!). I’ve been trying to make fruit-based cookies this month and it just seemed a shame to not include an apple recipe just because it’s more suited for fall. So here they are: little apple pie cookies. Apples, cinnamon and caramel: great flavors that are good all year. I call them a cookie; you could call them a mini tart. Whatever.

One thing I’ve noticed in planning recipes using fruit is that most of the cookies are bar cookies. I didn’t want to do all bar cookies so I decided to make these mini cups. I’ve made a couple of other cookies in mini muffin pans and I really like them. Perfectly sized, easily transported, and they look fancy all on their own. I took some of these to a friend and her young sons, and I knew they would be perfect for kids.

The dough for these is as simple as you can get: just butter, cream cheese, and flour. My dough was quite sticky, even after refrigeration, so you may want to flour your fingertips when shaping the dough in the pan. I made my own caramel sauce, and only topped half of the cookies with the extra caramel. Both are good: the ones with more caramel are a little sweeter, but not over the top. I worried that these would be so sticky that I wouldn’t be able to get them out of the pan, but I had no problems. I had extra caramel sauce and some of the apple/caramel filling left over, which you could use in any number of applications. Enjoy!

Little Apple Pie Cookies

1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup heavy cream

½ cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup flour
pinch of salt

2 apples, peeled and finely diced
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Make the caramel: first, make sure that you have all the ingredients immediately on hand. In a large (2-3 quart) heavy saucepan, add the sugar. Heat the sugar on moderately high heat, stirring until melted. The melted sugar will be dark amber in color. Once the sugar is melted, add the butter and whisk until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and add the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble, keep stirring until incorporated. Let cool in the pan for a couple of minutes before pouring into a heat-proof bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature before using. If you’ve made the caramel in advance, refrigerate and then bring it to room temperature before using. (This recipe makes more caramel than is needed for the cookies.)

Make the dough: in a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese. Add ½ cup of flour and the salt, stirring to incorporate. Using the mixer or by hand, stir in the remaining ½ cup flour. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make the cookies: combine the chopped apples, cinnamon, and ½ cup caramel sauce. Stir to combine. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, and then each piece into 6 small pieces of dough. Put one piece of dough in each mini muffin cup and press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the cup. Fill the cups about ¾ full with the apple mixture. Add an addition ½ teaspoon of caramel to the top of each cup.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the cups are golden brown. Allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely. Makes 24.

Recipe from Simply Sifted
Caramel Recipe from Simply Recipes

Tropical Crumble

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Gaye of Laws of the Kitchen. She chose the Tropical Crumble, which is banana/mango/ginger crisp. The thought behind this recipe is that foods that grow together should taste good together. Seems pretty logical to me! You can get the recipe for this crumble on Gaye’s blog and check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see all the twists and turns of this recipe created by other bakers.

I was excited when I read that this recipe was selected, because I love apple crisp and I figured it would be excellent with tropical flavors. I read the recipe and realized that it contained bananas, which I don’t like. Following the “things that grow together” idea, I decided to substitute pineapple for the bananas. Pineapple and mango grow together and pineapple seems very tropical to me. I knew that the texture would be different and it would be a bit sweeter, but this is dessert, so that’s ok!

This smelled divine when the mango and pineapple were caramelizing with the brown sugar and butter! The pineapple maintained its firm texture but the mango softens and sort of becomes the “sauce” of the crisp. (This was probably helped by the fact that I don’t know how to cut a mango and they got a little man-handled in my attempt to cut them.) The crumble topping baked up nicely, but the pineapple had more liquid so the crumble didn’t get as crispy as it could have. It was really tasty, with the ginger flavor coming through very cleanly. I really enjoyed this crumble, and I loved what the pineapple added to this recipe.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 418-419.

Strawberry Fig Spiced Bundt Cake

If you’re looking towards fall and want a tasty Bundt to serve to your family, this cake is it! My husband found this recipe for me, when he was looking for something to use up strawberry fig preserves. We had picked up the preserves at a local farm and produce store: Remlinger Farms. The farm offers u-pick berries and other activities. Our summer has been so cool that when we went, they weren’t picking and the farm was quite quiet. That was ok, we had a fun time exploring the store and picked the strawberry fig preserves from their vast collection of jams and jellies.

If I were to offer this cake to a person in a blind taste test, I’m not sure that they would pick out that it contains strawberry fig preserves. It tastes like a very moist spice cake, which in my book is great! I imagine the fig flavor would be more pronounced if you used pure fig preserves, but I liked the sweetness of the strawberry.

I did have a couple of problems with the cake, which I think are more my issue than an issue with the cake. My cake stuck a little bit when coming out of the pan, which I think was partially because the cake was so moist and delicate. Make sure you grease the pan really well! The original cake recipe called for making a caramel glaze, which would be extraordinary. I didn’t have heavy cream which was required to make the caramel, so I ended up making a brown sugar glaze. I even microwaved the glaze a bit to try to melt the brown sugar and get rid of the graininess of the brown sugar. But that didn’t really work. The glaze was never smooth, so next time I will go ahead and make the caramel glaze.

Strawberry Fig Spiced Bundt Cake

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup strawberry fig preserves
1 cup chopped pecans

½ cup brown sugar, packed
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan.

In a large mixer bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices; stir to combine. Add the butter and oil and beat well. Add eggs and beat until well blended. Stir in the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in preserves and chopped pecans.

Pour into the prepared baking pan; bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan and then remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before glazing.

Glaze the cake: in a small bowl combine the brown sugar, vanilla, and water. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over the cake. Allow to harden before cutting cake.

Cake recipe from http://southernfood.about.com/od/datesandfigs/r/r70225a.htm
Glaze recipe from The Food Network

Cherry & Crystallized Ginger Crumb Bars

In addition to blueberries, I had purchased fresh cherries recently at the farmer’s market. Cherries pose a little more of a challenge in that you have to pit them for use in baking. Just eating them fresh I can get away with no pitter, but I figured that I was finally going to have to invest in a cherry pitter. We’ve recently cleaned out the kitchen utensil drawers at home so I do have a little bit more room. I had wanted to buy a cherry pitter a number of years ago, but it being cherry season at the time, there were none to be found in the store. Luckily, I was able to find one this time, and was also able to use up the $1.47 that I had left on a Williams Sonoma gift card.

I wanted to make some sort of bar cookie with fresh cherries, but I noticed that most recipes used dried cherries or cherry preserves. I kept looking and found this recipe with also included crystallized ginger, which is a favorite in our household. This recipe calls for 5 cups of fresh cherries and I had about 4 cups, so I threw in a handful of dried cherries to make sure that I had enough filling. It also seemed like my cherries were on the big side, so I quartered them instead of cutting them in half. Ok, my husband cut them in quarters after I pitted them. We are a good pair in the kitchen. Oh, don’t wear nice clothes when you are pitting cherries because it is a tad messy!

When I was chopping the crystallized ginger, I measured out about 2.5 ounces and it seemed like quite a bit, so I didn’t add the entire 4 ounces. I’m glad I didn’t put in any more as the ginger flavor is quite strong in these. I still wanted to taste the cherries. I like the combination of cherry and ginger; it’s quite interesting. These took a while to cool and were fragile when I cut them. I refrigerated them overnight after cutting and they firmed up, so you may want to store these in the refrigerator. I really liked these bars and they were a big hit at work.

Cherry & Crystallized Ginger Crumb Bars

5 cups pitted cherries, cut in half
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 ounces crystallized ginger, chopped
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9” × 13” baking pan with foil and spray the foil with cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine cherries, lemon juice, crystallized ginger, 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch. Set aside.

In a large food processor, combine sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add the butter pieces and process, in short bursts, until the mixture is crumbly. Add the egg and process until combined.

Press half of the flour mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the cherry mixture over the crust. Sprinkle the rest of the flour mixture over the cherries.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the top is light brown. Allow the bars to cool about 30 minutes on a wire rack and then refrigerate until completely cold. Lift the bars from the pan, peel away the foil, and cut into bars.

Recipe from Cookin’ Canuck

Carrot Spice Muffins

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs. She chose Carrot Spice Muffins, which are also called Morning Glory Muffins. These muffins contain shredded carrots, coconut, and raisins. I’ve made morning glory muffins before, in fact they were one of the first recipes I posted on my blog. That recipe was a little different, with applesauce, apple, and pineapple. You can get Dorie’s recipe on Nancy’s blog and don’t forget to check out the links from the other bakers on the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

These muffins are so easy to put together. Grating the carrot is the hardest part, and you can always do that in a food processor if you want. I halved the recipe and still got 8 beautiful muffins. I checked the muffins at 18 minutes and they seemed to be done. I hate dry muffins so I wanted to make sure I didn’t over bake these. These are pretty tasty, but I think next time I would add more raisins, since those seem to add a nice touch of sweetness. I’d maybe up the cinnamon too, because I particularly like cinnamon. The bits of carrot and coconut add a slight crunch. I really liked these and these would be a hit with anyone you shared them with!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 14

Free Form Blueberry Tart

Using up fresh blueberries is not much of a hardship! I wanted to make something that was a showcase for the blueberry and I came across this tart on the Food and Wine website. I have a couple of cookbooks that give recipes by what is in season. But none of the recipes were simple enough. I just wanted blueberries. I found it in this recipe: blueberries, pastry, and that’s about it.

This recipe was so simple that I had all the ingredients on hand. I do wonder why I had a lemon on hand, as I usually just get those when I’m going to use it in something. Sometimes I made plans for dinner recipes that never happen, and I imagine that was the case with this lemon. At any rate, you do want to use fresh lemon with blueberries; it’s the perfect addition.

You can make your own pastry here or use store bought. I had a store bought crust in the refrigerator so I used that. (No shame in using a short cut!) This tart is wonderful and it was a great way to enjoy fresh blueberries. If you have some vanilla ice cream, that would be a nice addition. I froze the rest of the blueberries I bought at the farmer’s market, so I am looking forward to other blueberry recipes I can make once the summer is over.

Free Form Blueberry Tart

Pastry for a one crust pie
1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups blueberries
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 egg white, beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pastry to a 14-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the pastry to the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix the sugar with the lemon zest and flour. Fold in the blueberries and lemon juice and let stand for 15 minutes.

Spoon the blueberries in the center of the pastry, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border all around. Fold the pastry border up and over the blueberries, pleating it as necessary. Brush the egg white on the pastry and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 55 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling starts to bubble.

Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and let the tart cool to warm. Cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe from Food and Wine

Brown Sugar Blueberry Cookies

I’m not sure if I’m going to have a theme this month for Friday’s cookies, but I may go with fruity cookies. That seems appropriate for this time of the year. While we’ve had a dreary summer in Seattle, the weather has finally settled into weeks with sunny days in the mid-70s. Just beautiful! Luckily it’s still been cool enough in my house to turn the oven on and bake, so hopefully I won’t need to bust out the no-bake recipes.

One of my favorite things to do is to go to the farmer’s market and explore what the vendors have to offer. Produce is finally available, after some pretty limited options in previous weeks. I found cherries and blueberries to use in baking. I had spied this recipe a short while ago and once I bought the blueberries, I knew I would be making these cookies this week. How could I resist a cookie that is basically a blueberry muffin in disguise?

Oh my, these cookies smell so good! The dough smells great, and the house smelled divine while they were baking. They do remind you a lot of blueberry muffins, in smell, taste, and texture. I wasn’t sure about adding the cinnamon, but it added a lot. I thought that they would be kind of cakey, but they are chewy with a tiny bit of cakey texture. When you take a bite and bite into a blueberry, you get this burst of sweet flavor. These cookies are incredible and a great way to use the bountiful fruit of summer.

Brown Sugar Blueberry Cookies

½ cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, stir to combine and then beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low, stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. If the dough is crumbly, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. Fold in blueberries gently with a spatula and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned and set. Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from How Sweet It Is

Cocoa Almond Meringues

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude. He chose Cocoa Almond Meringues. These meringues contain ground almonds, cocoa, and chopped chocolate (or mini chips). I had bought meringues at the store before and had liked them, but I had never made them at home. I don’t know why because they are really good! You can get the complete recipe on Mike’s blog and you can also check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see the links from all the bakers.

Meringues aren’t really the best cookie to make in the summer, since you have to leave the oven on for a fairly long time. Our summer in Seattle has been fairly bad, and while the last week has been nice, it’s still only the mid-70s here. This summer, having the oven on has been no problem at all, so I’ve been happy. I’m not really much for warm weather anyway. Anyway, these bake for a couple of minutes at a “normal” temperature and then bake for an hour in a 200 degree oven.

I made a half batch, but still got about 20 cookies, so I think my meringues were on the small side. It’s hard to tell when these are done, and I didn’t want to open the oven too much to check since I figured that may adversely change the oven’s temperature. I baked mine exactly as the recipe specified and my meringues were perfect. The day they were baked they were crispy on the outside and just a tiny bit chewy in the middle. They got chewier the next day. These have a nice chocolate flavor, sweet but still light. I really enjoyed these and I think I will try making some other meringues soon!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 155

Chocolate Pecan Cluster Cookies

You know, when you start bringing treats to an occasion, they’ll start to get used to that! I had taken cookies to a meeting at work and the people were thrilled. Late afternoon meetings are a little tough, so a little sugar can’t hurt. We were having another meeting so I figured I should bring cookies again. I take cookies to the library all the time, and I have a good sense of what they like and don’t like. I didn’t know this group as well so I didn’t want to make anything exotic. Chocolate is a safe choice, so I went with that.

If you’re looking for a chocolate cookie, this is the one for you! These call for a whopping 14 ounces of chocolate and a mere ¼ cup of flour. The method to make these is a bit unusual, with melting some ingredients in the double boiler and heating the eggs over water. Honestly, I don’t know that I really needed to go through all of the trouble. The cookies seemed very forgiving and baked up without any trouble. Who knows, maybe next time I will just mix it all together and see how it goes.

These cookies look about the same going in to the oven as they do coming out, so it’s a bit hard to test for doneness. Just go with the time given and they’ll be fine. If they are a bit gooey in the center, that’s no problem! These have such a rich chocolate flavor and are quite addicting, so make them small and you won’t feel as guilty when you eat too many of them.

Chocolate Pecan Cluster Cookies

1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoon butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
2-1/2 cups pecan halves, broken in large pieces and toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a double boiler, combine the chocolate and butter. Stir frequently until chocolate is almost melted. Remove from heat and stir until completely melted.

In medium heatproof bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Place over a pot of barely simmering water. Gently whisk 2 minutes or just until warm (about 100 degrees). Gradually whisk in the melted chocolate in a couple of additions. Stir in flour mixture. Use a spatula to stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls on the prepared baking sheets. Bake 8 minutes or until cookie surface appears dry and set. Transfer cookies onto wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe from Our Share of the Harvest