Knitter in the Kitchen

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your family and friends.  I have been enjoying a lovely time off from work, and there has been much baking going on in the last couple of weeks.  In addition to the Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies, I also made Swedish Visiting Cake, lemon bars, oatmeal raisin cookies, and apple crisp.  The apple crisp recipe is new to me and came from a colleague who adapted it from The California Cookbook (1970) by Jeanne Voltz.  The crisp is simple but delicious, and is now my go-to recipe when I don’t feel like rolling out the dough for apple pie.

6-8 apples to yield approximately 6 cups (I used 6 small golden delicious apples)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/8 cup flour
10 1/2 tablespoons butter, cold (I diced the butter right before using it)

Peel, core, and cut apples into 1/2 inch slices and place in a buttered 7 x 11 baking dish. Stir cinnamon into water and pour mixture over apples. Work together sugar, flour, and butter with fingertips until crumbly and distribute over apples. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes (I baked it for about 45-50 minutes because I wanted my crust a little more golden). Serve warm or cold with vanilla ice-cream.  Enjoy!

I love Dorie Greenspan’s Swedish Visiting Cake, so when she posted a variation called the Swedish Apple Cake, I knew I wanted to try it. The two cakes definitely do taste different, but the Apple Cake is just as easy and delicious! We loved the mild flavor with just the right amount of sweetness.  Next time I have to remember to use more apple slices.
Modifications: used 9.5 inch pie dish and reduced baking time by about 7 minutes.

The Swedish Visiting Cake was another stellar recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The main flavors are almond and lemon. This was a super easy, very quick one-bowl recipe that resulted in a wonderfully delicious cake.  I can definitely see myself baking this cake over and over again.  You can find the recipe here on Dorie’s blog.

Last weekend I made the Mini Key Lime Pies from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. They turned out terribly and tasted mostly of condensed milk with a very tiny hint of lime. I was annoyed even during the baking process because I found the instructions too vague. The graham cracker base is taken from a different recipe in the book. I have no problem with that, but for crying out loud please reference the page number of the other recipe! Or at least mention the full name of the other recipe! The Mini Key Lime Pie recipe kept mentioning the recipe for “the cheesecakes.” I flipped to the cheesecake section but the instructions weren’t applicable. That’s because I was supposed to be referencing the mini cheesecake recipe. Which was NOT with all of the other cheesecake recipes, by the way. I should have looked in the index, but I didn’t think of that until afterwards. But honestly, would it have killed Nigella to say that the mini cheesecake recipe was on page 235? Especially since she already mentions that the key lime pie filling is from page 103-104? I really fumbled around with the crust because I didn’t know at the time how much to put in each muffin cup and how far up the sides it was supposed to go. As for the filling — the instructions call for using a dessert spoon to fill the crusts. Ummm…how about an actual measurement for those of us who don’t own dessert spoons? And maybe mentioning how full we are supposed to fill the crusts? There was no photo so I was just guessing.

That’s probably enough ranting from me on this recipe. All in all, though, I was definitely not impressed. Previously I had tried the pancake recipe from the same book and didn’t think it was all that great either. So, although I know some folks are huge fans of this book, I doubt that it will become one of my faves. Hopefully I’ll come across a better key lime pie recipe in the future!

The recipe for Janet’s Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake caught my eye in the May 2007 issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray. It was easy to make and the flavors are good. This would be a great brunch item for a chocoholic.

I never thought I would be a Rachel Ray fan, but I enjoyed reading the last two issues of her mag…so much that I even subscribed. I’m seeing her recipes in a new light. And I recently discovered this fun blog focused on Rachel Ray!