Recently in Breads & Cakes:

I've been trying to find a good way to tell you about this pizza - but haven't found a clever way. I've been feeling rather un-clever, which might have something to do with a dire need for a short break from work. I did some quick math in my head and realized it's been like eight months (8!) without a vacation - I need to get some time to regenerate, and I need to do it soon!

So I'll get right to the point - like my last post, I adapted this recipe from several sources: Deb over at Smitten Kitchen - and a combination of ideas from Epicurious.com. I had a friend coming over for dinner and I wanted to impress and please. I envisioned us having a dazzling conversation over pizza, salad and wine. I used Deb's dough and the mustard part, but improvised with the onions, Gorgonzola and pecans. And people, if I had any figs on hand, they would have gone right on top of the onions! So, if you do make it, see if the figs work - I bet they'll be excellent.

Deb notes that if your yeast/water blend doesn't foam, start with a new batch. I gave this practice three tries and on the fourth, I gave up, and threw my foam-less yeast mix into flour and held my breath. My dough rose beautifully and was delicious - I think the foaming is always a good sign, but I was having issues with it that day and I wasn't about to take no for an answer.

Was the result delicious - yes! Was it easy to make? Again, yes. I know I keep claiming these recipes are easy, and I swear to you they are. The only thing with this pizza is that it takes time. Short on time after work? Make the dough the night before and let it rise overnight in the fridge. Cook your onions on another day and throw the whole thing together the following night. With a little planning, it's totally doable and even more so, you'll be rested in time for dinner to provide your companions with your usual wit and sparkle.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should probably begin saying that this recipe and post were born out of my snobbery and stubbornness. I'm loathe to make food that comes from boxes for the most part. Sure, I use canned tomatoes, beans and pumpkin, but I always have a preference for my own. Sometimes, I don't have the foresight to make chili by soaking my own beans - the mood just sort of strikes me, and out come the canned beans. But certain things are just as easy to make from scratch as their boxed cousins - like cupcakes. It takes mere minutes to make cake batter and the frosting, and before you know it, you have lovely, decadent cupcakes waiting for you and your friends. And who doesn't love homemade frosting?

Since my friend Sharon was craving red-velvet cupcakes, I decided to give this Magnolia Bakery recipe a go, but, opted for a cream cheese frosting, rather than the suggested vanilla icing. I'm used to red-velvet cake to have a cream cheese frosting, and also, find Magnolia Bakery frosting impossibly sweet and a little grainy. Oh yes, and there's too much of it and I'm very particular about my cupcake-to-frosting proportion.

People, let me tell you - this took up probably slightly more time than a cake-from-a-box project would have and it was worth each and every additional minute. The whole thing was a cinch - and a delicious cinch at that.

While Paul and Sharon liked the cupcakes, they preferred the cake part to be slightly more moist, though my Sharon indicated that this is how Magnolia cake part tastes on location. So if you like their cake consistency, then stick with this batter recipe. I liked the cake part as it was, it was little lighter than usual cupcakes, slightly spongier. The recipe called for 6 tablespoons of food coloring, which I think is a typo. We used one bottle - could probably have used a little more to give the cake a deeper shade of red, but 6 tablespoons implies six of those little bottles - which seems a bit much, no?

I would have to say this frosting was quite a winner - an agreement we all shared. It must have been the half a stick of butter blended in that just made the texture light and creamy. I think it's important to beat the frosting for the time the recipe indicates - it makes a huge difference, make sure you don't under-beat it. The result will make you swear off pre-made frosting forever - and you'll be glad you did.

Thank you all for the kind comments and emails in the last two months. The support that you've given me through the last two and a half months has been invaluable and carried me through what has been a very difficult period.

To make a long story short, my relationship ended, I moved out of the apartment my ex-boyfriend and I shared and moved into a new one by myself. And since I took only clothes, books and a few treasured kitchen items like my beloved KitchenAid mixer and a pasta maker, I had to acquire everything else from scratch. Furniture, dishes, sheets, mixing bowls, canisters and so on. You'd be surprised at how quickly the little things begin to add up and how much time it eats up. And before I knew it, summer had ended and fall snuck up right behind it. Now the mornings are cooler and there's a definite chill in the air. I'm craving hot coffee instead of iced, and put on a sweater before I leave the house.

And if moving wasn't consuming enough, the economy has kept us all focused and fixated, especially last week, when the markets had a near meltdown with violent swings and the US government had to step in. Even my grandmother, who has no concept of the markets or what it is that I do for a living, asked me about what is happening to those "stops" and people losing money on them. She calls them "stops" my grandmother, and even she is concerned that their value is steeply declining.

But enough of that. The difficult part is behind me now and I am looking forward to the future and trying to cook in my new kitchen, which, while lovely, lacks any legitimate counter space. Which makes for tricky cooking. Almost like juggling and constantly washing and drying and trying to find another square inch of space, and believe me, every inch is a blessing. That is until my sleek kitchen cart gets assembled and then counter space, here I come!

Still, limited as I am, it hasn't completely stopped me. And the first chance I got to make this blueberry cake, I did. The instant I spied it in the New York Times, I was instantly excited to make it. I couldn't decide what to get excited about first: fresh blueberries? Toasted almonds? Orange zest? And so I made this for the small painting party I held last Saturday when friends and I transformed two bland white walls into stunning, muted grey ones. And the cake - it too was a stunner. The toasted almonds and the zest give the blueberries amazing dimension and that little edge of mystery and complexity - perfect with a cup of strong, hot coffee. Just in time for fall.

Sometimes letting the recipe speak for itself if the best thing ever. Which is why I will keep this short and sweet and flood your screen with pictures and just the recipe. Pizza dough is one of the easiest things to make, and yet it gives you an amazing sense of accomplishment and this certain satisfaction of working with your hands.

I was very scared of working with yeast, and I'm not sure why. For some reason I thought it was a temperamental thing, yeast, that would not yield to me. But it did and so beautifully too. Pizza dough is going to be a regular thing, I tell you. And if you are short on time and can't wait 2 hours for it to rise, just stick it in the fridge overnight and the next day it'll all be ready for you. You just have let the dough come to room temperature, which could take a bit of time, but at least you have your work already done.

I can't tell you how easy this was and how much fun! Clean-up, I'll confess was way less fun as scraping the doughy bits off the granite counter took Herculean patience - they are sticky little buggers. But it's well worth the effort, I promise you. And unlike delicate pastry dough that fears humidity, this dough is way more robust. Just prepare for your apartment to heat up substantially - as the temperatures you'll be using to cook your pizza will be scorching hot!

And speaking of scorching hot, July is finally upon us and with it are the scorching temperatures. I hope everyone's 4th of July is festive, hot, and filled with picnics!

My love-affair with the South is multi-fold and I can wax poetic for hours putting most normal folks to sleep, but if I had to pick my three favorite things, it would be what I refer to as the Three B's: bluegrass, barbecue and bourbon. And if ever I could combine all three, it would be pure heaven. It's very hard to me to resist bourbon in food as well. The famous tipsy-cakes is probably what started the love-affair and the Jack Daniel's ice cream at this place didn't help the matters. I've sampled quite a few bourbons in the past, and have finally found my favorite, but I'm always on the lookout for new, small-batch-made bourbon.

I'm not sure where the idea of putting bourbon into banana bread came from, but I'm glad I did it - the bread gave off a deep caramel aroma and it accentuated the sweetness of the banana. In my now-predicable move, I substituted cranberries for walnuts as I greatly prefer more tart to my quick-breads and because I have my cranberry supply to go through.

I suggest pouring out a slightly more generous portion of bourbon than the recipe calls for - it's quite possible, if not probable, that you might want to have a taste prior to adding the bourbon to the batter, you know, to make sure it hasn't gone bad or anything. Quality control is so important nowadays.

UPDATE: Kris in the comment section, very accurately pointed out to me that JD is not bourbon but is sour mash whiskey - a very good point indeed. For those of you looking for a quick primer on the difference, I found one here!

The day after I wrote about the delicious Korean pancake, I came down with the cold to end all colds. And 12 days since the day I fell sick, I am still dealing with its remnants, which manifest themselves in pressure in my sinuses so bad, I have an upper jaw toothache. The same cold that managed to make me cough up a lung, develop a case of nasty pink eye, that very same cold has been unresponsive to antibiotics and other medicine. I'm seeing my doctor today again for hopefully stronger meds - I should be getting frequent flier miles there. I've used up numerous tissues and might be on the government's special monitor list for buying too many decongestants. I swear, I'm not making anything out of them!

And so without a doubt, this long weekend was to be spent at home, recuperating and gaining my strength back. My boss also asked me to babysit her two pugs for a day, and while the dogs are very cute and friendly, I must say, I am a large dog person after all. For one reason or another, we couldn't leave the pugs at home to take a walk outside - one of the dogs looked as if he was going to have a heart attack when he realized we might be leaving. So I sent KS off to watch the new Indiana Jones, while I puttered around the kitchen. We had some lemons left over and some yogurt I had to put to some good use in order not to throw it out, and so I once again, relied on Ina Garten's recipe for her lemon yogurt cake, which I have made with blood oranges and Deb over at Smitten Kitchen made with grapefruit and other citrus things.

I omitted the glaze from my cake because I find that glazes generally ruin baked goods for me. I dislike glazed cakes the same way I dislike frosted cookies - I find them overly sweet. Without the glaze, the cake is a wonderful morning accompaniment to coffee, or stands as a snack on its own. And were I to make any other enhancements, I would say, use about half the oil the recipe asks for and you will wind up with a lovely, moist, seductively-scented cake. I can't resist lemons in anything - and with the sun shining and the warm weather finally settling in, this lemon cake just makes me want to grin from ear to ear.

Of course, no cake of this nature for me would be replete without cranberries, as I like a little bit of tartness in the otherwise sweet dough. As some of you might know, each November, I buy about 6 bags of cranberries, use about 2-3 bags on the holiday itself, and then freeze the remaining 3 bags. They last me about a year and make a fantastic addition to things like pumpkin bread, apple pie and the above creation.

People, it's been a busy week and it all started on Monday when KS and I attended a wonderful benefit, which was inspirational and motivating. I've been asked to try to create a Russia-based branch - so we'll see if I am successful in launching a Russia chapter. Would be swell!

The other weeknights, tonight included, KS has been galavanting around town for business-related functions, and I (sigh) have been left home alone, forced to fend for myself and cook single portion meals, which could at times be daunting. Well, not this time!

While catching up on my daily food blog reading, I came upon David Lebovitz' recipe for a Korean pancake. And it looked so good that I resolved to cook it that very evening for my own single-portion dinner.

Except, when it comes to cooking for myself, I am quite shockingly lazy. I mean really lazy. Lazy enough that I had to stand in the kitchen making a mental list of pros and cons of whether or not I should cook this dish for myself. We're talking about a five minute dish, here. But I was all, "Meh, I have to clean up after myself and I don't wanna," and "All I want to do is watch Freaks & Geeks on dvd, not cook and clean up!" People, I mean stupendously lazy. But I was so ashamed of just how lazy I was, that my own self-shame, propelled me to get off my behind and make this pancake.

Which. Was. Amazing.

I know that David instructed to let this pancake cool before eating it, but in my book, that just wasn't happening - I was far too hungry to wait. I ate it warm, drizzled with Sriracha sauce (ok, so not really Korean, but still) and a side of kimchee, which I could eat daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And it was heavenly and I was even more ashamed of having even debated making it.

And so, tonight, with KS being out and about again, I am left to my own devices. I have a bunch of scallions left over and a jar of kimchee in the fridge. I think another pancake is in order for dinner. I just hope that I don't have the same internal laziness debate when I get home - that would be truly embarrassing.

They say that in relationships, with time, the two people rub off on one another, change each other's habits, become more alike in personalities (and even begin to look alike in the old age). When I first met KS, he wouldn't order dessert, never craved sweets, and was rather subdued about chocolate. I quietly, and softly persisted with plying our house with good, dark chocolate, ordering dessert, and making such things as pumpkin souffles, berry crumbles, and various cookies and slowly, but steadily, I managed to succeed! Now KS sneaks chocolate to the movie theater, finishes his meal with a cookie or two and is not against dessert. I think of this as a little triumph - one more converted to the virtues of the sweet things!

There's only so much I can try to stall what I'm about to tell you, but it's time to stop stalling; I made a cake from a mix. I am ashamed to admit, but it's true. While organizing our pantry, I found this Duncan Hines box sitting in the back corner, as if hiding from me. I won't point fingers and try to shift the blame, but I didn't buy this box, so do the math.

Furthermore, KS, being a practical in all matters (I'm building a case for why I need sesame oil in our pantry because he thinks we're fine without it and I disagree) suggested that instead of throwing the cake mix in the trash(my thoughts), I actually (gasp!) bake a cake with it.

While I may have had to make a cake from a mix, I certainly didn't have to use pre-made frosting. Perhaps, I thought to myself, I could redeem myself partially and make home-made frosting instead. Ever since my last trip to Billy's Bakery, cream cheese frosting has been on my mind. Like I said, it was the least I could do.

But, I wanted something more than just plain cream cheese frosting and after found some unsweetened dutch chocolate in our pantry, an idea was born - chocolate cream cheese frosting. I was a little apprehensive at first, because you know, messing with a good thing could be a dangerous move, but then again, when has a little chocolate ever made things worse? Since I was pushing the envelope already with a cake from a mix, I figured if the frosting turns out poorly, well, at least I didn't ruin an awesome cake with it.

Surprisingly though, the cake wasn't terrible. It wasn't the most amazing cake I've ever had, but it wasn't bad either. And with the chocolate cream-cheese frosting, which turned out to be sublime, it made for a wonderful, sweet treat on a rainy Sunday night.

Despite that this cake turned out rather well, I can't really see myself purchasing another cake from a mix - the whole process made me feel like Sandra Lee. And really, making a cake from scratch is hardly a challenge and is less time consuming than baking pie - so the only points I should really get for this creation is using my resources instead of wasting them.

If I told you I’ve been waiting half a year to bake pumpkin bread, would you think me pathetic? Entire two seasons passed and not a week went by that I didn’t think of pumpkin bread and how delicious the house will smell when it’s baking in the oven. Of course, pumpkin/cinnamon/clove scents aren’t quite summery, so I had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Until the days got shorter, nights grew longer and there was a distinct chill in the air. I would eat my berry crumbles and they would make me weak in my knees, but I was committing baked-good adultery – and thinking, longingly of the pumpkin bread.

The can of pumpkin puree that has found itself in our cupboards somehow (don’t look at me, I didn’t buy it) had to be used for something glorious and celebratory of my favorite season. I had a few ideas for it, but pumpkin bread was the first and foremost project. I’ll be making KS’s favorite pumpkin treat soon enough – this time, I just had to be selfish.

If you haven’t figured this out by now, I’m a huge fan of something tart in my otherwise sweet baked goods. A little bright pop of cranberry, in my opinion, brightens up pumpkin or banana bread and punches up their smoky, caramel flavors. And if you are wondering how on earth I managed to find cranberries before Thanksgiving season, I am going to let you in on a little secret. I buy a few bags of fresh cranberries every November and then I stick them in the freezer – and believe it or not, those bags last for months and months – allowing me always to have fresh cranberries on hand. I’ve even managed to make fresh cranberry sauce in April once!

As with many types of baked bread like this, you can pretty much add a combination or all of the spices listed below. I didn’t have allspice on hand this time, so I skipped it and the results weren’t too shabby. And some people dislike cloves so they skip it altogether. When I make this next time, I’ll most likely omit the walnuts – I decided to try them this time, but I am just not a nuts-in-my-banana-or-pumpkin-bread kinda girl. The recipe was inspired by Elise, yet again, who posted her pumpkin muffin recipe and since I was lacking those little paper cup things you pour muffin batter in, I decided to do a solid loaf instead.

Oh and before I forget, this has nothing to do with pumpkin bread, but everything to do with green eggs. Apparently, there is such a thing as a green egg and no, it’s not rotten and it’s perfectly good for consumption! At last Saturday’s farmer’s market, the young man who sells me eggs, as well as pasture-raised meat (and the most heavenly chorizo I’ve had to date!), opened up an egg carton to check for cracks and breaks and informed me with glee that there was a green egg in my carton. A green egg, I asked? Can I eat it? Is it rotten? Was Dr. Seuss onto something? Yes, no, and yes, were the farmer’s responses, after which he explained to me that a green egg is produced by some special hens and the egg doesn’t look white, per se, it looks rather a bit blue-green. Some folks even think them more nutritious and so request only green eggs from the farmer. I couldn’t wait to try our first green egg so we soft-boiled it and shared it that very morning. It was delicious – and unless I’m imagining things, tasted a bit more eggy – the yolk seemed a bit more orange and almost buttery in flavor. And so you have it, green egg sans ham – delicious and something new! And while I’m sorry to have rambled thus about something that has nothing to do with pumpkin bread (unless you count the two eggs that went into the batter) – I wanted to tell you about it nonetheless and if you know anything about green eggs, let me know – I’d love to learn!

Sally Albright: But I'd like the pie heated and I don't want the ice cream on top, I want it on the side, and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it, if not then no ice cream just whipped cream but only if it's real; if it's out of the can then nothing.
Waitress: Not even the pie?
Sally Albright: No, I want the pie, but then not heated.

And this, my friends, is how I often will order food. First off there's the complete reinvention of the recipe, which undoubtedly annoys both the waiter and the chef. And then adding insult to injury, the instructions I give are so unclear that the waiter will have to ask me the second time to repeat what I said. And this happens over and over to me.

Since I've completely switched gears from summer into fall, I'm done with the summer fruit (berry crumbles - I'll see you later); I've been thinking apples, apples, apples. It donned on me two weeks ago that Rosh Hashana was right around the corner and an apple dessert would be in order. But what? The apple pie, as much as I love it, would be the expected apple treat, but my heart longed for something new, something different. I attribute this fickle mind of mine to living in New York. We get so spoiled here, and develop the attention span of a goldfish – four seconds and we forget the "traditional" or we get tired of it. Like spoiled children we look to new, shiny recipes like the new, shiny toys of our childhood. And those of us with food blogs take the cake (pardon the pun) for our demand of the new, shiny recipes. The recipe we haven't yet written about, the recipe with stunning new photos, the recipe with a new take. This is where I found myself at the beginning of last week. Apple pie? Apple eh…

Enter ever-so-creative Deb with her apple yogurt cake from her new, shiny book "The New Spanish Table". Deb, I've been given a cook-book buying moratorium by KS, so I will have to mooch off of you and other bloggers with sexier cook books. The cake in Deb's pictures looked stunning, as usual, but as soon as I saw the words like "licorice" and "anise" and "Sambucca", I paused, for while there are folks out there whose taste buds have morphed to like the dreaded substances above, mine have never adjusted and I don't foresee that changing. Say the words "pastis" and "pernod" and you’ll see me recoil in horror.

So I took Sambucca out and added Calvados instead. I also mixed my own lemon yogurt by combining plain yogurt with fresh-squeezed lemon juice. The only time-consuming task was finely chopping the apples. But the rest of the process was a snap. And I think that in the future, I’ll play with yogurt flavors and various liqueurs. I just might, as a sick joke on my self, try it with Sambucca one day, but honestly, I don’t see myself enjoying it. I’ve experimented plenty in that flavor department and all I could find in the end was a taste that deeply displeased my palate. The appliness of this cake (why no, appliness is not an actual word, I just made it up – so?) pleased me and KS – making it a perfectly timed treat for Rosh Hashana, now a week behind us. Sigh - time flies so fast.

So Sally Albright or not, I like things just the way I like them. Even if I have to repeat my order a few more times, so long as I get a cake I like!