Tunisian Orange Almond Cake

I found this recipe in Sarah Raven's terrific cookbook, In Season: Cooking with vegetable and fruits. It's interesting because instead of flour it calls for bread crumbs and ground almonds (or Trader Joe's almond flour which is pure ground almonds.)

I found that using a bit more bread crumbs didn't hurt because I use fresh crumbs from a sourdough boule. They are airy and light so I use about a cup instead of 1/2 cup. Superfine sugar can be made at home but processing the granulated sugar in a food processor for a few minutes.I also doubled the recipe for a pan of small bundt cakes.

1/2 - 1 cup slightly stale breadcrumbs
1 cup superfine sugar
3/4 cup ground almonds
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter, melted 4 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 large orange
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

For the syrup:
Juice of one orange and one lemon
1/2 cup sugar
2 - 4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick

Mix the breadcrumbs with the sugar, almonds, and baking powder in a food processor. Add the melted butter and eggs and beat well. Stir in the citrus zests.

Pour into a greased 8-inch cake pan - or into other molded cake pans. Put the filled pan into a cold oven and set the heat to 375 degrees. Bake until the cake is a rich brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This will be about 40 minutes in an 8 inch pan, more for a bundt pan, and less for individual pans.

When the cake is baking, make the syrup by placing all the ingredients into a pan and bringing it to a gentle boil stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for 3 minutes and then remove the cloves and cinnamon stick.

Allow the baked cake(s) to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out on a plate. Pierce holes in it with a skewer and pour over the syrup. Leave to cool. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

 

Lasagna Sandwiches

Gerry brought some lasagna fixings home from his Geoge Golf Weekend. In one container I found meat sauce and in another ricotta that was already mixed with chopped parsley.

We had some frozen hollowed-out bulky rolls - I had used the insides for bread crumbs. I spooned the meat sauce into the roll hollow and

topped it with the ricotta. I sprinkled on some grated Italian blend cheese and topped that with Parmesan shavings and the top of the roll. I wrapped it in tin foil on the sides and bottoms, leaving the top exposed. I put these in a dish in a 375 degree oven for about 1/2 hour.

They were crunchy like a toasted sub and we ate them by hand. Yummy.

Chillin' in the snow with Limoncillo

Meyer lemons from Costco come in 4 pound bags - and they are beautiful and fresh when you can get them. Last month, I decided to make homemade limoncillo using our own Canelli Wildflower Lane honey. 


It's going to be a fun summer of cocktails - but perhaps a snow cone today would be fun!

Last month, I cut the lemons into quarters and removed any seeds that were obvious. I then packed them into a large glass jar and covered them with Sky vodka. We taped up the jar (it had a lid that didn't seal) and let it sit in the cellar among the wine bottles for four weeks. Last night we brought up the lemons and I knew I had to finish the project this morning - I thought it was going to be a bit more difficult than it was.

Essentially, I drained the vodka from the lemons and then put the lemons in a pot with 4 cups water and 4 cups raw sugar and 2 cups of our delicious honey.

I let them simmer for a few minutes and mashed them down, extracting the juice. I then drained the lemons into a colander and let them cool, straining the syrup of all pulp and seeds. When the syrup was very cool, I mixed it up with the lemon-vodka (about 2-1 syrup to vodka) and used a funnel to store the limoncillo in several bottles with covers and put them in the frig.

I then removed the pulp from the strained lemons and placed it in a pot with about 2 cups of water and simmered it for 10 minutes to get the flavor from the pulp. I added that to 4 cups of water and 4 cups of table sugar and 2 cups of raw sugar.

 I sliced all the peels into thin slices for garnish in a drink and added them to the water/sugar simmering on the stove. I simmered them until they were all translucent. I ended up with about 12 ounces of slivers covered with syrup and 12 ounces of extra simple syrup.

We decided the strong Meyer lemon flavor makes this a perfect limoncillo to mix in cocktails. LimoncilloQuest is a great site for tons of recipes.

Candied Meyer Lemon Slices in Syrup

This past fall (during my 2015 preserving craze), one of the favorite recipes I used was for Candied Meyer Lemon Slices in Syrup. The recipe is small-batch from preserving by the pint by Marisa McClellan. The whole idea is to preserve just a few jars (2-4 and in this case half-pints) so that you aren't storing or giving away quarts of everything you preserve.

I used four pounds of lemons and 4 cups of sugar last time (and again this time.) The original recipe was obviously going to produce much more syrup than candied lemons ... and I had four pounds of lemons so I used them all.  Last fall, I finished with about six half-pint jars.


In my first batch last fall, the lemon slices came out wonderful - a nice clear syrup and lovely, sweet slices. They are terrific in a gin and tonic, a honey-lemon drink, hot or cold tea, or glass of soda water.

While I gave away a few jars, I have been hoarding my own stash to use on a tart this spring or over a lemon pound cake.

And so, this week when I saw 4 pound bags at Costco, I knew I needed more candied Meyer lemons!

This time, however, I used pint jars (I read several canning/preserving directions on the Internet. Basically, the processing time is the same for half-pints as pints of jams and jellies.) I boiled the juice down for a nice, flavorful syrup. Possibly a mistake.

Sadly, the syrup ended up a bit cloudy this time and I will have to wait to see how thick it will end up being. The lemon slices also seemed to break down more this time around. Delicious nonetheless! I tasted some left in the pan. Sweet and the rind is tender yet a bit firm and chewy with just that touch of lemon bitterness.

The original recipe calls for one-pound of Meyer lemon slices, 1/4" with seeds removed. I removed a thin slice from the stem side but kept the other end. It makes for a nice piece of lemon rind.

Cover the lemon slices with water and bring to a boil and cook 20-25 minutes until the zest appears tender.



Take them out of the pan with a slotted spoon and drain.  You should have some liquid left depending on how much water you started with. If it isn't one cup, add some warm water to the pan so you have one cup liquid.

Add  2 c. sugar and bring to a boil.  Add lemons and cook 10-15 minutes until the lemon peel is pretty translucent with little whiteness left.

Place lemons and syrup on half-pint jars, put on lid and ring and process 10 min. in a water bath. Cool.

Fruitcake Biscotti

We loved this for Christmas morning with coffee.  And every morning after until they were gone! The recipe makes about 4 dozen generously sized biscotti. They were perfectly crisp and perfectly soft.

This is Martha's recipe:

• INGREDIENTS

  4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 4 large eggs plus 1 beaten large egg white, divided
• 1 1/2 cups sliced blanched almonds
• 1 cup candied citrus peel
• 2 cups mixed dried fruit, diced small
• Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using paddle attachment, combine flour, granulated sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Add butter and beat on medium-high until coarse crumbs form. With mixer on low, add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in almonds, citrus peel, and dried fruit.
2. On two parchment-lined baking sheets, shape dough into four 3-inch-wide logs. Brush with egg white; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake until just set in middle, 30 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. With a serrated knife, cut logs on the diagonal into 1/4-inch slices. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets until just golden, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool on sheets on racks.

Dark Chocolate Buttercrunch (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

What a piece of cake - er, candy - this recipe is. From King Arthur Flour, it's a lot like a Heath Bar. I made double their recipe.

Update: December 31, 2015 - I made this again with dried cranberries added to the nuts (cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts).

• 2 cups unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt (sea salt) plus more sea salt flakes or crystals
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 4-5 cups diced and chopped pecans, walnuts and slivered and sliced almonds.  I used mostly toasted ones. 
• 5-1/3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped; or any combination of chips, squares, etc.
• Chocolate candy topping if desired 

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a deep and big saucepan.  Stir in salt, sugar, water, corn syrup. Bring this mixture to a boil and boil gently over medium heat. I stirred and used a med. high temperature on the stove. It's frothy and light for about 12 minutes and then it turns caramel and less frothy as it gets to 280-300 degrees. As soon as it turns to caramel, it can quickly heat to 300 so watch carefully and use a thermometer.  Don't burn. Take it off the heat. I have a thermometer that alarms at temp. 
At the same time that the sugar mixture is first gently bubbling, spread half the nuts on a large cookie sheet which has been light greased with butter. The nuts should be evenly packed. Top with half the chocolate.

When the syrup is ready, immediately pour over nuts and chocolate and top with the rest of the chocolate.  Press down.

I poured a layer of chocolate over this. See the chocolate in the recipe for Caramel Nut Turtles on this blog. About a cup. Spread over and sprinkle with sea salt flakes or large crystals.

Cool in the garage overnight.

Break into uneven chunks by cutting with knife.

Get Sauced for the Holidays

Cranberries are plentiful on the southern coast of Massachusetts. In fact, Massachusetts is the second producer of cranberries in the country!

I've been canning this cranberry sauce for years and will be making plenty this year.

5 pkg. of fresh cranberries
4 thin-skinned oranges
2 cups white sugar and 2 cups brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2-3 T orange-flavored liqueur

First, chop 1 pkg. of the cranberries and 1 orange, unpeeled but seeded and cut into 16ths in the Cuisinart or grind through the coarse blade of your meat grinder. Transfer the fruit to a bown and mix in the salt, 3 T sugar and the liqueur.  Let this sit for a day in the refrigerator.

Zest the other three oranges and juice them.

Place the 4 pkg. of cranberries, all the sugar, 1 cup of orange juice, the zest in a roomy pan. Boil, stir and cover for 4-5 min. Mix in the refrigerated cranberry/orange/liqueur mix at the last minute.

Process in a water bath for 15-20 minutes.