Last Cake of the Year: Grand Marnier & Olive Oil Cake

I think 2010 was the year that I became a baker, or at least I've learned that I enjoy baking!
I used to claim I was a "non-baker", however, I think I turned out some pretty damn good stuff in the past year (if I do say so myself).

Here is my last cake of the year.......not to worry, there will be plenty more in 2011.

Always on a quest for the best olive oil cake, I came across this lovely recipe from SAVEUR magazine.



It hails from the Valpolicella region of Italy, where it is a signature dessert.

It is easy to put together, and if you happen to have a bottle of Grand Marnier, or orange liqueur hanging around, then life is grand.



Grand Marnier Olive Oil Cake (adapted from Saveur)

1 tbsp. butter
3 cups plus 2 tbsp. flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. lemon or orange zest
3/4 cup quality extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 cup milk
6 tbsp. Grand Marnier or other sweet citrus-flavored liqueur
1 tbsp. baking powder

confectioners sugar for dusting the top

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease an 11 cup bundt pan with butter then dust with 2 tbsp. of the flour, tapping out excess. (I did fine with a 10" springform pan, for easy removal). Set prepared pan aside.

2. Beat eggs and sugar together in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale yellow, about 1 minute. Add remaining 3 cups flour, lemon zest, oil, milk, and liqueur and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Add baking powder and stir until thoroughly combined.

3. Pour into prepared cake pan and smooth out top with the back of the spoon. Bake until cake is deep golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Transfer cake to a wire rack to let cool completely, in its pan.



My kind of cake! The perfect breakfast slice.

Enjoy and have a HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

Ottolenghi Sweet Potato Gratin

Simple and delicious. This makes a beautiful presentation and can be prepared in advance.

Did I mention that I love sweet potatoes? Sans marshmallows, please (ugh).
Rich with vitamin A, and they need no butter, sour cream or salt for flavor.

This recipe is from the beautiful cookbook Ottolenghi and would make a nice addition to your New Years Day buffet.

It's an interesting combination, because you don't expect the taste of savory garlic and sage with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes, but it works.

Another tip: I found slicing the potatoes w/ a mandoline made them too thin, more like potato chips, so try and slice them by hand with a vegetable knife, they will turn out better.

Ottolenghi's Sweet Potato Gratin:

5 sweet potatoes, washed and sliced super thin (leave skin on the potatoes)
5 cloves crushed garlic
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage (rosemary might be yummy too)
2 tsp sea salt
ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream (original recipe calls for 1 cup....too much for me)

Mix the sweet potato slices in a large bowl along with the chopped sage, garlic and salt and pepper. Mix together to coat. I was so tempted to drizzle some olive oil on top, but I held back.



Butter a gratin or casserole dish and layer your sweet potato slices how ever you like, overlapping them.

Cover with foil and bake at 375F for 45 minutes. Uncover and drizzle with the cream.
Bake another 20 minutes or so, until top is crispy and cream is bubbly.



Check my blog on Monday for a great Ottolenghi giveaway!

and if you didn't believe me about getting 30" of snow, check out our neighbor "Piper", who is up to her neck in the white stuff! She loves it!

New Years Eggs Stuffed w/ Chicken Liver

If you are not a chopped liver fan, this may not be for you, but since I am, this will be on our New Year's Eve Menu.

I put chopped hard boiled egg in my Grandmother's Chopped Liver Recipe, so this was just another way of presenting them. Here you use the hard boiled egg half as your serving vessel, and puree the yolk in with the liver and cooked onions in the food processor.

This recipe comes from this month's SAVEUR magazine, in a great article about the history of deli in Eastern Europe. It reminded me of my great grandparents from Budapest and all the delicious foods they used to prepare.

Even though I have pastry piping bags, I find that using a ziploc bag is better, because you can see the stuff inside that you are piping.



Spoon your filling (in this case the liver) into the corner of a plastic freezer bag.
Twist it tightly with your hand, pushing all the liver into the corner of the bag. Cut the corner tip of the bag with scissors. Start squeezing! Whatever you are piping will come out easily and decoratively.



Chicken Liver Stuffed Eggs (adapted from Saveur)

16 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half
1 lb. chicken livers, trimmed and roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper,
2 tbsp. schmaltz (chicken fat) or canola oil
1 onion, minced
1 tbsp. French brandy or cognac
1 tbsp. heavy cream
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Halve eggs lengthwise and scoop out yolks into a bowl; set yolks aside. Cover egg whites with plastic wrap and set aside in the refrigerator.

Season chicken livers with salt and pepper. Heat schmaltz in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken livers and cook, turning once, until browned and cooked through, 6–8 minutes. Transfer chicken livers to a plate; set aside.

Add onions to skillet and cook, stirring and scraping any browned bits from bottom of pan, until browned, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add brandy, and return to heat; cook, stirring, until evaporated, about 1 minute. Stir in heavy cream and lemon juice. Transfer the reserved egg yolks and chicken livers along with the onion mixture to a food processor; purée. Cover with plastic wrap and chill (I made the liver mixture a day ahead).



Pipe the liver mixture into the egg halves and garnish with a fresh parsley sprig or a caper. Let come to room temperature (about 15 minutes) before serving.



These were the perfect pairing with a glass of champagne.
Enjoy!

Best Orange Chocolate Bourbon Bread Pudding

Whenever I see a stale baguette on my counter, I think "bread pudding".

This really is the BEST bread pudding I have ever made, and the easiest.

I like to make bread puddings in loaf pans, because I like to slice them like cake, it makes it easier for serving. And if you line the loaf pan with parchment paper, you don't have to grease the pan, and you can just lift it out.
Oh, I am just so helpful.

Bread puddings are very forgiving, so if you don't have half & half, you can substitute whole milk.



Chocolate Orange Bourbon Bread Pudding (how could it not be good w/ that title?)

1 day old Italian or French loaf of bread, sliced
1/3 cup of orange marmalade
1/3 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
4 eggs
1 3/4 - 2 cups of half & half (heavy cream or whole milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup bourbon
butter (unless you are using parchment paper)

Butter a loaf pan or line w/ parchment paper.

Tear your bread slices in half and spread orange marmalade on the pieces. Lay one layer of bread on the bottom of the loaf pan, squeezing the bread in tightly next to the other slices to fit.

Place some chocolate chips on top of the bread and create another layer of bread w/ marmalade and top with the rest of the chocolate chips.

You should have 3 layers of bread total. The top layer will only have marmalade on top.

Whisk the eggs, cream, vanilla and bourbon until creamy. Pour over the bread slices and push down with your hands to make sure the bread is soaking up all the custard.
Let sit on the counter 15 minutes to absorb the custard.



Bake in a 350F oven for 45-50 minutes. Bread pudding will puff up over the sides.
Let cool completely in the pan, and remove to slice and serve. Delicious served warm, but also good at room temperature.



Enjoy!



When life gives you 2 feet of snow, make bread pudding!

Chicken Breasts w/ Fennel, Tomatoes & Olives

I swear I made this in between the holiday feasting and a blizzard last night as a quick and healthy meal.

It is good for any season, and we loved it over couscous. This recipe from French chef Eric Ripert is a keeper.

Since it is winter, I adapted the recipe. I used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, omitted the basil garnish, plumped the raisins in water instead of wine, and used slivered almonds instead of pine nuts.

Read on.

Chicken Breasts w/ Fennel, Tomatoes & Olives (adapted from Avec Eric):

4 chicken breasts, butterflied and pounded thin
1 large fennel bulb, sliced very thin (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup golden raisins, plumped in white wine (or hot water)
1 cup of seeded, peeled tomatoes (I used a can of diced tomatoes without the juice)
1/2 cup of green olives, sliced
1/4 cup pine nuts (I used slivered almonds)
2 tbsp capers
leaves from 4 thyme sprigs
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 large shallots, chopped
olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper
basil chiffonade or fresh parsley for garnish

It's pretty simple. Open up the chicken breasts and pound them nice and thin. Season w/ salt & pepper.
Oil a baking dish and lay the chicken breasts flat.

Mix the fennel, olives, raisins, tomatoes, nuts, garlic, shallots & capers in a mixing bowl, season with kosher salt & pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Pour this mixture over the chicken breasts and drizzle with more olive oil, kosher salt & pepper. Bake in a 450F oven for about 15-20 minutes.



Serve chicken breasts over couscous (I like the Near East Mediterranean Pine Nut flavor).

DELICIOUS and easy.

Merry Happy!

Happy Holidays from Our House to Yours!

Love, Stacey

Cherry Almond Biscotti

These were supposed to be pistachio ginger biscotti (my standard), but I was out of candied ginger and pistachios! I think a Trader Joe's run is in my near future.

What I did have were raw almonds and dried Bing cherries. I don't even remember why I bought them.

This is a non traditional biscotti recipe because it uses olive oil. Real biscotti has no butter or oil and the dough is really tough to work with, it also can break your teeth if you are not careful! They are really for dunking in coffee or vin santo......

These are more like a cookie, moist and flavorful, good for dunking or on their own.
Feel free to substitute any combination of dried fruit and nut combination: raisins & walnuts or chocolate chips, or stick to the original recipe which is cranberry and pistachio, but along the way I changed it to candied ginger/pistachio (my favorite).



Today's Biscotti: Cherry Almond

1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup dried cherries
3/4 cup raw almonds, toasted

In a large bowl, mix the olive oil with the sugar, vanilla and extracts.
Next add the 2 eggs and mix all together.

Add the flour, baking powder and salt and use some muscle to form a dough (best done w/ a wooden spoon). Add the dried cherries and nuts and combine.

The dough is going to be very sticky, so you have to work with wet hands (preferably w/ cold water).

Mound the dough onto a baking sheet lined w/ parchment paper and form 2 logs.
Shape them about 1" thickness.

Bake in a 300F oven for 30 minutes until golden brown on the top.
Let rest 10 minutes on the baking sheet.

Now comes the hard part (not really!).
Remove the logs with a large spatula and transfer to a cutting board.
Cut the logs into slices and lay back on the cookie sheet, sides down to toast.
Place back in the oven and bake another 6 minutes, then flip and bake the other side 6 more minutes.

Let cool on a rack.
You can make a sugar glaze if you like or leave them unglazed.



Delicious!

WOW Spinach Gratin

Did you ever try a new recipe, and after you take the first bite, you say "WOW!"?

Well, on this occasion I did such a thing. This definitely has the WOW factor.

This recipe is definitely worthy of Christmas dinner, along side a turkey, a whole filet of beef or stuffed pork loin, and my favorite way to enjoy it was with a fried egg on top, for breakfast.



The recipe says to most definitely use frozen spinach instead of fresh. Whole Foods sells a nice quality organic frozen spinach in 16oz. bags.



I cut the recipe in half, since it was only the 2 of us, but next time, I will make the whole portion.

WOW Spinach Gratin (adapted from Food52)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium-sized yellow onions, chopped
1/4 cup unbleached flour
3 cups organic whole milk (I heated it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
a few pinches of cayenne
1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
3 16oz. bags of organic, chopped spinach - thawed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Panko breadcrumb topping:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
sea salt, to taste

Squeeze the liquid from the thawed spinach, handful by handful (I hate this task). Set aside.

Heat milk to simmer in saucepan (I used the microwave).

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add onions and cook until wilted but not browned, about 7 minutes. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in the hot milk and whisk the sauce until it thickens. Add the nutmeg and cayenne. Turn off the heat.

Stir in the cheese and season with salt and pepper. Taste and correct seasoning. Add the spinach and mix in well.



Pour into a greased 9x11 glass or ceramic baking dish. Prepare crumb topping.

Melt butter in medium skillet. Add panko, sprinkle with sea salt and stir until lightly toasted. This happens quickly, so make sure you don't burn the crumbs.

Gently smooth the toasted panko on top of the gratin.



Bake for 25-30 minutes at 375F until bubbling.

Enjoy!

Best Broccoli Salad

I am always looking for new ways to use fresh broccoli in salads.

I love broccoli, especially in the winter months, when the fresh produce selection around these parts is slim.

I remember a cold broccoli salad back in the 90's that had shredded cheddar cheese, raisins, mayo and bacon. It was a strange combination, but it was great picnic fare, though the rest of the ingredients kind of negated the goodness and healthiness of the broccoli (all that bacon, mayo and cheese!!).

What I like about this version of broccoli salad is that there is no cheese, but I am not claiming this to be low fat, unless you go with a lowfat mayonnaise (which I never do).

The peas and toasted almonds were a really nice addition and this was a great winter lunch!

Best Broccoli Salad (adapted from Simply Recipes):

5 cups of fresh broccoli florets
1/4 cup minced red onion
1/3 cup of slivered almonds, toasted
5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup of frozen peas, defrosted
1 tsp salt

Dressing:
1 cup of mayonnaise (I used less)
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 cup of honey (I used less)

Blanch or steam the broccoli florets in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, so they stay nice and bright green & crunchy. Toss the broccoli in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

Mix the dressing with a fork and pour over the salad. I didn't use all the dressing, but if you like it creamier, then go ahead and use all of it.

Refrigerate at least an hour before serving. Gets even better the next day!



Enjoy!

Good Ideas: Individual Potato Gratins

Here is a great idea. Instead of making a huge casserole size potato gratin, make individual ones. You can assemble them in the morning, and bake them an hour before dinner. They look pretty, and there are less rules involved.

I made just 2, because I had 6 small yellowfin potatoes left. You can use any herb you like, and you don't have to measure a thing. It's all about the layering.

I like to use 5" flat gratin dishes, but ramekins work well too.

For 2 individual gratins:

Saute a sliced onion in some olive oil with a tsp of dried thyme, salt and pepper and set aside.

With a mandoline, slice the potatoes (Yukon gold or Yellowfin are best for gratins) super thin, leaving the skins on.

Butter the individual gratin dishes or ramekins and layer sliced potatoes on the bottom, overlapping them. Next, place some cooked onions on top and another layer of potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.



Sprinkle each gratin with grated Gruyere or Swiss cheese (approx. 1/4 cup, divided in half).

You are almost done.

Pour some half and half over the cheese to moisten, about 2 tablespoons each.



Place on baking sheets and cover with foil. Bake 40 minutes total, uncovering the gratins the last 10 minutes of baking, so the cheese gets nice and brown.



Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

Save the crusty edges on the sides for me!



Enjoy!

Good Morning: Apple Raisin Walnut Muffins

Do you know the muffin man who lives on Drury Lane?

I do not, however, these muffins could have been delivered by that 19th century delivery man in England (from Drury Lane). They were delicious!

I placed a slice of apple on the top of each muffin and caramelized them by sprinkling that wonderful turbinado sugar on top. They made the muffins look special.

Apple Walnut Raisin Muffins from Drury Lane (or my street) adapted from Food.com:

1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 apples, peeled and cut into chunks
1 apple, peeled and sliced for the tops
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
raw sugar for sprinkling the top

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line muffin tin with paper liners

In a bowl with electric mixer, beat oil, applesauce, and sugar together for 2 minutes.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat 1 minute. In another bowl, stir together flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Fold in diced apple, raisins, and chopped walnuts.

Add dry ingredients to oil mixture. Stir just until combined. Do not over mix.

Fill muffin cups and top each muffin with an apple slice. Sprinkle raw sugar on top of apple. Bake 20-25 minutes or until done.