Blueberries & Goodbyes

Tomorrow I'm leaving on for Italy with my family - a wonderful 10-day trip through Venice, the Chianti region of Tuscany and Florence. My mouth is already watering for all of the gelato I will consume, and I'm anxiously awaiting all of the beautiful sites and sounds. I made a whirlwind trip through Rome and Florence when I was in college, so I'm relieved that this time around I will have plenty of time to relax and really enjoy my time there. And did I mention the gelato?

On the downside, Steve will not be joining us on this trip. I know how much he would love to be there (the pictures he would take would be magnificant), and I'm going to miss having my best friend there with me! Hopefully our kitties will be keeping him company so he won't get too lonely.

This weekend I bought a massive container of blueberries for a blueberry lemon coffee cake. Everything went smoothly until I realized that the recipe was written for an 8-inch springform pan. Mine is a 9-inch. "What difference could that inch really make?" I asked myself. Apparently a big difference, because the cake ended up very thin, not puffy and beautiful as I had envisioned. However, what the cake lacked in looks, it made up for in taste. I'm not a big blueberry eater but I definitely shoveled slice after slice of this into my mouth!

I hope everyone has fabulous 4th of July holiday, I can't wait to see all of the red, white and blue bakin'! I'll be scarfing down Italian pastries and hopefully bringing some baking inspiration home with me.

Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake

Recipe adapted by Lazy Susin from Joy of Baking

Streusel Topping:
1/3 C all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup (4 T) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Lemon zest

Cake Batter:
1 Call purpose flour
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 C milk
2 C fresh blueberries

1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 C (4 T) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 C granulated white sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

1-2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch spring form pan and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
For streusel topping: In a large bowl, mix together the flour and sugar and lemon zest. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside while you make the cake batter.
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the flour mixture, alternately with the milk, and beat only until combined. Stir in lemon juice and zest. Spread the batter into the bottom of the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula.
Evenly arrange the blueberries on top of the cake batter and then sprinkle with the streusel topping.
Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

It's Smoothie Time!

Steve is a smoothie addict. I think his breakfast, lunch and dinner would subsist of smoothies if he'd let himself. I like them too, mostly after the gym on a Saturday morning. But Steve definitely keeps up his smoothie consumption during the week, which means our grocery bills are continually weighed down with the frozen peaches and strawberries he buys to make these concoctions.

I figure an addiction of this kind is one we can support for the time being, but it does make me a little sad on the weeks I pay for groceries, when the icy cold bags of fruit are piled up on the conveyer belt. Oh, the baking supplies I could buy at Whole Foods in exchange for the fruit! Sigh.

Strawberry & Peanutbutter Smoothie

Recipe by Lazy Susin & Kookybites

Handful of frozen strawberries

2 ice cubes

1 banana

Orange Juice, as needed

1-2 tsp of peanutbutter (smooth, not chunky!)

Add ingredients to the blender. Start with less juice and add more as needed. Crank the blender up to high and see how it goes. Add more orange juice to get the desired thickness.

Enjoy!

Check out my review of our KitchenAid Blender that we use to make smoothies on Sazze.com!

Ginger Chewies

I've been using my copy of Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies a lot lately. Other than a past chocolate chip cookie disaster I had with one of her recipes, everything else has been smooth sailing.

About every six weeks I have an all-day meeting at work that I have to arrange lunch for. I always make sure that we don't order dessert and I bring something in. The group in the meeting, however, is on a continual health kick, so they don't go in very much for the sweets...so from the meeting the remaining cookies get parked by the coffee pot, and are gone in an instant.

I'm convinced people are taking handfuls at a time for them to disappear that fast...but with the deliciousness of these Chewy Ginger Cookies, I wouldn't be surprised. They're absolutely perfect in taste and texture. I made mine smaller than Klivans' suggestion of 1/4 C of dough per cookie to get more out of them, and I think they would be fabulous if done in small bite-sized form. This is a recipe that I think will see many repeat performances in my kitchen!

Chewy Ginger Cookies

From Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies

2 ¼ cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp cloves

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

¼ cup molasses

about ¼ cup granulated sugar
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.

Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and an even light brown color, about 1 minute. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated.
Spread the granulated sugar on a large piece of wax or parchment paper. Roll ¼ cup of dough (more or less depending on size of cookie desired) between the palms of your hands into a 2 inch ball, roll the ball in the sugar and place on one of the prepared baking sheets. Continue making cookies, spacing them 2 inches apart.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm, but they are still soft in the center and there are several large cracks on top, about 14 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 9-12 cookies (more if making small cookies than suggested).

Check out my review of Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies on Sazze.com.