Grapefruit Cake

I have always loved grapefruit, but this winter, I've become seriously obsessed. I've been eating a grapefruit a day (will that keep the doctor away?) My grandma used to send our family a grapefruit and orange basket each winter when I was younger. Those Florida oranges and grapefruits are so delicious! They are also so expensive though- I thought about ordering one for myself but it came out to about $3.50 per grapefruit! Instead I bought a 5lb bag of red grapefruit at the supermarket for like $3. The quality isn't as good (the grapefruit are pretty small) but they still taste delicious to me! I've made this cake a few other times before. It's from the Ad Hoc cookbook. I halved the recipe because the original recipe made two loaf pans and I didn't think I needed that much cake. This is one of the few things I bake that my mom just loves and requests more of! She doesn't have a big sweet tooth, which is why she doesn't normally eat the things I bake, but she loves this cake, which isn't too sweet.

This cake also gave me the opportunity to use the awesome Christmas gift my sisters got me- these florist measuring cups from Anthropologie! They are so adorable!

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly adapted from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home cookbook)

Cake:

2 cups flour

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 2/3 c sugar

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup canola oil (I used vegetable oil)

1 tbls grated pink grapefruit zest

1 tsp vanilla

 

Grapefruit Syrup:

 

1 cup strained fresh pink grapefruit juice

2/3 cup sugar

 

Grapefruit Icing:

 

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tbls + 1 tsp fresh pink grapefruit juice.

 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 10 by 4 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

 

Sift flour and baking powder and stir in the salt.

 

Combine sugar and eggs in stand mixer with whisk attachment and beat at medium speed for about 3 minutes until whisk leaves a trail. Beat in the milk, then the oil. grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate.

 

Spread batter in pan. Bake 30 minutes, turn pan around so cake will color evenly and bake another 30 minutes.

 

Combine grapefruit juice and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar and simmer for 1 minute.

 

As soon as you remove cake from oven, use knife to poke holes in it and immediately pour in grapefruit syrup. Let cake cool for 10 minutes then unmold. Cool completely. Stir powdered sugar and grapefruit juice together in a bowl and drizzle over the top of the cake.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Almond Joy Tart

Wow, where have I been? I can't believe I haven't baked in so long- I baked so much for Christmas and there were so many leftover cookies that I was trying to eat instead of baking something new. I also ran out of butter but finally got to the supermarket yesterday. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Happy New Year 2011 too : ). I know that 2011 will be an awesome year and one of my goals is to bake and cook more and to continue to blog what happens in my kitchen!

I wasn't sure if I was going to find the time to bake this almond joy tart, but boy am I glad I made the time! I have always loved the almond joy candy bars. This tart tastes divine and really reminds me of the candy bar. Once again, I halved the recipe and since I didn't have any mini tart pans, I made a free-form tart on a cookie sheet. As usual, my presentation needs to be worked on, as you can see from the pictures, but I kind of like the rustic look. I think my chocolate glaze didn't cover as well because there was so much coconut cream filling on the tart. For this tart, I followed the recipe pretty closely. I used almonds for the tart crust and for on top of the tart that were already roasted and that were maple coconut glazed. I used Malibu coconut flavored rum for a little extra coconut flavor. I also used only milk chocolate because I didn't have any dark chocolate and milk chocolate is my favorite anyway. I used unsweetened shredded coconut that I found at Whole Foods and I'm really glad I used that (like the recipe called for) and not the easier to find sweetened shredded coconut because I think that would have made it too sweet and the unsweetened coconut really reminds me of what is in an almond joy candy bar.

I was surprised at how easy this tart was to make, since it included several steps. You do have to be prepared in advance to make this, because the tart dough and the white chocolate mixture require substantial chilling time. I made the tart dough and the white chocolate mixture yesterday and refrigerated them until this morning. The tart dough began to crumble a little when I was rolling it out, but I just gathered it together in a ball again, re-floured and rolled it out and it came out perfect.

My free-form tart, in the oven.

The white chocolate coconut cream

Milk chocolate glaze

The almonds I used for the tart dough

Delicious!

Be sure to head over to Baked Sunday Mornings for the recipe and to see what the other members thought of this recipe!

Sugar Cookies

This is another great cookie recipe that I've made several times before. I had never found a sugar cookie recipe before that tasted good to me. This recipe, from http://annies-eats.com/, a supremely awesome blog, even inspired me to try using royal icing for the first time!

Cookies from last year, decorated with royal icing

This year, I decided to make it a little easier for myself and decorated the cookies before baking with colored sugars, instead of using the royal icing. Also, I was making these cookies with my sisters and cousins, so it was easier to do it that way!

Annie has such a great way of explaining a recipe that I'll just direct you to her page for the recipe. I usually follow her recipe as it's written because it's so good. This time when I made the recipe, the only change I made was to leave out the almond extract and increase the vanilla to 2 teaspoons, but I think the next time I make these cookies I'll make them with the almond extract.

Enjoy!

Hot Chocolate Cookies

I have a few Christmas cookie magazines that I purchased a few years back. There are so many recipes in them that I like to look through them each Christmas to find new recipes that I want to try, since there's no way I could try all the recipes in one Christmas! This year, a recipe for hot chocolate cookies caught my eye. The picture looked so delicious! I love hot chocolate and I love cookies, so I knew this one had potential. And boy did it! I made a half batch and I managed to eat most of the cookies all on my own! I did save a few to give to my mom and to a friend, which is good because I have lots of other cookies around my apartment! These cookies stay nice and soft and are so delicious : )

Here's the recipe:
(Half-batch and slightly adapted from Land O'Lakes Recipe Collection: Holiday Cookies, 2007)

For the cookie:
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk (I used coconut milk because that's all I had)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup instant milk chocolate hot cocoa mix (I used Starbucks Salted Caramel hot chocolate mix)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

mini marshmallows (4 for each cookie)

For the glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat at medium speed, scraping the bowl often, until creamy. Add the egg, milk and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, cocoa mix and baking soda, beating until well mixed.

Drop the dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until set, Remove from the oven and top each cookie with 4 mini marshmallows. Continue baking for 1-2 minutes until marshmallows just begin to puff. Immediately remove from oven and put cookies on cooling racks and cool completely.

Make the glaze by combining the butter, milk and cocoa in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat, cool for 5 minutes. Pour in the powdered sugar and whisk together until creamy. Spoon glaze over the cooled cookies.

S'more Oatmeal Cookies

I got this recipe from a friend a few years ago, who got it from a newspaper. I'm not sure which newspaper. I've made a few different s'mores cookies over the years, and this is one of my favorites. It's a little different from your typical s'mores with the addition of the oats, but they add a good texture to the cookies! I love all kinds of s'mores- campfire s'mores, cupcake s'mores, brownie s'mores...I could go on and on. These cookies are at the top of my list as well : ). The marshmallows sometimes spread out too much on some of the cookies, making it difficult to get them off the cookie sheet. You can keep these broken pieces yourself to enjoy and share the prettier cookies with friends and family : ). This recipe will give you a good arm workout, as you have to stir in by hand the oats, chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham cracker crumbs. You will love these cookies, I promise!

Here's the recipe:
(Source unknown)

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
1/4 Cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 Cups rolled oats
1 Cup chocolate chips
2 Cups mini-marshmallows
8 coarsely crushed graham crackers (I used 1/4-1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or spray sheets with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside. Use stand mixer on medium speed to beat the butter and both sugars until creamy, about four minutes. With mixer on low, one at a time, add the eggs, beating gently until combined. Add vanilla then add flour mixture. Stir in oats, chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers until combined. Evenly space rounded tablespoons of dough on baking sheet, leaving plenty of room between them. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets then transfer to wire rack.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Monkey Bubble Bread

Here we are at the third recipe in BAKED Sunday Mornings. Monkey Bubble Bread. I had made this years ago, using a different recipe that called for frozen bread dough. This time, the recipes calls for homemade yeast dough, which I was a little nervous about. I have no trouble making pizza dough from scratch- it always comes out great! However, I've usually had trouble making other yeast breads, like cinnamon rolls. The dough never seems to rise for me. I don't know why this happens. I was nervous it would happen this time, and it did- the dough never seemed to double in size, even though I let it rise in a warm place for longer than the time indicated in the recipe. I went ahead and continued to make the recipe, hoping for the best. As you can see in the picture above, I halved the recipe and made it in mini-loaf pans instead of a bundt pan. It smelled so good while baking in the oven- lots of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon! After taking the loaf pans out of the oven, I let them cool for a few minutes and then turned them out onto a plate.

Since I didn't use a bundt pan, my loaves fell apart a little bit, but still looked pretty good. However, I could tell as soon as I tasted one that there was something off. The dough was too dense, because it hadn't risen properly. Does anyone know what I may have done wrong? I know the recipe said to be very careful not to heat the milk up too much because that would kill the yeast. I didn't think my milk was too hot. Next time I make this recipe, I might just use room temperature milk and not heat it up at all. The Baked recipe is so well written and I do love monkey bread though, so I'm going to try this again!

If you want to see the recipe and read how the other members' recipes turned out, head on over to BAKED Sunday Mornings

Coconut Macaroons

I've made these coconut macaroons a few times over the years. They are so easy to make- it's only 5 ingredients! I made these with my sister over our baking weekend and my sister loved them so much that she's already made them again twice!

Here she is making them the first time:

The cookies tend to spread a little bit during baking and the edges get a little crispy- I just break those parts off and then the cookies look perfect! I brought a few of these cookies to work and my co-worker loved them so much she put a status up on Facebook about them. These cookies are sure to be a hit. The recipe, from a Martha Stewart cookbook that I've had for years, says that it is essential to use unsweetened coconut, which you can get in health-food stores. I used regular sweetened coconut from the grocery store and the cookies were delicious- I like things sweet though, so I didn't mind any extra sweetness!

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly modified from The Best of Martha Stewart Living: Desserts: Our Favorite Recipes for Every Season and Every Occasion, 1998)

3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut (I used sweetened shredded coconut)
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt.

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, spray it with cooking spray or use a Silpat sheet. In a large bowl, combine sugar, coconut, egg whites, vanilla and salt. Use your hands to mix well and completely combine the ingredients. Dampen your hands with cold water. Form 1 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture into a loose haystack and place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, spacing the cookies about 1 inch apart. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Macaroons can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.