Category Archives: Baked Goods

Posted on September 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

This Plum Torte was amazing. Light and delicious. I used larger plums so used less plums. Highly recommend making 2 and freezing for Thanksgiving.

cookingwithcandi's avatarCooking with Candi

photoDSCN4225DSCN4214DSCN4216My friend Ellen sent me this recipe in the spring of last year and I couldn’t find these plums anywhere. She re-sent it to me and I think it’s a most perfect dessert, and I was thinking it would be so perfect for Jewish Holidays but the plums will no longer be available soon.  You can make two and freeze one or freeze both of them for the holidays.  Ellen is an awesome cook so I totally trust her on this.  So here you go. It’s best made with the small italian plums that are out end of August and early September and you know how much I love using seasonal fruits and veggies. Thanks Ellen.

These plums can be called Italian Prunes as well, and try and use them because they are beyond delish!

Perfect for freezing.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup sweet butter softened (room temp. or I soften for…

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Julie’s Honey Cake with Whiskey – Holiday Recipe

Posted on September 14, 2012 | 1 comment

DSCN4319Firstly, thanks so much Julie for taking the time out of your busy baking to send me these wonderful recipes and allowing me to post them on my site. Julie bakes and sells her products in the Aspen area and will ship anywhere, the name of her company is Aspen Jewels Bakery.  Julie also said to inform all of us who live at high altitude that this is strictly a “sea level” cake, if cooked at high altitude it will sink and will be raw inside. This is unfortunate, but there are lots of other cakes to bake.  High Altitude baking is treacherous. You will need a tube pan for this cake.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

3 eggs ( room temp)

1 cup vegetable oil or canola oil which Julie recommends

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon Whiskey

1 cup Honey

1 1/2 cups coffee (just leave it in a cup from the morning coffee)

1/4 cup orange juice from a fresh orange ( you will need the zest anyway)

1 Tablespoon orange zest

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a tube pan with flour spray. Beat honey, sugars, eggs and oil. Add zest. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Add coffee and juice alternating with dry ingredients. Fold in nuts. Bake for 70 – 90 minutes until tester comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan. Let cool completely.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Or you can make a chocolate glaze to put on top . Once the cake cools down.

Chocolate Glaze:

this is perfect to drizzle over cakes of any kind, it is my recipe for chocolate glaze. You may have to play with the consistency. Add the powdered sugar slowly till you achieve the texture you want. You can always add a little more warm water to thin it out.

3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder

2 Tablespoons melted butter

1 cup powdered sugar ( confectioners)

3 Tbsp. warm water (could use milk but not necessary)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter, add all ingredients , ( go slowly with sugar), Stir until well mixed and smooth. You may need to play around with icing to get the consistency you want. Drizzle on cooled down cake.

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Plum Torte

Posted on September 13, 2012 | 3 comments

photoDSCN4225 DSCN4214 DSCN4216My friend Ellen sent me this recipe in the spring of last year and I couldn’t find these plums anywhere. She re-sent it to me and I think it’s a most perfect dessert, and I was thinking it would be so perfect for Jewish Holidays but the plums will no longer be available soon.  You can make two and freeze one or freeze both of them for the holidays.  Ellen is an awesome cook so I totally trust her on this.  So here you go. It’s best made with the small italian plums that are out end of August and early September and you know how much I love using seasonal fruits and veggies. Thanks Ellen.

These plums can be called Italian Prunes as well, and try and use them because they are beyond delish!

Perfect for freezing.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup sweet butter softened (room temp. or I soften for a few seconds in microwave , but don’t melt)

1 cup flour, sifted

1 tsp. baking powder

pinch salt

2 eggs ( always bake with room temp. eggs unless otherwise stated)

12  pitted purple italian plums, halved*  ( often called Italian Prunes) If you can’t find the Italian Prune type you can use regular plums, but try and make this now while they are in the store and freeze this.

lemon juice and sugar for topping

Directions:

cream sugar and butter, add flour , baking powder, salt and eggs, beat well. Cut a round piece of parchment paper and line a 9 inch springform pan. Spoon the batter into pan ( it will be thick so you’ll need to spread it a bit). Place plum halves skin side up. Sprinkle plums lightly with lemon juice and then sprinkle sugar all over. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool, invert and gently peel off paper then invert again – plum side up.

This is a keeper.

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Chocolate Banana Bread

Posted on August 29, 2012 | 1 comment

Chocolate Chips and Bananas , love it! How can it be bad?  It is pretty darn good. After our hike up Hanging Lake we were having lunch at our house, and I remembered that I had this bread frozen from the winter! The night before I took it out of freezer to defrost. What luck, and I of course tasted it to make sure it was fine and it was more than fine, it was as good as it ever was.  I know I am always extolling the virtues of freezing but when it works out it’s like magic! How perfect , if you have all the ingredients bake the cake and don’t eat it, freeze it . It defrosts very quickly and I didn’t have to do a thing, I had already made lunch and didn’t feel like baking. So happy when I saw this bread in the freezer. As long as you wrap it carefully , baked goods come out of the freezer perfectly . Cookies are even better for some reason and they defrost superfast. The original recipe comes from Joy the Baker. This is the recipe Leslie, and hope you enjoy making it and now I want your pumpkin spice bread!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar ( packed)

2 large eggs ( room temperature)

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup buttermilk, you can use low fat or non fat

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped or semi sweet chocolate chips which is what I used (much simpler)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place rack in the center of oven. Butter ( or spray Pam) a 9 x 5 loaf pan and place it on a baking sheet. If you use 2 baking sheets it will act as an insulated baking sheet and prevent bottom of the bread from overbaking. Just a little trick.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda

In electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed for about a minute or two, until soft. Add the sugars and beat for 2 more minutes or until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. Batter may look a little curdled, this is OK. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the mashed bananas. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing only until flour disappears into the batter. While on low speed, add the buttermilk, mixing until it is all incorporated. Stir in the chocolate. chips. Scrape batter into the prepared 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Then cover the bread loosely with a foil to keep the top from getting too dark, and continue to bake for another 40 – 45 minutes. ( total baking time 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes) or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for at least 20 minutes before running a knife around edges of the bread and unmolding it. Just invert cake in pan and then continue to cool down right side up before freezing or storing it. Enjoy!

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Summer Blueberry Cake

Posted on August 24, 2012 | 3 comments

I just keep finding new recipes for blueberries. I love blueberries and they are so abundant right now and in peak season. I love them right out of the containers, and I love them in muffins, pies, cakes and cobblers. Here is another delicious cake which you can freeze and a few months from now when fresh blueberries aren’t really around ,you will bring back that summer day that you baked this. I cut this in 1/2 , 1/2 for now and 1/2 for when I return in the winter. You can always make this with frozen berries but I have never done so. To me it’s all about cooking with fruits and vegetables that are seasonal.  There really is nothing like fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, and I can’t get enough of them . This is a fairly easy cake to bake. I baked it for 45 minutes, and the tester came out clean. You’ll have to check your own oven for cooking time . It can vary from 40 – 50 minutes depending on your oven.

I found this recipe on one of my favorite cooking blogs , Smitten Kitchen. I may have made a few changes which I often do, but it is pretty much the same.

Oh, and I threw in a picture of me and my grandson who is out here visiting.

Ingredients:

2 cups all – purpose flour, plus another tablespoon to dust blueberries with

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

2 sticks unsalted butter ( softened) YIKES

3/4 cup light brown sugar packed

1/2 cup sugar ( regular granulated sugar)

3 large eggs ( room temperature)

1 cup buttermilk ( I used low-fat buttermilk)

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Topping:

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray and lightly flour a 9 x 13 baking pan. ( I prefer Pam baking spray)

Whisk 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium size bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium high-speed until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each egg is just incorporated. Don’t overbeat. Reduce speed to medium and beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture, and beat in 1/2 of the buttermilk. Beat in another 1/3 of the flour and the remaining milk, and then the remaining flour mixture. Toss  blueberries with a tablespoon of flour just lightly dust them. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in 1/2 of the blueberries. Spread batter into prepared dish.( see photo)

For the topping:

Scatter remaining 1/2 of the blueberries over the top of the batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle all over the top of the batter. Bake until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean in center of cake. I cooked for 45 minutes. It should take anywhere between 40 – 50 minutes. Cool in pan for about 1/2 hour, then turn it out of baking dish or cut out pieces. I turned it out, cut in 1/2 and froze 1/2 of it for the cold months. This is a delightful cake served for dessert, and so perfect for breakfast and a great afternoon snack with ice coffee .

I threw in a photo of me and my grandson, Riley who was out here at the time.

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Blueberry-Banana Muffins

Posted on August 4, 2012 | 1 comment

Love blueberries and love bananas. Blueberries are abundant now and super delicious and inexpensive. Bananas are always around and I always buy too many and need to figure out what to do with the rotten bananas. I realize there are a lot of ingredients in these muffins and just measuring it all out was a task, but I enjoyed it and it was well worth it. I will freeze a few for when I am in the mood for them but not in the mood to bake them. The recipe yielded exactly 12 decent sized muffins, in one pan.  This muffin mix is perfect, not too sweet which makes for a perfect breakfast muffin or snack muffin. I used buttermilk ( low fat) couldn’t find non fat , but if you can feel free to use it here. There are 2 eggs but no butter and only 1/4 cup of canola oil . The buttermilk allows you to cut way back on the butter and the oils. These muffins worked out perfectly. Just ate one for dessert!

Ingredients:

3/4 cups nonfat or low-fat buttermilk ( I used low -fat b/c I couldn’t fine nonfat)

3/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1/4 cups canola oil

2 large eggs (room temperature, and I used my little trick because I decided to bake at the last minute) just let the eggs sit in warm water for 1/2 hour.

1 cup mashed ripe bananas ( I used 2 medium sized bananas)

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt ( regular table salt)

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/4 cup blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I sprayed a 12 cup muffin pan with baking spray ( and they came out perfectly) you can also line with paper liners if you like.

Whisk together the buttermilk, brown sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in the mashed bananas.

In another bowl, whisk whole-wheat flour all -purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until just combined . Fold in the blueberries. Divide the batter into the 12 cup muffin pan till full.

Bake until the tops are golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

I baked for 25 minutes.

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Palm Beach Lemon Cookies

Posted on July 19, 2012 | 1 comment

This recipe is from my Cookies Unlimited Class.  This recipe should yield about 100 small thin cookies (but it depends on how thin you make them). I would use 2 large lemons for zesting so you get a real zing from the lemon. It is very important that you make sure to refrigerate the dough long enough. This is a nice, plain cookie; very light and perfect for dessert alongside something chocolate. I am also a sucker for anything lemony. They are also a light, perfect summer cookie and they can be frozen , then take out when you need a light perfect cookie.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

10 tablespoons (or 1 1/4 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup sugar (plus a little extra for sprinkling on top of cookies)

Finely grated zest of 2 large lemons (make sure you use all the zest!)

4 tablespoons strained lemon juice (use zested lemons)

3 egg yolks (save the whites for brushing the cookies)

*you will need 3 or 4 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans lined with parchment, or you will have to wait ’til cookies cool off and reuse them

Directions:

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix well.

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until well mixed (about a minute), then beat in the lemon zest.

Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Lower mixer speed and beat in half the flour mixture, then all the lemon juice. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture, beat till well mixed. (Don’t overbeat; just till mixed well.)

Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and shape and squeeze it into 2 long rolls about 8 inches long and 2 inches in diameter (they may be a bit longer).

Cover rolls of dough and refrigerate. Chill the dough until very firm. You can freeze dough for up to a few weeks if you prefer for up to several weeks. Or just use 1 roll and save the other, but remember dough must be very firm.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, sets racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, beat the reserved egg whites with a fork. Cut each log into approximately 48 cookies (approx. 6 slices per inch) and make sure to rotate the roll of dough often so it doesn’t flatten from the weight of the knife.

Arrange the cookies on the prepared pans about an inch apart in all directions. Brush the surface of each cookie with the egg white, then sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of sugar. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, but check them after 10 minutes.  They may need more time but check at 10 and gauge from there. It was hard for me to tell the timing because in class everyone kept opening the oven doors! The cookies will spread slightly and have a very pale golden color when finished.

Slide the papers from the pans and cool on racks.

After the cookies have cooled, store them in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid.

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Nutella Cake

Posted on July 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

this may have gotten lost the day it was posted, and I feel it deserves its own space. So here you go.

cookingwithcandi's avatarCooking with Candi

My friend’s daughter in law gave me this recipe and she writes a blog called Fast and Gourmet, which I highly recommend for some quick and easy cooking ideas and recipes. I had heard how wonderful this cake was and when I heard Nutella I said to myself how bad can anything be with 1 jar of Nutella in it? I love the stuff , it’s just the most yummy second only to peanut butter. This was a pretty easy recipe and just follow the directions and you should be fine. I have to admit while making this recipe I couldn’t stop eating the Nutella. Don’t make this recipe if you’re hungry or have a big sweet tooth, as I had both the day I made it. Next time I make it after lunch on a full stomach and leave the Nutella alone, it gives all new meaning to licking the spoon. I used a glass pyrex loaf pan…

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Nutella Cake

Posted on June 27, 2012 | 2 comments

My friend’s daughter in law gave me this recipe and she writes a blog called Fast and Gourmet, which I highly recommend for some quick and easy cooking ideas and recipes. I had heard how wonderful this cake was and when I heard Nutella I said to myself how bad can anything be with 1 jar of Nutella in it? I love the stuff , it’s just the most yummy second only to peanut butter. This was a pretty easy recipe and just follow the directions and you should be fine. I have to admit while making this recipe I couldn’t stop eating the Nutella. Don’t make this recipe if you’re hungry or have a big sweet tooth, as I had both the day I made it. Next time I make it after lunch on a full stomach and leave the Nutella alone, it gives all new meaning to licking the spoon. I used a glass pyrex loaf pan and it was perfect. This cake will be a staple in my house from now on, thanks Yana so much.

Ingredients: 

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature ( softened)

1 1/4 cup sugar

4 large eggs at room temperature ( *see trick for quickly bringing eggs to room temperature on my blog under Eggs)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 13 ounce jar of Nutella ( star of the show)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan . Lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla in a bowl. Mix flour, salt and baking powder* in another bowl. Using electric mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar at medium speed until fluffy. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla mixture till well incorporated . Add flour mixture in 3 batches at low speed until just incorporated, and mix for about 30 seconds.

Spread 1/3 of mixture in your loaf pan, then spread 1/3 of Nutella, continue with another layer of batter, another layer of Nutella and the last layer of batter. Top with remaining Nutella dropping in dollops over the top and swirl the nutella with a knife or a toothpick, do not over mix.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until cake tester comes out clean, cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from pan, I let it sit for a few hours before removing.

* make sure all expiration dates are not expired on flour, baking powder etc. This will certainly ruin your cakes and be very upsetting. Before baking check dates, and get fresh new baking supplies.

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on June 16, 2012 | 1 comment

Silpat

These are my go to chocolate chip cookies . I make these because I almost always have all of the ingredients on hand. I keep sticks of salted butter in the freezer just for these.  These are your basic chocolate chip cookie, I would say they are more crispy than soft. Unlike my other chocolate chip cookies  (cookies and milk which was published back on Feb. 28 ) which are very very crispy made with vegetable oil and super fine sugar.  These are an old fashioned chocolate chip cookie and if you don’t have dark brown sugar use light brown sugar . I think they’re meant to be made with dark brown sugar but sometimes I only have light brown sugar in the house so it will have to do. If you’re going out shopping for ingredients buy the dark brown sugar. Enjoy with coffee, tea or my favorite  a cold glass of milk. I didn’t make with nuts this time  but you can add some chopped walnuts if you’d like . If cookies spread into one another, while warm cut and when they cool just seperate . Perfect for freezing, I just put them in a freezer bag, and they defrost super fast.

Ingredients: 

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt ( regular table )

1 cup Salted butter ( yep salted butter as per recipe) softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar or light brown sugar if no dark brown sugar on hand

1 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs ( always bake with eggs at room temperature unless it specifies otherwise)

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

*1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 cookie sheets or use Silpat

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. (you don’t have to sift)

In another large bowl ( I used electric mixer) cream the butter and sugars. Add water and vanilla. Mix the ingredients until they are just combined. Add the eggs and mix them lightly ( don’t over mix the dough) just till combined

Drop the cookies 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets, I used a tablespoon measuring spoon to get the size I wanted.

Bake them for 13 minutes or until the edges and centers are brown. Remove the cookies to a rack to cool. I baked for 13 minutes and they were just right.

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