Okay, well, technically this one wasn't a true key lime pie since I didn't make it with key limes. I just used the limes off of the tree out front. I'm not entirely sure what variety they are. But the finished pie came out tasting somewhere in between "key lime" and "Persian lime" and I quite liked it!

I found the amount of filling somewhat skimpy on this recipe. That said, it actually works quite well if you're having it without the whipped cream. The filling is quite sharp and sweet, so I think a "properly" filled pie would actually be overwhelming without the whipped cream to cut it. I've doubled the filling recipe below. But if you want to have your pie without the cream, I'd recommend just doing half the amount of filling.

Sadly, I forgot to take a photo. I guess I'll just have to make it again!

Key Lime Pie

Slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 6 Tbsp. salted butter, melted

Filling

• 1 c. lime juice
• 2 Tbsp. grated lime zest
• 2 cans (~400mL each) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 large egg yolks

Topping

• 300mL heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar.
3. Pour in the butter and mix until evenly dampened.
4. Press mixture into a 23cm (9") pie plate.
5. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly.
7. Meanwhile, combine lime juice, zest, condensed milk, and egg yolks. Mix well.
8. Pour filling mixture into crust and smooth top.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cover and chill overnight if desired.
11. Once completely cool, whip the cream with the icing sugar until stiff.
12. Top pie with whipped cream, slice, and serve.

This purports to be a breakfast. But I would definitely class it as more of a dessert. It's very tasty. But it's basically all starch (with some sugar and fat thrown in for good measure). So I definitely wouldn't normally want to serve it for breakfast. Especially not as the sole offering. It's simultaneously too rich and yet not filling enough. But it does make for a lovely treat along with or after a meal.

Photo goes here.

Orange Marmalade Bread Pudding

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 loaf (~450g) bread (preferably brioche or challah), ends trimmed and sliced
• 5 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk¹
• 2 c. milk
• 3/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 70g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 c. orange marmalade
• whipped cream, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Grease a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
2. Spread the butter over the bread slices, then cut the slices in half and layer them (overlapping slightly) into the prepared baking dish.
3. Beat the eggs with the yolk, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmgeg.
4. Pour the egg mixture over the bread slices.
5. Let stand for ~30 minutes, pressing the bread down into the custard periodically.
6. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
7. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 30-35 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, gently warm the marmalade over low heat, stirring often.
9. Remove the pudding from the oven and brush it with the warm marmalade.
10. Return to oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.
12. Serve with fresh fruit and/or whipped cream.

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¹ The original recipe called for making a richer custard using 3 large eggs and 5 yolks. I didn't want to have to deal with that many surplus egg whites on this occasion though, so I adjusted it to use more whole eggs and just the one extra yolk. ^Back

We had the Kidlet's birthday party this past weekend. She requested cake pops rather than a regular cake, which actually worked out really well. That said, once we'd finished with the cake pops on Saturday, TF and I were both craving some sort of dessert that we could eat. So I quickly threw together this sheet cake as well.

Powdered buttermilk and frozen lemons meant that it was easy to make with ingredients on hand, without needing to do a special shop for supplies. And I also appreciated that the glaze can be added while the cake is still warm. (In theory, you're still supposed to wait for it to cool completely before you actually cut it, but at least the glaze can go on right away. And you can always cheat the timing on cutting it a bit in a way that you can't do with icing.)

I cut back the sugar a little bit for this one, but I was nervous about scaling it back too far because there's so little else in the cake to begin with. I omitted ~50g of sugar from the cake itself and maybe 40g from the glaze. I might've been able to reduce it a bit further, but I'd be wary of changing it too much more. This might just be one of those recipes that I enjoy sparingly and infrequently and just let it be an extra-rich treat when I do have it.

Lemon-Buttermilk Sheet Cake

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Text Kitchen

Ingredients

Cake

• 280g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 1/4 c. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 300g sugar
• 3 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk

Glaze

• 300g icing sugar
• 3-4 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. powdered buttermilk (or 1-2 Tbsp. regular buttermilk)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23x33cm (9x13") cake tin.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. Mix in the salt and set aside.
4. Combine the buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla in a measuring cup and set aside.
5. Beat the sugar with the lemon zest until well-mixed and fragrant.
6. Separate out ~1/4 c. of the sugar and set aside.
7. Cream the butter into the remaining lemon sugar.
8. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the egg yolk.
9. Mix in the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the wet ingredients in two additions.
10. Give a final stir by hand and then pour the batter into the prepared tin.
11. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 25-35 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
13. Meanwhile, make the glaze by mixing the icing sugar, lemon juice, and buttermilk powder (or buttermilk) together until it reaches a smooth, pourable consistency.
14. Pour the glaze over the cake, making sure it covers the entire surface.
15. Sprinkle with reserved lemon sugar and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.

Apple-feijoa crumble and feijoa jam seem to be the two most popular ways to use up feijoas. That said, I've alredy done a couple of crumbles at this point, so I've been looking around for other feijoa recipes. There are lots of interesting options, but I settled on this feijoa custard tart to start with, both because it looked fairly easy to make and because Reiver loves custard.

I'm pretty happy with how this one came out! The custard set up nicely and the crushed gingernuts and whipped cream make a nice complement without overpowering the fruit.

I have scaled the recipe up slightly from the original because the pie plate that Reiver has is quite large, so I felt that it might want a bit of extra filling. I used an extra 1/4 c. of milk, one additional egg yolk, an extra teaspoon of cornstarch, and one more feijoa. This just filled the pie nicely. (Plus, the extra egg yolk meant that I had the right number of whites left over to make friands!) If you have a particularly large or small pie plate, you may wish to scale the recipe up or down somewhat.

Feijoa Custard Tart

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1 recipe sourdough pastry¹
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/2 c. milk
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 7-8 feijoas, halved (and sliced if large)
• whipped cream, to serve
• crushed gingernuts, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Roll out your pastry and use it to line your pie plate.
3. Trim and crimp the edges.
4. Prick with a fork, line with baking paper, and fill with pie weights (baking beans).
5. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for ~15 minutes.
6. Remove the baking paper and pie weights and bake for another 5 minutes to dry out the bottom.
7. Meanwhile, heat the milk and cream until steaming and just beginning to tremble.
8. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla until pale.
9. Slowly pour the hot cream mixture into the eggs while wisking.
10. Pour the custard into the par-baked pie shell.
11. Arrange the feijoa slices in the custard.
12. Reduce oven temperature to 160°C (325°F) and bake until custard is just set (~50 minutes).
13. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
14. Cover and chill for ~1 hour.
15. Serve garnished with crushed gingernuts and whipped cream.

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¹ The original recipe calls for a sweet shortcrust pastry, which, to be fair, I'm sure would have been lovely here. But I also don't really feel like a sweet shortcrust is necessary most of the time. And I love my sourdough pastry so much that I will happily substitute it for most other varieties of shortcrust. Personally, I think it worked quite well here! ^Back

We all wanted dessert the other day. I was thinking of doing up some grilled bananas with chocolate and chopped nuts. But then Reiver mentioned that he could really go for some bananas and custard. Except... we were all out of custard.

We did have milk, sugar, and eggs though. So I reasoned that it wouldn't be that much trouble to make some custard.

But then I got to flipping through my cookbooks and found this banana butterscotch pudding recipe. And we had (almost) all the bits. And it sounded fun. And Reiver and I are both butterscotch fans. So... wins all 'round!

I say almost all of the ingredients, because we didn't actually have any vanilla wafers. What we did have though, was Gingernuts! And I reasoned that a) using butterscotch pudding rather than vanilla was already a deviation from the "traditional" combination and b) ginger would go quite nicely with both the banana and the butterscotch flavours. And they did, indeed, go very well together!

Banana Butterscotch Pudding

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 6 large egg yolks¹
• 40g cornstarch (cornflour)
• 3 c. milk, divided
• 70g butter
• 250g sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3-4 bananas, peeled and sliced
• 4-6 Gingernuts, crumbled
• whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Mix the egg yolks with the cornstarch and 1/2 c. of the milk and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining 2 1/2 c. of milk with the butter until steaming. Cover and keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water over high heat.
4. Stir constantly until sugar has just melted.
5. From this point on, DO NOT STIR the sugar!
6. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook, swirling often, until caramel turns golden.
7. Remove from heat immediately and carefully pour in the milk mixture. It will bubble and steam vigorously, so just do a little at a time initially.
8. Whisk until bubbling subsides and mixture is thoroughly combined.
9. Whisk the egg mixture to make sure the cornstarch hasn't settled out.
10. Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture while whisking to temper the eggs.
11. Return the custard to medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.
12. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
13. Spoon layers of pudding, banana slices, and crumbled biscuits either into one large dish or several smaller ones.
14. Once pudding has cooled, add a generous dollop of whipped cream on top and serve.

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¹ I actually went with 4 egg yolks and 1 whole egg for mine. I still found the finished pudding lovely and rich, so I'm not sad about saving a few eggs by doing it that way. ^Back

Reiver and Orthia have a lemon tree growing in their front yard! Apparently that is pretty normal here, but it's still a huge novelty for me. So I've been making the most of it. I went out this morning, picked a couple of lemons off the tree, and made some fresh lemon curd. It was delicious!

Lemon Curd

From The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. butter

Directions

1. Combine the egg, egg yolks, sugar, and lemon juice over low heat.
2. Cook, stirring constantly, for five minutes.
3. If lemon curd has not thickened at the end of five minutes, nudge the heat up slightly and cook until thickened.
4. Remove from heat and stir in butter.
5. Curd may be enjoyed immediately or chilled for up to a week.

I think this is possibly only the second time in my life that I've made hollandaise sauce. I vaguely recall making it once before. It's been ages though and I remembered basically none of the procedure. That said, it's not all that complicated. The main this is just making sure that you don't overcook/curdle the egg yolks. The method employed in the Breakfast Bible of drizzling hot butter into a running blender seems to work well for this. The sauce came out smooth and buttery with a minimum of fuss.

It is, of course, quite tricky to reheat. But that's true of a lot of egg- and/or dairy-based sauces in my experience.

Hollandaise Sauce

From the Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 c. unsalted butter

Directions

1. Combine the egg yolks, salt, and lemon juice in a blender.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat.
3. With the blender running, slowly drizzle the hot butter into the egg yolk mixutre. Sauce should form a smooth, thick emulsion.
4. Pour sauce into a small pot, cover, and keep warm over very, very low heat, stirring occasionally, until ready to use.

The Breakfast Bible contains a recipe for "eggs Blackstone", a variant of eggs Benedict. While the traditional eggs Benedict recipe offers the familiar combination of Hollandaise-smothered poached eggs atop back bacon (or ham) on toasted English muffin halves, eggs Blackstone replaces the English muffin with bread, the back bacon with side/streaky bacon, and adds tomatoes to the mix. It sounds delicious!

I didn't have the ingredients for either of these variations yesterday, however. But I did have both English muffins and eggs. (So many eggs!) And I knew that there was some baby spinach in the fridge that needed to be used up. So I opted for another common variation on eggs Benedict: eggs Florentine.

In this rendition, the meat is replaced with fresh baby spinach. I've also seen versions that sandwich a generous portion of lightly steamed spinach between the eggs and English muffin. And some preparations even have you mix chopped cooked spinach into the Hollandaise sauce! Any of these will work, but my plan was to follow the recipe in front of me and just pile a bit of fresh baby spinach onto the English muffins before adding the eggs.

I say "plan" because that's not actually what ended up happening. It turns out that TF had also had similar thoughts about the spinach needing to be used up and added it to the lentil stew she'd made the previous day. So, I had everything else all ready to go only to realize that I did not, in fact, have any fresh spinach available! Luckily we had some chopped beet greens in the freezer, so I just thawed those out and used them instead. It actually worked quite well! A bit non-traditional perhaps, but good nonetheless.

Eggs Florentine

Slightly adapted from the Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. Hollandaise sauce
• 4 English muffins, split and toasted
• ~2 c. (55g) fresh baby spinach (or greens of choice prepared as desired)
• 8 large eggs, poached
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Prepare your Hollandaise sauce and keep it warm over very, very low heat, stirring occasionally as you prepare the other components.
2. Toast the English muffin halves. You may butter them if you wish, but I find the Hollandaise makes the final dish buttery enough without the need to add more to the muffins.
3. Place ~1/8 of the greens on top of each muffin half.
4. Poach your eggs¹ and place one on top of each muffin half.
5. Top each egg with 2-3 Tbsp. of Hollandaise and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

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Variants

Eggs Benedict

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. Hollandaise sauce
• 4 English muffins, split and toasted
• 8 slices back bacon, cooked
• 8 large eggs, poached
• salt and pepper, to taste

Eggs Blackstone

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes, sliced thick
• 1-2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. minced fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 1/2 c. Hollandaise sauce
• 8 slices wholegrain bread, toasted
• 8 slices thick-cut smoked bacon, cooked
• 8 large eggs, poached
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Arrange the tomatoes on the baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme.
3. Roast the tomatoes at 200°C (400°F) for 25-30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the Hollandaise sauce and keep it warm while you prepare everything else.
5. Toast the bread and butter it if you'd like. (Although, as with the eggs Florentine, I don't feel that butter is really necessary.)
6. Cook the bacon and poach the eggs.
7. Top each slice of toast with some of the tomato, a slice of bacon, and an egg.
8. Spoon 2-3 Tbsp. of Hollandaise over each egg.
9. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

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¹ I recommend 3-4 minutes for soft poached or 5-6 for medium/jammy yolks. Use the freshest eggs possible as the whites of old eggs will tend to feather and spread in the water much more than fresh. Adding a bit of vinegar or other acid to the water can also help reduce feathering. I had a bit of excess lemon juice left over from making the Hollandaise, so I just used that. ^Back

We've had a friend from New Zealand visiting us for the past couple of weeks. I wanted to make a pavlova for him while he was here since I never acutally got a chance to try one while I was over there. And, because I'm me, I wanted to try a new flavour combination that I hadn't done before.

I actually ended up making two differen pavlovas in the end. This dried apricot one and a somewhat simpler ginger-lemon curd one. They were both excellent and I keep going back and forth on which one I liked best.

This one was definitely the richer of the two. While the lemon curd in the first recipe used a mix of whole eggs and egg yolks with just a bit of butter, this one uses all egg yolks and the maximum possible amout of butter that they will allow you to emulsify before the whole thing breaks. It's also meant to include a sizeable quantity of both thickened cream and crème fra&icric;che, but I decided to swap those out for some plain Greek yogurt.

I think that the yogurt worked quite well! It still gave it a nice tartness and creaminess without quite as much chance of causing a major coronary event.

Dried Apricot Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Delicious.com.au

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. lemon juice (or 1 Tbsp. verjuice)
• 200g sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Curd

• 8 large egg yolks
• 140g sugar
• 180g unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Other Toppings

• 225g dried apricots, divided
• 200mL verjuice, divided
• 1/2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 sprig rosemary¹
• ~1 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. sliced almonds, toasted

Directions

Meringue

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Whisk egg whites with lemon juice at gradually increasing speed until foamy.
3. Add the sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, while continuing to whisk at high speed until all sugar has been used.
4. Add the cornstarch and continue whisking until stiff peaks form. Do not overmix.
5. Scoop the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet and shape into a large cyinder or dome.²
6. Place the meringue in the oven, immediately turn the temperature down to 120°C (250°F), and bake for 1 hour.
7. Turn oven off and leave meringue in warm oven to cool for at least 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Apricot Purée

1. Combine 100g of apricots and 100mL of the verjuice and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
2. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and set aside to steep for 10-15 minutes.
3. Use an immersion blender or food processor to purée until smooth.

Apricot Curd

1. Combine egg yolks and sugar and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, for 15-20 minutes.
2. Begin adding butter, 1 Tbsp. at a time, while continuing to cook over low heat and whisk constantly.
3. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and apricot purée.

Poached Apricots

1. Combine remaining 125g apricots with remaining 100mL verjuice and 1/3 c. of water.
2. Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
3. With a slotted spoon or spider, transfer apricots to a bowl and set aside.
4. Add honey and rosemary to the liquid left in the pot and bring to a boil.
5. Boil for 4-5 minutes, then remove from heat and pour over the apricots.

Assembly

1. Once everything is cool, top the pavolva with the Greek yogurt followed by the apricot curd. (Or do it the other way round and put the curd on first if you prefer.)
2. Add the poached apricots on top and then drizzle with the syrup.
3. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and serve.

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¹ I didn't have any fresh rosemary, so I just used a generous pinch of some that I'd dried myself the last time I did have fresh rosemary. ^Back
2 I recently learned that pavlovas are not actually supposed to have a hollow in the centre to hold all the toppings. They sometimes end up that way because they're slighly underbaked or because they can't support the weight of the toppings that have been added, but they are not (typically) actually meant to be like that. This was news to me as I've been deliberately making bowl-shaped pavs for years now! I guess maybe next time I can give the traditional shape a try. (Although TF is somewhat dubious about the traditional shape and its ability to hold all the tasty toppings.) ^Back

I had an excess egg yolk that needed to be used up and that seemed like as good an excuse as any to make this rich, chocolate-y pudding. It involves milk, egg yolks, and three different forms of chocolate: cocoa powder, dark chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate. By the time I'd finished stirring all the chocolate in it looked more like a ganache than a typical pudding! Very nice, but definitely something to enjoy in small quantities.

Dark Chocolate Pudding

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 6 large egg yolks
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. natural cocoa powder
• 185g dark chocolate
• 55g unsweetened chocolate (or cocoa paste)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Scald the milk over medium-low heat. It should steam and begin to form small bubbles, but stop short of a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar.
3. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix well.
4. Very gradually mix in the hot milk, whisking constantly.
5. Return the mixture to the pot and cook over medium heat until thickened (4-5 minutes).
6. Reduce heat to low and cook for 1-2 minutes longer.
7. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate. Keep whisking until chocolate is completely melted and fully incorporated.
8. Mix in vanilla.
9. Pour into bowls, cover, and chill until ready to serve.
10. Top with whipped cream and/or fresh strawberries if desired.

I've been itching to try out this lemon chiffon pie recipe for a while. I love lemony desserts. And I even had some extra egg yolks to use up after making the last pavlova!

Ideally this would have been made with a freshly baked, home-made gingersnap crust. But when I spotted a bunch of "reduced for quick sale" ready-made gingerbread crumb crusts at the grocery store just after Christmas, I figured that would give the same ginger-y vibe as the gingersnap crust, but with a bit less effort on my part.

This was great in theory, but the recipe ended up making more filling than would fit in the store-bought crust, so I ended up whipping up a quick graham cracker crust to contain the excess. So now I've got two pies: one (slightly underfilled) with a home-made graham cracker crust and one with a store-bought gingerbread crust.

We've only tried the gingerbread one so far, but it was a hit. Although I found that the ginger notes were kind of drowned out by the lemon. The crust tastes gingery when eaten on its own, but it doesn't really come through when combined with the lemon filling. Maybe next time I can try it with a home-made gingersnap crust and see if that produces a punchier flavour.

Lemon Chiffon Pie

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Crust

• 125g gingersnaps, crushed
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 75g unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 1/4 c. cold water
• 2 1/4 tsp. (1 packet) unflavoured gelatin
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. lemon juice
• 4 large egg yolks¹
• 1 Tbsp. orange zest
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 1/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine the gingersnap crumbs and sugar and mix well.
3. Add the butter and thoroughly combine.
4. Dump the crumb mixture into a pie plate and press firmly. Try to create and even layer of crumb mixture across the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate.
5. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~7 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
7. Meanwhile, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and allow to stand until softened (5-10 minutes).
8. Add the sugar, lemon juice, egg yolks, orange zest, and sea salt and whisk to combine. It may be a bit lumpy and that's okay.
9. Cook over medium-low to medium heat², whisking constantly, until slightly thickened (~8 minutes). Do not let the mixture come to a boil!
10. Remove from heat and place pot in ice bath and allow to cool to room temperature.
11. Once custard mixture has cooled, in a separate bowl, beat the cream with the icing sugar until stiffened.
12. Add the whipped cream to the custard and gently fold it in.
13. Scoop the filling mixture into the prepared pie crust and smooth the top.
14. Cover and chill until set (~4 hours in the fridge or 1 hour in the freezer).
15. Let stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.

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¹ My eggs were a little on the small side so I tossed in an extra yolk for my pie. ^Back
2 The recipe calls for cooking over medium heat, but also warns against boiling. I started mine off over medium heat, but gradually nudged the temperature down as it cooked to ensure that it stayed below a boil. ^Back

Tiramisu (Dish of the Day)

I really liked the tiramisu recipe that I got from Bon Appetit. I would have just stuck with making that recipe, however there was also a tiramisu recipe in the Dish of the Day cookbook that I've been working with lately. And I wanted to see how that compared (and also be able to check it off).

Although the two recipes shared many similarities, there were a few striking differences. Probably the most significant was the proportion of mascarpone and cream. This version had 50% more mascarpone relative to the BA one, but only 25% as much cream! (It also had twice as much rum.) This recipe also included more than twice as much rum. And, although it had about the same amount of sugar overall, it divided it up differently. The BA recipe put most of the sugar into the saboyon (egg yolk mixture) and only 1 Tbsp. into the coffee. This recipe, meanwhile, put almost 60% of the sugar -- a whole 1/4 c.! -- into the simple syrup for the coffee and only a scant 3 Tbsp. into the saboyon.

Overall, I think I prefer the BA rendition of tiramisu. That said, this one was still good. And I did prefer McMillan's method of making the coffee bath. Making a simple syrup first and then mixing in the coffee and rum ensures that the sugar is very well dissolved and means that you can put more sugar into the coffee without it sinking to the bottom and separating out. I quite liked the sweeter coffee bath. I think it makes it a little more balanced. And I'm also a fan of the higher cheese content of this version. Although I did feel it was a bit skimpy on the cream.

I think next time I'll do a mash-up of the two: Use the coffee bath from this recipe, but with the rum content of the BA one; use the saboyon recipe from BA, but include the vanilla from this one; use the mascarpone content of this recipe, but bump up the amount of whipping cream to be somewhere between what's called for in this one and the BA instructions. Hopefully that will make a nice, balanced tiramisu.

I've included two recipes below. The first is following the recipe as written from the book. This is what I actually did for this iteration. Below that are the instructions incorporating the adjustments discussed above. That's how I'd make it next time.

Tiramisu

From Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Coffee Bath

• 1/4 c. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. water
• 3/4 c. espresso¹
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. dark rum

Filling

• 45g (~2.5 Tbsp.) sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3/4 c. mascarpone
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 18-22 ladyfingers
• cocoa, to dust

Directions

1. Combine the sugar and water for the coffee bath in a small pot and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
2. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring, until sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Mix in the coffee and rum into the syrup and set aside to cool.
4. Meanwhile, combine the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl and beat for a minute or two to mix very well.
5. Bring ~5cm of water to boil and set the bowl over the water. Beat the yolk mixture on medium speed with an electric mixer for 7-8 minutes. The mixture should become pale and at least double in volume, forming ribbons when the beaters are lifted out of the mixture.
6. Once the saboyon (yolk mixture) is cooked and ready, remove from heat and beat in the mascarpone and vanilla.
7. In a separate bowl, beat the cream until stiff.
8. Fold the whipped cream into the yolk mixture.
9. To assemble, dip the ladyfingers into the coffee bath. Working with one biscuit at a time, dip it and then place it into the bottom of a loaf pan (or container of your choice). Use ~1/3 of the biscuits for the bottom layer.
10. Top the biscuit layer with ~1/3 mascarpone mixture.
11. Repeat the layers twice more. (Three layers each of biscuits and mascarpone, ending with mascarpone.)
12. Cover and chill for at least 6 hours.
13. Dust with cocoa and serve.

Improved Tiramisu

Ingredients

Coffee Bath

• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. instant coffee
• 3/4 c. boiling water
• 2 Tbsp. dark rum

Filling

• 1/4 c. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. white wine
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3/4 c. mascarpone
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 18-22 ladyfingers
• cocoa, to dust

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¹ I didn't have any espresso, so I just used extra-strong instant coffee. The instructions called for 1-2 tsp. per cup of hot water, so I used 2 tsp. for 3/4 c. Next time I think I'd make it even stronger. Maybe 1 Tbsp. for 3/4 c. ^Back

My mom makes amazing lemon curd every year at Christmas. It's great just dolloped into little tart shells (or eaten staight out of the jar on a spoon)! And I appreciate that, unlike most lemon curd recipes, hers uses whole eggs. I should really do a write-up for it one of these days. This, however, is not that recipe. This is the lemon curd recipe from The Good Egg.

This particular recipe follows the usual method of using egg yolks only for the curd. This can be somewhat inconvenient, but we have lots of eggs right now and I figure I can always make a pavlova or some other meringue-based confection later this week.

I do intend to do a write-up for my mom's recipe at some point, but I already had the egg book out and readily to hand, so this was convenient for today. Plus, it pleases the completionist in me to check of more recipes!

I appreciate how quickly and easily this lemon curd came together. It was simple to make and came out beautifully with a nice, tart lemon flavour. I'm looking forward to trying it in some parfaits tomorrow.

Lemon Curd

From The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/4 c. butter, cut into 12-16 pieces

Directions

1. Combine the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small pot and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens.
2. Reduce heat slightly and whisk in butter, once piece at a time, until very thick.
3. Pour into tightly jar and store in fridge until ready to use.

This is the cake that TF wanted for her birthday last year. It's an unusual cake that gets cooked in a large rimmed baking sheet rather than a cake pan and iced while it's still hot out of the oven. Unfortunately, our baking sheets were both a bit too small and I didn't want to go out and get a new one just for this, so I chickend out and asked her to pick something else instead. I was feeling a little braver this year though, so I decided to give it a go!

I actually managed to fit all of the batter into one of our 11x17" baking sheets and it cooked beautifully with no overflow or spilling at all. I couldn't quite fit all of the icing on top afterward, but it was fine otherwise.

Also, it's important to note that not only can you ice this cake hot, you must ice it hot! I was a bit off in my timings and too slow to get the icing on the cake after it came out of the oven, so it ended up just settling on top of the cake rather than soaking in like the recipe said it should. It was still delicious, just not quite as dense and brownie-like as promised.

Photo goes here.

Texas Sheet Cake

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3 large eggs¹
• 1/4 c. sour cream²
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 225g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. oil³
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter

Icing

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/2 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 340g icing (confectioners'/powdered) sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. pecans, toasted and chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease an 18x13" (46x33cm) rimmed baking sheet.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, applesauce, and vanilla.
4. Heat the chocolate, oil, water, cocoa, and butter over medium heat, stirring ocasionally, until melted and smooth (3-5 minutes).
5. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
6. Add the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
7. Pour into the prepared baking sheet and bake until cake tests done (~18 minutes).
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
9. While the cake is baking: Heat the butter, cream, cocoa, and corn syrup for the icing over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
10. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar⁴ and vanilla.
11. Make sure you have the icing ready to go as soon as the cake comes out of the oven (but don't get it ready so early that it has time to cool before the cake is done). Check the cake for doneness and as soon as it's ready pour the icing over it and spread in an even layer.
12. Sprinkle with the chopped toasted pecans and allow to cool on a wire rack for ~1 hour.
13. Transfer cooled cake to fridge for an hour or so before slicing to ensure that the icing is fully set.

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¹ The original recipe called for 2 large eggs + 2 yolks, but we're actually running a bit low on eggs now that the chickens are slowing down for the fall/winter and I also didn't really want to faff around with separating eggs and storing the leftover whites and whatnot, so I just used 3 whole eggs instead. ^Back
2 I forgot to get sour cream, so I just swapped in 1/4 c. of Greek yogurt instead. The flavour is a bit different than sour cream, but it's still an acidic cultured dairy product, so it gets the job done. And the flavour difference isn't really noticeable in a cake like this anyway. It worked out fine. And, if you're watching your weight, swapping in FF Greek yogurt can be a good way to cut a few calories! ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for 3/4 c. vegetable oil. That sounded like A LOT of oil to me, so cut it back to just 1/2 c. of oil and made up the difference with 1/4 c. of applesauce stirred into the egg mixture. Next time I might even try swapping the proportions (1/4 c. of oil + 1/2 c. of applesauce). Obviously that won't exactly turn this cake into health food, but it should at least make it marginally less unhealthy. ^Back
4 I sifted the icing sugar into the hot mixture because I didn't want to it be lumpy, but I think this allowed it to cool too much. Next time I'd either dispense with the sifting or sift it in advance and have it all ready to go once the rest of the icing ingredients are hot. ^Back

I've been wanting to try this cake for ages. I loved the idea of peaches and cornmeal. I was wary of the caramel -- not because I don't like caramel, but because I never seem to have good luck with making it -- but I was willing to give it a go.

In the end, I think I was more excited by the making of the cake than the eating of it. TF loved it though, so that was gratifying.

Peach Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

From Cook's Country August/September 2016

Ingredients

Caramel

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt

Cake

• 1/2 c. cornmeal
• 340g frozen sliced peaches (or 450g fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, and cut into wedges)
• 140g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 2 tsp. grated orange zest
• 1/4 c. orange juice
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Lightly toast the cornmeal in a 25cm (10") skillet, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
3. Wipe out the skillet with a paper towel and melt the butter for the caramel over medium heat.
4. Add the sugar for the caramel along with the salt and cook, whisking constantly, until sugar is melted and smooth (3-5 minutes).¹
5. Remove from heat and carefully add the peach slices. Try to make a pinwheel pattern along the outside edge and then fill in the middle as you're able.
6. Whisk the flour into the cornmeal and sift in the baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the salt as well.
7. In a separate bowl, combine milk, orange jest, orange juice, egg, egg yolk, sugar, and melted butter and whisk until smooth.
8. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined.
9. Pour batter over peaches and spread into an even layer.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-35 minutes.
11. Transfer entire skillet to wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.
12. After 15 minutes, place a serving platter over the skillet and, using potholders, invert the cake onto the serving platter.
13. Let cool for ~1 hour before serving.
14. Serve as is or topped with whipped cream.

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¹ It will go through a phase where it looks dry and crumbly and seems like something's gone horribly wrong; just keep going! Keep cooking and whisking and it'll eventually melt into a nice brown caramel. ^Back

Panettone

I didn't get around to making my Christmas cake this year. But I did have some surplus orange zest and juice to use up, so I decided to give this panettone a go.

Orange and Raisin Panettone

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2018

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. golden raisins
• 2 Tbsp. orange juice
• 3/4 c. warm milk
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 390g all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-Tbsp. pieces, softened
• 85g candied orange peel
• 1 small egg
• 1/2 Tbsp. water

Ingredients

1. Combine raisins and orange juice and heat in microwave until steaming (~1 minute). Cover and set aside for at least 15 minutes.
2. Combine warm milk, orange zest, large egg, egg yolks, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and almond extract in a large measuring cup.
3. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl and stir to mix.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the milk mixutre.
5. Working from the centre outward, gradually mix the flour into the wet ingredients.
6. Once all the flour has been incorporated, cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
7. Knead in the bowl for a few minutes.
8. Begin adding butter, 1 Tbsp. at a time, while continuing to knead in the bowl.
9. Cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
10. Add the raisins and candied peel and knead in the bowl until the inclusions are fully incorporated.
11. Cover and let rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours. Dough is done rising when it no longer springs back when poked with a wet finger. Try to let it rise as fully as possible, but avoid letting it get to the point that it sighs and sinks back when poked.
12. Grease a 20cm (8") round cake pan.
13. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead it for a few strokes.
14. Press it into a flat disc.
15. Shape the disc into a ball by folding each side in toward the centre, then flip it over and round it and tension the gluten across the top surface.
16. Place the ball, seam-side-down, in the greased pan.
17. Cover and let rise for another 1-2 hours. Dough should spring back only very slightly when poked with a wet finger.
18. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
19. Beat the small egg with the water and brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash. Try to avoid letting any of the wash dribble down the side of the loaf where it will stick to the pan.
20. Bake the loaf at 180°C (350°F) for 20 minutes.
21. Cover the top of the loaf with tin foil and bake for another 30-40 minutes. (Internal temperature should register 87°C/190°F.)
22. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes.
23. Remove the panettone from its pan and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling¹.

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Variations

Chocolate Chip Panettone

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. warm milk
• zest of 1 orange (optional)
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 390g all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-Tbsp. pieces, softened
• 1 c. mini chocolate chips
• 85g candied orange peel
• 1 small egg
• 1/2 Tbsp. water

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¹ I remembered hearing that panettone normally needs to hang upside down to cool. The recipe didn't make any mention of this, but the loaf did seem very soft and delicate. I initially sat it right-way-up on the wire rack after turning it out of the pan, but I was slightly worried that it was going to collapse under its own weight. The top crust seemed a bit firmer and more substantial than the bottom or sides, so I fliped it over and let it sit on its head to finish cooling. After that, I put it back in the pan for transport. Maybe next time I can try to figure out a way to hang it and see if that makes a difference to the end result. ^Back

So, this is one of several slightly insane recipes that I originally saw on the Something Awful cake thread. I originally assumed that "pumpkin pie cupcakes" meant "pumpkin pie-flavoured" and was expecting pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin pie spices in the batter. Or maybe even just the pumpkin pie spices without the pumpkin itself. That's not the way this recipe rolls though! They start out by having you make a bunch of tiny pumpkin pies. (I guess maybe that makes them pumpkin tarts? I'm not sure.) And then you make your cupcakes, carefully nestling a mini pie in the centre of each one. And top it all off with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Like I said: insane. And fairly time-consuming and labour-intensive if you're making everything from scratch.
Tasty though.

The original recipe actually called for using store-bought pastry and canned pumpkin pie filling. But that's not the way I roll, so I started with a pie pumpkin and went from there. That said, if you'd like to save a little time, feel free to shave off a few steps with ready-made alternatives!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from Bake It in a Cake via the Something Awful forums

Ingredients

Pumpkin Pies

• 250g flour
• 95g unsalted butter
• 75-90mL cold water
• 1 recipe pie filling from pumpkin pie

Cupcakes

• 3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1 c. sugar¹
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 1/3 c. milk², divided

Decoration

• 1 recipe icing from cayenne-pumpkin cupcakes³
• cinnamon-sugar roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)

Directions

Pumpkin Pies

1. If you're starting with a whole pumpkin, scoop the seeds and get it roasting first.
2. Cut the butter into the flour.
3. Mix the water in with a fork, adding 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. Shape the pastry into a ball or disc, cover (or wrap in plastic wrap), and chill for at least an hour.
5. While the pastry is chilling, make your pumpkin pie filling: combine pumpkin, egg, egg yolks, sugar, coconut milk, and spices. Use an immersion blender to purée if using home-cooked/roasted pumpkin.
6. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
7. Divide the pastry into two roughly equal portions.
8. Working with one portion at a time, roll out fairly thin (maybe 2-3mm) and cut out 7.5cm (3") circles. Repeat with second portion of pastry. Then roll out scraps and continue until all pastry has been used (or nearly so).
9. Use the pastry circles to line the wells of a mini muffin pan (3-4cm diameter wells).
10. Place mini cupcake liners/papers inside each tart shell and place a few pie weights/beans inside each liner.
11. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for ~5 minutes.
12. Remove liners and pie weights and fill each tart shell with pumpkin pie filling.
13. Return to oven and bake for another 6-7 minutes.
14. Let pies cool in tin for 5-10 minutes, then use a spatula to carefully remove each one from the tin.⁴

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease the wells of a muffin tin (5cm/2" diameter wells). Alternatively, you may line the wells with cupcake liners.
2. Cream butter and cream cheese with the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Beat in the vanilla.
5. Add 1 c. of flour, but don't mix it in yet!
6. Sift the baking powder and baking soda in on top of the flour.
7. Add the salt on top of the flour as well.
8. Now mix in the flour.
9. Add about half of the milk and mix it in.
10. Add another c. of flour and mix it in.
11. Mix in the remaining milk.
12. Add the last 1/2 c. of flour and mix it in.
13. Mix for an additional 30 seconds.
14. Add a generous Tbsp. of batter to each well in the muffin tin.
15. Place a mini pie into each well and press it down a bit so that the batter comes up the sides.
16. Place another Tbsp. or so of batter on top of each pie and spread it out to completely encase the pie.
17. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25 minutes.
18. Let cool in pan for ~5 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

Decoration

1. Make icing as directed: beat butter and cream cheese together, beat in icing sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
2. Chill icing until ready to use.
3. Once cupcakes are completely cooled, decorate with icing as desired.
4. If desired garnish with cinnamon-sugar roasted pumpkin seeds. (I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this until after I took the photo. The seeds were right there!)

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¹ The original recipe called for 1 1/2 c. of sugar, but that seemed like a lot, so I scaled it back a bit. I think the final cupcakes taste plenty sweet enough with only 1 c. of sugar. Especially since they end up getting iced as well. ^Back
2 Whoops! Just realized that the recipe says 1 1/3 c. milk, not 1 1/2. Oh well, it still seemed to turn out fine with 1 1/2 c. ^Back
3 The original recipe came with its own icing recipe but, as far as I can tell, it was pretty similar. The base was the same combination of cream cheese, butter, and icing sugar. The main difference seems to be that it also called for melting "cinnamon chips" and mixing them into the icing. I have never heard of cinnamon chips before. I assume they're some sort of cinnamon-flavoured white chocolate baking chip? Anyway, I had some icing left over from making the cayenne-pumpkin cupcakes the previous week, so I just used it here and was quite happy with the results. I figured it's still a cinnamon-y, cream cheese-y icing, so it amounts to just about the same thing. ^{Back 4} Full disclosure, I don't have a mini muffin pan, but I do have a Babycakes Cupcake Maker so I just used that to make my pies. This worked alright, but the crusts did end up a bit underbaked since you can't really blind bake them that way and the filling cooked faster than the pastry. I've written out the instructions to do them in the oven here both because I don't expect everyone to have a cupcake maker and because I think that blind baking the crusts will likely provide better results. (And I have used the pie weights inside a cupcake liner approach for making tart shells before. It works quite well. Although I usually use liners one size smaller than the wells on the muffin tin, so I'm not sure how that works when you're already using a mini muffin tin. If you can find "extra mini" liners, that would be idea. Otherwise I think slightly crumpling the liners so that they're a little more flexible and willing to conform to the smaller shape would probably work reasonably well. It may take some experimentation, but I'm sure it can be done! ^Back

I picked up some smoked salmon on sale a little while back, tossed it in the freezer, and kind of forgot about it. I recently remembered it existed and figured I'd give this salmon tart a go. I was dubious about using cucumbers in a cooked pie, but it actually worked really well! I love the cream cheese in the custard.

Scottish Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Cream Cheese Tart

Slightly adapted from the Book of Old Tarts by Elizabeth Hoder

Ingredients

• 175g shortcrust pastry
• 1 English cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 250g smoked salmon, broken into large pieces
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 150mL heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill¹
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 tsp. peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Line a shallow 25cm (10") tart tin² with the pastry and blind bake it³.
2. Toss cucumber with salt, place in colander, and place a plate and a heavy object on top. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes.
3. Pat cucumber dry and toss with salmon.
4. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
5. Blend cream cheese, eggs, egg yolk, cream, chives, dill, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pepper.
6. Place cucumber-salmon mixture in pie crust.
7. Pour the cheese mixutre over the filling.
8. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30 minutes.
9. Serve warm or cold with vegetable side of your choice.

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¹ I didn't have any fresh dill, so I ended up using an extra 2 Tbsp. of chives + 1/2 tsp. of ground dill seeds. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for a 9" tart tin, but I've had issues with having too much filling for pies in this book before, so I decided to go up one tin size. ^Back
3 Line with parchment paper and fill with pie beans and bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, then remove paper and beans, prick with a fork, and brush with egg white, then return to oven and bake for another 5 minutes. ^Back

This recipe makes either two 9" (23cm) or three 8" (20cm) round cake layers. The same cake layers can be iced, filled, and decorated in a variety of different ways to produce very different finished cakes.

Chocolate Cake Layers

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 125g unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. hot water
• 1/4 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 1 3/4 c. sugar, divided
• 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 c. buttermilk¹
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 5 large eggs²
• 12 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-Tbsp. pieces and softened

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour your cake tins (either three 8" or two 9").
2. Place chocolate, hot water, and cocoa in a heatproof bowl, set over a pot of boiling water, and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
3. Mix 1/2 c. of the sugar into the chocolate mixutre and stir until thick and glossy (~2 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
6. In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and vanilla.
7. In yet another bowl, beat eggs on medium-low speed for 10-20 seconds.
8. Add remaining 1 1/4 c. sugar to the eggs and beat on high speed until light and fluffy (~3 minutes).
9. If you have a stand mixer, switch from wisk to paddle at this point. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and mix on medium speed for ~1 minute.
10. Add the butter, one piece at a time, mixing for a few seconds after each one.
11. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat until all flour and buttermilk have been added, beating for 20-30 seconds between each addition.
12. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat for another 15-30 seconds.
13. Give a final stir by hand.
14. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tins and smooth the top.
15. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-30 minutes.
16. Transfer to wire rack and let cool in tins for 10 minutes.
17. Remove from tins and allow to finish cooling on wire racks.
18. Stack and decorate as desired once completely cooled.

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¹ Or 1 Tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice + milk to make 1 c. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 4 large eggs + 2 large egg yolks. This would certainly make for a richer and more luxurious batter, but I didn't want to have to deal with separating eggs and trying to figure out what to do with the left over whites, so I just substituted an additional whole egg for the egg yolks. If you have surplus egg yolks to use, feel free to revert this recipe to its original form! ^Back

I'll lead by saying, I'm not sure why these are called semolina almond cookies as there doesn't appear to be any semolina in the recipe. I can only conclude that the "semolina" must refer to the almond flour/meal. But in that case, I'd expect them to be called "almond semonlina cookies" since "almond" modifies "semolina". In the end, I suppose it doesn't really matter. I just found the name a bit peculiar.

These cookies are delicious. But with a caveat: the recipe says that you need to make them two or three days ahead... she is not kidding about that! I figured it'd be one of those things where the product might improve over time (like fruitcake), but that it'd still be tasty straight out of the oven, just not optimally so.

No.

Wrong. So, so wrong.

These cookies do not taste good straight out of the oven. They taste like floral ghee. After tasting the first one, I was not convinced that any amount of sitting in a biscuit tin could improve them. I figured that maybe it was just an acquired taste that I had not acquired. Maybe these cookies taste good to other people, but they are definitely not my jam!

Then I tried another one on day three. And it was delicious! In fact, they went from "I don't think I can eat this" to "I'm worried I won't be able to stop eating this" in just a few days. And they do make a lovely complement to the poached pears that show up elsewhere in the dessert chapter.

So, if you'd like to try an interesting variation on a whipped shortbread, these cookies are a good choice. Just don't try to eat them straight out of the oven. They really do need that three-day¹ resting period.

Semolina Almond Cookies

Slihgtly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 20 Tbsp. unsalted butter or 15 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 3/4 c. soft (standard/plain/pastry) flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 12 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar, divided
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp. orange flower water
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 3/4 c. almond flour (almond meal/finely ground almonds)

Directions

1. If using butter: Melt it over low heat without stirring, discard any foam that forms on top, pour the clarified butter into a container and chill for 2-3 hours.
   If using ghee: Chill until solidified (1-3 hours depending on how solid/cool it was to begin with).
2. Sift the pastry flour and baking powder together and set aside.
3. Beat the chilled ghee until very light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes)!
4. Gradually beat in 7 Tbsp. of the icing sugar.
5. Beat for 2 minutes.
6. Add the egg yolk and beat for 2 more minutes.
7. Add the orange flower water, vanilla, and almond extract and beat for 1 more minute.
8. Fold in the flour mixture.
9. Fold in the almond meal.
10. Cover or wrap in waxed paper and/or cling film and chill for 30-60 minutes.
11. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
12. Shape dough into balls, pressing each one flat to form a disc.
13. Place ~2cm apart on ungreased baking sheets.
14. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 12-15 minutes. (The cookies shouldn't brown at all.)
15. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and immediately sift 2 Tbsp. of the remaining sugar over the hot cookies.
16. Cool for 5 minutes.
17. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and roll in remaining 3 Tbsp. of icing sugar to coat.
18. Transfer to biscuit tin or airtight container and allow to rest/mellow for at least three days before serving.
19. Cookies may be stored like this for several weeks and should improve with age.

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¹ Wolfert says two to three days but, having tried one a day for several days, I would say three days is the minimum. ^Back