Oh my god, this was so good. I think this is the best cake i’ve ever made. I think this will be my signature cake, you know, if I ever need a signature cake.

I wasn’t even sure this was going to turn out as I basically combined two recipes, substituted some ingredients and just hoped for the best. It’s a little spicy, very vanilla-y, with a little hit of citrus.

This cake uses cheese! Intriguing! But, instead of all ricotta cheese, I used one cup of mascarpone and 1/2 cup of ricotta — but you could use all ricotta (what the original recipe with the cheese called for if you wanted to). I just had the marscapone on hand and I wanted to use it.

The cake has a light texture and a wonderful flavor. It doesn’t even need a glaze or powdered sugar!

Cardamom, Vanilla & Orange Pound Cake
A combination of two recipes — an orange ricotta pound cake by Giada De Laurentiis and a vanilla cardamom pound cake in Gourmet magazine
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cardamom seeds, freshly ground (or just use ground cardamom)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature (plus more for the pan)
1 cup (8 oz) mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp milk (fat-free is fine)

Cardamom seeds — I ground these in a spice grinder. You can also just use pre-ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan or a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with a little butter. Actually, here I used the Pam for baking (butter + flour in a can) because I kind of love it…I’m not sure why. Anyway, in a medium bowl combine the flour, ground cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.

I accidentally added the orange zest after creaming but before the eggs…no biggie…it still worked!

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, mascarpone, ricotta, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the machine running, add the eggs 1 at a time.

Add the vanilla (seeds & extract), orange zest, and milk until combined.

Add the dry ingredients, a small amount at a time, until just incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

You might not make it to “completely”…just do the best that you can. It is pretty good warm!

Mmmmmmm…cake….

***

I finally got my Alton Brown poster up on the back of the basement door. It looks good and guards over the kitchen like a benevolent, science-y mascot!

Oh my god, where has December gone? I can’t believe it’s almost over and this is only my third post of the month. But seriously, it’s not all my fault. I had a weekend getaway (Leavenworth, WA, so fun!), I had jury duty (depressing case, don’t ask), and then it was Christmas. But now, finally, here is Peanut Brittle! I also had to wait and post this because I sent some to my mom and aunt for Christmas and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

This was seriously easy. I was afraid it was going to be tricky what with having to reach a certain temperature and not having the sugar crystalize and what not but it was no problem at all. Just pop it all in a pot, melt, stir, darken in color, pour, roll and cut. Well, perhaps that is a bit of a simplification but not by much.

If you have a candy thermometer, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to be aware of the temperature while making the brittle. I did not use one and I was blissfully unaware of the actual temperature at all times. I am living on the edge of peanut brittle making!

Yeah, there’s corn syrup in this recipe. But there’s also more than a stick of butter so seriously, you’re concerned about the corn syrup??!

Peanut Brittle
(Recipe adapted from Jacques Torres)
Non-stick spray
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups unsalted toasted peanuts
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp corn syrup
1 scant cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp salt

Line two flat baking sheets with parchment paper. Give them a quick coating with non-stick spray.

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and place over high heat.

Cook to a caramel color while continuously stirring with a wooden spoon.

This will take about 10+ minutes. The color will turn really quick. I stirred and stirred and stirred for about 8 minutes and then I stirred and it was a darker color. It also got thicker. Pull it off heat as soon as it darkens!

Immediately pour the peanut mixture onto the parchment paper lined baking sheets. Place another piece of parchment paper over the hot brittle (I sprayed mine with the non-stick spay first).

Use a rolling pin to roll the peanut brittle into a 3/8-inch thick flat layer.

Use a sharp chef’s knife to partially cut the brittle while it is still warm.

****

Related peanut brittle content on the Website Foodista:

Still pretty warm from the oven!

Okay, so this pie has been out of the oven for about 18 hours now and it is 3/4 gone. Did I mention that we were asleep for like 8 of those hours? Right, so this is a really good pie!

The crust recipe is Dorie Greenspan’s Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough which is quite simply, the best pie dough I have ever made. Start with the pie dough. You can even make it a day ahead. I did this, rolling my bottom crust out the and letting it sit in the pie pan overnight in the refrigerator. The top crust just hung out in disc-form and then I rolled that one out before baking.

I kind of based the filling recipe on a number of recipes I found online and in cookbooks. It was a little from Column A + a little from Column B sort of thing. But first, onto the crust!

Dorrie Greenspan’s Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough
For a 9 inch Double Crust
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into tbsp size pieces
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
About 1/2 cup ice water
My Addition: Zest of 1/2 an orange (you can zest the other half the orange for the filling)

Put the flour, sugar, orange zest and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour.

You can of course, also use a pastry blender thingie or two forks or even your fingers. Don’t overdo the mixing - what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 6 tablespoons of the water - add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour.

If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a work surface. Honestly, I added about 10 tablespoons of water to mine. So, you may need more than 6 here.

Divide the dough in half. Gather each half into a ball, flatten each ball into a disk and wrap each half in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling.

Roll the first dough disc out on a floured surface and lay the dough down in your pie pan. Trim your edges with a 1/2 inch overhang. Continue with making the pie now or chill the bottom crust in the pie pan and the disc for the top crust in the fridge overnight.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie - Filling
2.5 cups rhubarb stalks, ends trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch or so slices
1.5 cups strawberries, tops trimmed, sliced in half
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp of quick cooking tapioca
1/4 tsp kosher salt
zest from 1/2 an orange
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Toss all the pie filling ingredients together in a large bowl.

Super ripe, tasty local strawberries

Let sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes or so.

Assembling the Pie
1 egg + 1 tbsp water, beaten
raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Take your chilled dough out of the fridge. Let the disc you need to roll out soften up for about 15 minutes. Assemble the filling and add it to the pie shell.

Roll the top dough disc out and cover the top of the pie.

Crimp the edges together.

Here, I wrapped the whole pie up and stuck it in the fridge for about 15 minutes, as my top crust felt a little soft.

When you’re ready to bake: brush a little of the egg wash on the top of the pie and then make four slits in the top.

Sprinkle the top with some raw sugar and place the pie on a baking sheet and put in the middle of the oven. Give it 20 minutes at 400 degrees F, then turn down the oven to 375 degrees F and give it 40 more minutes. You want the pie to be in the oven for about 1 hour total.

Check after about 40 minutes and cover up the edges (either with a pie crust shield or aluminum foil) if the top edges are getting too dark. I did this to my pie about 45 minutes in.

When the pie is done, you should be able to see the filling bubbling up. Take the pie out and let it cool.

Then, enjoy!

Check out that awesomely flakey crust!

Oh my this was good. I messed around with the recipe a bit, mainly I made a 1/2 recipe of the rhubarb and a full recipe of the topping! Mahahahahaha — (that was an evil laugh).

I only had two rhubarb pieces which weighed 12 oz. That was my main reason for making a half recipe. But when I got it all mixed up, I found that I could just fill up 4 ramekins. So, I figured I would need almost all the crumbly topping of the original recipe. Right? Yes, exactly.

Recipe below is the full recipe, halve, double or quadruple as needed.

Rhubarb Crisp w/ Crunchy, Crumbly Walnut Topping
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
Rhubarb
24 ounces fresh rhubarb, trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 5 cups) — this is about 4 pieces
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp grated orange peel
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Crumbly, Crumbly Topping
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix all rhubarb ingredients in large bowl to combine. Divide mixture among four to six 1-cup ramekins (depending on whether you are making a full or half recipe). Place ramekins on large baking sheet and bake rhubarb 10 minutes.

Take the rhubarb out of the oven after the ten minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare crumbly topping:

Mix brown sugar, chopped walnuts, flour, and butter in medium bowl. Crumble topping over rhubarb, dividing equally.

Bake until rhubarb mixture is bubbling and streusel is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Serve crisps warm with a scoop of Sage, Rosemary & Thyme Ice Milk.

Okay, the ice milk. I changed a few things here. The original recipe used different herbs and also 4 and 2/3 cups of whole milk, which is kind of silly, since then I would have a lot of full fat milk leftover that I wouldn’t use for anything else. Four cups is a quart, so I just bought a quart and used four cups and shaved a bit off the other ingredients. My adaptation is below.

I also used vanilla sugar for the sugar. Basically, a container I put a used vanilla bean pod with a bunch of sugar. The pod makes the sugar all vanilla-y. When I measured the sugar out here, it was all I had left so I threw the empty pod into my milk too.

I really liked the vanilla flavor here so either use vanilla sugar, add a vanilla bean or use some vanilla extract at the end!

Oh and I found this just as creamy as ice cream — but no cream! Also, not a lot of pictures — it’s hard to whisk and take pictures at the same time.

Sage, Rosemary & Thyme Ice Milk
4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 3/4 tbsp cornstarch
pinch salt
4 sage sprigs
1 rosemary sprig
2 thyme sprigs
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract (or you can use vanilla sugar for the sugar above and add an empty vanilla bean pod or add 1 vanilla bean pod to the simmering milk)

Whisk together milk, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan. Add herb sprigs (and empty vanilla pod if you have one) and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Gently boil, whisking constantly, 1 minute.

Lightly beat yolks in a large bowl. Pour hot milk mixture through a sieve into a large bowl, pressing gently on sprigs before discarding.

Then gradually add milk to the yolks, whisking quickly until combined. Do this slowly and whisking fast or you will scramble the yolks.

Return the milk/egg mixture to the saucepan and over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 3-5 minutes. It should register about 175 degrees F on thermometer, for you science-y, Alton Brown types.

Pour custard through cleaned sieve into a clean bowl. If you are using vanilla extract add it here and mix it in. Cool custard completely and chill in the refrigerator until cold, at least 2 hours.

I cheated here and put the hot mixture in the freezer to cool down. After about 3 hours it was cool enough to go in the ice cream maker. The best scenario is to just make this and refrigerate it the day before.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice milk to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

I saw this last week on Serious Eats. Brilliant!

It’s pretty self-explanatory.

Yeah, I made high-end s’meeps with the fancy-pants chocolate…so what?

Get graham crackers, chocolate & marshmallow peeps. Assemble.

Toast. I did mine for 4 minutes in the toaster oven.

Remove from oven.

Put top layer (un-toasted) of graham cracker on. Smoosh down.

Eat.

Grumpy-cat is not amused by s’meeps.

Completely unrelated, I played around with some possible new house colors today. We’ve never been happy with the grey/no contrast exterior of the house. Nothing pops. It’s kind of dreary.

Hopefully, this Summer we will re-side and paint. And do something like this (excuse the kind of crappy photoshop):

Dark orange door and accents. Green siding/paint. Bright ivory (with a hint of yellow) trim and columns. It would look so nice…