Orange-Almond Cake with Chocolate Icing

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How did I learn about this recipe? My friend Andrea made this cake for her birthday.  She’s a remarkable woman, always making some new delicious confection for her birthday.  She tries a new one each year, and I love reading on her Facebook posts what she’s chosen for that year.  The reason this cake intrigued me?  She wrote about this right as I was asked to be in charge of the food for our Women’s Conference (300 people!).  I hit on the idea that instead of making a three-layer cake, I’d keep the layers single, and glaze them with the chocolate ganache and serve them that way. Instead of serving 10 with one recipe, I could serve 30 (although they may all be fighting over any leftovers on the table).

To prepare, I made them last night.  I wasn’t too sure about this, until I had brushed on the “orange jam” and coated them with the chocolate ganache.  Oh, my!  Another cooking friend, Wendy, agreed to be my partner in desert-crime and help me make batches and batches of this for the conference.  So, thanks, Andrea for the idea and thanks, Wendy for always including me in your food adventures.  Here’s one for you.

Yield: Serves 10  Originally published in Bon Appetit, March 1999.  My changes are listed below.

Ingredients for Cake
3 large oranges
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour, divided
1 cup whole almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Ingredients–Orange “Jam”
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice–approximately 3-4 oranges.  Use the juice from the three peeled oranges (above).  I had to add one more orange to get the juice I needed.
generous 1 tablespoon sugar

Chocolate Ganache Icing (click on link, or see below)

Additional whole almonds, small orange-slice triangles and mint leaves for garnish

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place pan on waxed paper, and using scissors, trace around the pan.  Cut out three layers of wax paper on the circle line.

Grease (or butter) the bottom and sides of three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Place the wax paper circle in the bottom of the pan and grease that.  Dust with flour; tap out excess. I say to grease the sides, because a) it comes out easier, and b) it’s prettier if you are using the cake as a single layer.

Using vegetable peeler, remove peel (orange part only) in strips from oranges.  Coarsely chop enough peel to measure 1/2 cup.

Combine flour, 1 cup almonds, baking powder and salt in food processor; blend until finely ground. Transfer to medium bowl.

Place 2 cups sugar and orange peel in processor (left); blend until peel is finely minced (right).

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until blended. Add sugar mixture and beat until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix milk and both extracts in small bowl. On low speed, beat flour mixture into egg mixture alternately with milk mixture in 3 additions each.

Divide batter among prepared pans. It’s pretty thick.  Smooth it out.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes, and cakes begin to pull away from sides (touch test with finger didn’t work).Don’t overbake. Cool cakes in pans on racks 8 minutes. Loosen cake around edges with narrow spatula, then turn cakes out onto racks, remove wax paper from bottom, and cool completely. They are a bit fragile when warm.

Boil 1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice and remaining generous 1 tablespoon sugar in small saucepan until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 15 minutes (watch carefully and stir occasionally). Brush warm juice mixture over tops of cooled cakes.

For the Women’s Conference, I poured about 1/2 cup warm ganache over the cake and using an off-set spatula, smoothed it over the cake, letting it run down the edges (I had them on a rack to do this, although not that much dripped over that you couldn’t just do it on a plate).  If you need more icing on the edges, smooth some on with the spatula.  It makes a silky-looking glaze, but who cares how it looks?  It is delicious, and sets up after about 30 minutes.  Transfer to plate, decorate with almonds and oranges, or whatever you choose.

Their photo, in a three-layer cake version:

Place 1 cake layer, orange syrup side up, on cake platter. Spread 1 cup Chocolate Icing over. Top with second cake layer, then 1 cup icing. Top with third cake layer, syrup side up.

Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome and store at room temperature.)

Arrange additional almonds, orange triangles and mint leaves around top edge of cake. Slice cake and serve.

Chocolate Icing also from Bon Appétit, March 1999

Yield: Makes about 4 cups–enough for two batches of cake.  If you are only making one cake, I advise you to double-glaze it, or else cut the ingredients down by at least 1/3.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups whipping cream
3/4 cup unsalted butter
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch cocoa)
4 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate chips (I used Guittard)
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon (scant) almond extract

Preparation

Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts and mixture comes to simmer. Remove saucepan from heat. Add chocolate and both extracts. Whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth.  I glazed my single layer cakes while it was still warm, but if doing the triple-layer cake, refrigerate frosting until slightly thickened but still spreadable, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Note: the original recipe called for 16 ounces bittersweet, but in reading the comments from the reviewers, they all said to go with a mixture.  I did.  Yummy!  You’ll be fighting over who gets to lick the pan.

Pecan-Crusted Trout with Orange-Butter Sauce

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I got this recipe from–where else?–Bon Appétit, published in April 1996.  I’d been over to our local grocers and they had a fine selection of fresh fish.  I randomly selected trout, thinking of when we’d had it on our honeymoon in Austria.  We were in the hills above the town of Salzburg and the owner had diverted some of the mountain stream into a holding tank, where he farmed trout.  As we sat down to dinner that night, he asked us what size fish we would like.  We used our hands to gesture, as neither of us spoke German.  He went over behind us, and I heard some splashing, then a firm *whack*.  He held up two now-whacked-dead trout.  “Gut?” he asked, with a huge grin on his face.  We nodded. “Gut.”  And they were.  We even ordered one more and shared it.  When are you ever–except if you catch it yourself–going to have trout that fresh?

Bon Appetit addes this note: At the fish market, ask them to remove the head, tail and bones from the trout, then to cut each trout into two fillets, leaving the skin intact. Mine was already a fillet, so I didn’t have to do any of that.  We thought this was delicious.

Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients for trout
2 cups pecans (about 8 ounces)
1 cup all purpose flour
2 large (12- to 14-ounce) trout, filleted, skin left intact
3 large egg whites, beaten to blend

Ingredients for sauce
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1 cup dry wine–I don’t drink, so I used apple juice with a splash of rice vinegar
2/3 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
8 5-inch-long fresh parsley stems
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large fresh thyme sprig (ACK! didn’t have any, so I sprinkled some dried thyme into the mix)
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1/4 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces

For assembly
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 carrots, peeled, cut into matchstick-size strips
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
4 cups thinly sliced savoy cabbage

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

Chopped fresh chives

Preparation

Make trout:

Combine pecans and 1 tablespoon flour in processor. Grind pecans finely; transfer to plate. Place remaining flour on another plate. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Dip 1 fillet into flour to coat; shake off excess. Using pastry brush, brush flesh side with egg whites. Place fillet, egg white side down, onto pecans; press to coat with nuts. Transfer to waxed paper-lined baking sheet, pecan side down. Repeat with remaining 3 fillets; chill.

Make sauce:

Combine first 7 ingredients in medium saucepan. Boil 10 minutes; add rosemary. Boil until liquid is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 10 minutes. Strain sauce into another medium saucepan, pressing on solids in sieve. Add cream; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time (do not boil). Season with salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature up to 2 hours.

To assemble:

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large Dutch oven over high heat. Add carrot and bell pepper; toss 2 minutes. Add cabbage; toss until cabbage wilts, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Place 2 fillets, pecan side down, into skillet. Cook until crust is golden and crisp, about 2 minutes. Using spatula, turn fillets over. Cook until just opaque in center, about 2 minutes. Transfer to plate. Repeat with remaining butter, oil and fish.

Whisk sauce over low heat to rewarm (do not boil). Divide vegetables among plates. Top with fish. Spoon sauce around fish and vegetables. Sprinkle with chopped chives and serve.

Roasted Beets, Citrus and Spinach Salad

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This recipe, originally from Bon Appétit (February 2011, by Myra Goodman and Sarah LaCasse; their photo is being used) was the salad I chose to use for our Valentine’s Day Dinner this year.  I don’t know why we didn’t go out.  We both seemed to be moving at glacial pace at home, with job and church responsibilites sapping all our energy to look up a restaurant, make the reservation, change our clothes, pay 60 bucks a person for a Valentine’s Day meal of some significance.  We could have paid only 20 bucks a person at Chili’s or something, but just try and have an intimate conversation in THAT place.

Yield: 4 servings   —  Active Time: 20 minutes, with Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes (includes roasting and cooling time) We found that this filled us up quite a bit–if I were to use this as a first course again, I’d eliminate the feta cheese.

Ingredients

Vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
2 teaspoons finely grated grapefruit peel
1 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To make: whisk vinegar, mustard, citrus peels, and honey in small bowl. gradually whisk in oil. Season vinaigrette with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Salad:

4 2 1/2-inch-diameter unpeeled beets, tops trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 6-ounce bag baby spinach
2 small pink or ruby grapefruits, all peel and pith cut away, segments cut from between membranes
2 oranges, all peel and pith cut away, segments cut from between membranes
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (4 ounces)
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss beets and oil in large bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap each beet in foil. place directly on oven rack; roast until tender, 60 to 70 minutes. I ended up roasting mine about 90 minutes; somewhere I read that the more the merrier as it carmelizes the sugars in the beets and makes it incredibly delicious.  Agreed!  Open foil; cool 30 minutes. Rub skins off beets; cut each into 8 wedges. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If your beets are big, you may want to cut them in half.

Place spinach in large bowl; toss with 2 tablespoons vinaigrette. Divide among plates. Add beets and citrus segments to same bowl. Add 2 tablespoons vinaigrette; toss to coat. Arrange beet mixture atop spinach; sprinkle with cheese and chives. Serve, passing any remaining vinaigrette.

Lemon-Rosemary Shortbread

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Every time I teach the women’s Sunday auxiliary class in church, I try to take a treat.  It’s a girl thing, I think, and I really should cease and desist.  But part of it is there’s only the two of us at home now, and if I want to make a sweet and share it, this is a good venue.  Why did the lemon-rosemary combination pop into my head?  Because somewhere, somehow I read about it.  I searched the web and found this recipe, but I know it wasn’t the original thought-prompter.

Rosemary? I have two kinds–the trailing and the shrubby bush.  I somehow like to cook with the trailing rosemary much better, but I can’t really tell you why. Maybe it is the sinuous tendrils that grow out from the plant.

And our Meyer lemons are coming on strong now, all golden and glossy in our backyard.  Can’t resist.  So go and get yourself some fresh rosemary, some fresh lemons, and make these cookies.  Somehow the rosemary “amps” up the taste of the lemon, so all you can identify is mmmmm. . . lemon shortbread.

Ingredients

3 sticks of butter, at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
zest from one lemon, or about 1 Tbs.
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary.  I used a rolling mincer after I’d pulled the leaves off the stem.

Directions:

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment) cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Mix until combined.

In a small bowl whisk flour and salt together. Slowly add this to the butter mixture, mixing until completely incorporated.

Add the rosemary and beat until evenly distributed.

Shape the dough into a flat disk and either stow in it a  Ziploc bag, or wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350°F.  (If you forget and leave the dough in overnight, let it warm up a few minutes before you try to roll it out.)

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until 1/8- 1/4 inch thick.  Cut with a small cookie cutter and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart.  Sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, rotating half way through. They will be just golden around the edges. Watch them closely, since they can bake quickly at the end.

Cook’s Notes: If you want to roll them thicker (1/4″), cook them a little longer.  They will be pale in both cases.

If you make the larger sized cookie, let it cool 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving it to the cooling rack.  These are very tender cookies!

Here they are, all wrapped up and ready to go!

Panini

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This year for Christmas we gave all our children panini grills.  Why?  Because we like ours so much.  It wasn’t expensive–in the $35 range–and it seems to work fine.

But before we had one, I used two pans and big can of food.  Improvise!

Basics are: buy good bread, creamy-melty cheese (buffalo mozzarella or baby swiss).  Brush one side with real olive oil, load it up, place another oiled piece of bread on top (oil sides out to the grill), then grill, pressing down with the handle to compress the sandwich. We keep a spatula nearby to make sure the oiled bread doesn’t come shooting out the front of the hot grill.

First Favorite Combination: Cheese, Fresh Basil Leaves, Roma Tomato.  This tastes just like summer.  Really.

Before Grilling–all lined up

After grilling

Next Favorite Combination: Cheese, Sauteed Apples, Cranberries, Prosciutto and Sugared Walnuts. I subscribe to a menu from Olive & Gourmando, an eatery in Montreal, Canada which serves lots of panini.  This was one of their combinations.

Chop some walnuts, toss into a pan over medium-low heat with some brown sugar, and stir until the sugar is cooked onto the walnuts.  Set aside.  (Or buy some sugared walnuts from Trader Joe’s.)

If you are lucky enough to know someone with an apple tree in their yard, beg for some of their late-harvest Granny Smith apples. Cut them up into thin slices, saute lightly in about 1 Tablespoon of real butter and some sliced cranberries.  Add a dash of cinnamon.

Bread loaded with apples, prosciutto, walnuts and cheese.

Don’t you love how the apples are pinky on the edges from the cranberries?

Yum!

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

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We were shopping–the Mr. and I–for Christmas, and beside the register was a brochure pushing anything Martha.  I picked it up because she had a recipe for these cookies.  I’d been thinking about trying to find a recipe like this ever since Dave and I had chewy gingerbread cookies at the Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley.  That day we’d driven down across the Delta, got stuck in horrid traffic, our tempers frayed and flared, but we made it to the Collective about 45 minutes before they closed down.  Our pizza was delicious, the salad was crisp, but the cookies–oh my–the cookies!  After we visited the Berkeley Rose Garden we went back for two more, but alas!  They’d sold out.  So they remain in my memory.  These resemble those from the Cheese Board, but I can’t remember now if the Berkeley variety had chocolate chunks in it. Oh well–these are delicious, too.

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies—yield: 30

originally from Martha Stewart, amended by me

Ingredients
14 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated, peeled fresh ginger
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses (I use the green label molasses)
2 teaspoons baking soda, dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water

2/3 cup granulated sugar, in bag (for coating)

Directions

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and spices into a medium bowl. Put butter, brown sugar, and grated ginger into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in molasses.

2. Beat in flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the baking soda mixture. Mix in chocolate chips. Shape dough into a disk, and wrap in plastic (or place in gallon-sized Ziploc bag). Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours (up to overnight).

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Shape dough into 1 and 1/2-inch balls, and drop them into a bag filled with some granulated sugar, tossing to coat. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets, pressing down on each cookie slightly to flatten. (I used the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar.)

4. Bake until surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets, 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Cook’s Confessions: I left mine in the fridge for 3 days–just couldn’t get the time to bake them up.  They were fine.

Note: you can store fresh ginger in the freezer.  When needed, peel with a paring knife, then grate on the fine section of your cheese grater.

These cookies are best when warm–so set them in the sun for a few minutes to soften.

Beggar’s Linguini

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Recently my sister came to visit and while I was more than happy to go out for dinner every night (my husband was gone and I like doing that), there came a time when we were both ready to stay in.  What to cook?  I’d just been reading Dorie Greenspan’s blog, where she gave the recipe for her Beggar’s Linguini, from her new book Around My French Table.

This sounded great to both of us, and I already had most of the ingredients.  Basically it’s a sauce made from browned butter, golden raisins, pistachios and chopped almonds, tossed with some Parmesan and some grated orange rind.  It has a rich, yet not overly heavy, taste.  I made it again the next week for Dave and we were both angling to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Cynthia and I served it with fresh broccoli, lightly marinated salmon, grilled on the barbeque.  One last note: even though she says it doesn’t reheat well–I liked it fine the next day for lunch.

1 box (1 lb.) linguine
1 1/2 stick butter (salted or unsalted)
1/3 cup shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup almonds, coarsely chopped
8 plump dried Mission figs (or 3 dried Kadota figs), finely chopped (confession: I didn’t have any, so I used dried apricots–about 1/3 cup, chopped)
1/4 cup moist golden raisins
salt and pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
grated zest of 1/2 orange (or more to taste)
Minced fresh chives and/or parsley, for serving (opt.)

Cook the linguine according to the package directions; drain well.

Meanwhile, about 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, melt the butter in a large high-sided skillet or casserole over medium heat, as you’ll be adding the pasta to this (so make sure it is large enough).  Whe the butter is melted and golden, stir in the nuts, figs (or dried apricots) and raisins.  Allow the butter to bubble and boil, as you want it to cook to a lovely light brown, or to turn into a beurre noisette, butter with the color and fragrance of hazelnuts.

When the butter has reached just the color you want, add the pasta and stir it around in the butter to coat it evenly and make sure the fruits and nuts are well incorporated, then season with salt and a generous amount of ground pepper.

Place in serving bowl, and add the grated cheese, tossing to blend, then dust with the orange zest, chives and/or parsley.  Taste, and add more zest/cheese if you like.  Serve immediately, but give it one more toss to blend in the zest and herbs.

Faculty Open House December 2010

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The Faculty Open House 2010 menu was  little simpler than last year’s, but we still tried to have a hot dish, various cold dishes, sweets and snacks.   Our Wow item this year was Make Your Own Paninis, with a variety of toppings.  Here are some photos from that event.  Look above, in the tab marked Find the Recipes, to –um– find the recipes.

The dining room table had (from lower left, going clockwise):

Shrimp with Dill Dip
Cheeses
Chips and Hummus
Biscotti (large white round platter at upper right)
Pesto Ring (purchased from Costco–see last year for the real thing)
Trio of Goat Cheese
Outrageous Brownies
Blanched Raw Vegetables

Biscotti

Candlelit version

I blanched many of the vegetables:carrots, pea pods, green beans, broccoli, and boiled up some small white rose potatoes. I then added heirloom and regular grape tomatoes to give variety and color to the platter.

The Tortellini Soup pot is on the left, and the Make Your Own Panini grill and fixings are on the right.  In the background you can see the checkered tablecloth where we had our sodas all line up for people to try.  Yes, we are an alcohol-free party.

I’d prepared (boiled, then grilled) some chicken-apple sausage, then cut it up into “nickel-slices.”  We also had some crisp bacon (from Trader Joe’s–the best!), buffalo mozzarella, sugared walnuts, fresh basil leaves, sliced tomatoes, grilled red peppers, and lightly sauteed apples.  On the left we’d brushed olive oil on one side of a pair of slices of La Brea breads (Costco), placing the oiled sides in.  The idea was to build your own, then grill it.

Desserts (Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownies and Biscotti) were in the other room.  I learned that if you cut the brownies smaller, they go faster (last year they were big chunks and no one took any–this year I cut them smaller and a lot were gone by the end of the evening).

It was lovely evening of people enjoying each other’s company.

Dipped Pretzel Rods

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This is no rocket science.

Buy chocolate blobs at Michaels (I think they have three different flavors), or melting chocolate bricks (Stater’s Brothers), or melting chocolate cups (grocery store).

Buy pretzel rods (I found Snyders at Walmart and at Stater’s).  Look at bags and buy the bag with the least broken sticks–but after being dipped, they’re good too. Notice the mess–you can always clean up later.

Buy sprinkley things.  Buy skinny bags for pretzels (Michaels).  Follow the pictures below.


First, dip them in the melted chocolate of your choice–white or dark. We kind of hold the pretzel over the bowl and goop it on.

My daughter likes to use a tall cup.  Before laying them down, take a spoon and stroke the chocolate off one side, then lay the pretzel down on that side.  If you don’t stroke some off–it makes a gigantic puddle.  Sometimes I throw the cake sprinkles on right now.

Take a fork, dip it into the contrasting chocolate and wiggle it over the pretzel rods.  A thinner (warmer) chocolate consistency is better.  My mother just ate her last two from Christmas, so obviously they keep a long time.

The ONLY tricky thing here is not over-microwaving the chocolate.  Then you have sludge.  If this happens, stir in a spoonful of plain shortening into the chocolate, stirring well.  You may have to add a couple of spoonfuls if you’ve really nuked the chocolate too long.  But that should fix it.

Then after they’re set (doesn’t take too long), load them up into their little bags and tie the top with a ribbon.