Category Archives: Desserts

Peach Crisp

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We lost power for a grueling fourteen hours, and this was my main thought: The peaches! The peaches! I never got to make peach crisp this summer and now it’s going to be toooooo laaaaate.

I probably should have been worried about 1) How long can Andrew’s tropical fish survive without a heater? or 2) Will my kids be able to attend their first day of school smoothly tomorrow? or 3) Will I have to shower at the YMCA? or 4) How will I feed everyone tomorrow? Or the next day? Or the next day?

But Peach Crisp was on my list of things to do this summer, and my peaches weren’t getting any younger. Thankfully Irene spared us, so I was only without an oven for one meal. Peach Crisp, I am sorry I waited until the last minute!

After much perusing of recipes and reviews, I settled on this Peach Crisp recipe from Anne Burrell but adapted rather liberally. I doubled the peaches from five to ten, and instead of ramekins (do people really have those? I don’t) I used a 9 x 9 square pan. I omitted raisins, because ewww, raisins. I did not change the sugar content or anything else, and it was still pleasantly sweet, even with twice the peaches. After 35 minutes I started watching it carefully, because it can go from undercooked looking to overly brown in a flash, but it does need a few extra minutes to brown if you use a larger dish.

Peach Crisp, adapted from Anne Burrell

Ingredients

Filling

  • 5 large ripe peaches, pitted and cut into chunks (Dawn used 10 with nice results)
  • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup tightly packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Pinch kosher salt

Topping:

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into pea sized pieces
  • 1/2 cup sliced almonds
  • Pinch kosher salt
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons cold water
  • Special equipment: 6 (6-ounce) ramekins

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the filling:

Toss the peaches in a large bowl with the zest and lemon juice. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Place peaches in 9 x 9 pan or pie dish.

For the topping:

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor except the water. Pulse until combined, this will take about 30 seconds. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until mixture is clumpy but crumbly.

Loosely sprinkle the topping and do not pack it down. The idea is to look very crumbly and not neat. What, this old thing?

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until the filling is hot and bubbly and the topping, brown and crispy.

Note: This is great served hot with vanilla ice cream.

Topping in food processor

Frozen Custard and Soft-Shell Crabs: Something Old, Something New

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Long ago, many years before Snookie, before MTV, even before the internet, I was going to the Jersey Shore. It has always been a special, sacred place for me, and the one constant in my ever-changing early life. Summer after summer, I would head there with my parents, sister, grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and glamorous older cousins. Our family and extended family would take up large portions of the beach, and back in those days, I always felt like I was a part of something greater than myself. As my sister once said, everyone who I have ever loved has stuck their feet in that ocean. No matter where I was in life, the ocean would heal me, ground me, give me perspective.

Years passed, my grandmother and her brothers sold their beach houses (which we stupidly didn’t buy), and my days of free beach vacations at the Jersey Shore sadly ended. I have been fortunate enough to travel a bit in my life, and I have been to some amazing, beautiful, world-renown beaches in places like Saint Barth’s and Monte Carlo. But no beach ever stacked up to anything on the Jersey Shore in my heart. Yes, the water is the exact shade as when you rinse out many different colors on your paintbrush in the same old water cup for too long…sort of a murky greenish brown. Yes, the beaches can get loud and crowded. None of this matters to me. But that’s love, isn’t it?

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law generously and bravely offered to host our family of five for four nights at their beautiful beach house this past week. Watching my kids fight the waves, ride the rides, and enjoy the local cuisine brought such joy to my heart, and I am so grateful for my in-laws hospitality. The smiles I saw on my kids’ faces will never be forgotten.

But enough of this mushy stuff, on to the food!

I am a big seafood lover, so I am sure it is a surprise that I’ve never tried soft-shell crabs. I’ve had crabs in every other possible incarnation, but never soft-shell. I suppose they intimidated me for some reason, but they shouldn’t have.  What a great thrill it is for me to discover a new food that I love! I cannot wait to try this recipe for from Cooking Light (April 2003) Sauteed Soft-Shell Crabs at home. It couldn’t look any easier! I might serve it with Dawn’s Awesome Sauce, but the crabs I ate this week at Busch’s in Sea Isle, NJ were so phenomenal  as is, they didn’t need much help.

Sautéed Soft-Shell Crabs

Here is a basic recipe for cooking soft-shell crabs. You can vary it by adding cayenne pepper, garlic powder, or other seasonings to the flour.

  • 4 (3 1/2-ounce) soft-shell crabs, cleaned
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Preparation

Sprinkle each crab with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow bowl. Dredge each crab in flour, turning to coat; shake off excess flour.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add crabs to pan, top sides down; cook 3 minutes. Turn crabs over; cook an additional 2 minutes.

Last night we went to the Ocean City boardwalk where I was reunited with one of my very first Happy Foods, one of my earliest “wow!” food memories, Kohr Bros Frozen Custard. I have wondered recently, upon eating local soft-serve ice cream, why it just never tasted as good as I remembered it as a child, and now I know why: tons of fake ingredients, the nutritional equivalent of a Twinkie.  Frozen custard, on the other hand, contains actual milk, cream, sugar and eggs. We won’t pretend it’s healthy, but at least it passes for real food.

I loved my little break from reality this week, but I am eager to put on Mom Mom’s apron and get back into the kitchen again.

Hershey’s Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

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Birthdays are a big deal around here. Our motto is simple: Everyone should feel special on their birthday. The birthday boy gets to pick out every meal and every activity, and for that one day a year, we all go along with a smile.

My youngest son Andrew is a traditionalist. He expects the same thing every year, more or less. He expects to wake up with a mylar birthday balloon greeting him in his room. He expects to come downstairs to his favorite breakfast of all time, cinnamon buns and bacon. And he expects a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, made by his mother’s loving hands.

We have tried store bought cakes in years past, and while they blow me away in the razzle dazzle department, the boys quickly figured out that they don’t taste all that great (exception: Wegman’s Ultimate Chocolate Cake). Mom’s cakes taste good, but they aren’t fancy looking. Despite having pretty nice handwriting on paper, it somehow doesn’t translate to birthday cake writing. Delicious but folksy, that’s how we roll.

This is my standard chocolate birthday cake recipe. I’m not gonna lie — it isn’t theeeee best chocolate cake you’ll ever taste. It is a decent cake which holds up well to frosting, and it is Andrew’s first choice, which makes it good enough for Mom Mom’s Apron.

Hershey’s Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
  2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
  3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.
Editorial rant follows:
There is no excuse whatsoever to not make your own buttercream frosting. Few things in life are easier or more satisfying.  And unlike baking, it is not an exact science, so there is plenty of room to adjust for personal preferences of thickness, sweetness, etc.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks of unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
2 to 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla
1 to 2 Tablespoons of whole milk, half and half, or cream
On low speed, mix together  2 cups sugar and butter. Stop to check for sweetness, and add more sugar if desired. In my opinion, 2 cups is plenty sweet without being diabetic-coma-overbearing, but many people like it sweeter. Gradually increase speed to medium and continue mixing until smooth. Stop mixer, add vanilla and one T. of milk, then beat for another minute or so. Add more milk if too thick. Let your birthday boy lick the beater.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Like many of you, I am devoted fan of the traditional back-of-the-bag Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is universally loved and consistently satisfying. I had no interest whatsoever in cheating on this recipe, and I was faithful to it for all of my life.

But then this Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe caught my eye. Cook’s Illustrated (which I affectionately call Cooking for Geeks) is my favorite source of recipes and inspiration. Even though they test every recipe to the nth degree, I often find myself modifying things with my own special touch. But not this recipe, no, never! I follow every instruction to the letter, with serial killer precision, and the results are perfect every single time. Yes, it is a bit fussier and a wee bit more work, but the results are well worth it. Please try it and let me know what you think.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 16 cookies.   Published May 1, 2009.   From Cook’s Illustrated.

Why this recipe works:

Our perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe had to produce a cookie that would be moist and chewy on the inside and crisp at the edges, with deep notes of toffee and butterscotch to balance its sweetness. Melting the butter gave us the chewiness …(more)

Avoid using a nonstick skillet to brown the butter; the dark color of the nonstick coating makes it difficult to gauge when the butter is browned. Use fresh, moist brown sugar instead of hardened brown sugar, which will make the cookies dry. This recipe works with light brown sugar, but the cookies will be less full-flavored. For our winning brand of chocolate chips, see related tasting.

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
  • 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (5 1/4 ounces) (see note)
  • 1 teaspoon table salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (see note)
  • 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

Instructions

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
  2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.
  3. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
  4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.)
  5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.