Cakes and Tea

​I loved Rose’s two-part chocolate blog so much, I wanted to jump on the chocolate bandwagon and add a few favorite chocolate cookie recipes. She is correct when she says chocolate is appreciated in all seasons and is sorely missed when absent. A chocolate cookie or brownie is a little piece of heaven in your hand.

At the inns, I made large quantities of brownies weekly but for the past 17 years, I’ve had a non-brownie fan in my house. I know: I didn’t know such a human existed. It’s perplexing. I’m a little rusty on my brownie game which is a grand excuse to test a few of my old favorite brownie recipes. Back in the 1990’s, Gourmet magazine, had a lovely article devoted entirely to brownies. I made all the varieties, such as cream cheese-swirled brownies, chocolate cherry brownies, espresso and coffee bean brownies. They were all really tasty and all had fans among the guests, but my favorite is always the fudgy, plain chocolate ones with the shiny chocolate frosting.

Brownies call for the best chocolate or cocoa you can find. Recipes using cocoa or melted chocolate can both be dark and delicious, as long as you chose high quality products, as Rose explains in her chocolatey blogs. When making cocoa brownies, I favor Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa which is a bit darker and richer than their traditional cocoa. I use the Pound Plus bar from Trader Joe’s which is a good Belgian chocolate at a price that can’t be beat.

Scharffen Berger fine chocolate company’s chocolatier, Robert Steinberg, adapted this Maida Heatter recipe to use 70% bittersweet chocolate but you can use any good chocolate you like.

Makes 16 2-inch brownies

•  *It is always better to undercook brownies than to overcook them. Watch the baking time closely for best results.

This Epicurious recipe from November, 2003, is from legendary baker, Alice Medrich. She notes that “Cocoa brownies have the softest center and chewiest candy-like top crust of all because all of the fat in the recipe (except for a small amount of cocoa butter in the cocoa) is butter, and all of the sugar is granulated sugar rather than finely milled sugar used in chocolate.” Use the best cocoa you know in these brownies. Personally, I don’t care for the crackly top which led me to turn my pan of cooled brownies upside down, smooshing that crackle top, and then frosting the smooth bottom which is now the top.

​Yield: Makes 16 large or 25 smaller brownies

​Here are a few of my brownie tips:

Uncut slabs of brownies freeze very well if completely cooled, chilled until firm, then wrapped airtight in plastic wrap and put into a zip-top freezer bag. To serve, unwrap brownie slab and let come to room temperature then cut into squares or frost entire slab before cutting.

I’ve successfully doubled both these recipes and baked them in 13” by 9” pans. The baking time is a little bit trickier, but as mentioned above, better to under bake them than risk drying them out.

My usual shine chocolate brownie glaze is 6 ounces good quality chopped chocolate melted with 4 ounces (1 stick) of butter. I usually melt my butter-chocolate mixture in a 2-cup glass measuring cup, in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, just until melted. Pour chocolate mixture over brownie slab, gently smoothing with an offset spatula or the back of a table knife. When frosting has set up, cut into squares. You can chill briefly in the fridge to hasten setting up, but the topping may lose its shine if chilled for too long.

Leaving the velvety dense chocolate of brownies for a minute, I have a special place in my heart for deep chocolate wafer cookies and chocolate and vanilla ice box cookies. I make these often as rolled-out sheets of dough, or rolled-up logs of dough can be chilled in the fridge for a few days or frozen for longer storage. Baked cookies also freeze beautifully, if well wrapped and stored in zip-top bags or my preferred method, cookie tins.
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Chocolate pinwheel cookies are eye catching on a cookie tray and have the perfect sugar-cookie-meets-chocolate-wafer-balance. I used to carefully stack the chocolate and vanilla doughs to make checkerboard cookies but it is just so much easier to roll the two doughs together in a tight spiral and cut off slices. Save the mingled dark and light doughs to reroll at the end and make into randomly swirled cut out cookies. For all-chocolate wafers, roll the chocolate dough thin and cut out with a round or scalloped cookie cutter.
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 Pinwheel Cookies
 

​One recipe of Suzi’s chocolate sugar cookie dough
Vanilla dough:

I am fortunate to be surrounded by lots of enthusiastic eaters, many excellent cooks, and a few passionate bakers. My interest in baking started when I was about six years old and has continued into a long cooking and baking avocation and career. One of my earliest multi-tiered cakes was a 50th anniversary cake for my Pedulla grandparents, circa 1978. I was joined in this daunting task by my cousin, Laura Jamieson (now Sampson), who is also a baker since childhood. I think it might have taken three nerve-racking days for the two of us to get this towering construction ready for the party. It seemed as if we’d completed an almost impossible, magical quest. It was far from perfect, but it was beautiful and delicious and most importantly, our grandparents enjoyed it.

Laura has been keeping gluten free for twenty years now and has developed recipes and strategies for making truly decadent and delicious gluten free dishes for every occasion. She shares this wealth of knowledge on her blog, Mama Laura's Kitchen . She has most graciously consented to do a guest blog here. I saw her recipe for sourdough discard crackers on her Instagram account, gfgirlmamalaura. Not only do I think baking homemade crackers is super rewarding, I am also always looking for ways to use sourdough starter discard. I also love that those bakers who need to keep gluten free can join in the sourdough craze, yay!

I was going to write a little biography of Laura’s baking life, but she has done such a good job of it herself, I decided to crib the bio from her blog and reprint it here. Thank you so much, Laura, for sharing your recipes with us. Without more ado, here is Laura:
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​Enjoying simple pleasures when you are needing to eat gluten free is a wonderful thing. Making and eating delicious gluten free crackers is one of those pleasures! Developing a gluten free cracker that is equally crispy, light and just as delicious as any gluten filled cracker, was a wonderful discovery. Processed gluten free baked items have become much more sophisticated and better tasting over the twenty plus years I have been eating a gluten free diet. Originally, I started writing recipes for gluten free food for myself, as I was tired of eating sub-standard tasting and texture food. I knew gluten free food had to be better than that! So, long before blended gluten free flours were a thing, I came up with lots of recipes using different gluten free flour combinations to attain a desired end product that was tasty and not full of salt or sugar. 
 
Now blended flours have come a long way in the past years, but I still want to control what is in the “blend” that I am making. Many purchased blends have added dairy, added cellulose (which my body does not tolerate), xanthan gum, and other emulsifiers, plus lots of other ingredients that may be unneeded for a particular recipe.
 
Here we have a simple cracker recipe, using gluten free sourdough discard. These crackers are so addicting! My husband, who does not need to eat gluten free, not only loves them, but also can't stay away from them! It's okay, I'm fine with sharing, because they are so simple to make and use the “discard” from my sourdough starter, which I'm always looking for new, fun ways to use. Just a few ingredients to stir together, then spread them on the pan and pop in the oven, and in about thirty minutes, you have crispy, savory, herb crackers! The best part of making your own gluten free crackers is that you can make any flavor combination you like. This week I made one pan of rosemary and garlic and one pan of sun- dried tomato and herb. Last week I had lots of chives from the garden I wanted to use, so I made fresh chives and cheddar crackers. The possibilities are endless! This recipe makes two pans worth, so there are plenty to share with family and friends, pop on a charcuterie board, or just grab a few to snack on. They stay crisp for about 6-7 days sealed in an airtight container. 
 
My daughter, who is dairy intolerant and gluten free, tried making these without the cheese and said they are still delicious and even still taste like cheese! This is due to the sourdough starter in them. The tangy sharp taste resembles the taste of sharp cheese (plus they are buttery...yum). They taste like an incredible Cheez-it cracker, except way better! Enjoy! And I challenge you to not eat them all at once! I’ve included a substitute if you do not have a gluten free sourdough starter. See below for the recipe for the “biga” dough overnight fermentation.
 
In all my recipes, I have noted with a “gf” after the ingredient, for each ingredient which needs to be labeled gluten free, if you are accommodating someone who has Celiac or gluten intolerance. Even herbs and spices, vanilla, chocolate, flour types which are by nature gluten free, all need to be labeled and certified “Gluten Free” in order not to have cross-contamination. If you cannot find the certification on a product, look for ingredients that are made in a facility that does not process gluten.
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Prep time: 15 minutes, plus prep and time for the “biga” if you don’t have a gluten free sourdough starter
Bake time: 10 minutes at 350 degrees F, 15-28 at 325 degrees F
Yields: 4-5 dozen, depending on the size of crackers
 
Ingredients:
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Topping (Mix together or use a mortar and pestle to combine):
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​1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. With a mortar and pestle, crush the rosemary and coarse salt together for topping. Pour into a small bowl. Stir in one to two teaspoons of parmesan cheese (if using cheese). Set aside.
3. Stir together in a medium bowl, the sourdough starter or “biga”, almond flour or meal, olive oil, butter, salt, garlic or garlic powder, cheese, and herbs to get a smooth batter.
4. Line two stone bar pans or cookie sheets with parchment paper. Divide the dough evenly between the two pans, and spread with a rubber spatula until very thin and even on both trays. Using a spatula dipped in a small amount of water, or your fingers dipped in water, smooth the top of the cracker dough. Sprinkle with the topping ingredients, reserving enough for the second pan. Repeat the process for the second pan.

5. Bake one pan at a time on the middle rack, or if baking both trays at the same time, evenly spaced in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the trays from the oven and score with a sharp knife or a ravioli cutter (making straight lines for your cracker squares in the size you like). You do not need to push the knife or cutter through to the bottom of the pan. This scoring will help you break these into nice square crackers once cooled. 
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6. After scoring the dough, reduce the oven temp to 325 and return each tray to the oven, rotating the pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating again after each 10 minutes. Bake until the crackers are golden brown and crispy. 
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​7. The crackers may not brown evenly on the entire pan. If some crackers are crispy and brown, remove by strips to a wire rack. Next, separate the remaining crackers to cook evenly and return to the oven for 5-8 minutes more. 
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​8. Remove the remaining crackers from the oven when crackers are crispy and golden brown. Cool completely on wire racks before breaking on the score marks and removing from the parchment to an airtight container (whatever is left after you enjoy some!)

 
**If you don’t have a gluten free sourdough starter to use, you can make an overnight “biga”, a dough fermentation which is similar in texture to sourdough starter. Into ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon (112 grams) of cool water, stir ⅛ teaspoon of active dry yeast (a gluten free brand). Stir briskly and make sure some bubbles form before adding 1 cup (110 grams) of gluten free millet or gluten free brown rice flour (Ryze Gluten Free Flour Mix, yellow bag, is also fine). Cover loosely with cellophane and let sit on the counter for 18-20 hours. The mixture should be bubbly at this point and will yield the 1 cup of gluten free “sour” dough needed for this recipe. The result will not be quite as tangy, but it will still result in a slightly sour crispy cracker.

My main goal in July is keeping the oven off and being out of the kitchen, preferably in a pool, in the shade. That said, there are some summer celebrations that warrant a beautiful, show stopper dessert. Summer fruit is at its best and if you can work in some ice cream, that is an ideal combination. Creamy, fruity, cake or crust? Yes, please! As I’ve mentioned before, you really can’t beat a summer fruit cobbler, pie, or stunningly hued summer pudding, as Rose writes about in her blog this month, but an ice cream cake is uniquely festive and can be made further in advance than either a cake or pie.

There is Fourth of July to plan for certainly but my favorite celebration planning is for my brother, Peter Patrick, whose birthday is in mid-July. He is one of those easy-to-please eaters who likes most everything and is happy to try any new flavor combination I can dream up. If he sees an unfamiliar tropical fruit at the Mexican grocery store, he’ll bring it home and we all get to taste the novel treat.

Me and the birthday boy, in the back of Dad’s Chevy Nova wagon.

For Pete’s ice cream cake birthday cake, I put together a combination of flavors I thought he would especially enjoy. The basic components of the ice cream cake are cake, ice cream and or sorbet, fruit, liqueur, and any additional accompaniments such as pour-over toppings.

For the cake layer, I considered a light ginger spice cake, an applesauce cake, or a purchased Sara Lee pound cake. The Sara Lee pound is always a good go-to if you really don’t want to turn on the oven. Since it wasn’t quite as hot as Hades yet, I baked a light fresh ginger cake in a square pan and cut it into three or four horizontal layers. I added freshly micro-planed ginger root to the butter and sugar mixture of a standard yellow cake recipe along with ½ a teaspoon each of ground ginger and ground cardamom, added to the dry ingredients. I specifically used a retro-looking glass heat-proof dish, a so-called “refrigerator dish.*” This dish was deep enough to hold all the layers and would be pretty enough to serve from. I think cold desserts look more charming and chillier, if you will, in glass. Two deep glass bread pans would be a good alternative.

I chose blackberries as the starring fruit role partly in homage to our delectable summer Driscoll’s berries, partly to honor our history of childhood berry-picking forays into the countryside, and partly because our Grandpa Pat’s birthday cake was traditionally chocolate cake with blackberry jam filling. Chocolate and blackberry is a divine combination but I wanted to create something unique for Pete. Peaches, plums, or apricots that have been pitted, chopped, and cooked down with a little sugar would be yummy. Pitted cherries and all the summer berries can simply be mashed and sugared or cooked down a bit to thicken. Let your fruit mixture cool before constructing your cake, of course.

For the “blackberry” ice cream, I used Tillamook’s Marion berry pie ice cream with cooked down, cooled, sugared blackberries folded in. Homemade berry ice cream would be fantastic! The ice cream can be homemade or store-bought but do try to use a premium ice cream. I like the Tillamook brand and Haagen-Dazs never disappoints. I wanted a mango sorbet to complement both the blackberries and ginger in the cake. Plus, the bright mango color against the lavender berry ice cream would be splashy. I had to make my own mango sorbet because there was none to be had at my local grocery store. A quick Google search found a simple recipe for mango sorbet made from frozen mango chunks, processed in a food processor. https://www.asweetpeachef.com/mango-sorbet/ I skipped the lime juice and water and the sorbet was perfect. Subsequently, I found a few mango sorbets to purchase.

The liqueur plays a role not only in bringing a complementary flavor note, but also in keeping the cake layers not quite as solidly frozen due to alcohol’s resistance to freezing. That said, you may leave it out if serving it to children. Fruit juice or thinned down jam may be substituted. I chose black raspberry flavored Chambord liqueur because I’d used up all my favorite Clear Creek Distillery loganberry liqueur. Any blackberry brandy or rum or cognac would do.

To assemble the cake, place the bottom cake layer in the serving dish. Sprinkle with a generous amount of liqueur. I don’t measure my sprinkles of liqueur but 3 or 4 tablespoons would work. Spoon on a layer of softened ice cream. Add another cake layer and sprinkle with liqueur. Add more ice cream or a layer of softened contrasting sorbet. Continue layering until you run out of ingredients or reach the top of the dish. Wrap dish securely with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 8 hours or up to 2 weeks. Let cake soften at room-temperature about 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh berries. I used a small metal pancake spatula to make cleanly cut servings.

To serve along with the chilly squares of ice cream cake, I wanted three accompanying sauces. In vintage glass pitchers, berry sauce and custard sauce can be passed. (Also known as crème anglaise, click for recipe.) For the berry sauce, I cooked down about 2 baskets of plump blackberries, with sugar to taste, microwaved in my 8 cup Pyrex batter bowl: less stirring over the hot stove is good. A little cut glass dish of thick chocolate sauce would please the chocolate lovers among us.

In case you want to serve the ice cream cake for a Fourth of July dessert, pick a shady spot to set up a table with ice tea, ice cream cake and accompanying sauces. Crisp vintage linens, a few pillows, and a summer rose bouquet set off our American flag-draped patio corner.

*The term refrigerator dish refers to square or rectangular glass storage containers with lids that were introduced with the advent of electric fridges. The new-fangled electric fridges were thought to be drier than the ice box, so pre plastic wrap, the lidded dishes were said to retain moisture in stored food. They can easily be found in antique stores and reproduction versions can sometimes be found with Pyrex baking dishes in home stores. I bought the above Anchor Hocking lidded dish at the kitchen store several years ago.

Here at My Tea Planner, we have a special love for shortbread. While many cookies go wonderfully with a hot cup of tea, buttery, crumbly, just sweet enough shortbread makes a perfect companion. Traditional shortbread appears at nearly every tea party that I give, year-round and certainly is anticipated on all holidays. As shortbread freezes extremely well, there is usually a tin of shortbread hidden in the back of my freezer. Recipes for no less than eight flavors of shortbread can be found at My Tea Planner. We have recipes for shortbread versions featuring poppy seed, Kona coffee, rosewater, lavender, black sesame, chocolate, and the recipe rumored to be Queen Elizabeth’s favorite shortbread. In my 2018 holiday blog, I gave a large batch shortbread recipe that makes a solid sheet pan’s worth of squares or bars. Find that recipe here: Sheet Pan Scottish Shortbread Recipe.

Though shortbread is found throughout the tea-drinking British Commonwealth, it is associated most closely with Scotland. In my research on shortbread, I found a real gem of a website called Historic UK which has both intriguing articles on many British topics and a searchable database of historic accommodations including castles, bed and breakfasts, county hotels and canal boats. Their article, “The History of Scottish Shortbread,” gives a good recipe and lays a pretty good argument for Mary, Queen of Scots, bringing a shortbread-like cookie from the French court. It is a quick, fun read, here:   The History of Scottish shortbread . For the anglophiles among us, we’ll want to bookmark their website and take a fantasy trip through British lore and castles while having our tea and shortbread break.

As much as I love plain shortbread, I am a baker who can’t leave well enough alone. The traditional shortbread ratio is roughly one part sugar, two parts butter, to three parts flour. The texture of shortbread is what sets it apart from a blondie, a butter cookie, or vanilla wafer. Shortbread’s dominant taste should be butter, so here is the time to use the freshest, highest quality butter you can find. This is a good use of the European-style high fat butters. Shortbread is also much less sweet than most cookies.  Shortbread recipes do not contain eggs or any leavening. The little holes seen on the surface of shortbread help to keep it from puffing, much like you’d prick a blind-baked pie crust. Pricking with a fork every half inch or so looks pretty and will help the texture. If you happen to have a fancy spiky wheel called a dough docker, it can be used instead of a fork.

When Louise and I were in Scotland, we were served a creamy, local bleu cheese on wholemeal oat biscuits. They were thicker and sweeter than American crackers, almost like an American cookie. The combination was just heavenly. I searched around for recipes to replicate them and found a Martha Steward recipe that called for ground oats and almonds and a tiny hint of cinnamon. While not precisely like the British ones, they were very tasty and similar in texture. The downside to these was they were fussy to shape into rounds and they called for a ton of butter.

I decided to morph these cookies into bars that had a sandy, crumbly texture similar to shortbread. The flavor of almonds and toasted oatmeal, with that slight warming hint of cinnamon, was a hit. Over the course of a few months, I baked batches of them for different occasions and always got rave reviews and requests for the recipe. I love that oats and shortbread, two most Scottish ingredients, have found each other and have been so in love.

I can’t remember exactly when I started toasting the oatmeal along with the almonds but it is a really good idea. The oats not only take on a toasty depth of flavor, they also make them dryer and less likely to add moisture to the bars. I ran across this essay by David Tamarkin at Epicurious.com How to toast oatmeal and why you should. I had usually toasted the oats in the oven, but he also gives a rather poetic description of toasting oats on the stovetop: “When you stand over a stove first thing in the morning, sleepily stirring dry oats in a hot pan, time moves slowly; what feels like five minutes might actually be just one or two. But depending on the heat you’re toasting over—medium-high works for me—toasting grains does take the full five minutes. You’ll know they’re done not by their appearance (the change in color will not be dramatic), but by their smell: the toasty aroma will waft up to you and be unmistakable. When it does, stop—you don’t want the oats to burn.”

This was my first working recipe, above. The final recipe, below, has less butter and less sugar than the former. Both recipes work as written. There was also an intermediate version with all brown sugar that was deliciously caramel-y but it softened the texture too much for my liking. This recipe can be doubled very successfully and baked in a 13” by 9” baking pan. Vanilla is not a usual ingredient in shortbread, but I do thinks it adds a little extra something. Feel free to leave it out.

Makes 3 dozen 1” squares

Special equipment: baking sheet, metal spatula, medium mixing bowl, food processor or blender or coffee grinder, hand or stand mixer, silicone scraper, 8” or 9” metal square pan, lined with parchment paper, knife or bench scraper, cooling rack

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Flowers add to the beauty of the tea table as they add beauty to every setting they grace. In May especially, the garden shouts to be raided for armfuls of blooms to fill pitchers and vases of every size. The lilacs bloom and fade so quickly that we must take all opportunities to enjoy their fragrance and gradient lavender tints before they are gone for another year.

Garden roses, here in California, have a much longer season so we can enjoy blooms nearly the year round. From one perfect rose to a mixed bouquet of every color in the garden, roses are one of the easiest, most striking and long-lasting cut flowers. Cutting stems longer than needed, cutting at an angle with sharp shears, trimming all foliage below the water line will all help your roses last in their chosen vases. Seen above, our favorite Lenox vase is a perennial favorite for many long-stemmed flowers.
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As with vegetable gardening, I like to plant what I like to eat: I plant many different roses, lilacs, and flowering shrubs because they will provide cut flowers that bring nature into the house.
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​        Rosemary in bloom adds spicy scent and touch of greenery to this blue and white tea party.
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Even in spring, we can’t always rely on the garden for all our bouquets, especially when a big or more formal arrangement is called for. Farmer’s markets, Trader Joe’s, and even some supermarkets have reasonably priced flowers to combine into your own arrangements. It is worth cultivating sources near you.
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For the large tea receptions, like those we do for Hidden Valley String Orchestra, I like to fill my tall samovar with branches and big flowers.

I hope you can enjoy garden flowers inside or outside your space this spring. Any little flower next to your afternoon cup of tea adds some beauty from the natural world straight to your heart.

​For those of us who can’t get enough of the garden, we have a deliciously springy tea party menu which you can peruse here:
Honeybee Tea in the Garden Menu
This lightly lavender scented shortbread recipe is one of the featured recipes from our honeybee tea menu and can be enjoyed any time of year.

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​These delicately flavored Shortbread Fingers remind us of the simple joy of a warm afternoon in the garden. If you have fresh lavender flowers, use them, but dried lavender flowers will also work to flavor these elegant little cookies. This recipe can be doubled if you would like an extra supply for future tea gatherings in the garden, even if you and the bees are the only guests. You can also dress these sweet little treats up with our Lemon Lavender Glaze.

​Preheat oven to 325° F
Special equipment: small bowl, large mixing bowl, electric mixer, citrus zester, sieve or flour sifter, rubber spatula, rolling pin, sharp knife, parchment-lined baking sheet, fork, wire rack, waxed paper, metal cookie box for storage
Makes: approximately 15 (1 ½” x 3”) Shortbread Fingers: This recipe can be doubled to make 30 bars.

“There aren’t enough colors of green to paint a Kansas landscape in the springtime,” so my painter grandfather Pat Murdock used to say. That holds up pretty well for a California springtime, too.
Here on the central coast, the golden hills of winter turn vivid, velvety green, set off by the darker evergreens of the redwoods. With apple blossoms, wild mustard, lupine, and California poppies, blazes of color are scattered everywhere againt all that green: Spring has come!

Green is my favorite color, closely followed by pale pink. And they look so good together, throw in lavendar and butter yellow and you have classic Easter colors.

In thinking about an Easter tea menu, I decided that spring pinks and greens would be the theme in tablesetting and food. Rose and I both have treasured pink depression glass pieces, inherited from the family. They mix beautifully with green depression glass and vintage floral china. My super thrifter girlfriends know I love these spring hues so I have been gifted with lovely linens and serving pieces that all coordinate. I had a fun afternoon digging through the big storage area where our pretties are kept. What beautiful things were waiting for me.

I usually like to come up with new recipes each year but upon review of our Easter/Spring menu, I think it is just about perfect! To that menu, I added some old favorites whose recipes are available for free, here: Classic Cucumber Sandwiches and Ham Salad. I also purchased a few things that added a bit of chocolate and even more pink: decorated chocolate eggs from See’s Candies and Trader Joe’s Pinks & Whites Shortbread Cookies.

​Here is the Spring Tea Menu for 2021, please enjoy all the pink and green!
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Menu
 
Pink Champage and English Breakfast Tea
Deviled Eggs with Asparagus Tips
Open-faced Spring Radish Ssandwiches
Ham Salad Sandwiches
Cucumber Sandwiches
Miniature Hot Cross Buns
Golden Eggs
Thumbelina Panna Cottas
Green & Pink Iced Cakes*
Pinks & Whites Shortbread Cookies
See’s Assorted Chocolate Eggs
 
 

A year ago, I wrote my pretty St. Patrick’s Day blog, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day to be cancelled along with the rest of the world’s usual business. Finally, we are beginning to see a small glimmer of hope in the battle against Covid. It has been a tough time for everyone. One source of comfort has been cooking and baking at home. I have missed hosting tea parties for friends, but still I bake on, creating new recipes and refining old favorites. (No, I cannot leave well enough alone.) If we can’t gather for big celebrations, let’s find something goofy and fun to celebrate.

Tailor-made for this role is Pi Day. Created by physicist Larry Shaw in 1988, Pi day is celebrated on March 14th because the date represents the first three digits of the mathematical symbol pi and happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday. Mr. Shaw was working at the Exploratorium, an interactive science museum in San Francisco, where the staff created a circular parade and served fruit pies to share the concept in a fun and kid-friendly way. It’s a cool story even though like Barbie, I think “math is hard!” The circumference of a circle is a useful tool for non-math brains, like artists and designers. And pi has intrigued math brains, thinkers, and philosophers since ancient Greek times partly because it is “an irrational, transcendental number, continuing to infinity.” Thank you history.com! Any reason, really, is a fine reason to bake more pie.

Research is always an interesting way to begin a project, especially if the research involves looking at lots and lots of cookbooks. Though it is truly revolutionary having recipes at your fingertips on the internet, there is a certain pleasure in opening a physical cookbook. The writer has had to think about the concepts and recipes intensely thus having time to really mull over their ideas. It’s reminiscent of listening to a record album instead of sampling various cuts from the same artist.

One of my favorite modern cookbook authors is Julie Richardson, a baker from Vermont, who now lives in Portland, Oregon. I first became familiar with her book, Vintage Cakes, (Ten Speed Press, 2012) which I loved so much that I purchased her book Rustic Fruit Desserts, (Chronicle Books, 2009.) I bake from Rustic Fruit Desserts quite a bit because the book is organized into seasons, and I like her slight twists on traditional recipes. I usually decide to make a fruit dessert because I am confronted with an overabundance of seasonal fruit.

In the “Winter” section, I found a recipe for Apple Custard Pie with Orange. Being early February, the orange tree was loaded with fruit and we also had a bowl of local Watsonville apples on the counter. While the pie was attractive, I found the flavor of orange peel in the pie off-putting, though my Dad quite liked the taste. I did like the custardy filling with the apples. I decided to mash up the custard-apple combination with a recipe I’d seen with buttermilk and whisky. A surprising and delicious pie, suitable for St. Paddy’s Day, was born. It is a grown-up kind of dessert, not too sweet, so I was still thinking about a more fun and indulgent pie.

Another flavor I’d been messing around with was vanilla malt, as in a malted milkshake or Malt-O-Meal, the hot cereal brand. I really like the old-fashioned flavor of malt though it is hard to describe. Malt is toasted barley, which certainly doesn’t scream “yummy dessert flavor” to anyone, yet it is yummy. It is also tantalizingly subtle so needs to be handled delicately and not overpowered by other strong flavors. Vanilla is a lovely foil to the earthiness of malt.

In the cookbook Handheld Pies by Sarah Billingsley and Rachel Wharton, (Chronicle Books, 2011,) I noticed a recipe for vanilla malt mini pies with a fun pretzel crust. I tested the recipe as a normal sized pie and was not happy with the results. The recipe did not successfully translate into a full-sized pie and was much too sweet for my taste. I rethought the whole recipe and traded the baked-in filling for a separate, pastry cream filling. I ended up changing almost everything about that recipe except the idea of a pie with a creamy, malt flavored filling, in a pretzel crust. I used David Lebovitz’s straight-forward pretzel crust recipe for my pie, just scaling the recipe down for a thinner crust. (I recommend looking at his other recipes here: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/ )

I’m really happy with the resulting pie. Testers loved the creaminess and delicate maltiness. The final pie recipe is slightly salty, very creamy, and not too sweet. The pretzel crust is baked like a graham cracker crust. Unique to the original mini pie recipe, very finely grated chocolate is sprinkled over the hot crust, melting the chocolate. It then cools, creating a barrier between the crisp crust and moist filling. The original recipe called for milk chocolate, but I changed it to white chocolate, wanting to keep the pie shades of cream and white.
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If you’ve not made pastry cream before, don’t be afraid. Pastry cream is a thicker version of pudding, thickened with egg and cornstarch. This makes it very handy to have around for filling layer cakes, making trifle, or filling éclairs. While not difficult, the method for pastry cream is very time and temperature sensitive. It helps to read the recipe through several times and set up your work station close to the stove. Even if a bit of the egg gets overcooked or the mixture gets lumpy, any lumps will be strained out before chilling. Cornstarch is completely cooked after being boiled 1 minute. Since the hot mixture must be vigorously whisked without stopping, it can be difficult to tell just when the thick mixture is really at a boil. When it nears a boil, it will become harder to whisk, and large bubbles will pop slowly up from the bottom, like a hot mud pit in Yellowstone Park. Really.

Feel free to go wild when decorating the pie. This is one instance when more is more; you might have the kids help. Since the inspiration was a soda fountain treat, I decided to stick stripy paper straws in the pie to mimic a malted milkshake. And why not use whole pretzels to echo the pretzel crust? Maybe colored sprinkles? More white chocolate? Or all of the above. Partially crushed malt balls would be great. It’s in celebration of our friend pi, so why not?

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Serves 6 to 8
Special equipment: medium sized microwave-safe bowl, sieve or colander, hand or stand mixer, silicone scraper, 9” pie dish, preferably glass, and cooling rack

• 2-3 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced, to make 2 cups, packed
• 3 tablespoons Irish whiskey, divided
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 eggs, at room temperature, well beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup buttermilk, full fat if available
• 1 unbaked 9” pie shell
• A few sprinkles ground mace or nutmeg, optional

 

1. In medium sized microwave-safe bowl, place apple slices, 1 tablespoon whiskey and 1 tablespoon water. Cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes or until apples are softened. Drain in sieve and discard any liquid. Leave in sieve and set aside to cool to lukewarm.
2. Meanwhile, in mixer bowl, beat softened butter with brown sugar, scraping bowl as needed. When butter and sugar are fully incorporated and no lumps remain, beat in flour. Scrape bowl and beat in egg yolk.
3. Gradually beat in eggs, a little at a time. Stir in vanilla and 2 tablespoons whiskey. When mixture is smooth, gradually beat in buttermilk. Set aside
4. Arrange cooled apple slices in bottom of pastry-lined pie dish. Pour buttermilk mixture over apple slices. Sprinkle mace or nutmeg over top, if desired. Carefully place in preheated oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until top of pie looks set and crust is golden brown. Cool completely on rack. Pie is best the day it is made but can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, for up to 3 days.

​Serving suggestion: use store-bought caramel sauce, thinned with whiskey to decorate the plate. Garnish with whipped cream.
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F in step #1 of crust recipe
Serves 8 to 10
Special equipment: blender or large food processor, silicone spatula, medium sized heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk, hand or stand mixer, fine mesh sieve, 2 medium bowls, waxed paper or plastic wrap, 9” pie dish

Pastry cream filling:

• 3 cups whole milk, divided
• 1 cup malted milk powder, such as Carnation brand
• 4 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup plus 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

 
Pretzel crust:

• 1 ¼ cups crushed pretzels
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted plus soft butter for greasing pan
• 2 ounces white chocolate* very finely chopped or grated
• Topping:
• 1 cup whipping cream, well chilled
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

 
Ideas for Garnish:
Crushed pretzels, mini pretzels, plain or dipped in white chocolate, colored sugar, roughly smashed malt balls, striped paper straws, cut to approximately 4”
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1. Pastry cream filling: In blender or large food processor, combine 1 cup cold milk and malted milk powder. Blend until smooth, scraping down sides with spatula. In heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk together remaining 2 cups of milk and malted milk mixture. Set aside.
2. In mixer bowl with whisk attachment, beat eggs, yolk, sugar, cornstarch, and salt, scraping down sides as needed. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes, until very thick. Set aside.
3. Set up a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl; have it ready next to the stove.
4. Over medium heat, heat milk mixture until very hot, stirring often. (Steam will puff up around edges of pan.) With mixer on low, gradually add a little of the hot milk to egg mixture. When combined, pour egg mixture back into saucepan, whisking constantly. When mixture nears a boil, it will become very thick and large bubbles will pop slowly up from the bottom. When boiling, keep whisking for 1 minute then remove from the heat. Beat in the vanilla.
5. Immediately scrape filling into prepared sieve, pressing mixture through with spatula. Discard any lumps. Press a sheet of waxed paper or plastic wrap directly onto surface so no skin forms. Chill until completely cold or up to 2 days.

 

1. Pretzel crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In medium bowl, combine pretzel crumbs and 3 tablespoon sugar. Stir in melted butter until crumbs are moistened. Generously butter a 9” pie dish. Press in pretzel mixture on bottom and up sides. Bake pie shell for 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Immediately sprinkle finely chopped white chocolate evenly over the bottom of crust. Cool completely before filling. The pie shell can be made one day ahead, loosely wrapped, at room temperature.

 

1. Assemble pie: stir pastry cream to loosen. Spoon into prepared crust, smoothing top.
2. Whip chilled cream to soft peaks. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla. Continue beating until almost stiff. Spoon over pie filling, spreading with spatula in to soft mounds. The pie may be chilled at this point for up to 2 hours. Garnish just before serving.
3. Garnish: pie can be garnished with additional crushed pretzels, mini pretzels, plain or dipped in white chocolate, colored sugar, roughly smashed malt balls, cut striped paper straws, or shaved white chocolate curls. Serve immediately. Chill any leftovers, well wrapped for up to 2 days. The crust will soften during storage but will still be delicious.
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At the finish of the winter holidays, I’m hot to get into making Valentine themed art projects. Why do I return year after year to my heart-shaped world? In paper and wood, sugar and flour, felt and cloth, the universal heart motif calls me to create. You’d be forgiven for thinking I must be tired of the whole idea. Oddly or miraculously, I am not in the least done with it.
Years ago, I read that Stephen King said he writes about horror because that is what catches in the drain of his mind. That made sense to me. We are drawn to diverse things, not always consciously. Poets, artists, composers return time and again to the same themes. I believe a good portion of these artists would not be able to quite pinpoint why they are fascinated with these particular subjects.
My definition of valentine is probably broader than the norm. My fondness for bits of rusty metal, old sewing notions, the odd dried leaf does greatly expand the materials list. I’ve christened my home studio Magpie Studio in honor of both my mother Margaret and my love of the found object, be it odd trash to anyone else or some tiny, lovely shell that anyone would put in their pocket. I’ve happily received gifts of spiraled scrap metal shavings from the job site to old stamps and flattened bottle caps. All may find a home in some collage.
Many times, an object will spark a slew of ideas and a series will be started. This year, inspiration found me in the form of a cast iron heart-shaped skillet. It came with a packet of cookie mix, as purchasers were meant to bake a heart-shaped cookie in it. Not being interested in a preservative-laden big cookie, I was very interested in what else could be made in or presented on this adorable little pan.
With afternoon tea menus always in mind, my first thought was of crumpets. The pan could be heated in the oven, keeping just-toasted crumpets piping hot, ready for oodles of butter to catch in every hole. Yum! A list of a dozen other charming tea foods served in the new pan quickly assembled in my mind. Pastries, tea sandwiches, a tartlet, a quiche, scones, little cakes, and so many more. I would like them to be heart-shaped, of course, and just the right size to fit into the pan. Not surprisingly, I have several heart-shaped cookie and biscuit cutters in many sizes. With just a little shaping, one cutter became the perfect size. (The difference of the cutters is that biscuit cutters are deeper.)
Traditional foods can be cut into heart shapes, yes, but also since the cutter is metal, food can be baked right in the cutter, either in the cast iron skillet or on a baking sheet. Covered with parchment or ideally, a silicone baking mat, open bottom cutters turn into baking forms admirably. Metal cookie cutters are so inexpensive that investing in 6 or even a dozen won’t set you back much. The runniest mixture I used was the egg and cream quiche blend. This led me to the idea of lining the cutter with slices of deli ham, fitted like a crust, inside the cutter. There was some egg leakage but the heat of the oven put a stop to it quickly. The extra bits can be trimmed later with a sharp knife or clean scissors. Even the crustless cheesecake I baked in my heart-shaped cutter only leaked a tiny bit before setting up in the oven.
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Since I was cooking and baking diverse kinds of food, I knew that I would be photographing on one background to unify the photos. Avoiding a hodgepodge look is definitely something I strive for in photos and in my art projects, in general. When assisting my baking partner, Suzi, when she taught cookie decorating classes, I noticed students tending to employ the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink method of decorating. While fun, this looks a bit like a hastily assembled yard sale to me. Sometimes, what you leave out is just as important as what you put in. “Limited palette” is a useful concept to borrow from art practice to apply to any kind of design or decorating. Its practical application in cookie decorating is achieved by presenting only two or three examples from which to work and giving students just the supplies to create those designs. Students of all ages tend to be happier with these attractive cookies.
Does that sound harsh and bossy? Does it stifle creativity? Is pleasing success better than pioneering failures? Answers: yes, maybe, sometimes? A creative practice is just that, a practice. A life-long practice for many people. When I present these finished photos, there is forty years of practice behind them: way, way too many uninteresting pieces, sloppily executed work, technical failures, work that has nothing to add, work that just isn’t compelling to me all have helped me zero in on what I want to make and how to achieve the results. These photos are contributed to by the various art instructors at Cabrillo College, inspiring art buddies, the example of my own grandfather’s practice, the shock of the new absorbed at art school, closely looking at the natural world season by season, intense professional baking, and a million other things remembered and forgotten.
The urge to create is built in to us humans. Allowing some space for creating into your life seems like a safe and sound bet. I love the trend of the makers and the bakers and the creative energy I see all over the internet and in my own hometown public murals. I think it’s good for us; take your vitamins, create stuff, see where it all leads you.

It’s my pleasure and privilege to be the birthday cake baker for my family and crew. That group includes many good to excellent bakers. That group also includes many who enjoy eating a good cake probably more than baking one. There must be both groups so there are no fist fights over who is baking whose cake and there need to be plenty of eaters to do justice to a robust cake. I’m so lucky to be in this perfect place.

A handmade cake is a gift from the heart. It tells the recipient they are important, they are loved and hopefully, they are known. That’s the part where the baker tries to match the birthday boy or girl to the cake that they would like the most.

Also, I am trying to make a cake that is recognizably a “birthday cake.” No dis to folks who dream of birthday pies or Jell-O molds, but I want to present a cake that reads “Birthday Cake.” For my birthday, I want a birthday cake with a deep chocolate, moist crumb, covered with pale pink frosting. Bonus points for cherries to be somewhere in or on there. This year for my birthday, Suzi baked me a chocolate cherry layer cake, with dipped cherries decorating the top. Beautiful, mouth-watering and my ideal of what a birthday cake “should” be. Suzi definitely nailed it!
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I will stop here and give a shout out to those who want a pineapple upside cake, a cobbler, or a cheesecake for their party. (At My Tea Planner, you will find recipes for all these treats.) While they are all delicious and worthy of our time and attention, when I say birthday cake, I’m thinking of a two- to four-layer cake with frosting and some form of decoration.

For my favorite sister-in-law’s last birthday, I knew I wanted to make an extremely chocolatey layer cake for her. It is her intense love of chocolate that makes Rose and I revaluate every tea menu to see if it passes the Tiffany test. Is there enough chocolate on the menu to make Tiffany happy? If, heaven forbid, there is not enough, we add some. We always want Tiffany to feel that there is plenty of chocolate.
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I dove deep into my clipped recipe file and found a very luscious-looking candidate, “Cocoa-Almond-Coco Cake.” Beyond its seductive good looks of satiny chocolate and dense coconut filling, the inclusion of coconut milk in the cake batter itself made me want to try the recipe. I’m a proponent of piling on multiple layers of the same flavor to really maximize the intensity.

A word about recipe evaluation: I first clipped this recipe back in the day because it not only looked delicious and flavorful, it seemed like a well-written, sound recipe. A good chocolate cake recipe needs to include a lot of cocoa, here a generous ¾ cup, plenty of butter and eggs, check, and sour cream or yogurt for richness and tang. The addition of coconut milk adds richness, tang, and extra coconut flavor: excellent. I was remiss to not get the recipe developer’s name so I could properly attribute the recipe. Thank you very much, whoever you are.

I made the recipe as written, the only change being that I scattered some additional sliced almonds on the top. The birthday girl said the recipe is indeed a keeper.
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Happy holidays to you! I would usually extend my holiday greeting to you and your whole family but this year you may not be seeing everyone. The next best thing is sending far off family a tin with love, sugar, and spice baked right in.
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As astute followers of myteaplanner.com and our blogs may have noticed, we appreciate a good cake recipe. A beautiful cake atop its cake pedestal has pride of place on the tea table and at celebrations throughout the year. These special occasion cakes tend to be presented with luscious fillings and frostings, creamy swirls adorning tops, shiny glazes dripping richly down the sides. As gorgeous as these cakes are to gaze upon and eat, they would not be the ones to send through the mail. When choosing a cake to mail, the properties to look for are sturdiness, long keeping attributes, and an absence of gooey toppings or fillings. Anything needing refrigeration is to be avoided. In general, pound cakes and bundt cakes are good candidates for shipping. For some excellent recipes from our website, check out the rum bundt cake, cocoa apple cake, cinnamon apple crown cake, moist chocolate marble cake, Greek lemon cake, triple espresso cake, and easy orange pound cake.
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​The gold standard of long keeping holiday cakes is fruitcake. If some of you have run screaming from the room, please make yourself a calming cup of tea and come back here and keep reading. One can make a yummy fruitcake without any of the day-glo green candied cherries that adorned fruitcakes of yore. I’ve long made my fruitcakes with dried fruit only and they pass the fruitcake lovers’ tests and are enjoyed by fruitcake haters as well. More about candying your own fruit, recipes for a variety of fruitcakes with tips for making and aging fruitcakes can be found here:  https://www.myteaplanner.com/in-defense-of-fruitcake-fruitcakes-and-candied-fruit.html
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Never fear, there are festive cakes for the winter holidays that do not involve month-long planning, oodles of brandy, multiple pounds of dried fruit, and are beloved favorites: gingerbread! The warm baking spices and distinct flavors of molasses and ginger make gingerbread a welcome treat with hot tea, coffee, or mulled cider. I have used the Gosby House gingerbread recipe for many years but am always on the lookout for new twists on our family favorite. I had come across the famous Gramercy Tavern recipe several times and decided to try it this year. The recipe makes one large bundt cake but I made it in three small steamed
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pudding molds which look a lot like sized-down bundt pans. It was so delicious, dark and rich with just the right amount of spice. I wrapped up one of the little cakes and sampled it for several days in a row: it kept beautifully at room temperature, snuggled in its airtight tin. I highly recommend it. The recipe can be found here: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/gramercy-tavern-gingerbread-103087Gramercy Gingerbread Recipe

In my gingerbread file, I also found a recipe I’d clipped sometime in the past for a gingerbread cake mix. A mix would allow a lucky recipient to make their own warm gingerbread, with just a few additions, making the house smell so inviting. The recipe makes enough for five 8” by 8” cakes. I baked one and it was quite good and also kept well for several days. The only change I made was to increase the amount and variety of spices used in the original mix. I like my gingerbread gingery-spicy!
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Another type of cake that travels well is the coffee cake/crumb cake style of cake. Besides being an indulgent treat, the coffee cake can be enjoyed from breakfast to afternoon tea to latenight fireside time. I tested a New York-style crumb cake that sported almost as much crumb as cake. The recipe even mentions that it can be stored at room temperature for up to five days. Though the recipe called for it to be baked in a 13” by 9” pan, I baked it in two 8” by 8” pans with great success. This crumb cake is definitely a keeper and will probably make an appearance at a brunch soon.
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New York-Style Crumb Cake
​adapted from Martha Stewart Magazine
Yield: Makes one 9-by-13-inch cake (or two 8” by 8” square cakes)

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1. Make the crumb topping: Mix together flour, sugars, cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Pour warm melted butter over mixture, and mix using your hands until medium to large clumps form.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Make the cake: Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.
3. Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs and yolks, 1 at a time, then vanilla. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Continue to beat until well combined.
4. Spoon batter into pan, and spread evenly using an offset spatula. Spread with jam, if using. Sprinkle crumb-topping mixture evenly over top.
5. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Transfer pan to a wire rack. Let cake cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Jam variation: Top batter with 1 cup store-bought blueberry jam (10 ounces) before scattering crumb layer over top in step 4
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Dad’s kitchen, dressed up in holiday tartan, delftware, and a bit of holly.