Induction Baking

Convection, induction…whatever, we’re having this baby!!!  Finally, we got the much anticipated call, the call that says “hey, come on down and let’s have this baby”.  Well, not exactly like that, but that’s what it feels like, like we finally got chosen to go on the game show and win a million dollars…or a million dirty diapers as the case may be.

We are headed to Pennsylvania tomorrow and inducing on January 16th 2011.  Seems like a good day to be born to me.  I’ll take it!  The wait of the past week and a half, well nearly three years to be more precise, has been driving us over the edge.  Each day Brian and I get up wondering if “this will be the day” or “where will we be when we get the call?” and end up filling the day with a series of unplanned activities be it home projects, trips to the gym, shopping and for me cooking and baking.  I find it extremely humorous that we were at a P.F. Chang’s, no less, and one connected to a shopping mall at that.  You don’t have to go very far outside of New York City to find your roots, and I always love “bad” Chinese food.

The last of the pre-baby Fabulous Pastries is in the oven, and it is a New York Style Crumb Cake by the owners of Baked in Brooklyn.  They recently came out with a new cookbook called Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented (it has gorgeous photos).  In the book, they are doing something I find to be rather interesting and something I’ve written about on several occasions; tracing or tracking down the origin of regional recipes and then giving it their own twist.  I love the research.  I’m very interested in knowing why something is made the way it is, whether that be in terms of flavor profiles or cooking styles.  Did it come from Grandma or Aunt Helen, or is it a recipe someone found in the newspaper, maybe even a recipe from the neighbors brought to a potluck dinner at the local church? 

How a recipe comes about and keeps its staying power (or fades away into the dust, sometimes for good reason) is intriguing to me.  I suppose it’s similar to fashion in a way.  Big shoulder pads left us for a reason and apparently desserts are no different.  If a dessert becomes extremely trendy, winding up on every menu in town, the intoxicating power and novelty wear off.  Rare items and hard to find gems are popular because of scarcity, and apparently so is a good chiffon cake or Boston cream pie according to the Baked guys. 

Dessert star power is a fickle thing, and so is tracing the birth of many of our most popular favorites.  Every region has something special to offer, ask any northerner where you can find good Red Velvet Cake and they should tell you to head south.  This book shares many interesting tidbits and facts about a range of desserts and sweet breakfast items.  Hilariously I even found a recipe for strawberry pretzel salad, a recipe found in my grandmother’s recipe box and one I made on this blog a long time ago…and yes, the origin is mid-western.  We do love our Jell-O salads.

Baked Explorations is one of the three cookbooks I happily received for Christmas.  The other two were both from the Barefoot Contessa.  An older one called Barefoot Contessa Family Style, and her latest book called Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?…riffed from her trademark phrase.  In the past week and a half of being away from what I would call “work proper” I have found myself able to read multiple books (and play video games), a luxury I had been indulging in solely on the train to and from work.  I was able to sit down and properly explore all three cookbooks, making only Barefoot Contessa meals and dessert over the past weekend and saving Baked Explorations for this one.

Barefoot Contessa’s recipes are always so simple, or at least reasonably simple and accessible for most people.  There aren’t any crazy ingredients as a general rule, you know the kind you have to track down in an isolated village in some small European country only producing the particular item 1 month out of the year and if you don’t get it then you’re screwed…none of that.  I appreciate not having leftovers of specialty ingredients haunting my already overburdened pantry, and Ina seems to get it. 

In looking for inspiration for this week’s desserts I went back to my quest for seasonal and weather appropriate items.  When it’s cold and bleak out, I can think of few better things than a crumb cake from the Baked boys and Orange Pound Cake from Ina Garten. 

It is citrus season again…I guess it’s always citrus season if you go to any supermarket in the United States.  It’s rare that we, as a consumer of transported goods, can’t get any food item we want at most any time.  I’ve rambled on and on in the past about not wanting to eat a tomato in the winter (and that still holds true), but an orange in January is perfectly lovely, and recommended even. 

From December through March most citrus fruits are delicious and bursting with flavor and color.  Each year I purchase the requisite box of clementines from the market to place in a bowl by the front door as decoration and as an offering to guests.  There is something very clean and beautiful about a clementine, and most citrus for that matter.  Not only are they good for eating, but much like lemons can be used for cleaning and freshening the house as well.  The bowl in the hall never seems to empty, though.  I end up with about half the clementines eaten and another half drying out and left sitting sadly on the sideboard.  When I saw Ina’s recipe for the Orange Pound Cake, I immediately knew of a few orange related candidates I could put to good use. 

The recipe calls for the zest of six oranges plus additional juice to make the sauce and glaze that goes into the bread, but I discovered about 2 clementines equal the same amount of zest and juice as the large navel oranges, and the flavor seems a little brighter to me.  Yes, my hand got a little tired grating those bright orange balls of juiciness, but my conscience is free from guilt and the bowl in the hall is almost empty.  Here is the reprinted recipe from Barefoot Contessa Family Style:

Orange Pound Cake

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup grated orange zest (6 oranges)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2-teaspoon baking powder

1/2-teaspoon baking soda

1-teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, divided

3/4-cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1-teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze

1 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pans.  Line bottoms with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and 2 cups of the granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  With the mixer on medium speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the orange zest.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup of the orange juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla.  Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour.  Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

While the cakes bake, cook the remaining 1/2-cup of granulated sugar with the remaining 1/2-cup orange juice in a small saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves.  When the cakes are done, let them cool for 10 minutes.  Take them out of the pans and place them on a baking rack set over a tray.  Spoon the orange syrup over the cakes and allow the cakes to cool completely.

To glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar and orange juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth.  Add a few more drops of juice, if necessary, to make it pour easily.  Pour over the top of the cakes and allow glaze to dry.  Wrap well, and store in the refrigerator.

I figured a little sunshine in the shape of a naughty, citrus studded loaf of butter and flavor would be the best cure for all these winter blahs.  It snowed another foot or so this week, slowly making me feel like I’ve moved to Canada instead of New York State.  It’s not so bad since I have been able to stay in my kitchen up to this point, watching the garden turn into a crisp field of white, but tomorrow we will be on the move!

As my last act of contrition, if you will, I wanted to make the New York-Style Crumb Cake recipe from Baked Explorations.  As I read through the book this morning many things popped out at me, and I bought the ingredients to make several different recipes should time permit, but happily (in this case) it didn’t.  I had been reviewing a couple different desserts with orange as a component.  I’m a fan of sticking to a color story when it comes to writing and taking photos for the blog, but both the recipes I found containing orange are a little more time consuming than what I have to work with at the moment.  The third recipe I wanted to try was a little less time consuming and still fits in our winter spectrum of naughtiness because of the fragrant cinnamon (and nearly four sticks of butter).  I haven’t found the recipe online yet, so I’ll reprint it here:

New York-Style Crumb Cake

Crumb Topping Ingredients:

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2-teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and warm

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Cake Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4-teaspoon baking powder

1-teaspoon baking soda

1/2-teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups sour cream

1-teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position the rack in the center.  Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.

Make the crumb topping.  In a medium bowl, stir together sugars, the salt, and cinnamon.  Add the melted butter and whisk until combined.  Fold in the flour until it is absorbed and set the mixture aside.

Make the cake.  Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until it is completely smooth and ribbon-like.  Scrape down the bowl and add the sugar.  Beat the mixture until it starts to look fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, and beat until incorporated.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for 30 seconds.  Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat just until incorporated.  Add the dry ingredients in three parts, scraping down the bowl before each addition, beating only until it is just incorporated.

Assemble the cake.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Use your hands to scoop up a handful of the topping and make a fist.  The topping should hold together.  Break off in chunks and drop them over the cake.  Repeat to use all the topping.  Remember, the topping layer will look outrageously thick.

Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Rotate the pan two times during the baking process.  Cool the entire pan on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before serving.

The cake will last for 3 days, tightly covered, at room temperature.

Smelling cinnamon floating out of the kitchen is a definite cold weather pleasure.  It starts in the fall with apples, makes it’s way in to the holiday spice cakes and cookies and now ends up in this coffee cake-like dessert.  I say “like”, because Matt Lewis (one of the authors) makes a big point to clarify the differences between coffee and crumb cakes, most notably being the crumb topping is thicker than the cake itself…truly, and isn’t the crumb topping the best part?  Also there are no nuts or swirling of batter in a crumb cake where there often is with coffee cakes.  Regardless, the thick cinnamon and brown sugar topping is heavenly, homey, comforting and just the right thing to go with a glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee on a cold winter’s morning/afternoon/evening.  

I think it’s good to leave the house smelling like cinnamon.  That way the cats won’t know we’re really away…or I can tell myself that.  And when friends come over to check on Stanley and Lily they will be greeted with the pleasant scent of gently spiced baked goods, ushering them in to feed two seemingly desperate cats wanting treats and gravy, stat!!!  And maybe when we get ready to come home, there will still be that faint aroma hanging out here, ready to welcome us back with a special treat of our own, our daughter.

I’m so happy to finally get out of my head and into the reality of having a baby.  I’ve watched so many close friends go through this process in the past year, at one point there were four babies in a four-month stretch.  I’ve seen a lot of drool, some dirty diapers, a lot of feeding, some crying and tons of laughter and looks of wonderment.  I can only read so many books, take so much advice and process “thinking” related things.  I want to feel what it’s like to be a dad, and if she’s good (or bad), I might bake her a cake or two or three along the way.  It’s just who I am.