Mother Lovin' Coffee Cake

If you love your mother, then make her this cake for brunch on Mother's Day. It will make up for all the times you sassed her, threw temper tantrums, upchucked on her pants, left sippy cups of milk to spoil under the car seat, told your teacher you were pretty sure she was 57 (when she was 30), kept her up all night nursing, kept her up all night wondering why you had broken your curfew, rolled your eyes at her, shrugged off a hug, crashed her car, or lied right to her face.

She's probably forgiven you already, but this very cake will make all those tortuous years she spent raising you almost a figment of her imagination.



This cake's rich and buttery crumb is moistened with a touch of sour cream and a perfect ribbon of brown sugar crumbs ripple through the center. Topped with more crumbs and a glaze made from pure maple syrup, this is honestly the best coffee cake I have ever tasted.


So delightful is this cake, that your mom, in a moment of pure bliss and delusion, might even ask you to move back in with her. You should politely refuse, of course, but offer to make this cake again sometime....And if you're lucky, your kids may make it for you someday too.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Recipe Adapted from Barefoot Contessa
Printable Recipe

Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Yield: serves 8-10

Ingredients:

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 extra-large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole fat sour cream
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Crumb Topping:

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

2. Beat butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla.

3. In another small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Add half the flour mixture to the bowl and beat gently. Add the sour cream to the bowl and beat again. Then add the last half of the flour mixture, beating only until just combined.

5. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl and to make sure that all the ingredients are totally incorporated.

6. Make the crumb topping. Mix the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl. Add the butter and cut in using a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingers until small crumbs form.

7. Pour half the batter into the prepared tube pan and spread evenly around. Sprinkle half the crumb topping onto the batter, then top with the remaining batter. Carefully spread the batter around to cover the crumb topping, then sprinkle the top with the remaining crumbs.

8. Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a rack in the pan for 30 minutes then carefully remove from the pan and transfer the cake to a serving plate, crumb side up.

9. Make icing by whisking powdered sugar with maple syrup until smooth. Drizzle over the top of the cake and serve warm or at room temperature.

Microgreens

Microgreens were all the rage awhile back. And you can still buy them in baggies at the farmers market and some specialty grocers. But you can also get them for practically free if you grow a garden from seed. You see, microgreens are simply sprouted seeds. These I've thinned from my winter garden that I planted a few weeks ago. I have broccoli, radish, fennel sprouts right now. In a few more weeks, I will be able to nosh on my carrot, onion and chard sprouts. They are absolutely delicious and carry the essence of the vegetables they are to become.

Waste not, want not, right?

I stuffed the sweet sprouts into a one-egg omelet. I realize that one egg doesn't sound like very much, but I buy the jumbo kind and stuff it very full, so it is plenty for me to eat. If you've never made an omelet before, don't be afraid. It's not as hard as you think. You need a non-stick skillet of some sort, medium sized is best. And butter. Lots of it. Other than that, you need a bit of practice. And if it doesn't turn out perfectly the first time, who really cares? It still tastes delicious!

To start, if you pull your greens from the garden they need to be washed, very, very well....there was lots of grit on mine.


I also opted to pull off the root end, as the dirt was especially clingy there.


Beat one egg in a small bowl and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Then melt some butter in your skillet. There should be enough to coat the bottom of the pan evenly.


Next, add some sliced jalapeno and green onion and cook them for a couple of minutes until they become tender and golden.


Then pour the beaten egg evenly around the pan...


Tilt it slightly to make sure it is evenly spread around.


It will cook very quickly. Sprinkle over some grated cheddar cheese....


Some fresh cilantro...


Some chopped tomatoes....


And your gorgeous microgreens!


Fold it in half and carefully slide it onto a plate.


Take a bite....repeat.



Microgreen Omelet

This petite omelet is a perfect light breakfast. You can fill it with baby spinach or arugula in place of the microgreens if you can't find any.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes
Yield: serves 1

Ingredients:
1 extra large egg
salt and pepper to taste
1 pat butter
1/2 jalapeno, thinly sliced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
small handful grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro
1/2 tomato, chopped
small handful microgreens

Preparation:

1. Beat egg in a small bowl and add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

2. Heat a medium, nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add butter and swirl pan to coat evenly.

3. Put the scallion and jalapeno in the pan a cook, stirring occasionally, for a couple of minutes until they become tender and lightly golden brown.

4. Pour egg into the pan, tilting it so that the egg completely coats the bottom of the pan. The egg will cook through almost immediately, but spread any gooey egg to the edges, taking care not to tear the middle.

5. When the egg has set, sprinkle the cheese, tomatoes, cilantro and microgreens down the middle. Carefully fold omelet in half and slide out onto a plate. Serve immediately.

Oatmeal Brown Sugar Scones

The fact that I patted them a wee bit on the thin side, didn't affect their flavor at all...which was sort of a cross between an oatmeal cookie and a heavenly bowl of brown sugar sprinkled oatmeal. I brought some to my 91 year old grandmother, and to a certain teacher to make amends. After that, there were only two left, which presented quite a problem as there are many more hungry mouths in my family to feed than that. In the end, all I got were some crumbs. But those alone were enough to tell me that this is a recipe worth repeating...again and again.

The reviews were mixed on the Epicurious website where I got the recipe. But I decided to try anyway. I found them light, and not too sweet, which was fortuitous because they were baked to be smothered with lemon curd, which added plenty of sugar in and of itself. They weren't quite as biscuit-like (read dry) as usual scones, and had a light, cakey interior. In a word, I found them perfect. Perfect for my needs anyway.






One commenter complained that they don't rise up much in the oven. This is true...what you see is what you get. So pat them as thick as you would like them to be when they are finished. Brushed with buttermilk and sprinkled generously with brown sugar and oats, these simple scones were a hit with us...even the crumbs tasted good. I ought to know...




Oatmeal Brown Sugar Scones

Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Yield: 8 large scones

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups plus 2 tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces
2/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk plus additional for brushing

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In the bowl of your food processor fitted with a steel blade attachment, pulse flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1 1/3 cups of oats 15 times to combine.

2. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles small peas. Place mixture into a large bowl and stir in buttermilk until the mixture begins to come together. Turn out the dough onto a board (it will still be floury and shaggy) and knead until it just comes together.

3. Pat into a circle about 1-inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Brush each wedge with buttermilk, then sprinkle on the remaining brown sugar and oats.

4. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes or until scones are lightly golden brown. Cool completely on a cooling rack....although they taste wonderful warm too.

When Life Gives You Lemons...The Sequel

I'm not really sure where to start with this post....I have so much to share. So I guess I'll start with what might have come first...the egg. These eggs were purchased last weekend at the farmers' market. Though I prefer the brown or blue ones, this is the only kind they had left. Their large size made up for their uninteresting color as they were huge. Almost as big as duck eggs. I was surprised to discover, as I cracked open the first egg to fry for breakfast the next morning, that hidden inside were two yolks. Twins! In fact, every egg in that dozen is a twin. Which is simultaneously exciting and disconcerting. What's in their food....or water?!?! Is this normal? I have no idea.


So anyway, I thought all that yolky goodness would make for an especially rich lemon curd. And with all those lemons I had laying around, it was a perfect way to use them up. I used Ina Garten's recipe, mostly because it didn't require a double boiler. Lemon zest is peeled and whizzed with the sugar. Then eggs and butter are mixed in. You carefully stir the mixture around in a heavy saucepan for about 10 minutes until it becomes thick, glossy, and gloriously rich and lemony.





It makes a wonderful gift for your daughter's adorable redheaded Irish teacher, especially when paired with oatmeal scones. And you might want to give a teacher a gift to make amends for missing yet another day of volunteering in the classroom because you were taking down the Christmas tree and boxing up decorations. But I wouldn't really know about that...I'm just sayin'...


Back to the curd. It's sweet and sour, and comforting at the same time. It would blow your mind if it was nestled into a tart shell, or spooned over a shortbread cookie or vanilla ice cream. I've even added it to a chicken stir fry to make lemon chicken, but mostly I like to just lick it off of a spoon. Swoon.




I suppose you'll want the recipe for the oatmeal scones.....I'll share that tomorrow. In the meantime, get started on this lemon curd. Right! Now! (Jeesh I'm bossy...)


Lovely Lemon Curd
Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa

This curd is the perfect combination of sweet and sour and is so rich and glossy. Try it with scones, or as a filling for a tart.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Yields: 2 half pint jars...with a bit leftover to eat right out of the bowl...shhh...

Ingredients:

3 lemons
1 1/2 cups of sugar
4 extra large eggs
1 stick of butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup lemon juice
pinch of salt

Preparation:

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the rind (not the white pith) from the lemons and place in the food processor, along with the sugar. Pulse mixture until lemon peel is finely minced and blended with the sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar/zest mixture and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time until thoroughly combined. Mix in the lemon juice and salt.

Place mixture in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat over a low flame, stirring constantly for 10-15 minutes, or until about as thick as a pudding. The curd will be about 170 degrees when this happens, and not yet simmering. Pour into a container and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. You may want to place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Dollop onto anything....

After Much Anticipation...

Summer's warmth has truly wrapped us in her damp embrace this week, with air so wet it feels as if you could literally wring the water out of it with your bare hands. Today was blessedly cloudy and foggy, the hot sun shrouded behind a soggy, gray cloak. No rain yet, though I know it's coming.

Early this morning...and by early I mean 8 o'clock, it is still summer after all...we headed out in the drizzly dampness, to Hokum Rock Farm for some seriously serious blueberry picking. They were open today from 8-10 a.m. or until picked out, indicating to me that they suspected that they could indeed be picked out well before then. We arrived around 8:30, a small army of seven eager pickers, fierce competition for any berry picking family, I think. The parking lot was already full, as was the over-flow section. We managed to squeeze into a spot near the edge and hurried towards the netted-in enclosure that contained several perfect rows of berry bushes. As we picked our way down the line we found plenty of ripe berries, some small, some large, that dropped easily from their stems into our waiting blue pint-sized baskets. Our fingers (and shirts) stained, and trays heavy, we headed towards the check out area.

All told, we picked twenty pints of the berries, for a grand total $60. Hopefully we will be able to use them up. If I lived here year-round, I would definitely freeze some, but as it is, we will have to preserve the berries in jams and sauces and eat the rest up in baked goods, on our cereals and just by themselves...in THREE days. I think that tomorrow will be spent in the kitchen putting up a large quantity of them so we can bring them back to Southern California and have a taste of Cape Cod summer waiting in the pantry.

I tried a new blueberry muffin recipe right when we got home, as we were hungry from our efforts (and our lack of breakfast). It called for brown sugar, but I think not quite enough. Next time, I will probably add a bit more. They were, however, perfectly tender and bursting with freshly-picked berries. On second thought, our two dozen muffins were gone not much after they came out of the oven. So perhaps they were sweet enough after all? I'll let you decide. One hour, farm to table...the way I wish I could eat all the time.

Hokum Rock Brown Sugar Blueberry Muffins

2 C flour

3 T brown sugar

3 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 egg

1 C milk

1 stick butter, melted

1 C fresh blueberries

turbinado (raw) sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and melted butter. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients at once, mixing just until combined. Carefully fold in blueberries and spoon evenly into greased muffin tin. Sprinkle heavily (about 1 large pinch each) with turbinado (raw) or white sugar.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Serve warm, with butter.

Rain, Rain Go Away Already!

Oh my goodness, what nasty, nasty weather we have had here on the Cape. At least some of us are still smiling! Yesterday afternoon we were caught at the beach in a really scary electrical storm that blackened the sky and poured torrential rain on us as we made our way home, our car carving a huge wake in the flooding streets. When we finally made it back to the house, the thunder was so very loud it literally shook us to our bones (and rattled our nerves a bit too). Nearby lightning sadly struck and killed a fisherman, and I am so thankful we were able to get out when we did. The powerful forces of nature never cease to amaze me. Today, my poor mom was soaked through when I dropped her off at the bus (back to the airport), as another amazingly powerful storm ripped through our area with reports of golf-ball-sized hail and another man struck by lightning (he survived thankfully)...suffice it to say that it was not a great way to end a rather wet and gloomy (but hopefully fun anyway) week's vacation.

Though sun was promised for this upcoming holiday weekend, it looks as if more storms are headed our way, which could literally rain on our parades. And how about those farmers? They've got to try to make a living in this mess! Sigh. It's JULY, Mother Nature...how about a little break? A little sunshine would do us all good, I think.

Despite the weather, I'm forging ahead with plans for summer meals...starting with a delicious blueberry cake for breakfast. Because ours are not quite ripe yet, I used some from the freezer. I would advise you to buy extra blueberries when they come to market and tuck them away in yours so you will have a supply all year long. This wonderful recipe is adapted from my newly purchased book by Laura Brody called, The New England Table. I also have her book The Cape Cod Table, which is filled with delicious recipes and lovely photographs, as well.

Blueberry Buckle

makes 8 slices

for the topping:

4 T butter, room temp

1/2 C sugar

1/3 C flour

1/2 t cinnamon

for the cake:

2 C flour (unbleached AP)

2 1/2 t baking powder

3/4 t salt

3/4 C sugar

3/4 C whole milk

4 T butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 t vanilla extract

1 extra large egg

1 pint (2 C) blueberries, fresh or frozen is fine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the center of the oven. Butter an 8 or 9 inch, round cake pan.

Make topping. Mix ingredients together in a bowl with your fingers or a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

To make the cake, mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Measure milk in a 2 cup measuring cup, then add milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract. Stir with a fork to combine. Pour into dry ingredients and stir gently, until it just comes together. Carefully fold in blueberries, taking care not to over mix. Pour into prepared pan, sprinkle with topping and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. It should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean. Cool on a wire rack before cutting.

Summer Celebration Breakfast

My kiddos are in a frenzy, unlike me (HA!), and are excitedly packing EVERYTHING they could possibly need (want) during the next two months we will be away from home...even if they may only want to play with it for five minutes. I am trying to gently dissuade them from such items, if only until tomorrow, when my efforts will be much more forceful...But we have accomplished quite a bit in the way of preparations, like cleaning out the fridge(s), freezer(s), and pantry--boy I wish I could put an (s) on the end of that one! Neatly labeled with my P-Touch label maker, my pantry is unusually sparse, devoid of the piles of pastas, half eaten boxes and bags of this and that, empty flour containers and the like.

We are trying to use it all up in these last few days, and what better way to do that than with Marion Cunningham's Special Waffles. Lightened with beaten egg whites, they are the perfect texture; crisp and golden on the outside and fluffy and tender on the inside. Slathered with butter and pure maple syrup (grade B please), this breakfast will surely satisfy. Because they take a wee bit longer to prepare than other kinds, these are best made when you have a little extra time, like on a weekend or on the first official day of summer vacation!!

Special Waffles

2 C flour

3 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

3 eggs, separated

1 3/4 C milk

4 T butter, melted

3 T sugar

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate small bowl, whisk egg yolks and add milk and melted butter. Pour into dry ingredients and whisk to combine. In a third very clean bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff, but not dry and slowly add sugar, beating it until absorbed. Carefully stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the remaining whites. I have a waffle iron that makes 4 waffles at a time. I usually spoon 1/3 C batter into each greased well. Bake until golden and serve immediately with butter and maple syrup.