Almond Cake with Fruit Compote (gluten-free)

Nov 21, 2015

I’ve amassed a fairly impressive arsenal of gluten-free dessert recipes over the past few years, since my friends John & Bridgette went GF.  And one of the biggest things I usually look for in these recipes is that they’re naturally free of gluten, rather than using weird ingredients to try and approximate the texture and taste of wheat recipes.

That’s why I’ve developed quite an affinity for almond meal.  It’s super yummy, plus it has an awesome grainy texture—not perfect for every type of recipe, but helps provide a “crumb” to certain cakes and pastries.  It’s also pretty easy to work with and really forgiving.  I’ve kind of been on an almond cake kick lately for myself, because the flavor is perfect for this summer-to-fall transition time we’ve been in.

Which brings us to the uber-moist flavor bomb we’re talking about today…

This recipe is from Cookie + Kate, and as soon as she posted it, I was dying to give it a try.  The almond cake is the star, and is taken up a level by the combination of orange zest and cinnamon in the batter, and the maple syrup makes it super moist.  It’s also literally the easiest batter to throw together.  Then the slightly-sticky cake is stopped with a roasted fruit compote, which provides additional juice dripping down into the cake.  I went with pears and raspberries, which in hindsight was way too much juice to deal with.  But you can use whatever strikes your fancy.  This is awesome as leftovers, particularly for breakfast.

Don’t judge.

Thanksgiving Streusel Pie “Two-Fer”: Pear-Apple Pie & Bing Cherry Pie

Dec 21, 2014

I love pie. Pie is the best. But for a holiday where pie plays a major role, I don’t really love Thanksgiving pies.

Thanksgiving’s a big deal in my family. We always come home. We get together not only all day on Thanksgiving, but pretty much every other day that weekend. We play football. We play cards. There are glorious sunsets. There is SO much food. This year I think we actually set a record.

Every year I make a fruit pie or two, because pumpkin, German chocolate, and chocolate chip pie are just not for me (though I love me some pecan from time to time). There’s usually a pear-apple, pear-banana, or some similar combination. This year I was really at a loss for what else to make, and then my mom found a frozen bag of dark cherries.

After looking up a number of recipes on Pinterest, I had to basically make up the recipe and hope it would work (I had visions of it just being this giant pool of juice, the soggiest pie ever). It was actually super simple and so easy to throw together. The cherry pie ended up being my favorite, and I had it for lunch, dinner, breakfast the next morning, and the tiny sliver that was left the next morning as well. This pie is my everything. I have no idea why, but it’s amazing.

The pear-apple is a recipe I made up years ago and make all the time. I love the texture and sweetness that the pears add, and almond extract, ginger, and cardamom pair (ha, pear) particularly nicely with pears. It’s an oldie but goodie. And both pies barely have any added sugar, so you don’t have to feel an iota of guilt for having a big slice for breakfast as well.

Amazing Pear Torte, adaptation from Smitten Kitchen

Feb 12, 2014

I am so obsessed with this cake.

You’ll recall that I made Smitten Kitchen’s take on a famous plum torte recipe, which was amazing—lightly sweet, with a slightly crunchy cinnamon-sugar topping, and the plums turning into these pockets of soft, sweet, gooey goodness. And I remember wondering at the time whether pears would do the same. Because I love pears.

I finally got around to giving this a try, and yes, it’s just as good!

Man, pears are the best.

Spiced Pear Jam

Dec 26, 2013

It’s no secret that I love both pears and jam. Weirdly, though, I’ve never had pear jam and I’ve been jonesin’ to try some.

I’d bookmarked a bunch of different pear jam recipes, but when I went through them all nothing really jumped out as the right one. I didn’t have a vanilla bean, I didn’t want to caramelize them ahead of time, etc. So I decided to wing it and combine different elements with some common sense to make amazing, delicious pear jam.

The first thing I had to figure out was whether I had to use pectin. I’ve avoided that in my jam making so far, but in doing research I found out that pear is a low-pectin fruit (apples have tons) so I probably needed to use it. Luckily, it was way simpler than I expected. I also picked a great combination of spices—cinnamon, ginger, cardamom (great with pears), and almond extract. I used a combination of honey and brown sugar, but only a total of a cup for the entire batch. A lot of recipes called for SO much more sugar, but I don’t see why it would need it.

Jam is a great Sunday afternoon activity, because you can put a batch on and still be getting other things done while it cooks. You need to monitor occasionally, but it’s not a high-maintenance task. And once you make a batch, it’ll last you for a long time—I usually make a big batch and eat on it for 3-4 months (my go-to lunch is homemade peanut butter & jelly on whole grain bread).

After I filled all my jars, I had a few spoonfuls leftover, and had an amazing brainwave. I piled the jam on top of my freshly-baked molasses cookies. REVELATION. Seriously, the spices all went together so well, the textures were amazing, and the crunch of both the pears and the sugar on the cookies was like the embodiment of fall.

I told my mom about it and she goes, “That’s totally unnecessary, molasses cookies are great on their own*.” Me: “SO not the point. It’s so good!”

* True, they are amazing.

Brown Butter Scones with Roasted Pear & Dark Chocolate

Feb 27, 2013

As we’ve established, I love pears, and one of the flavor combinations I love best is pear with dark chocolate. A couple months ago I made a delightful brown butter cake with pear and bittersweet chocolate, which was quite a revelation, flavor-wise. So a couple days later I tried out these pear and dark chocolate scones, but decided to tweak the recipe a little and add in that brown butter flavor.

Brown butter really does add another layer of flavor to things, but it’s an extra step in baking so you can decide to just use all cold butter instead (they’ll probably be a little fluffier).

Smitten Kitchen’s Bittersweet Chocolate & Pear Cake

Jan 17, 2013

Every so often, a recipe teaches me one of those helpful little kitchen lessons, like “garlic burns in like 5 seconds if you’re not careful” or “chopping veggies with the knife pointing toward you is a good way to lose a finger”.

So what did we learn today? That unsweetened chocolate is NOT the same as bittersweet chocolate. At all.

The recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, and I had to choose from between semisweet and unsweetened. I chose wrong. It definitely made this cake not quite sweet enough. I found a solution (drizzled Irish honey on top), but lesson learned!

And let’s hear it for browned butter—what a revelation! I’d never cooked or baked with it before, and it added a whole other flavor dimension  to the cake. Warm, nutty, rich. Totally great, I will definitely be incorporating it into other recipes.

Healthy Pear-Cranberry Crisp

Jan 6, 2013

I’ve never been a “New Year’s resolution” kind of girl. I figure if I see a change that needs made in my life (eating healthy, weight loss, being nicer), I should do it right away—whether it’s January or August. But I know that lots of people have taken the opportunity of a new calendar year to re-evaluate their lives and make healthier and smarter decisions.

So this one’s especially for you people. Because I’m all about eating healthy and making smart choices, but I’m also all about the fact that sometimes you Just. Need. Dessert. And I’m here to show you that dessert doesn’t need to be a diet-breaker.

I love sweets, but I tend to love things that are lightly sweet, not super rich. My two favorite desserts to make for myself are my healthy peach crisp and a healthy pear-banana pie with streusel topping (with whole wheat crust). These rely on the sweetness of the fruit, whole wheat flour, oats, oil, and the flavor of all the spices.

I used an adjusted version of my peach crisp, and changed up the flavors a little. I had a few pears sitting around and was looking for something to do with them. Pears are my absolute favorite fruit (when they’re actually ripe) and there are so many interesting flavors that partner well with them. This recipe is very forgiving, you can change up amounts and flavors to suit your needs or the size of your pan (it could even make a delicious pie with my aunt’s whole wheat and oil pie crust).

Healthy smoothie variation (Pear, Kale, & Mango Smoothie)

Aug 1, 2012

I posted an awesome pineapple spinach smoothie I’d been trying out for breakfast every day a couple weeks ago. On a few of the smoothie websites I’d read that you should mix it up, not just always do the same fruits and veggies, to get the most out of the nutrients. So I switched up a few of the ingredients for the past week.  Just as good, though I think I prefer the spinach one from a texture standpoint.

What I’ve been doing is making this in the morning, drinking part of it on my way to work, then putting it in the fridge while I have my normal coffee and such. Then I pull it out of the fridge around 10:30 and have breakfast part deux.