Kumquat Grand Marnier Cake with Rosemary Lemon Glaze

If I could only have one fruit for the rest of my life, it’d be the orange.

Think about it — it’s food and juice. It’s sweet and tart. You can candy the peel or spritz it into a cocktail. The pith adds a welcome bitterness if you want to change it up.

Kumquats are like super-charged oranges, which make them perfect as pops of contrasting flavor in a rich cake. Because you can eat the skin, you get the bitterness along with juice, sweet, and tart.

To me, kumquat is a very adult flavor because of its mouth-puckering flavors. Adult taste, adult beverage, so I added a healthy dose of Grand Marnier to soak the kumquats. Rosemary amps up the somewhat savory notes of kumquat and adds a lovely aroma — if the kumquats and booze weren’t doing that already.

RECIPE

1 3/4 cup kumquats
1/2 cup Grand Marnier

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of kosher salt

1 1/2 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup Greek yogurt

3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 sprigs rosemary

Thinly slice the kumquats and add to a medium bowl. Pour the Grand Marnier over them and allow to soak. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch bundt pan.

Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Reduce mixer speed to low and add one-third of the flour, then half the yogurt, then one-third the flour, then the rest of the yogurt, then the rest of the flour. Add kumquats and Grand Marnier.

Gently pour into prepared Bundt pan and smooth out top, careful not to the smoosh the fluffiness. Bake for 60 minutes, rotating midway.

Remove cake from oven and immediately start making glaze. Mash three sprigs of rosemary with the lemon juice. Strain, then add infused juice to powdered sugar. Mix thoroughly. You will think you need more liquid, but you don’t. Keep mixing until you reach a stiff but still fluid consistency. Invert Bundt pan onto wire rack on top of a baking sheet (to catch the dripping glaze). Immediately pour glaze on top and top with the rest of your crushed rosemary. The cake must be glazed while the cake is hot, so work fast!

Cauliflower Gougères

Which came first, the reader/writer or the cook? 

Some days I think it’s the former. I was a voracious reader growing up and still am. I’d have my nose buried in a Babysitter’s Club while vacationing in Hawaii, preferring preteen drama over boiling magma. When I worked in the far reaches of East Williamsburg, I’d spend my 10-minute walk from the subway staring at my Kindle, stepping over broken glass and ignoring honking truck drivers. 

But maybe I was a cook first? In elementary school, I wanted DIY lunches like Lunchables and tuna salad kits, even if my classmates found me weird. In high school, I was sent to the principal’s office for using a George Foreman grill in the cafeteria. 

But it’s dishes like these that prove I’m a little bit of both. I was thinking about cream puffs and their French dough, pâte à choux, meaning cabbage pastry. Literally… cabbage! This is the same dough that’s used for sweets like éclairs, profiteroles and savories like gougères. 

Once I’m fascinated by words and food, I’m off to the races. I immediately thought of cabbage’s versatile cousin, the cauliflower, and then the cauliflower gougère was born. 

I love these because the cauliflower is perfectly tender -- enough bite to give the rich gougère some texture and freshness, but supple enough to melt with the buttery, cheesy dough. See? It pays to be a bookworm.

RECIPE 

Adapted from David Lebovitz

½ cup water
3 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly-ground pepper
½ cup flour
2 large eggs
⅜ cup grated Gruyère
⅜ cup cauliflower rice 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Mix water, butter, salt and pepper in saucepan. Heat on medium until butter is melted. Add flour all at once, then mix until well incorporated and the dough pulls from the side of the saucepan. Remove from heat and let cool for 2 minutes. 

Add eggs, one at a time. Mix them immediately so the eggs don’t cook. Mix until there are no more lumps, about 2 minutes (or use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment). Add cheese and cauliflower and mix until incorporated. 

Using hands, form small balls of dough and place on baking sheet. When done, clean the dough off your hands. Keeping hands wet, smooth out the gougères so they are nice and rounded off. 

Bake at 425 for 5 minutes, then lower to 375. Bake for 15-20 minutes, when they are just starting to get color. Remove tray from the oven and create a small slit in the side of each gougère with a sharp knife. Return tray to oven and bake for another 5 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

TIPS & TRICKS 

• Don’t want to buy cauliflower rice? Good for you! It’s easy to make. Just add cauliflower to your blender with enough water to cover it. Pulse on its highest speed until you get the consistency you want. Then drain the cauliflower.

• Typically gougères are piped using a pastry bag. The cauliflower rice makes the dough a bit less fluid, so I opted to use my hands instead. But if you want these to look perfect, feel free to use a pastry bag with the largest tip or no tip at all.

• Why puncture the side? This allows steam to exit -- extra important because we’re using moist cauliflower rice -- resulting in a crisp exterior.

Cornbread with Corn Nut Streusel & Candied Jalapeno

I’m a jealous woman. The other day, my husband came home raving about a cornbread he had at a BBQ place. “It was so moist! There were bits of corn in it! It was a little sweet, but not too sweet!”

Well why don’t you marry this cornbread then???

I knew then that I’d have to make my own cornbread -- uber moist, bejeweled with corn, and a perfect balance of sweet and savory -- and give it a unique twist. A head-turning cornbread that leaves all other cornbreads in the dust.

Twist #1: Creamed corn instead of whole corn kernels. Creamed corn adds extra moisture and silkiness. Plus the corn kernels aren’t too big and jarring, they’re already soft and supple.

Twist #2: Corn nut streusel. I had a vision of a cornbread coffee cake. But what to put in the streusel? Nuts seemed out of place, but I wanted some crunch and depth. Enter corn nuts.

Twist #3: Candied Jalapeno. The cherry on top. The shaving of truffles. The nail in the coffins of all those other cornbreads (see: jealousy, above).

The husband pronounced it the best cornbread he’s ever had.

Mission accomplished!

RECIPE

Makes one round 9” cornbread

Cornbread

½ cup fine cornmeal
½ cup coarse cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs
1 stick of butter, melted and cooled  
1 can of creamed corn (14.75 oz)

Streusel
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ tablespoons light brown sugar
¼ cup corn nuts (I used Incan Corn for this, which are bigger, starchier corn kernels. Either work!)
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces and room temp

Candied Jalapeno
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
4 jalapenos

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter or spray a 9” cast-iron skillet or pie plate.

To make the cornbread, mix cornmeals, flour, salt, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the honey, eggs, butter and creamed corn. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

To make the streusel, add all ingredients into the food processor and pulse until chunks form and everything is well incorporated.

Spread streusel on top of cornbread and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the center is firm and a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.

To make the candied jalapeno, add water and sugar to a saucepan and heat on medium-high, stirring occasionally. Slice jalapenos, removing seeds. When all the sugar is melted, add the jalapenos. Simmer on medium-low for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest until the cornbread is done.

When the cornbread is done, remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes or longer. Strain the candied jalapenos and add to the top. Serve with leftover jalapeno syrup.

TIPS & TRICKS

• The streusel and jalapenos make this a bit of a project, but the cornbread itself is super easy. You can do all the prep in 5 minutes.

• I am a very messy cook, so I try to minimize messes whenever I see an opportunity. One trick -- instead of using multiple mixing bowls, just mix in your measuring cup. I add all my cup measurements first. Say that’s ¼ cup sugar and ½ cup milk. I’ll add the sugar first, then fill with milk to the ¾ cup mark. Then add all your non-cup measurements, like things measured in teaspoons or singular units (ex: eggs, juice of one lemon). Bingo! You were going to dirty the measuring cup anyway, but now you’ve saved yourself one bowl (at least).

• If you don’t have time to cool your melted butter, no worries. Simply add colder ingredients first to temper the heat. Then add the eggs. If the butter is too hot, it will cook the eggs.

• Keep the seeds in the jalapeno if you want to keep them hot!

• You’ll most likely have extra jalapeno syrup. Save it! Once you strain it, it will keep in the refrigerator for 3 months. Use it for a limeade, smoothie, or cocktail. I’m partial to grapefruit juice, mezcal, and this jalapeno syrup. Muddle some cilantro in there if you’re feeling frisky.

Kumquat Carrot Cake Muffins

Like clockwork. Every time the weather warms up a little, I get an urge to bake. 

Am I self-sabotaging before bikini season? Seeking heat inside to match the heat outside? Or maybe...it's all in my head. 

But alas, here we are, daffodils a-peepin', cherry blossoms a-blossomin', and me. A bakin'. 

These came about because D thought he liked kumquats even though I had never seen him eat a kumquat and he doesn't like very sour or bitter things. Nevermind! We bought a whole sackful at a raucous grocery store in Flushing. 

Turns out D doesn't like kumquats... and so we were left with three pounds of kumquats and two stomachs that couldn't quite take them eaten whole. 

So here we are, the kumquat carrot cake muffin. These are strictly more muffin than cake. I wanted to round out the assertiveness of the kumquat while still keeping its essential character -- ie: not throwing a lot of sugar at it. I used coconut and turbinado sugar for texture and a sweet musty complexity. But if sugar is what you want, do it! That's what jam is for. 

RECIPE: 

2 cups kumquats, seeded and sliced

2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup coconut sugar 

¾ cup vegetable oil
⅛ cup white sugar
⅞ cup turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

3 large eggs 

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt 

3 cups grated carrots
1 cup raisins
½ cups walnuts (optional) 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut and seed the kumquats. Place in saucepan with butter and sugar. Simmer on medium until the kumquats are soft and pliant, about 6 minutes. 

Using the paddle attachment of a mixer, blend the oil, sugars, and vanilla extract. Add eggs one by one until mixed. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. While the mixer is on medium, slowly add half the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add the carrots, raisins, and walnuts. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until just blended.

Grease a muffin pan. Spoon the kumquat mixture so it just coats the bottom. Add the carrot cake batter into each cup about 80% full. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce to 350. Bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Large muffin tins will bake in about 25-30 minutes. A small muffin tin will bake in about 15-20 minutes. Cool completely before removing from the tin. 

Eat in your preferred fashion. Here I had some with a dollop of Rhubarb and Meiwa Kumquat jam from Sqirl. 

Book Club Bites: Pomegranate Lemon Bars

Lemon bars were one of the first things I baked -- from a box, of course, and I’ve repressed the exact procedure. Was it curd on top, or some sort of cornstarchy-sludge? Did I make it, or did I squeeze it out of a baggie?

It took me years to figure out that lemon bars aren’t hard to make at all. You probably have all the ingredients right now: flour, sugar, butter, and lemons. But for the best lemon bars, you need a lot of lemons.

I’ve experimented with other flavors: lime, lemon-grapefruit, and now this: a pomegranate lemon bar. I like the berried base that underpins this dessert. Citrus is a top-note flavor, while pomegranate is a mustier, base note player.

Plus, pomegranates are often on my mind so I had to incorporate them into a recipe. There’s a pomegranate on the cover of Food Whore but pomegranates don’t appear in the text of the book. Not once.

So why did I suggest a pomegranate for the cover? Well, they’re juicy, luscious, sexy -- all things I wanted my book to be. Not really in terms of scenes (don’t get your hopes up for back-to-back sex scenes), but more on a sentence level. Sentences can move with a sensual quality.

Also, I summoned some middle school Latin and loved the connection to Persephone and Hades. Do you remember that story? Basically, Hades tricks Persephone into eating a couple pomegranate seeds, sentencing her to a life in the underworld. Because of her love of food, she makes a deal with the devil.

And that… the pomegranate… is basically my book.

RECIPE: (adapted from Ina Garten’s lemon bar recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bring 1 cup of pomegranate juice to a simmer and reduce on low for ten minutes. Turn off heat and let cool.

In an electric mixer, cream 2 sticks of room-temperature butter and ½ cup of granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour and ⅛ teaspoon of kosher salt. Slowly add to the mixer on low until just incorporated. Remove dough and roll into a ball on a well-floured surface. Press onto a 9” x 13” baking sheet, then chill for 15 minutes.  

Poke holes into the dough with a fork (so it doesn’t bubble up), then bake for 15-20 minutes until very lightly browned (keep in mind that it will get baked again with the curd, so no need to go all the way now).

For the filling, whisk 6 extra-large room temperature eggs, 3 cups of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of lemon zest, ¾ cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice, ¼ cup of the reduced pomegranate juice, and 1 cup of flour. Pour over the crust, then bake for 35-40 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
​
Cut into squares (or triangles if that’s your fancy). In a food processor, powder ⅓ cup of dehydrated strawberries. Sprinkle on top with powdered sugar.

Chewy Chocolate-Mint Brownies

And so the paradoxical summer baking streak continues. 

Well... what's paradoxical about chocolate mint brownies? It actually makes perfect sense to me. 

I got this recipe from NYT Cooking, which I'm turning to more and more these days. (It's the email blasts, I think. I love an email blast that sounds like it's written by a real person, not a click-optimizing program.) 

This recipe is adapted from Katharine Hepburn's brownie recipe but with a few important tweaks. 

First, there are no nuts. These brownies are for D's birthday and he is anti-nuts in dessert (unless they're peanut). We will disagree about this until the end of time, but a birthday dessert is no time to be contentious. No nuts. 

Second, I cut the already tiny bit of flour (1/4 cup) with almond flour. Why? I wanted to make this a practically flourless cake. And, see above, I also like nuts in my dessert but Dave doesn't. How to hide them... 

Third, I browned the butter because browned butter begets better brownies (yes, that's how I say it in my head). 

And, last, I added mint extract. Just the tiniest bit because you don't want this to taste like toothpaste! I had no way of knowing this in the beginning, but the mint extract does something interesting. This is no regular brownie. It's a cross between a brownie, fudge, and the chewy/candied part of a meringue. It's sticky yet chewy, rich yet... and that's where the mint comes in. The mint cuts the richness and brightens the flavor in the same way lemon or red wine vinegar might brighten a savory dish. 

RECIPE: (adapted from Katharine Hepburn's Brownies from NYT Cooking) 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt and brown butter in a saucepan. Add 1/2 cup of Dutch-processed cocoa then set away from heat, above five minutes. Add two eggs -- one at a time -- and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 3 drops of mint extract. 

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of sugar, 1/8 cup of almond flour, 1/8 cup of regular flour, and a pinch of salt. Add to cocoa butter mixture and stir until just combined. 

Pour batter into a greased 8" x 8" square pan. The brownies are very flat so don't worry if it seems like the pan is too big. Bake for 35 minutes, then cool slightly and cut into squares. Like all brownies, these are good warm. But because of the mint, they're also great cold. 

Peanut-Brown Butter Blondies

Call me a contrarian. I grow my hair long in summer, cut it in winter. Order the fish at a steakhouse. Make salads in the winter... and bake in the summer. I don't know why!

Forget for a moment about the heat factor. To me, summer is about easy improvisational meals. Something on the grill. A picnic of finger foods. A cocktail of two ingredients, tops. 

Baking, of course, is not improvisational. It's precise and fickle. You have to plan ahead because you can't easily substitute ingredients. But for some reason, I've had the urge to bake this summer. Just this past month I've made this tahini banana bread, these cornmeal currant thyme cookies, this "life-changing loaf", and now these -- peanut-brown butter blondies, like a cross between peanut butter cookies and toffee cake (ie: good in any season). 

I adapted this from Martha Stewart's Cookies which organizes its chapters in the same way I think about cookies: light and delicate, chunky and nutty, crisp and crunchy, cake and tender, and so on. 

Maybe one of these summer days I'll make these into ice cream sandwiches or sundaes (with some butter pecan ice cream as a comp... or strawberry ice cream for contrast). But for now, they're great au natural. 

RECIPE: (adapted from Martha Stewart Cookies) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 9" x 13" pan with parchment, then butter and flour. Melt 2 sticks of butter until a golden brown. Remove from heat and cool. 

Whisk 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, use a wooden spoon to mix the brown butter with 2 cups of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Add the paddle attachment and turn mixer on medium-high speed, adding three eggs. Mix until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract while beating. Slowly add flour mixture, then add 1 cup of roasted unsalted peanuts until thoroughly integrated. Pour into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

Excellent warm, room temp, or cold (we've been keeping them in the fridge... steamy weather mold is no joke!)