Bake: Pear-Ginger Hand Pies

Thanksgiving 2012 is upon us already.  This year has flown by, and we at 2FW certainly have a lot to be thankful for - my solo law practice has surpassed its 1-year mark, this blog passed its 3-year mark, we were basically unaffected by Hurricane Sandy, and our family and friends are all happy and (despite ups and downs) healthy.

Tomorrow, I'll be cooking up some rib steaks from Grazin' Angus Acres (I hate cooking turkey) and brussels sprouts with bacon (cooked in duck fat).  The wine, bread, salad, potato gratin, and a chocolate dessert will come courtesy of our friends J^2.  For my dessert, I decided to make pear and ginger hand pies.  The pears at the farmers market looked amazing, and I wanted to stray from the classic apple and cinnamon flavorings.  I've also made a number of pies recently and felt like branching out to the hand-pie arena.

This recipe can be made with store-bought roll-out crust, if you must.  I had some Food Emporium brand crust that I attempted to use, but it was bland and lifeless, so I went back to the store mid-recipe to pick up ingredients for my cream cheese dough.  Definitely worth the trip and extra effort.

Bake: Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

You've probably seen a lot of hubbub over "gluten free" products recently and might be wondering - Is it a fad diet?  Is gluten bad for you?  What the heck is this gluten stuff anyway?

Cinnamon Sandwich Cookies with Orange Cream

Winter means baking with two of my favorite ingredients - cinnamon and citrus.  I started this recipe planning to fill the cinnamon shortbread squares with orange curd.  That led to a gooey mess that was less "sandwich cookie" and more "cookie dunked in syrup".  So, I improvised, whipped some cream, and stirred it into the curd.  The resulting filling was thick enough to maintain structural integrity, and tasted like a creamsicle.  Make sure you leave time to chill these for an hour or so before serving, as it further thickens the cream.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt & Granola

My parents gave me an ice cream maker for my birthday last year, but, seeing as how it was November, it stayed in the box for months.  With temperatures finally breaking 80 degrees, I decided to dust off the box, and put the ice cream maker to use.  I flipped through The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and found that frozen yogurt seemed to be the easiest to make (no heating a custard on the stove and waiting for it to cool, no chopping and macerating of fruit).  The recipe below is based on his recipe for creamy vanilla frozen yogurt, which uses Greek yogurt in place of normal.  I added some fresh vanilla for taste and appearance.  The granola was also really simple to make and turned out to be awesome; I ate it for breakfast with non-frozen yogurt every day last week.  While the recipe only takes about 30 minutes to make, your ice cream maker bowl usually needs to freeze overnight before it can be used.  I store mine in the freezer so I don't have to plan ahead.

Bake: Chocolate Meringues

I was looking for something to bake that would be Easter-y, kosher for Passover (ish - my kitchen is full of chametz), quick to make, and not completely ruin my diet (only 40 calories each!).  I decided on chocolate meringues: whip egg whites, add sugar and chocolate, bake.  Done.  I decided to dot a few of the meringues with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or dried cherries, just to mix it up a bit.  Enjoy!

Bake Sale for Japan - A Success!

I had a great time with the other food bloggers at the Bake Sale for Japan out at the Brooklyn Flea.  Not sure how much we raised, but the table was packed for the entire 4 hours that I was there!  See some pics below:

Bake: Lemon-Cardamom Muffins

The idea for this recipe started in Florence.  My friend Julia made some lemon-cardamom cookies while we were there (which is quite a feat, since one cannot find baking soda or baking powder anywhere in Florence).  I found a recipe for make-ahead lemon-poppy seed muffins from Cooks Illustrated, and with a few substitutions, I had moist and savory lemon-cardamom muffins!  I had some leftover lemon curd (recipe courtesy of Joy of Baking) from a lemon layer cake I made over the weekend for J's birthday, so I used that as a topping.

Bake Sale for Japan!

The Second Floor Walkup team (sans pups) will be at the NYC Bake Sale for Japan on April 2nd at the Brooklyn Flea, serving up our famous Chocolate Chip Cookies - come out and support Peace Winds Japan!

Bake: Triple Treat Bars

This recipe started with my attempt to make fudge and peanut butter fudge without a recipe.  The result was delicious, but not quite fudge (which requires the heating, then slow cooling, then stirring of corn syrup, water, sugar, chocolate, butter, and milk/cream).  Everyone agreed that the two non-fudge products should be combined to make a delicious chocolate-peanut butter treat.  I added a crust of chocolate sandwich cookies (known to most as Oreos, though I actually used Newman-Os in this recipe) and the Triple-Treat was born.  This can be served in slices like a pie (as shown above), or in smaller bar-like squares (see below).

Bake: Chocolate-Chip Cookies

When you think "All-American" you may think "apple pie."  Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you're wrong.  Chocolate-chip cookies are the essential American baked good.  Apple pie dates back to the medieval times (just see the article over at Gode Cookery, the infringing of which started the internet firestorm against Cooks Source magazine).  Chocolate-chip cookies are a true American (accidental) invention.

The Nestle Toll House recipe, found on the back of Nestle chocolate chip packages, is based on Ruth Wakefield's original recipe.  This recipe is a good starting-off point, and a classic go-to when you're in a pinch.  I adapted mine based on info from a New York Times article, in which it was revealed that Wakefield's recipe called for chilling the dough overnight, as well as a bit of my foray into experimenting with baking science (see notes at end of recipe). 

Bake: Oatmeal-Cherry Cookies

I love baking cookies.  They're simple, can usually be made with what I have in the kitchen, and are ready to eat in less than an hour (with the exception of my chocolate chip cookies, which I'll post one of these days).  Having previously posted a number of cookie recipes, I was running low on ideas.  So, I did what I usually do - went to the bookstore and bought way too many cookbooks.  One cookbook I purchased was Martha Stewart's Cookies.  Flipping through the recipes, I came upon an oatmeal cookie recipe.  I realized that I had all of the ingredients for oatmeal cookies, plus some dried cherries left over from the Greek yogurt I made last week.  The following recipe is mine, not Martha Stewart's, but based on the feedback from J's co-workers, I'd be willing to bet mine is better.

[Side note: What's with cookie recipes having a yield of 48+ cookies?  Who makes that many cookies at one time?]

Bake: Carrot Muffins

We're back!  We took the month of July off to move (yay dishwasher!  yay outdoor space!).  Now that it's August and we're (somewhat) unpacked, expect to see plenty of posts.

For the first recipe in the new apartment, I made these delicious carrot muffins with cream cheese frosting.  They're somewhere between muffins and cupcakes, but calling them muffins makes it ok to eat them for breakfast.  Enjoy!

Bake: Better than Tagalongs

Tagalongs are my preferred Girl Scout Cookie variety.  I decided to make these with dark chocolate from Scharffen Berger, on the recommendation of a commenter.  The shortbread is the same used in the non-Samoas recipe, and the peanut butter filling is a snap to make.  These are possibly my new favorite cookies.  Ever.

Bake: I Can't Legally Call These Samoas

Girl Scout Cookies are delicious, but they keep raising the price and decreasing the quantity/size.  Being an avid baker, I figured I could replicate some of the best selling GSCs in my own kitchen.  About 19% of the GSCs sold are Samoas - "Tender vanilla cookies, covered with caramel, rolled in toasted coconut, and striped with a rich, chocolaty coating."  I decided to use a vanilla shortbread, homemade caramel, and dark chocolate to give these "girl" cookies an adult flair.  

Bake: Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin is basically an upside down apple pie.  It supposedly was invented at the Hotel Tatin: one of the Tatin sisters got distracted by conversation with a guest and forgot to make dessert; she tossed some apples in a pan with butter and sugar then threw some pastry dough on top; to make it more appealing she flipped it over; the guests loved it and the rest is history.*

The pastry dough I used in this recipe is my mom's.  It's simple but tasty.

Bake: Lemon Blueberry Bread

 Another super-easy recipe for weeknight baking.  My coworkers seemed to like it (unless they just didn't want to hurt my feelings).  Try it and see for yourself!

Bake: Blondies

If you think chocolate chip cookies are addictive, wait until you try these blondies.

Bake: Molasses Cookies

One of the best presents my brother and I can get is a bag of molasses cookies from Ann McBride, our longtime family friend (and the person I like to call my "fake grandmother").  Her recipe (with slight modifications) after the jump...

Bake: Chocolate-PB Cookies

The classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter.

Bake: Apple Muffins

Frequenting the farmer's market again, I decided to make use of the abundant supply of apples.  This recipe is good for standard muffins or mini muffins (but be careful, it's easy to over-indulge on the mini muffins!).