Green Tomato Cake

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I can hardly believe that June is almost half gone already! I've been working on a new project out at the farm and I've neglected to post here much this month. I'm so excited about my latest venture, the Route 52 Farm Trail but it's been very time consuming. Anyway, earlier this week Mom and I were canning some of the gorgeous San Marzano tomatoes my dad grew this year, when a summer storm hit. If you've every lived in the South, then you know that sometimes they seem to come from nowhere and are gone almost as quickly. This one was really intense for about 30 minutes and then was gone. We really needed the rain but the strong winds caused a few green tomatoes to fall off the plants. I brought them home with me and thought I fry them for dinner. I was looking in The Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook , (in New Orleans), for a recipe when I came across this recipe for green tomato cake. Forget fried green tomatoes, cake it is! It may sound odd to put tomatoes in a cake, but green tomatoes have the texture that's similar to an apple, so they work perfectly in cake. The recipe in the cookbook didn't have a frosting, but I decided to top it with a brown butter icing. It's so good, I may be picking some more green tomatoes, just so that I can make this cake again!!

Green Tomato Cake 
Source: Kitty Hooper (Crescent City Farmers Market green tomato vendor)
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped green tomatoes
1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Method:
In a mixing large bowl, combine flour, sugar, eggs, oil, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. Stir in tomatoes and walnuts The mixture is very thick! Pour batter into greased and floured bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan or cake will fall.

Serves 8-10


Browned Butter Icing
1/2 cup  butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar

After the cake has cooled and can be removed from the pan, make the frosting. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, or until butter is lightly browned. Whisk in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

The brown butter icing is fantastic!

Just in case you thought I did this whole blogging thing all on my own, I do have a very faithful assistant...

My "assistant" checking for crumbs after the photos are taken.

Strawberry thyme galette...

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my small act of rebellion!

"Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with wild abandon, or not at all." This is a quote from the late great Julia Child. I try to cook with abandon, but more often than not I find myself not trusting my instincts and relying on a recipe or something I've made before. I had some strawberries on hand that I wanted to use and thought I'd make a pie. As I was getting everything together for the pie it occurred to me that I could make a galette instead. A galette is just a free form pie. They're quick and delicious and I love the way they look, charming and rustic. Plus you don't need a pie pan, so one less step to making them. I pulled out my well-worn copy of Baking with Julia to get the crust recipe. The recipe in Julia Child's book is for a mixed berry galette (which is superb) but all I had on hand was strawberries. In her recipe, Julia says not to use too many strawberries in your mixed berry tart because strawberries are too watery. Uh oh...I very nearly went back to my original plan for a fresh strawberry pie. However, feeling just tad rebellious at the time, I decided to  make the galette with the strawberries, in spite of Julia's warning. My berries were still firm and not overly ripe so I thought I'd just go for it. I also have a pot of the most gorgeous thyme on my patio. At the last minute I decided to throw a little of that in the crust and with the strawberries. Since I'd ignored her warning about the strawberries, I figured Julia would certainly approve of my wild abandon, devil may care attitude when it came to adding the thyme! The galette tasted wonderful, I'm quite sure that Julia would have eaten it with gusto and not minded a bit that I didn't follow her advice about not using strawberries.  

Strawberry Thyme Galette
Printable recipe
 Crust: 

(Source: Baking with Julia)
3 Tablespoons sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
scant 1/3 cup ice water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 Tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 to 8 pieces

Stir the sour cream and the water in a small bowl and set aside.
Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt into the food processor, fitted with the metal blade. Pulse to combine. Add the chopped butter and pulse 8 to 10 times, or until the mixture is speckled with pieces of butter that vary in size from bread crumbs to peas. As the machine runs, add the sour cream mixture and stop the processor once the dough forms soft, moist curds.
Remove the dough, divide it in half. Squish the ball down flat and wrap it in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.

Filling:

1 1/2 cups strawberries, stems removed and sliced (don't use overly ripe strawberries, as they may be too watery.)
2 Tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon corn starch

1 teaspoon fresh thyme (optional)

a squeeze of lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Clean the strawberries, remove the stems and slice them lengthwise. Place the sliced strawberries into a bowl add the sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch. Gently stir the strawberries until the sugar and cornstarch evenly cover the berries.
Roll out the galette dough into about an 11 inch circle that's about an 1/8 inch thick. Layer the berries in center the crust leaving at least one inch from the edge. Fold the edge of the dough over the strawberries. You will have to make pleats(folds) in some places. Brush the dough with a little water and sprinkle all over with 1 tsp. sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Feeling reckless?!

Pineapple Sheet Cake

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If you've ever been to a church pot luck in the South then odds are, you've had this cake. It's always a crowd pleaser. It's moist, rich, and so tasty, but that's not the best part about this cake. What makes this cake a go to for serving a crowd is that it's so quick and easy to make. Seriously a boxed cake mix is more labor intensive than this baby. It's a no mixer needed kind of easy. If you've got a bowl, a spoon, and about 5 minutes, you can have this cake mixed up and in the oven. The pineapple keeps the cake really moist so it can easily be made a day ahead of time. If you are looking for great dessert with minimal effort for your Memorial Day party, I've got your cake!

Pineapple Sheet Cake

Originally published as Pineapple Sheet Cake in Country Extra January 1992, p51 (Slightly adapted)
Serves: about 24


Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple, undrained

Cream Cheese Icing:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Method:
For Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients, whisk together. Add pineapple, vanilla and eggs. Mix until combined. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake at 350°for 35 minutes. Allow cake to cool before icing.
For icing
In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread over cake and sprinkle with nuts, if desired.

Mother's Day Brunch Menu

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Looking for some ideas for a Mother's Day brunch? I've rounded up a few recipes from the past and made up this Mother's Day Brunch menu. Happy Mother's Day!

Smoked Salmon Cheesecake

Asparagus Bacon Quiche

Make Ahead and Freeze Biscuits

Strawberry Honey Butter

Strawberry Lemon Curd Tart

Or you could surprise Mom with a bouquet of these hydrangea cupcakes and take her out for brunch!

Hydrangea Cupcake Bouquet Tutorial 

Biscuits, hot and fresh...anytime!

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I feel compelled to add a warning to proceed with caution to this post. I will just remind you that I am merely providing recipes and ideas here on Half Baked. What happens after that is out of my control. I cannot help that these delicious biscuits are super easy to make, and if you freeze them, you can have a hot and fresh biscuit, anytime you want one. (Kinda like Krispy Kreme when the sign is on.) Consider yourself warned, I'm no longer responsible!  

Here in the South, we love a good biscuit but I rarely make them. As much as I enjoy biscuits, most recipes make about a dozen or so. Even if I half the recipe, there are still at least six biscuits. I'm not saying that Hubs and I couldn't eat all, well most, ok probably all six. Don't judge, hot biscuits and butter are hard to resist. However, after a few dinners like that and I'd have to start hunting for a tent maker to buy clothes that fit! True we could exercise a little self control (who am I kidding!) and only eat one each but what would we do with the four biscuits that are leftover? Biscuits, hot out of the oven are amazing, crunchy outside, soft flaky and buttery inside, just heavenly.  A leftover biscuit on the other hand is nothing like that. Not even close. They're more like hockey pucks after spending the night in the fridge. So I had resigned to not making biscuits unless we had guests to help eat them. Well all that has changed! These biscuits can be made, frozen, and baked up a couple at a time, whenever we feel the need for a hot flaky biscuit! Okay, so I may still need find a that tent maker if I'm not careful, which is why I cautioned you at the beginning of this post. Please bake responsibly....

Make and Freeze Biscuits
Source: King Arthur Flour
Yields: about 12-16 biscuits

Ingredients:
4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Perfect Pastry Blend
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/4- 1 1/2 cups of cold milk

Method:
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Drop the butter into the bowl and cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter, two knives, or your finger tips.Work in the butter until the mixture is crumbly; some larger, pea-sized pieces of butter may remain intact.

Pea-sized pieces of butter!

Add 1 1/4 cups of cold milk and mix together (I like to use a fork). If the mixture seems too dry add the other 1/4 cup of milk (I almost always need it). Gather the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly floured work surface and fold it over once or twice. Pat it into a 3/4 - 1 inch thick square, rectangle, or circle. Cut out with a round cutter, re-rolling the the leftover pieces of dough until you've used up all the dough.
OR, if you don't mind a square biscuit, you could use my new favorite method for cutting out these biscuits (also from the King Arthur website). It's awesome. I can't believe I never thought of this:

Pat the dough evenly into an 8 inch square pan.

Flip it out on your work surface.

Slice....how cool is that? 

So much easier than cutting them out with a cutter!

Place the cut biscuits on a baking sheet. Now, you have a choice to make here: bake the biscuits right away; or freeze, bag, and bake at a later date, or freeze some and bake some...you get the idea!

To bake biscuits right away, heat oven to 475 degrees. Brush the tops of the biscuits with milk or melted butter. Bake them for 5 minutes, then turn off the oven. Leave in the oven for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until they’re golden brown.

To freeze, leave the biscuits on the baking sheet, wrap with plastic wrap and slid them into the freezer for at least an hour, or until the biscuits have frozen. Once they’re frozen, remove from the freezer, bag airtight, and store in the freezer for up to about 3 months. (Who am I kidding, there's no way those biscuits will be around that long!)

Beautiful frozen biscuits, just 15 minutes from biscuit heaven...anytime!

When ready to serve, preheat your oven to 475°F, and bake biscuits for 8 minutes. Turn the heat off, and leave in the oven for another 5 to 8 minutes, till they're golden brown.

You know you want one!

Lemon Thyme Cake

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I made these cakes for a ladies group I spoke at about using herbs in cooking. Most of the women in the group were fairly familiar with cooking with herbs like thyme, but very few had ever used any herb, other than mint, in baking. Thyme is from the mint family and has a slightly minty, lightly lemony flavor which makes it perfect to use in baking. Thyme pairs perfectly with this lemony cake. I added thyme to the cake batter. After the cakes were baked I poked holes into them with a skewer and topped them with a lemon thyme syrup. The syrup adds even more lemon thyme flavor. Poking holes into the cake allows the syrup to get all the way into the cake and keeps it extremely moist. In fact, these cakes seem to taste better the longer they sits. If you've never tried baking with herbs, this cake is a great place to start!

Lemon Thyme Cake

Source: Martha Stewart (adapted)
Yields: 2 loaf cakes or one bundt cake
Printable Recipe

Ingredient:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated

1 tablespoon fresh thyme,chopped, (if the center stem of the thyme is tough, pick the leaves off and discard the stem).
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs

Lemon Thyme Syrup 
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
Zest of one lemon, finely grated
5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lowest position. Butter and flour or spray with cooking spray, two 4 1/2-by-8-inch (6-cup) loaf pans.
Make the syrup:
In a small pot, stir together the lemon juice, zest, sugar, and thyme. Heat the mixture on medium for about 10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolves and the liquid is clear. Take off the heat, cover and set aside while you prepare the cake.

For the cake:

In a a 2 cup liquid measuring cup,combine buttermilk with lemon juice and fresh thyme. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a separate bowl mix lemon zest and sugar together. Rub the sugar together with the zest until the sugar is slightly damp. 

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar/zest until light and fluffy about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour; beat just until smooth (do not overmix).

Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes (tent with foil if browning too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn out cakes onto a rack; cool for about 20 minutes before glazing with the syrup.

Set rack with cakes over a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Poke holes in the cakes over the top with a skewer or a thin knife. Pour the syrup over cakes, letting it run down the sides; let dry, about 30 minutes.

I also want to congratulate Kerry S. on winning our Woodland Fairy giveaway!! Our fairy party was also featured on two wonderful blogs last week. Woohoo! 

Check out our feature on Happy Hour Project and Kate from A Creative Cookie picked our party to be featured on Sugar Bee Crafts! Thanks ladies, I am honored!

Kissin' Wears Out, Cookin' Don't!

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My Mennonite grandmother used to say this all the time. It's a fairly common saying in Mennonite kitchens and one that always made laugh. Ten years ago today, Hubs and I got married. As I was thinking about how to celebrate, my grandmother's words came to mind. I had to laugh at the truth and wisdom in that saying that I now understand more fully. Walking down the aisle, harp playing, birds singing, I had more kissing on my mind than cooking. After ten years of marriage, I can tell you that dinner time comes around every day. Kissing is still important but dinner time is eternal. It's one of those things I thought I knew before I got married. After answering "what's for dinner?" for 10 years now, I really get it. So here's ten things I've learned in ten years:

1. Grammy was right, you'll do more cooking than kissing.
2. You'll probably experience everything you vowed to love each other through.
3. Marriage isn't easy. It takes hard work, every day. It's easy to take each other for granted, it hard work not to.
4. Dirty laundry is another one of those constants.
5. It's the little things, more than the grand gestures, that mean the most.
6. Learn to say "I'm sorry", it goes a looong way!
7. When he apologizes, accept it and move on. Holding on to past hurts ruins future happiness.
8. Be prepared to change course. You never know what road ahead holds.
9. Accept that you won't agree on everything, and that's a good thing.
10. Kissing is still really important!

Ok so this list barely scratches the surface of the lessons learned in ten years but these were some of the biggest for me. I know that there'll be many more things to learn in the years to come. Here's to ten more years and all the cookin' it brings!