On Book Tour, Please Come Visit!

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  November 2, 2009
Filed Under Artisan Bread book | 10 Comments

This is a picture my dad took of Jeff and me at our first book signing at Barnes & Noble in Edina, MN. From there we jumped on a plane and spent the next two days in Chicago and Milwaukee. Thanks to all of you who have come out to see us along the way. We would love to meet all of you and if we are coming to your town please stop by to say hello! Here is our book tour schedule. We are adding cities to the tour so check back in a few days if your town isn’t on the list yet.

Please visit www.healthybreadinfive.com to see our recipe for Whole Wheat Brioche and other Bread in Five news.

Thanks, Zoë

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Caramelized Pumpkin & Armagnac Prune Pudding!

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  October 24, 2009
Filed Under press, recipe | 26 Comments

This season is bittersweet as far as fresh produce goes. On one hand my backyard urban farm is just a ghost of its lush summer self and I miss it. But, there are the apples, pears, persimmons, quince and the versatile sugar pumpkin, which are at the height of their season. I also associate the smell of sweet spices; cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and cardamom with cool weather. The mixture of the fruits and spices is baked up in quintessential American classics like apple and pumpkin pies, poached pears and some across-the-pond desserts like persimmon pudding and quince tarts. All of these combinations are pure comfort; warm, sweet and hearty. Another classic pairing that fits this description are prunes & Armagnac. So when thinking about the ultimate fall pudding I layered together pumpkin, spices, the prune combo, caramelized the crust and topped the whole thing with maple spiced walnuts. It is outrageous and something you can eat for dessert, brunch or an after school snack. It was equally tasty hot and served cold.

I used cubes of slightly stale bread, something I always have around, but I have also done this pudding with vanilla pound cake or gingerbread.

*Some big news below! Read more

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Halloween Marble Cake! …and a “Best Baking Blog” nomination

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  October 11, 2009
Filed Under cake, equipment, kids, recipe | 48 Comments

I will talk about the joys and pains (luckily there is a happy ending) of this cake, but first I want to Thank You, for it had to be you, who nominated me for the “Best Baking Blog” award from Foodbuzz. Imagine my surprise and delight to see my name on this list of wildly talented bakers:

7. Best Baking Blog:
1. Bakerella
2. Brown Eyed Baker
3. CakeSpy
4. Joy the Baker
5. ZoeBakes

If you have not yet voted for your favorite blogs I encourage you to cast your vote here. Thanks!

Before I had two boys it would never have occurred to me to put spiders on a cake.  Thank god for little boys! Of course, there are deeper things that I have learned since parenting, but seeing the world through their eyes has made me happier, younger and sillier, which is such a gift. There is always their homework, cleaning rooms, taking baths, going to bed and eating spinach to keep us aware of our duties as parents, but sometimes it is about having fun. Spiders on a cake is just plain fun.

Although this cake is very simple to make, it took me two tries to get it right. That sounds more intimidating than it really is. The reason was not my fault, really. I read the recipe and thought to myself that it was WAY too much baking powder, but went ahead anyway. I figured the additional baking powder was because of the weight of the chocolate that is folded in. I mixed it up as written and when I looked in the oven as it baked it was bubbling, not something you really want to see as a cake rises. This is a classic sign of too much baking powder. If the ratio of flour and baking powder is off the leavening agent will create bubbles that are too big and the cake will end up falling due to the lack of structure. You want nice tight small bubbles to allow the cake to rise, but not too rapidly or it will collapse. Within 10 minutes I knew I should have trusted my instincts. I remade the cake with less baking powder and it turned out perfectly, the happy ending! I’ll talk more about how to use baking powder properly as I mix up the batter below. Read more

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Alice’s Chocolate Mousse Cake with Cajeta!

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  October 7, 2009
Filed Under cake, recipe | 31 Comments

I made this dessert as an assignment for Target. The store where I buy everything from school supplies to Riedel wine glasses. My friend Betsy Nelson is a food stylist for Target and she asked me to do some of the baking for a photo shoot. As inspiration she brought over the book Bittersweet by Alice Medrich to show me the style of cake they were going for. The thing I love most about working with Betsy is that she’s a chef and insists the food not only be gorgeous for the photo, but delicious enough to eat after the shot is done. I made a large version of the cake for Target, but couldn’t resist using the leftovers to create individual cakes for my own pleasure, pairing it with a rich cajeta and freshly grated nutmeg.

Fast forward a couple of days and I’m at the BlogherFood conference in San Francisco. I met so many people I admire and who have inspired me as a chef and a blogger. It was incredible to put faces, voices and laughter to the people I’ve known only virtually. I promise I will get back to the cake, but let me just spend a second introducing you to just a few of the fabulous folks I met. Helen from the exquisite site Tartelette, Diane and Todd from White on Rice Couple (who gave me a much needed photo lesson during the cocktail party), Shauna, Danny and Lucy from Gluten-Free Girl, Tea from Tea and Cookies, Elise from Simply Recipes, Ree from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Jaden of The Steamy Kitchen, Heidi from 101 cookbooks, all generously willing to share their experiences and secrets to their success.  The reason I brought up BlogherFood in this post is because I also met Alice Medrich, the “First Lady of Chocolate” at the after party hosted by Elise, Ree and Jaden. Alice is a true master of her craft and I have considered her one of my pastry mentors. Here are her wonderfully smooth and perfectly simple mousse recipes, the key to success is really fine chocolate.

The winner of the Aebleskiver Package is at the end of the post. Read more

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Pesto and Mozz Aebleskivers! (win an Aebleskiver package)

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  September 30, 2009
Filed Under giveaway!, recipe, what I made for dinner! | 221 Comments

Nearly a year ago I made my first aebleskiver, thanks to the good folks at Aunt Else’s who introduced me to this fabulous culinary orb at the Mill City Farmer’s Market. They gave me a pan and a package of their mix and off I went. Now I make them with my sons on a regular basis. The boys love the process of cooking them almost as much as eating them. We’ve tried stuffing just about everything but the kitchen sink in the centers. Sometimes sweet, sometimes savory. Seriously, if you cook anything in the shape of a sphere my kids will eat anything at all. Although I don’t always stick to the Aunt Else’s mix, I have to say it is better than any of the batters I’ve come up with so far. It is made with local, organic, whole grain ingredients so I can’t feel too guilty about using it on occasion. I’m still looking for the perfect recipe.

Last night was the threat of our first frost, which means winter is on its way and my garden is seeing its final days. Stefan came over to do a big harvest, which was bittersweet. I got such a gorgeous bounty, but it was one of the last. I will miss picking fresh veggies from my backyard farm. I dread going to the grocery store to buy things that I have picked for myself all summer. One of the plants in grave danger of being destroyed by the cold was the basil. I have LOTS of basil and in one cold snap it could all die. That was the inspiration for my pesto and mozzarella stuffed aebleskivers. Not exactly traditional, but a match made in heaven!

To win an Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver package see the directions at the bottom of the post. Read more

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Caramel Apple & Pear Cake

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  September 21, 2009
Filed Under cake, recipe | 35 Comments

Haralson, Honeycrisp, Honeygold, Prairie Spy, Regent, Beacon, Red Baron and dozens of other varieties of apples have all been developed at the University of Minnesota. We may be known for our 10,000 lakes, but few people outside of the state realize that we are also a leader in apples. I didn’t realize this until my friend Stephen Durfee came to visit. Yes, it took a pastry chef from CA to show me what treasures were right in my own back yard. He set up a tasting with one of the “breeders” from the University and my education of apples began at a coffee shop on campus. We tried several of their latest and greatest developments and I realized for the first time the subtle and not so subtle differences of the fruit. The textures, acid, sugars and skins were all incredibly different, she talked about the characters as though we were tasting a bottle of fine wine.

I grew up in Vermont thinking that McIntosh apples were the end all, but realize now that there are apples  to satisfy my every mood; crisp, luscious, sweet, spicy, tangy, juicy, tart, even nutty. I’ve learned to combine them in my recipes to get a more complex and interesting flavor and mouth feel. Some of the apples will keep their shape when baked and others will turn to sauce. Depending on the variety you choose it may affect the amount of sugar that you use in the recipe. This cake is rather sweet and rich so I like to use tart apples, combined with the layer of pear. This delicious recipe was the inspiration for my very first post on ZoeBakes, before I owned a camera. I make it every year at this time, with different apples and a this year I added the pears. Read more

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Wild Blueberry Crisp

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  September 8, 2009
Filed Under recipe | 24 Comments

This has been the summer of wild blueberries. First on my trip to Maine in August and then in the Northern most reaches of Minnesota just this past weekend. Maine is certainly known for their abundance of wild (or low bush) blueberries. In fact, they produce about 25% of all that are consumed in America. We couldn’t drive a mile without seeing a stand selling baskets of the little blue beauties or jams, pies and other treats made with them. All of which we stopped and tried. Research!

Minnesota’s crops of wild blueberries are a virtual secret. Really, neighbors and best friends don’t even share their favorite picking spots with each other. A friend of mine once told me her mother would disown her if she shared the location of her blueberry patch with me. She wasn’t kidding. On a recent trip to a friend’s cabin (she must remain nameless lest her neighbors happen to read this) she took me berry picking. Yes, we are that good of friends. We drove along a stretch of two lane highway, then down a dirt road for forever and parked on the side of the road where we walked a mile deeper along a path. At the end of the journey was an opening and the entire floor of the forest in this clearing was carpeted in crimson leaves of the blueberry bushes. The clearing had signs of forest fire, which it turns out promotes the growth of the wild berries. We got the very last pick of the season; it was a bit of work to find enough berries to make this crisp, but we were determined. Just two weeks earlier my friend had been to this same spot and picked a bounty. I could see the potential. I wait with bated breath for next year and will beg an invitation during the heart of the season.

When we returned to her cabin I made this crisp: Read more

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Ice Cream Cake

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  August 25, 2009
Filed Under frozen dessert, recipe | 46 Comments

When I was an art student at the University of Vermont I worked at the Ben & Jerry’s making ice cream cakes. It was my first job in the world of sweets and I have never looked back. My brothers were very little then and it started a birthday tradition for them that lives on today. I wish my two brothers lived close by, but Alec is an artist in Portland, Oregon and Carey works in a recording studio in NY. They are wildly talented and two of my favorite people to be with. Every summer my family rents a cabin in Northern WI and we get to spend precious, albeit short, time together. This year that time fell on Carey’s birthday. Even at the ripe old age of 27 he still wants his childhood favorite; ice cream cake.

As some of you may know this month has been a marathon for me. Jeff and I finished the manuscript for Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day just last week. Did you hear me celebrating! The week prior I was on vacation with my family in Maine. It was a glorious week of ocean, lobster, fresh wild blueberries and some of the best pie on earth.  And last but not least, yesterday was my 18th wedding anniversary. Despite my absence from blogging I have been baking and look forward to being back home where I can start posting about my adventures in the kitchen.

I hope you all have had a wonderful August! Read more

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Garlic Kale Tamale Tart - yes, the crust is bright red!

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  August 3, 2009
Filed Under Backyard Urban Farm, Tart, recipe, what I made for dinner! | 22 Comments

The July issue of Saveur magazine was filled cover to cover with the foods of Texas. Everything from Pecan Pie to Mesquite Grilled steaks. But one recipe caught my eye, not only because it sounds delicious, but because the technique is unlike anything I’ve seen before.  It is a Tamale Tart by the chef Stephan Pyles. His version has a soft masa tart shell, a roasted garlic custard and piled high with crab and hot peppers, it looks worthy of a trip to Dallas just to get a slice from his restaurant. Instead of baking the tart he cooks it in a bamboo steaming basket, just as you would for making tamales. It would seem that the crust might get soggy, but it was perfect. The custard was soft, silky and decadently rich.

Now that I am a backyard urban farmer I have an abundance of fresh kale. I thought it would go beautifully with the garlic custard and ancho spiced crust. So I gave up the crab and created a lovely quiche like dish that was perfect all on its own, but would be lovely served as a side.

Read more

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A Red Velvet Birthday Cake (basket weave 101)

Print Print   |  Print Email this to a friend   |  July 20, 2009
Filed Under 101, cake, recipe | 63 Comments

About 30 years ago my father introduced me to Patricia, the most glamorous woman I’d ever seen. She wore a light blue polyester pant suit with eye shadow to match and had a pile of perfectly coiffed blond hair. She was lovely and clearly not from Connecticut, where we lived at the time. Just one word from her mouth and you could hear the south, Alabama in fact. Patricia is my stepmother and in honor of her Southern roots I made her a Red Velvet Birthday cake. Her mom used to make them for her when she was a kid. I wish I had her mother’s recipe, but I found one that was fascinating and dated back to WW2. The Milk Chocolate cream cheese frosting done in an elegant basket weave adds to the romance of the cake.

When I read the ingredients for the cake I immediately assumed that it had omitted a key ingredient; eggs. In fact, this cake is completely vegan; no eggs, butter or milk. Eggs act as a binder, a kind of glue that holds things together. When they are baked, the proteins set and hold everything else in place.  So when I saw that this cake didn’t have any at all I wondered what the texture would be like, paste came to mind. In fact, I was so doubtful I had a back up recipe all ready to go. But, what do you know, it was fantastic. Moist, rich, despite the lack of any butter or eggs and absolutely delicious. Why? Read more

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