Mini Zucchini-Pecan Cakes

I am thinking of many ways to use up all the zucchini that I currently have on hand.  I had bought some at the farmers market and then my sister-in-law brought me a few beautiful zucchini's from her garden.  I have made a vegetable tian (layered potatoes, Roma tomatoes, + zucchini, over caramelized onions, baked and topped with Gruyere ), zucchini feta fritters, and now these wonderful, bite-size cakes.  I feel the secret to the success of these cakes was the olive oil!

The original recipe called for a cake pan.  Yet, I needed something that one could grab and go.  I baked this recipe off in my mini bundt pans.  Glad I did!  The cake was light, sweet, savory and utterly delicious!

Zucchini-Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Bon Apettit Magaizne
yield: 22 mini bundts

ingredients:
cake
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 cup olive oil ( not extra virgin )
1 cup sucanat ( or light brown sugar )
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini (8 oz)
3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

cream cheese frosting
8 oz. full fat cream cheese, room temperature
3 Tbls. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

instructions:
for the cake
• preheat oven to 350*.  Brush two mini bundt pans (12 bundt capacity) with melted, unsalted butter.  set aside
• whisk flour, baking powder, coarse salt, cinnamon, and ginger.
• in another bowl, whisk oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla, mix to blend.
• fold in the flour mixture
• fold in the zucchini and pecans.
• fill up bundt pans a little more than 1/2 way full.  place bundt pans on a baking sheet
• bake cakes until tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 25-30 minutes.
• cool completely on wire racks.  turn cakes out onto a platter and set aside
for the frosting:
• using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until combined.  add remaining ingredients and beat until thick ( you may need more sugar).
• pipe a dollop on each cake.
• can be made a day ahead ( I made the cakes the day before and frosted the day of ).  cover and chill in fridge.

Mexican Tea Tassies

Growing up my mom made these little pastries, called Mexican Tea Tassies.  I thought they were the most amazing little morsels of goodness one could ever eat.  They were usually made for special occasions or her "Pan Group".

When I started cooking on my own and discovered cooking magazines like Cooks Illustrated, Food and Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appetite, and Saveur, I was introduced to a world of options.  However, about 20 years ago, I found a similar recipe in Cooking Light Magaizne and I had to try it.  It wasn't nearly as good as my mom's original(dry, dull pastry and not sweet), so I stuck with hers.  Then, years later, I bought my first copy of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas Cookie Book.  In that book, she had something similar.  Over the years I have combined my mom's and Rose's and have come up with my own.

This past weekend, I made desserts for 40 for a fund raising event. Along with these pecan tassies, I also made mini chocolate cheesecakes and mini lemon bundt cakes (posts to follow).  I had some pate brisee in the freezer and rather than making a fresh batch of dough, I used what I had on hand.  Usually, I make a cream cheese crust for these, which I have to say are somewhat hard to roll out.

After I delivered the goodies, I came home to three very curious boys.  They asked if the left over sweets, sitting on top of the kitchen counter, were for them.  How could I bake all morning and leave nothing behind?  Isaac rated these 999 out of a 1,000.  I will take that as a pretty good rating!

ingredients:
pastry dough 
use your favorite

pecan filling
1 egg
1/2 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 Tbls. unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
dash of salt
3/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped

directions:
pastry
• spray muffin tins or mini tart pans with cooking spray.
• roll out pastry to 1/8" thick.  then use a round cookie cutter, slightly bigger than your muffin cup and cut out the shapes
• shape pastry in small muffin cups or small tart pans. I like to freeze these for an hour or so prior to baking.  Blind bake these for 8 minutes in a 350* oven.  Let cool.

pecan filling
• combine all ingredients, except for the nuts.
• divide nuts, evenly in each partially baked tart shell.
• fill each cup up 3/4 full.
• bake in a preheated 350* oven for 20 minutes.

let cool, then pop them out of the tart pans.  don't eat them all in one sitting

yield: 40 tartlettes

Rugelah 101

Monday is Yom Kippur and I am baking loads of stuff for my friends 100 person "break fast". This will be one of many desserts I am doing for her. Rugelah is a great treat for a crowd. For one thing, the recipe makes lots of cookies and two; they easily freeze prior to baking. I like to line them up on a cookie sheet and flash freeze them. Once frozen, I throw in a container or a zip loc and stick them in the freezer. When you are ready to make them, just pull them out, set them on your parchment lined cookie sheet, brush with egg wash or milk, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar and bake.

I have been using an old family favorite recipe for years. I wanted to mix it up a little and try something new. I found a few recipes that use cream cheese in the dough (which mine does as well) so I decided to use one and I played with the ingredients just a little. I love Rose Levy Beranbaum. I decided to try her recipe from the Rose's Christmas Cookie book. I made the crust in advance, rolled it out and put in the fridge until I was ready to assemble.

I do like to create my own fillings. I made some with apricot preserves, currants & pecans. The other filling was raspberry preserves, mini chocolate chips and walnuts.

These are better than good. I have loved this book for 25 years!

Beyond Brownies

I knew these were going to be good right when I looked at the recipe. Another winning bar recipe from my guy Nick (Malgieri). Sooooooooooo good!

The same day we were going to friends for breakfast (challah bread pudding), we were also seeing other friends for dinner. I totally overbooked us. What was I thinking? This was more socializing in one day than I usually do over a two week period!

Regardless, I had to bring treats. I wanted something I could do the day before and the Pecan, Coconut Chocolate Chunk Bars. These were somewhat similar to the dream bars that I make yet with a twist.

These melted in your mouth. They are the perfect balance between sweet, salty, crunchy, soft. Mmmm Mmmm good!

This is yet another recipe from my bible; The Modern Baker.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today my dad would have been 89. He died 2 years ago, January.

He loved his food and would drive to tim-buck-two and back just to get the best of the best. He loved the T-cakes at Martinos bakery, which also became a favorite of mine. A family party wasn't complete with out these perfectly square, maple flavored cakes. When I was pregnant with Eli, I craved all the flavors from my childhood. I would be embarrassed to omit how many of these little yummy treats I ate while Eli lived inside of me. My dad also loved a good french bread (specifically, the heals of the bread-toasted), a perfect malt (actually, he made the best ones) and Sees peanut brittle . The list goes on and on.

However his favorite was a pecan sticky bun. Where ever we went or traveled to, my dad was always up for a good pecan/sticky bun. He loved the ones at the Nordstroms lunch room but his all time favorite were the ones at Louise's Pantry in Palm Dessert (they have since moved). Growing up, we would go to Palm Springs at least once or twice a year and the weekend wasn't complete without a trip to Louise's. Most mornings, he would saunter in with the little white bakery bag. Regardless if you were hungry or not, the smell was so intoxicating that you couldn't resist.

A few years ago, we were all together at The Four Seasons in Aviara. Pretty much anything at any Four Seasons is good, but the sticky bun won his heart. When I got home, I wrote them and asked for the recipe. Off course, they obliged. I made them for my dad and he gave them the thumbs up. Since then, I have ventured out and have made the ones from Cooks Illustrated (pure perfection) and in honor of my dad's 89th birthday, I made the ones from The Modern Baker cookbook.

The gooey, caramel glob for this recipe has to be hands down the best one I have made thus far. However, I must have done something with the dough. It didn't rise, in my opinion, to it's full potential. I even gave it an extra hour of rising time. I have a feeling my yeast may have expired. That is the only reason I can come up with as to why these were not perfect. I am going to have to try them again, maybe when it is not so hot outside and the temperature is a little bit more mild.

The kids liked them even though they were not as light as I would have liked for them to be. More importantly, they liked singing to Poppy and each one of them made a silent wish as they blew out the candle. I can guess what they wished for. I secretly wished for the same thing.

Happy Birthday, Dad. September 8th will always be a special day for me and my boys!