Zucchini Pineapple Muffins

Mom made these, and then I made these again three or four times right after Liana was born.  It was my favorite middle of the night snack when she was a newborn, but really they are great anytime.  They are moist and delicious, and keep for several days in tupperware.  Or they can be baked, frozen and thawed out in small batches.  Sometimes I'd have them cold, or sometimes in the microwave for 15 seconds or so.  Usually with butter and a glass of milk.   It's a great use for all the abundant zucchini this time of year, and is a nice variation from standard zucchini bread.   

Zucchini Pineapple Muffins

3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. chopped pecans or walnuts
1 c. melted butter
2 c sugar (can be reduced a bit)
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. grated zucchini
1 large (20 oz)  can crushed pineapple, drained (original recipe called for a small can, but we like more)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nuts and set aside. Combine melted butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition.  Stir in zucchini, pineapple and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients, stir to combine. Spoon into well greased muffin tins or muffin tins prepared with cupcake liners.  I usually use an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter to the pans. Bake 20 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.

Katharine Hepburn Brownies (Adapted)

There isn't really a reason to make any other brownie, because these are basically amazing.  I adapted it from Katharine Hepburn's family brownie recipe--reducing the sugar a bit, using chocolate chips instead of unsweetened baking chocolate and adding in unsweetened cocoa powder.

One of my most favorite things on this earth is one of these warm brownies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with hot fudge. Seriously delicious.  

I usually make the batter in a two or four cup glass measuring cup since it can go in the microwave. This recipe is for an 8 x 8 pan, but can easily be doubled for a 9 x 13 pan.

Katharine Hepburn Brownies (Adapted)
9 brownies

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
4 teaspoon cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven 325 degrees. Place butter and chocolate chips in a 2-4 cup glass measuring cup, and melt in the microwave (30-90 seconds depending on your microwave).  This can be done in a double boiler if preferred. Stir to ensure all the chocolate has evenly melted.  Stir in cocoa powder and sugar.  Add 2 eggs, whisking after each addition.  Stir in vanilla.  Sprinkle the flour and salt over the batter, whisk in until smooth.  Add the optional nuts.  Pour batter into an un-greased 8 x8 pan. Bake 40 minutes at 325 degrees.

Hazelnut Torte

(Photo credit: Chava)

Another classic recipe, and a favorite of many.  This recipe isn't too sweet and has plenty of protein. 

Hazelnut Torte

Serves 8-12

2 1/2 cup hazelnuts

1 slice bread

8 eggs, separated

1/2 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting

2 cup heavy whipping cream

Powdered sugar

Raspberry jam

Preheat oven 300 degrees.  Prepare three 9 inch round cake pans: grease lightly with butter and dust with flour; cut out rounds of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pans.  (The parchment may not be necessary depending on your pan).  

Pour the hazelnuts onto a baking sheet with raised edges.  Roast hazelnuts in the oven until the skins begin to loosen.  Remove from oven, cool to touch and rub between your hands to remove as much skin as possible.  Set aside 13 nuts for decoration.  Grind the hazelnuts in a food processor.  Set aside 1/2 cup of the ground nuts for decoration.  Transfer remaining hazelnuts to a bowl.  Grind the slice of bread in a food processor and transfer to the bowl of hazelnuts.  Add the egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla to the bowl.  In a separate bowl add the egg whites and beat until soft peaks form.  Gradually add the other 1/2 cup sugar to the egg whites and continue beating until stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the hazelnut mixture.  Divide the batter between the three prepared cake pans.  Bake 20 minutes at 300 degrees.  Cool and remove from pans.

To finish beat the whipping cream and add powdered sugar to taste.  It should be stiff enough to spread, but not so stiff that it is lumpy.  Place a layer of cake down on your serving platter and spread the cake with a generous layer of raspberry jam.  Spread a layer of whipping cream.  Repeat with the other two layers of cake--spreading first with jam, then whipping cream.  Frost the top and the sides of the cake with whipping cream.  Pat the reserved ground nuts around the sides of the cake--it should stick to the whipping cream.  Decorate the top with edible flowers and the 13 reserved whole hazelnuts.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Welcome to the new (free) home of thesugaredpeach blog.  I've moved all the recipes and photos over from the old blog.  I've decided to upload more recipes with or without photos...just so that we have them available.  I will add photos organically as it becomes convenient, but honestly it's been a barrier to posting new recipes.  I would love to crowd source some of the photography, so if any of you take any great pics of the recipes, please email, text or instagram them and I will add them to the blog entry...

Here is the recipe for another one of my go to delicious cookies.  The recipe hails from my time in The South...like the type of cookie you might eat on a covered porch with cool glass of lemonade. But it's just as good in Sequim with a glass of milk...

You can make a lot of delicious variations to this recipe.  Additions might include chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, shredded coconut, walnuts, pecans, dried cherries, dried cranberries or almonds.  The classic combination is semi sweet chocolate chips and pecan, but I also really enjoy sour dried cherries and chocolate, as well as coconut, pecan & chocolate.   Keep the additions around 3 cups total, but I've certainly done closer to 4 cups at times.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

4 dozen

1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cups pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sift flour with salt and baking soda.  Add sifted dry ingredients and oats to the butter mixture.  Mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds.  Add the chocolate chips, pecans and/or any other additions, mix on medium for another 10 seconds.  Drop cookie dough in generous tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes.  Store in an airtight container.

Moroccan Chermoula Sauce over Pan Fried Fish Fillet

You may have noticed the paucity of seafood recipes on this blog–mainly owing to the fact that I’m not a fan.  I wouldn’t eat anything “fishy” for the first two decades of my life, and have only recently found a few recipes I can tolerate.  This traditional Moroccan sauce is pungent and citrusy, and adequately covers any trace of fishiness.

And though I haven’t tried it yet, I expect I would like actually prefer it on a chicken, thus avoiding the fish altogether.  The recipe is from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden.  She shares that every town and every family has its own special variation of chermoula.  I’ve included my favorite below, but it is definitely a recipe that can be further adjusted to taste.

Moroccan Chermoula Sauce with Pan Fried Fish Fillet

Serves 4

For the sauce:

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 cup flat leaf parsley

3 large garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cumin (I prefer less)

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/4 teaspoon ground chili pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup olive oil

Put all the sauce ingredients into a food processor and blend until there are no large chunks.  Salt to taste. Set aside and prepare the fish.

For the fish:

2 pounds white fish fillets such as turbot, hake, cod, etc

At this point you can either marinate the fish in half of the chermoula sauce for 20-30 minutes, or you can dredge it in flour.  I attempted to marinate it and then dredge in flour once, and it got a little messy– though still tasty.  The photos show fish that has been dredged in flour and not marinated.  In any case, heat a large (nonstick) skillet with olive oil over medium heat.  Cook, turning fillets once, for 3-8 minutes total, or until the fish begins to flake.  Serve with the remaining chermoula poured over top.

Strawberry Caprese Salad

I took these pictures during the height of strawberry season, but have obviously been slightly tardy in my posting. I enjoyed this salad, and variations of it all summer…strawberry-basil, strawberry-cucumber-lemon-basil, blueberry-peach…all with fresh mozzarella, olive oil and balsamic.  The blueberry peach version packs the best, and is great to carry to work.  I generally don’t measure the olive oil and vinegar, just drizzle it on, but have given rough estimates below.  Super quick, super tasty!

Strawberry “Caprese” Salad

Serves 1

1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced

1/2 cup fresh mozzarella, bite sized type or large type torn into pieces

1/2-1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2-1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Optional:

1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and chopped bite size

1-2 basil leaves, chopped

Juice of 1/4 lemon

Salt & Pepper

A little sugar if your fruit is sour

**For the blueberry peach version, I typically use 1 extra large peach, sliced and about 1/2 cup blueberries instead of strawberry and only use balsamic, olive oil and a little sugar as dressing.

Toss all desired ingredients together and serve.  If nice to sop up the juice with piece of baguette…

Frozen Chocolate Mousse Torte

Flourless chocolate cake meets chocolate mousse meets ice cream cake.  It’s awesome and it’s been too long since I’ve made it.  It’s one of my mother’s recipes, and I think she originally sourced it from a nameless tiny cooking magazine several decades ago.

The ingredients are pretty simple, but the recipe is slightly annoying given the shear number of bowls you dirty in the process (one for egg whites, one for melting chocolate, one for egg yolks, one for whipped cream…).  The top and bottom layers are nearly the same, except the bottom is baked and the top has whipped cream folded into it.  There is a thin layer of raspberry preserves spread between the top and bottom layer.

Be sure to start it early enough to allow time for it to freeze before serving–better yet make it a day or two in advance.  Since the top layer is not baked, it does contain raw (albeit frozen) eggs.

Frozen Chocolate Mousse Torte

Serves 10-12

8 eggs, separated

1/8 tsp cream of tartar (okay to leave it out if you don’t have it)

1 cup sugar, divided

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted (in a double boiler or in the microwave)

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 c raspberry preserves

1 cup whipping cream

Optional: fresh raspberries, mint leaves for decoration

Heat oven 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 or 10 inch spring form pan.  In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form; set aside.  In another large bowl beat the egg yolks with the remaining 3/4 cup sugar for about five minutes.  They will be fluffy and lemon yellow.  Add the vanilla and melted chocolate, fold together.  Next, fold the egg white mixture into the chocolate batter.  Once it is well combined, pour half of the batter into the prepared springform pan.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Refrigerate the remaining batter while the bottom layer is baking and cooling.

Once the bottom layer is cooled, spread with the raspberry preserves.  Beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form.  Fold the whipping cream into the remaining refrigerated chocolate batter.  Spread over the raspberry preserves.  Cover the torte with plastic wrap and freeze for several hours or until firm.  Shortly before serving, remove the sides of the springform pan.  Arrange optional fresh raspberries in a band around edges of the torte as well as a few in the center with the sprigs of mint.