Almondina Crunch Coffee Cake

I love getting packages in the mail, because they're usually food-related!

And one I received recently was no exception.  It contained a generous sampling - for marketing purposes - of Almondina cookies, which are similar to very thin biscotti.  They have only 30 calories per cookie, feature nutritious almonds, are both kosher and pareve ([PAHRv] = neither meat nor dairy), are made without cholesterol and preservatives, and are very adaptable.  I've eaten several of the sweet varieties (Gingerspice, Chocolate Cherry, Choconut) on their own, as desserts and snacks; and I've eaten a couple of the savory varieties (Brantreat, Sesame) with cheese and as croutons.

Over the weekend, I felt like baking; I heard a coffee cake calling to me ... a bit of comfort after several very stressful weeks.  Instead of the usual cinnamony streusel topping, though, I thought I'd add a bit of crunch instead.  So I crumbled some of the Almondina cookies, mixed them with just a touch of sugar and butter, and sprinkled them over the batter.  Oh, the house smelled so fabulous as this baked!

And the cake turned out beautifully, with lots of flavor from the addition of the crumbled Almondina cookies that contributed ginger and nuts to my coffee cake.  Such a simple pleasure!

Almondina Crunch Coffee Cake

Cake:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup apricot all-fruit spread

Topping:
6 Almondina Gingerspice cookies, crumbled
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/8 cup butter, melted

Glaze:
1/2 confectioners' sugar
1-2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9" round baking pan.

In large bowl, stir together butter, sour cream and egg; add sugar, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir in flours and spread into prepared baking pan.

Dollop the jam over the top of the batter, then swirl it in gently with a knife.

Combine the Almondina crumbs and brown sugar; stir in melted butter.  Sprinkle topping over the batter.

Bake coffee cake for 30 minutes, until golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let cool completely.

Combine confectioners' sugar and orange juice; drizzle over the coffee cake.  (Add a bit more juice or a bit more sugar, as needed, to make it the right consistency.)  Let glaze set, then cut and serve.

Makes 12 servings.

Krispy Kreme Peanut Butter Dream Sandwich

Alright, let's get the obvious statement out of the way right from the beginning: this sandwich has no - and I do mean NO - redeeming nutritional value.  There's no arguing that peanut butter provides protein.  There's no rationalizing that apricots provide vitamins A and C.  There's fat, there's sugar, there's salt ... and lots of each.  Oy!

This sandwich is nothing but giddy, gleeful, obscene decadence!

I created this seductive little tidbit for Project PB&J - a contest for food bloggers which is being hosted by my friend Cindy (a former Ann Arborite, I must point out) of Once Upon a Loaf and her friend Christina of She Runs, She Eats.  The competition is in honor of National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, as well as Cindy's birthday, on April 2.  What great excuses for a party, celebrating with everybody's favorite flavor combination!

The rules required preparing a sandwich and/or a baked good with a nut butter and a jelly/jam or fruit ... the critical ingredients in a PB&J, but with some room for variations on the theme.  I tried to think globally, since peanuts are an integral part of African cooking.  I tried to think of ways to modify classic desserts, such as the Austrian Sachertorte made with dense chocolate cake and apricot jam.

And then I came back to the sandwich's inherent identity; it just made sense to not riff into territory that was too terribly unfamiliar.  A PB&J is classic after all; at what point, I debated philosophically, does it cease being a PB&J if one tinkers too much ...?

And so, I kept to the basics.  I used peanut butter.  I used jelly.  I tossed a bit of Nutella into the mix because, frankly, one can rarely go wrong with Nutella; its chocolate and hazelnut flavors are both nice complements to the other two ingredients.

And then, the hedonism really kicked in.  What kind of bread to use?  Well, why use bread at all?  Jeremy loves Luther Burgers, named in honor of the late Luther Vandross, which use Krispy Kreme doughnuts as buns.  So, why not use a doughnut as bread?  And then - simply because it's been all the rage, and its saltiness and crispness would add flavor and texture to my concoction - I tossed in a little bit of bacon.  I'm smirking as I contemplate this notion, even though I know I should hang my head in shame.

This sandwich is ridiculously easy to make, which only enhances its beauty.  Cook up some bacon.  Schmear doughnut halves with yummy things.  Put it all together.  Grab some napkins.  Enjoy!

And enjoy this little ditty, too, whether you've seen it 149 times or have never been introduced to its odd charms:




Krispy Kreme Peanut Butter Dream Sandwich

4 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, halved
1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
1/4 cup Nutella
4 tablespoons apricot all-fruit spread
8 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked until crisp, halved

Place the tops and bottoms of the doughnuts onto a countertop.  Schmear each top with some of the peanut butter, dividing it evenly among the doughnuts.  Schmear the bottoms with Nutella, then schmear the apricot spread over the peanut butter.  Place the bacon onto the Nutella-covered portions, dividing it evenly among the doughnuts.  Put the tops and bottoms together to form 4 sandwiches.

Makes 4 sandwiches, serving 4-8 depending upon how much tolerance you have for such excess.

Peach 'n' Pecan Parfaits

It's the end of summer, and there is tremendous bounty at the various farmers' markets - fruits and vegetables abound! Before the cold weather sets in - and sadly, we all know it will - we must relish this opportunity to indulge in fresh produce.

There is little in life as sensual as biting into a juicy peach, fragrant and luscious. But sometimes you just want to glam things up a bit, make them a bit more special or elegant.

And that's precisely what today's recipe is about. These parfaits, featuring gorgeous ripe peaches, showcase the fruit's sweetness but also offer flavors and textures to complement that, as well.

These treats are ridiculously easy to make, yet seem special enough for any occasion ... even just the end of a lovely summer day.

Peach 'n' Pecan Parfaits

4 peaches, pitted, chopped into 1/2" pieces
1 apricot, pitted, chopped into 1/4" pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup white wine (I used Flip Flop Wines Riesling, a most generous marketing gift!)
8 pecan shortbread cookies
whipped cream, for serving

Place the peaches, apricot, sugar and wine into a small saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 5 minutes or so, stirring frequently, until the sauce is pink-tinged and thickened. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Crush the cookies - not too fine, but no huge chunks either. Set out two wine glasses. Place 1/4 of the cookie crumbs into the bottom of each glass, and top with 1/4 of the peach mixture in each, spreading carefully. Place half of the remaining cookie crumbs in a layer over the peaches in each glass, then top that with the remaining peaches. Top with a generous dollop of whipped cream.

Serves 2 generously.

Entertainment for an Insomniac

My neighbors woke me up at 3:30 the other morning. They weren't throwing dishes at each other or playing football in the front yard or anything; they were just talking. But there was a group of 6 or 7 of them talking ... and talking 10' outside my open bedroom window. So, I woke up.

I'm a notoriously bad sleeper to begin with -- late to bed, early to rise -- and am sometimes up at 3:30 all of my own accord. But that morning, I had been sleeping. And I couldn't get back to sleep after a gentle "shhhh"-ing of the noisy neighbors and their moving further away from the house.

So, what did I do while Jeremy and Tom slept? I baked.

I had made apricot jam recently ... well, not exactly "jam." I don't bother with pectin; I just chop fruit, throw in some sugar (about 2:1 fruit:sugar), and cook it down into a sorta fruit puree. And Tom had given me some candied ginger, which I adore. So, I played matchmaker and fixed 'em up together into muffins.

A little batter, a little jam, a little more batter, top it with cinnamon sugar and ginger ... if I may say so myself, these were truly exceptional! They were a perfect accompaniment to the massive quantities of coffee I drank through the rest of the morning to keep myself going after my mostly sleepless night ....

Apricot-Ginger Muffins

I made these pareve ([PAHRv] = neither meat nor dairy, a designation for those who keep kosher and can't mix meat and dairy); but you could use butter and milk, if you'd like.

Muffins:
1/3 cup Earth Balance butter substitute
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1-1/2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup thick apricot jam or Solo filling

Topping:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup finely minced candied ginger

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Make the muffins: In a large bowl, cream together Earth Balance and sugar; stir in egg. Mix in the flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in the soy milk. Place a golf ball-sized blob of batter into each of the lined muffin tins. Place about 1/2 tablespoon of jam over the batter; then divide the remaining batter among the tins, dropping it over the jam.

Make the topping: Combine the cinnamon, sugar and ginger; sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.

Bake for 20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the tin, as they're a bit fragile and need to set before being removed from the tin.

Makes 12 muffins.

"Now It's Dark"

I'm not particularly a fan of David Lynch, though I did love the first season of "Twin Peaks" with all its eccentricity. So, of course, when Tom and I were at an upscale grocery store the other day and found Blue Velvet apricots, my first thought was that kitschy Bobby Vinton song; Tom's, as I'm sure you've already guessed, was the movie.

So I thought about titling this post "She wore blue velvet," since the apricot is, indeed, wearing a blue coat now that it's mated with a plum. But that seemed trite and obvious, so I dug a bit for a quote from the film. And lemme tell ya, THAT took some doing! Most of the lines had -- shall we say? -- considerable vulgarities ... not my style. I'm not offended if the words actually serve the character's purpose (as they do in "Pulp Fiction," for example). But I was not going to post anything on my pretty pink blog that didn't represent me in all my prissy, girly-girl glory!

But anyway ... always a digression, isn't there???

I found the perfect line, spoken by Kyle MacLachlan's character: "Now it's dark." It's been so long since I've seen the movie that I have no clue whatsoever what it refers to ... could be anything, with David Lynch. But it's ideal for this situation: now the apricot is dark.

And it's also sweeter -- more plum flavor than apricot, though before you cut it it clearly looks like an apricot whose fuzz was injected with some ink. Once it's cut, it looks a lot like a plum -- juicier than an apricot, which tends to have a firmer flesh.

I've eaten several varieties of pluot -- a different cross of plum and apricot: some greenish and mottled, some purple, some red. And they are clearly variations on the theme of plum. This, however, appears to be an apricot that has stopped breathing and turned dark blue as a result, until you delve into the depths and find distinct evidence of plum within.

I always love to find new and intriguing foods, particularly produce. I've eaten yellow carrots and ones that were maroon on the outside and orange in the center ... for the most part, they all tasted like standard carrots.

Tomatoes of all colors -- from red to pink to yellow to green to striped -- are fabulous, each with its own unique fragrance and flavor.

I love multi-colored beets -- traditional deep red, orange, and even pink-and-white ones that are reminiscent of candy canes.

I loathe green peppers (I can eat them if someone puts them into something that they're serving me, but they're too bitter and too overpowering to really be suitable as a food, methinks). But red ones, orange, yellow, and even purple ... these I can go with either sliced and used as dippers, or sauteed, or roasted.

When nutritionists tell us we need to eat colorful food, these beautiful Blue Velvet apricots certainly help in that mission! And they were so good that, if they weren't so wretchedly expensive, I would absolutely buy them again ....

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