Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Komfort Kake

adapted from Staff Meals from Chanterelle by Waltuck and Phillips

by My Little Blue Heron

I published this recipe years ago (2011), and it's worth republishing. I added weights for your convenience and for consistent results. This recipe is a crowd feeder and crowd pleaser. It's simple and delicious and perfect for this time of year when people get together, celebrate and hang out. It's perfect for some serious emotional eating. Komfort Kake. 

If you don't use whole wheat pastry flour, use all unbleached all-purpose flour (combine the two by weight).

"Fiori di Sicilia" extract is "optional", but essential. Buy it from King Arthur Flour. I keep mine in the fridge (citrus oils can get funky) and it lasts for years. It's gorgeous.

I baked this last week for my son's birthday open house, and his guests were coming back for more. I don't eat gluten, but I could tell it was stunning. My daughter nailed it, when she said that I live by "second hand smell". I think of it as heightened sense.

Please enjoy (or re-enjoy) this fantastic recipe. Happy holidays to you!

jane

Ingredients:

1 package (8 oz.) Philadelphia brand cream cheese, room temperature

12 oz. (3 sticks) unsalted butter

3 cups/591g. granulated sugar

6 eggs, size large, room temperature

1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. Fiori di Sicilia extract (optional, but recommended)

2 1/2 c./348g. unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 c./64g. whole wheat pastry flour 

1 tsp./4g. kosher salt

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. and lightly butter a 10-inch tube pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.

Measure flours and salt into a med/large bowl, whisk together and set aside.

Place the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of your Kitchen Aid or electric mixer, or using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until smooth.

Add the sugar, and increase the speed to medium/high. Beat until light and airy, 5 minutes with a hand held mixer, less with a Kitchen Aid.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Dump in the flour and incorporate on low speed. You may need to throw a tea towel over the mixer at first so you don't get powdered.  Once the flour mixture is incorporated, you may finish mixing by hand, making sure there's nothing on the bottom that isn't on the top and vice versa. The less you mess around with the batter, the better.

Pour the batter in the prepared pan and smooth out the top. If you don't have a small offset spatula, use the back of a large serving spoon. This will work well to smooth the batter.

Bake on a rack set in the middle of the oven until golden brown on top and a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours.

Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes and then release from the tube pan and cool completely on a baking rack. When completely cooled, wrap well and leave overnight. It will taste better tomorrow.

You can refrigerate or freeze this cake. Always best to eat it freshly baked. Serves an army.

Whole Wheat Passover Mandel Bread

The seders are over and you've had it with those canned Goodman's macaroons (or have you?) This year, whole wheat (spelt too!) matzo is proud on those doilies in the Passover aisles. This product, Aviv's Whole Wheat Organic Matzo Cake Meal, may be a harder to find. I found it in Whole Foods (and can't seem to find it anywhere else). But, if you're looking for organic and whole grain this week, pick up a box. It's about $.50 more than the 'other' cake meal. 

This is a 'classic' Passover recipe and my mother always made it with Nestle's chocolate chips. This year, my 81 year old mother braved major surgery to repair 'her aching back'. She could barely walk. Nothing stops my mom. She's the bravest person I know. She even baked her Passover Mandel Bread before she went into the hospital!

Mom in her kitchen.

On my next visit, I'll bring some of these and see if they meet with her approval. 

This recipe is dedicated to my mother.

I am the most beautiful box of cement matzo in the world.

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Whole Wheat Passover “Mandel Bread”

adapted from and dedicated to my mother

by Blue Heron Kitchen

Preheat oven to 350º F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

CREAM:                                2 cups granulated white sugar

                                              ½ pound butter (83% European style – “Plugra” is

                                              made by Hotel Bar, and it's really good.)

                  1 tsp. pure orange oil ( or grated orange zest from

                  1 large orange)

ADD:          6 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg

            

SIFT TOGETHER:    2 ¾ c. whole wheat matzo cake meal 

                                  (Aviv brand found at Whole Foods

                                  Markets.)   

                                  ½ tsp. kosher salt

                                  ¾ c. potato starch

                                  1 tsp. ground cinnamon

FOLD:                                   dry ingredients into egg, butter, sugar mixture

ADD:                                     1 cup chopped toasted and cooled pecans 

                                               8 oz.  dried currants

FORM: into 4 - 2” wide [about ½-3/4” high] loaves [two loaves per cookie sheet – width, not length] and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mix. [for w.w. version, sprinkle with raw can sugar (coarse, raw, sanding sugar)]

BAKE: in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, rotating cookie sheets half way through the bake, top to bottom and front to back.

COOL:  loaves on racks for about half an hour.

SLICE:  into 1/2” pieces and finish cooling on racks. Store in airtight container. May be frozen.

N.B.:   These cookies are not baked twice (though I’ve spoken to women who do bake them twice. I don’t know much about cement. One of my husbands was part Italian, but his family knew more about throwing epithets than about pouring cement. You don’t have to be a paisano to know that if you’re pouring cement, it should start out moist.

            Zei gezunt.

            p.s. At the end of the week, you may wanna go to: “Tabula Rasa Bran Muffins”.  

A couple of loaves

Tabula Rasa Bran Muffins

Happy New Year!
You're gonna ease on down the road with this fantastic bran muffin recipe.
It's time for a big bag of Bob's Red Mill Wheat Bran.  Buy it here, online, or you can buy it at Fairway Markets.  You can purchase Bob's Red Mill products directly from them at bobsredmill.com

Use their whole wheat pastry flour too.  It's reliably great.  Another terrific brand is King Arthur Flour.  Try their White Whole Wheat flour (cool).

For those of you who want to cut out the refined sugar (my friend Michael, commented that these looked great, save for the brown sugar), I've tweaked the recipe for Agave Syrup users.  Look, it's still sugar, but it's supposed to be lower glycemic and 'better' for you. At least I haven't stooped to apple juice concentrate. The substitute/variation will be noted in bold red.

Bran New Year Muffins

Adapted by Blue Heron Kitchen from Nancy Silverton’s Pastries From the La Brea Bakery

2 c. unprocessed bran, toasted lightly (Bob’s Red Mill is great)

1 ½ c. organic raisins 1 3/4 cup for Agave syrup variation

½ c. toasted and chopped organic walnuts (optional) Add 1/4 c. chopped organic dried apricots

1 1/2 c. water additional 1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. for Agave syrup variation

½ cup low fat buttermilk

1 Tbsp. orange zest, finely chopped (or use 1/4 tsp. orange oil, added with vanilla to the cooked raisins)

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/ 2 c. light or dark brown sugar, firmly packed. (make certain it is fresh and moist) Omit sugar and substitute: 1/4 c. dark, raw Agave syrup

½ c. vegetable oil

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 egg, size large, room temperature

1 egg white from a large egg, room temperature

½ c. unbleached all purpose flour

¼ c. whole wheat pastry flour (or King Arthur’s “White Whole Wheat” flour)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. kosher salt

Adjust oven rack to middle and prepare muffin tins (approx.. 12-18, depending upon the size of your tins) with paper cups or with spray release (unless you’re still with the 2011 green resolution) or brush them with melted butter (the best choice).

Bran truc: Babysit your bran. After about 3 minutes at 350º F., gently turn it over or shake it around (using a jelly roll pan is a good choice) and don’t leave. It burns faster than a newborn baby on a tanning bed.

Put 1 cup of the raisins with 1 cup of water for Agave syrup variation, put an additional 1/4 cup raisins plus 2 additional Tbsp. water in a small saucepan and simmer on low heat until the water is mostly absorbed, about 15-20 minutes. It’s okay if there’s liquid left.  Cool for a few minutes, add the vanilla extract (and orange oil, if you're not using zest) and place in a blender or (better) in the bowl of a food processor with its steel blade and process until puréed.

Measure the oil and 1/4 cup dark Agave syrup in a large liquid measuring cup, add the eggs and lightly whisk together. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Pour the toasted bran into a large mixing bowl.  Add the buttermilk and remaining ½ cup of water for Agave syrup recipe, add an additional 1/4 c., bringing total to 3/4 c. of water and stir to combine. Stir in raisin purée, orange zest and brown sugar (omit sugar if using Agave syrup duh). Add the oil/egg/Agave mixture and stir to combine.

Fold in the remaining combined dry ingredients. Add remaining raisins and optional walnuts (or other nuts/dried fruit of your choice) add 1/4 c. chopped organic, dried apricots for Agave syrup variation.

Spoon into prepared tins almost to the top.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are browned and fairly firm to the touch. 

Take care to avoid over-baking them or else you’ll be cursing that you didn’t buy that Groupon for a half off colon hydrotherapy session.

Cool for a few minutes and release.  Serve warm.

These are best the day they are baked. They freeze beautifully.

this one is for GS. thank you for making my christmas so bright.

peace and love and may all your dreams come true in the new year,

jane