Dunk & Crumble

mollygilbert520

Chocolate Frosted Bundt Cake

by 7 Comments

This is not a celebration cake, strictly speaking.  I didn’t make it for anyone’s birthday, didn’t stick it through with candles or banners or sparkly sparklers (though it would look sort of adorable with the formers and latters, let’s be clear).

This is a straight up “I need chocolate cake” situation.  The sprinkles are a ruse.

Do you get this situation?  The “I need chocolate cake, preferably now and not later and also definitely with frosting” one?  I bet you do.  I mean, you’re human (you are, aren’t you?).  And let’s look at the facts: the east coast has had a rough Sandy week.  I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.  The election is tomorrow.  It is tense around here, people (by “here” I mean “America” and “in my head”).

Let’s cut that tension with a cake knife.  We’ll eat a slice, and then another, and we’ll be thankful – for warm blankets, batteries, democracy, and chocolate.  With sprinkles on top.

…

Read More

Tricksy Treats

by 7 Comments

(Circa 1992.  My aunt made my clown costume and we all (pretty, pretty obviously) did our own makeup.  You’re welcome.)

Happy day-before-Halloween!  Or rather, as it’s called this year, crazy-nuts-hurricane-clean-up-day.

I hope you’re all staying high and dry and doing some fun Halloween treat-making.  Or baking.  Or eating.  If you have electricity, I mean.

Need some candy-coated inspiration?  How about some homemade marshmallows?

Totally toast-able.

Here, bowls of pumpkin patchy brown sugar vanilla bean pudding.

Chocolate peanut butter candy cake?

…

Read More

Owl Cakes

by 12 Comments

I mean…

Do I even need words for these?  How dang CUTE is he?

I could just eat him up.  Which, in fact, is exactly what I intend to do.  So.

Sorry I’m not sorry.

Here’s a checklist for owl cakes of your very own:

  1. cupcakes (from scratch or some sort of box mix, no judgement here)
  2. frosting (I will only sort of judge you if you use pre-made frosting)
  3. Oreo cookies (for owl eyes)
  4. Reese’s pieces or M&Ms (orange for beaks, brown or green or blue for eyeballs)

The little kiddos and I made these in cooking class today; they are, I think you’ll agree, a real hoot.  Happy almost-Halloween!

Baked Cinnamon Sugared Pumpkin Doughnuts

by 14 Comments

These doughnuts are baked and not fried, cinnamon-sugared and not plain, eaten and not saved.  Both dunked and crumbled.  Take the leap!  Make some doughnuts.

Other leaps worth taking, while we’re on the subject:

Write things, even if you feel silly writing them.

Get up and out of the house.  Take a walk.  Wander.  Travel somewhere far!  If you can.

Send somebody a letter.  Like, in the mail.  (The mail, mail.)  What’s better than getting a nice letter written by hand?

Talk to that guy you think is so-o-o-oo cute.  Call him maybe.

Pause for a minute.  Look around.  Ok, go.

Wear something you think you can’t pull off.  If you’re wearing it (and walking tall in those boots), you’re pulling it off.

Use real butter.  Just, please do.

Be a friend.  A real one.  Everyone needs those.

Just a few leaps to keep in mind.  Mostly reminders to put yourself out there – socially, personally, professionally.  Mentally?

Sometimes I need a little extra push, a voice that says “go!” and “YOU can do it.”  Because things don’t always work out, but sometimes they do.  When they do, you’ll be glad you wrote that letter, or wore that skirt.  And when they don’t?  Well, then we get up, dust off, move on.  And either way, there are doughnuts.

…

Read More

Nana’s Cheese Biscuits

by 9 Comments

I spent the weekend in Tennessee, near Chattanooga; it’s where Ben’s Nana grew up.  We were there to celebrate the life of this amazing Southern lady, to smile at her kindness and spirit, to cry because we’ll miss her.

When I met Nana, she was 92.  Her hands were pale and fragile, but her eyes sparkled and her smile came warm and easy.  At the sight of Ben, her face lit up like fairy lights at Christmas time; though Nana was once a Lookout Mountain cotillion queen and a sharp and witty newspaper columnist, her very favorite role was that of unconditionally doting Grandma.

Much like someone else I know (hint: me), Nana showed her love through cooking.  A cake for every birthday, a feast for every Friday, a cookie (or four) for every little thing.  A true southerner and generous in every way, her recipes weren’t complete without multiple sticks of butter, shortening, cream.  She made a habit of tall and creamy pies, fried chicken, cheese biscuits, lush layer cakes, cornbread.  Her recipe journals are rich and full of whimsy — reading them helps to fill in the gaps for me, a friend who came late into her life.  Her jaunty words help to paint a picture of the vibrant and gracious woman responsible for bringing “Elegant Sour Cream Pound Cake,” “Truly Southern Pecan Pie” and “Especially Good Corn Pudding” into the lives of all she loved.  The notes for her lime chiffon pie recipe read as follows:

“Lime Chiffon Pie is such a special favorite of my family, and even many friends.  It is so delightful on steamy summer nights to end a dinner filled with recipes renowned in the South – of vegetables, just picked from the garden.”

I knew Nana for one year of her 92 total, so it’s fair to say I missed a lot.  But I’ve made her lime chiffon pie, I’ve made her cheese biscuits and apple cake.  I’ve got her words and stories to keep me company as I sift flour, roll out dough, melt another stick of butter. And for this I feel so lucky.

…

Read More

Chunky Peanut Butter Brownies

by 5 Comments

A few things that are true:

1. Sharks can (sort of) sense fear.
2. Pumpkin patches in California are dusty and meltingly hot, even in October.
3. I’m having dinner with my Uncle Bob tonight.
4. My Uncle Bob lives in Minnesota.
5. Brownies are sometimes best with peanut butter.

I made these a few weeks ago, right after I got Dorie Greenspan’s baking bible which, incidentally, is called Baking.  It’s a fantastic book, covering everything from scones and muffins to loaf cakes and cheesecakes and special occasion cakes, too.  Hearty cookies to delicate French tarts.  Crisps, crumbles, custards, puddings, ice creams.  Also brownies.  Dorie writes neatly and enticingly, and her recipes are notoriously flawless.  Especially, I find, when they involve a bit of peanut butter.

…

Read More

Salty Caramel Thyme Dip

by 3 Comments

I’ve been wanting to tell you about this caramel recipe for awhile, but then it was suddenly upwards of 90 degrees here and I was too busy panting my way up the stairs (four flights, come on!) and standing directly in front of the table fan.  Which took hours, you understand.

But!  The caramel.  It is good.  And now it’s starting to feel appropriately fall-ish here in the Bay.  I’ve got sunflowers in miniature vases and miniature pumpkins on the coffee table.  I’m into miniatures, apparently.  Also caramel.

Do you say cah-rah-mel?  Car-mel?  What’s the appropriate pronunciation, anyway?  It’s probably best to just eat it, and leave the pronouncing to someone else.  Is what I always say.

This caramel is for dipping and dunking and eating straight off the spoon.  The thyme gives it a subtle and pleasant earthiness, and the addition of cream cheese (a happy accident, the result of not having any heavy cream in the refrigerator and needing a suitable replacement) results in a creamily thick, smooth, and subtly tangy caramel.  Car-mel.  Whatever.  Lay off.

…

Read More

Grilled Cheddar, Peach & Arugula

by 7 Comments

Let’s get right to the point here: you don’t need me to give you a recipe for grilled cheese. You also don’t need an extra thick coffee milkshake, but wouldn’t your day be better if you had one right now?  Sometimes we want things that we don’t need.  Like milkshakes and pie cutters shaped like acorns and recipes for grilled cheese.

I had this for lunch two days in a row.  We’ve been lucky enough to still have some peaches at the farmer’s market (slim pickings, but I’m holding on to peach season with white knuckles), though I imagine this would be just as delicious with pears or apples, or even sweet plums.

And if you’re looking for a comfy tomato soup recipe to round this whole thing out, I’d suggest a hearty bowlful of Moroccan-spiced tomato soup.  Yum.

…

Read More

Autumn Redux

by Leave a Comment

I fall for fall.
Same time every year, it seems,
Every old time.
Do you fall at fall-time?  I bet you do.
There’s cider and cocoa and cotton wool.
Firewood and firesides and fading sunlit breezes.  Boots, too.
Tall ones and short ones, stomp stomping, crunch crunching,
The deep and dusty leaves, all reds and mustards and ochres and sages,
And who says that has to get old, anyway?

It’s the first day of fall today.  Happy autumn!  Like most everyone else, it appears, I’m into this particular switching of seasons.  From shorts to tights, cotton to corduroy, peaches and berries to eggplant, apples, squash.

Here, a redux — some of my favorite cozy fall time recipes to remember as you swap your printed neon Toms for those earth-toned corduroy ones:

Try some roasted acorn squash and arugula, above.

Or chicken barley soup with kale.

Pumpkin ginger cake with salted maple glaze!

Mustard roasted potatoes & pears are the perfect compliment to any simple and hearty roast.

…

Read More

Lemon-ish Berry Berry Muffins

by 2 Comments

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

These are what’s happening exciting today.

Lemon-ish berry berry muffins, only faintly sweet and fortified with lemon zest, Greek yogurt, whole wheat pastry flour and (likely) the last of summer’s sweet berries.

These could be what’s happening exciting tomorrow, too!  Lemon-ish.  Breakfasty.  Berry Berry-able.  Muffinosity!

And if you wanted to make things extra exciting by bedazzling these with a simple lemon glaze, I wouldn’t be the one to stop you.  Just saying.

…

Read More