Maple-Oatmeal Fruit Crisp

I have no idea what the difference is between a crumble and a crisp. To me, they both involve fruit and a delicious crunchy topping, usually made out of oats, sugar, and butter.

Knowing bakers, there's probably some precise distinction between the two (you melt the butter before you add the oats in a crisp, or some such thing), but, I can't be bothered to find out what it is.

That being said, whether they are crisps or crumbles, they are delicious. And perfect for summer. And the perfect way to make a lazy dessert. Cut up fruit. Add flour, oats, sugar, and butter. Bake. See? Nothing to it. And because you can add whatever fruit is in season at the time, you get to come up with your own endless varieties of the dessert. Because I focus less on the measuring and more on getting the thing baking, I've never made the same crumble twice. But that's not to say they weren't all delicious.

Now that I've insisted on the unnecessary element of measuring in a crumble/crisp, I present the following very measure-based recipe, straight from the annals of NPR and their kitchen window series. While I'm usually an "organic" crumble-maker (measurements are for wusses), I wanted to try their very complex version, to see if there was a way to improve on the glories of easy crumble making.

And when I say complex, I mean it took me 7 minutes instead of 5 to make. But still. Coconut? Walnuts? Cranberries? Maple syrup?! NPR, calm thyself. There's no reason to get so darn complicated. But, the recipe was delicious. So if you're feeling like you need a little extra complication in your baking life, this crumble is for you. If I'm ever pressed to serve crumble at a dinner party (and why wouldn't you?), this might be a good bet to show off the dressed-up nature of the dessert. Otherwise, for an easy dessert, I might go back to my basics: oats, flour, sugar. Or, if I'm honest, the ready-made crumble topping at Tesco (shhhhh, don't tell anyone). ;)

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients

Topping

1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup rolled oats (or more)

1/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons maple syrup

Filling

3 peaches or other stone fruit, pitted and chopped

1 cup blueberries, raspberries or blackberries, or a combination

1/4 cup dried cranberries

4 tablespoons chopped walnuts or almonds

1/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon flour

5 tablespoons maple syrup

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the flour, oats and sugar together. Cut in the butter, working the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Drizzle in a bit of maple syrup, adding more if the mixture is very dry.

In a large bowl, mix the fruit, nuts, coconut, cinnamon, ginger and flour together and stir well to combine. Drizzle with maple syrup to taste (if the fruit is not too sweet, add a little more).

Spread the fruit in an 8-inch square baking dish and cover with the topping. If the topping doesn't cover all the fruit, sprinkle more oats on top. Be liberal.)

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until fruit is bubbling and topping is crisp.

Apple Cake

I am not usually a baker of cakes. Muffins, bars, cookies, sure. Cakes seems like so much more of an investment. Who's going to eat a whole cake? I mean, I can handle at least a couple of cookies, but a whole cake? That just seems excessive.

Well, my non-baking cake days are apparently at an end. I have a roommate who loves cake. Any kind of cake. "They feel like a celebration!" she says to me as she pores over recipe books devoted to the subject. She herself is queen of what is now infamously known as the Guinness Chocolate Cake. More on that later though.

But my tendencies toward simplicity resulted in this- an apple cake courtesy of the good ol' "Joy of Cooking". I'm a fan of apple pie but I wanted something sweeter and...well, softer. I had no idea that apple cake was even an option. And now, because of this, poor apple pie may never again find a place in our household. The absolute simplicity of this cake made the fact that it was so delicious even better. I was put on dessert duty the evening we made this and I had the batter ready for the oven in less than 10 minutes. No eggs, no beaters, just a large bowl and a wooden spoon are all you need. Well, that and the ingredients which are by no means hard to find. I also *highly* recommend the addition of rum to this cake. Talk about improving on a good thing.

Served with ice cream, this cake demands recognition amongst its more famous apple-based dessert brethren. And it deserves it.

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp. rum
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped apples (I recommend tart green apples, with the skin left on)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8 inch square baking pan or line the bottom with wax or parchment paper. (I used a round spring-form pan, but honestly anything will work here.)

Whisk together in a large bowl the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

Add the buttermilk, oil, rum, and vanilla and stir together until smooth.

Stir in the apples and nuts.

Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack. Serve warm, plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ok, arguably, a muffin shouldn't have frosting on it. As (again, arguably) a breakfast food, one perhaps should forgo the delicious delicious topping that everyone agrees goes naturally with carrot cake, i.e. cream cheese frosting.

I completely disagree.

I know Martha Shulman, who provided this recipe as a healthy alternative to fatty muffins in her series "Recipes for Health" in (where else?) The New York Times, is probably screaming somewhere at my abuse of her new improved healthy muffin recipe, but alas, I'm sorry Martha, this muffin needs frosting.

Of course, you are more than welcome to make the muffin as Martha suggests, frosting-less, but for those secret guilt-ridden frosting-lovers out there (which I proudly count myself among), put the frosting on in copious amounts and don't you dare feel bad about it. After all, it's a healthy muffin.
And on that note, I will say that this carrot cake recipe, muffin or otherwise, is delicious. Despite the whole wheat flour, it tastes every bit as good as a standard carrot cake recipe without the dangers of dryness or mealiness. Huzzah for carrot cake and huzzah for muffins.

Ingredients (recipe for cream cheese frosting follows)
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (Martha recommends pastry flour, I used standard whole wheat flour and did just fine)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup raw brown (turbinado) sugar (or light brown sugar, which I used)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup golden raisins tossed with 1 teaspoon unbleached all-purpose flour, or 2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the upper third of the space. Oil or butter muffin tins.

2. Sift together the whole-wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Using a whisk or a spatula, stir in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Do not beat; a few lumps are fine, but make sure there is no flour at the bottom of the bowl. Fold in the raisins or pecans and the carrots.

4. Spoon into muffin cups, filling them to just below the top (about 4/5 full). Place in the oven, and bake 25 minutes until lightly browned and well risen. Cover copiously with cream cheese frosting (recipe follows).

Yield: Twelve muffins, depending on the size of the muffin tins.

Cream Cheese Frosting (come on, you know you want to)
(from the Joy of Cooking)

Ingredients
8 oz. cold cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Method
Beat in a medium bowl at low speed the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until just blended.
Add the sugar 1/3 at a time, and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency. Stir in ground cinnamon.
If the frosting is too stiff, beat for a few seconds longer but be careful not to overbeat.

Chocolate-Dipped Cherry, Cranberry, and Hazelnut Biscotti

This recipe unfortunately indulges my culinary tendencies to throw the kitchen sink into every baking recipe I find. In my mind, if one added ingredient makes the whole thing better, why not add five extra ingredients? Combine that with the peculiar stocking strategies of Tesco and you come up with the above recipe. In my defense, I was originally planning to make this recipe with only cherries and hazelnuts. But then Tesco was out of cherries. So I went with cranberries. And THEN I discovered the glace cherry section. Oh my. Well, when it came down to deciding between the two, my logic was no match for my "kitchen sink" tendencies. And thus: chocolate, cherry, cranberry, hazelnut biscotti. Try saying that five times fast.

(from epicurious.com, via Bon Appetit, December 1998)

Ingredients 

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
 2 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups hazelnuts (about 4.5 ounces), toasted, husked, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup dried cranberries (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup glace cherries
3/4 pounds bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
Unsweetened cocoa powder

Method

Position 1 rack in center and 1 rack in top third of oven and preheat to 325°F. Using handheld electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in very large bowl until well blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time just until blended. Mix in orange peel, baking soda and salt. Add 3 cups flour, hazelnuts and dried cherries; stir until well blended. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, a little at a time, stirring until well incorporated.

Transfer dough to floured work surface. Divide into 2 equal pieces. Knead each piece until dough holds together well. Form each piece into 5-inch-long by 2-inch-wide log. Place the 2 logs on a large ungreased baking sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart (logs will spread during baking). Bake until logs are golden and feel firm when tops are gently pressed, switching and rotating baking sheets halfway through baking, about 55 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheets 15 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Using long wide spatula, transfer logs to cutting board. Using serrated knife, cut warm logs crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake biscotti 10 minutes. Turn biscotti over; bake until light golden, about 10 minutes longer. Transfer to racks and cool completely.

Stir chocolate in large bowl set over saucepan of boiling water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Dip 1 cut side of each biscotti into melted chocolate to about 1/4-inch depth. Gently shake off excess chocolate. Place biscotti, chocolate side up, on baking sheets. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes. Dip pastry brush in cocoa, then lightly brush cocoa over chocolate on each biscotti. (Can be made ahead. Store in airtight containers up to 4 days, or wrap in foil and freeze in resealable plastic bags up to 3 weeks.)

Hobnobs

How to explain the curiously British entity that is the hobnob? Well, we could get into the entire "cookie vs. biscuit vs. digestive" argument but that would take far too long and involve way too many footnotes. Needless to say, the "hobnob" is a type of British cookie that is a bit firmer to the touch and has substantially more bite than traditional American cookies. I would on one hand be tempted to call them oatmealy (as there is a significant amount of oatmeal in them) but that wouldn't capture the essence of the hobnob.

And prior to the discovery of this recipe, the hobnob was also something I thought you could only find in the store. Like Oreos. No one actually made hobnobs. And there again, I was wrong. My roommate showed me this recipe, courteously passed on to her through the wonder that is online recipe swapping. The original website for it is here, delightfully fun and maintained by people who appear to be serious advocates of tea parties. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Now I have to apologize for my frequent (and seemingly random) switches between American and British measurement styles. Believe me,  I share your frustrations in determining what half a stick of American butter means in the metric system. I can only say that I work on both systems, employing both scales and cups at the same time. I do know that there is a wonderfully handy conversion chart at the back of the latest edition of the Joy of Cooking which has saved me time and time again. And, knowing the internet, there's probably some wonderful online conversion chart where you can find out any measurement in terms of any other. If you do know of it, please share the wealth! 


Ingredients

225g self raising flour
225g sugar
225g porridge oats
225g margarine/butter
1tbsp golden syrup
1tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Mix the flour, oats and sugar in a bowl
Add any extra ingredients such as raisins/chocolate chips if you want
In a pan, melt the margarine, syrup and water
Once melted, stir in the bicarbonate of soda and then add to the dry mix
Mix well, then make smallish balls (the recipe makes 35 – 50 depending on size), place on a greased tray and flatten slightly
Bake at 180°c for 15 minutes until golden, then cool for a few minutes on the tray before moving to a rack.
Spread a layer of chocolate on the top (if you’re making chocolate ones)