Refrigerator and Pantry Staples + Fresh Fruit = Easy Last-Minute Dessert

Thanks for visiting--I have a new blog, Scratchy Mama. Come check it out!

I always have certain ingredients on hand just in case I get in a baking mood…which happens quite often. Here is a list of things that I think are essential to keep in your refrigerator and pantry so that you’re ready for almost any recipe.

Refrigerator Staples (for baking):

-          Eggs
-          Butter
-          Milk
-          Sour Cream
-          Active dry yeast
-          Peanut butter
-          Fruit preserves
-          Vegetable shortening

Pantry Staples (for baking):

-          All-purpose flour
-          Granulated sugar
-          Brown sugar
-          Confectioner’s sugar
-          Oats
-          Baking soda
-          Baking powder
-          Cornstarch
-          Salt
-          Honey
-          Molasses
-          Ground cinnamon
-          Whole nutmeg
-          Vanilla extract
-          Almond extract
-          White vinegar (to make buttermilk)
-          Dark/semi-sweet chocolate bars
-          Dutch processed cocoa powder
-          Vegetable oil


I had some nectarines in the refrigerator, so I decided to use these along with some of my pantry and refrigerator staples to make Ina Garten’s Fresh Peach Cake. The batter is very thick, similar to coffee cake batter. The sour cream gives it a nice richness, moisture, and depth of flavor. There is a layer of peaches in the middle of the cake and on top, and the hint of cinnamon is a nice compliment. Once the cake is baked it stays very moist from the peaches. Yum! I want to try this recipe with other fruits. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!

Fresh Peach Cake (Adapted from How Easy is That? Copyright 2010 by Ina Garten)

Serves: 8            Prep time: 25 min         Bake time: 50-60 min

Ingredients

1 stick butter, at room temperature (I used salted)
1 cup sugar + 1/2 cup
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced (I used nectarines)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Make It

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch-square baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar for 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of hte bowl. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream and vanilla, and mix until the batter is smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until combined. Use a rubber spatula  scrape down the sides of the bowl and to finish mixing. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the cinnamon.

Spread half of the batter evenly in the pan. Top with half of the peaches, then sprinkle with two-thirds of the sugar mixture.

Spread the remaining batter on top, arrange the remaining peaches on top and sprinkle with the remaining sugar mixture and the pecans.

Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Inexpensive kitchen décor

Make something new out of things you have lying around. I had these bud vases that I haven’t used much and recently bought 18 gauge wire for a different project, so I decided to make a little kitchen décor. I cut a long piece of wire and wrapped it twice just under the lip of each vase. There are two screws in the wall next to the sink for some reason, and they were the perfect distance apart, so I wrapped the ends of the wire around the screws. Instantly, I had a unique place to put fresh or dried flowers or herbs!

Twist the wire around each vase

Wrap the ends of the wire around two screws or hooks

I also had some small metal pots and I did the same thing with those. I twisted three loops in the wire first. Then I put the pots in and hung it up. I think that was my favorite.

Make the loops first

Put the pots in the loops, then twist the ends of the wire around screws

Ta-da!

Try this with jars or any containers that have a lip at the top so the wire stays underneath.
(The vases and pots I used are both from Ikea.)

Pizza party

"Pork and Pepper" (prosciutto and arugula)

I absolutely love pizza. Whether thin crust or thick, lots of topping or a little, it is one of my favorite foods. My brother-in-law is a bread maker, and he also makes the best pizza dough. I happened to have some of his dough in the freezer, so I decided to thaw it out to use to make four kinds of pizza for a dinner party. 

The key to assembling the pizza is to stretch out the dough on a pan dusted with flour, put the sauce down first, then whole basil leaves, freshly grated parmesan cheese (or put it on top after the pizza comes out of the oven), mozzarella, toppings, a little more mozzarella. Bake at 450 degrees on a sheet pan (or a pizza stone if you have one) until golden brown. My pizzas took between 15-20 minutes each.

Set out all the toppings

Stretch out the dough on floured pan.

Add thin layer of sauce and basil leaves.

Add mozarella, toppings, and a little more mozarella.

Bake until golden, then top with freshly grated parmesan.

For the barbecue chicken pizza, use barbecue sauce as your base (I like Sweet Baby Ray’s), then add mozzarella, chicken, and onions (either sliced red onions or caramelized onions).

For the "Pork and Pepper" pizza pictured above, add the arugula and a drizzle of olive oil after the pizza comes out of the oven.

4 pizzas we made:

“Michael’s Favorite” (Kalamata olive, caramelized onion, and basil)

“Pork and Pepper” (Prosciutto, arugula, and basil)

Mushroom, ham, and basil

Barbecue chicken

Recipes:

---

Caramelized onions

Cook one thinly sliced yellow onion in about 1-2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-low heat. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook very slowly and stir occasionally. You do not need to add anything else. If you cook them slow and low, they will caramelize.

Pizza sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
6-8 large basil leaves
3 stems oregano
1 large (28 oz) can whole tomatoes, pureed in a food processor (or use crushed tomatoes)
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, basil, and oregano. Cook for 1 minute, and then add tomatoes and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste after 20-30 minutes to check for seasonings. Add sugar if it seems to acidic. Remove herbs and transfer to a bowl to cool.

Other ideas for pizzas:

Heirloom tomato and basil

4 cheese (goat cheese, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan)

Chicken and roasted garlic (roast head of garlic with top cut off in foil packet with olive oil for 1 hour at 350 degrees)

Barbecue chicken

Grown up cherry cola

I’m still trying to use up the $1/pound cherries my sister-in-law found for me at the farmer’s market. I thought a cherry drink of some sort might be kind of fun and different. We had some amaretto left over from some cake or something I made a while ago. And since I love the combination of cherry and almond, I thought they might go well together. I cooked the fresh cherries and made a syrup, combined that with some amaretto and club soda, and it was delicious. It reminded me of a cherry cola (and I couldn’t get that Savage Garden song I heard so many times in my sister's car out of my head).  Enjoy!

Grown Up Cherry Cola (serves 2)

6 ounces (3/4 cup) amaretto
6 ounces (3/4 cup) cherry syrup (instructions below)
8 ounces (1 cup) club soda
Ice

Mix all ingredients in a large measuring cup or pitcher. Stir well. Pour into glasses filled with ice. I used vintage jelly jars I found recently.

Cherry Syrup (makes about 3/4 cup)

Pit about 3 cups of Bing cherries. Add to a saucepan with about ½ cup water (you can always add more if it evaporates too quickly) and about 1 tablespoon sugar depending on how sweet your cherries are.

Cook over medium heat. Use a wooden spoon to break up the cherries as they start cooking.

Cook for about 5-10 minutes or until cherries have lost most of their juices and the mixture has thickened a little.

Strain into a measuring cup and let cool.

A green desk

When we moved, we no longer had room for a large desk we had been borrowing from my parents. Since our second bedroom is so small and it needs to serve many purposes, we didn’t have the room for it. I looked for a small desk for a while, and finally found one at a thrift store for $15 that I thought could work. I was looking for something very small with clean lines. It is made of some sort of wood material covered with a wood veneer. It looks just like anything you could buy and assemble, so I wanted to make it a little more unique. 

Before

After

In order to paint over a wood veneer, you first have to use an oil-based primer (I learned this from the paint people at Home Depot). I didn’t have a place to spray it, so I had to brush it on. The primer was like glue and dried very quickly. I didn’t have any paintbrush cleaner, so my paintbrush was ruined when I was finished. If you do this, make sure to get mineral spirits or paint thinner to clean your brush.

Once dry, I gave it a quick sanding with fine grit sandpaper. I could then apply the first coat of paint. I chose a green color that was a paint and primer in one so that I wouldn’t have to do as many coats. Between each of the three coats, I let it dry for almost 24 hours before sanding.

 I decided once it had been painted that it needed a new handle. I found a black one I liked that would cover up the old holes, but I would have to drill new holes.

The new holes were drilled, and I realized the screws were too short. My husband helped me drill wider holes in the back of the drawer so the screw could be pushed further through the drawer front. It worked! Now we have a desk that not only fits our space well but looks fantastic!

Baking even a non-baker can do

I bought the Grand Central Baking Book a few years ago per the recommendation of a friend who also loves to bake. I am always inspired by their recipes – unique and never too difficult to make. I have passed by the clafouti page many times, never paying much attention to the recipe until today. I have lots of cherries I need to use up and this recipe uses 1 ½ cups. I decided to give it a try. The ingredients are mixed in a blender and poured in a pie pan, then cherries are plopped on top. The whole thing gets covered with sugar, and in the oven it goes. What an easy dessert! And perfect for a last minute dinner party. If you don’t have cherries, try berries, nectarines, peaches, plums, or a combination.

Grand Central describes it as, “a rustic baked dessert somewhere between a custard and a soufflé…provides a great contrast of textures, too, with a slightly chewy cake, soft baked fruit, and crunchy cracked sugar shards on top.”

A cherry pitter makes the task of pitting 1 ½ cups of cherries a breeze. They are fairly inexpensive and I have used mine more than I thought I would.

Clafouti (Adapted from Grand Central Baking Book by Davis & Jackson, 2009)

Serves 4

Ingredients
2/3 cup whole milk (I used 2% and it worked great)
8 teaspoons plus ¼ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract (Use vanilla if you are using a different fruit)
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups fresh pitted cherries (or 1 cup halved, pitted prunes, soaked in ¼ cup brandy or Armagnac)

Make It

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a blender, combine milk, 8 teaspoons sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, and flour. Blend until smooth, about 30 seconds.

Pour into an 8-inch glass or ceramic pie dish. Distribute the fruit evenly on top of the batter.

Sprinkle with ¼ cup sugar.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until puffy and golden brown. Serve immediately.

Easy ink and watercolor greeting cards

I picked up watercolor painting a few years ago because I discovered it was something someone like me without an art background could do pretty easily. I liked the watercolor pictures I had seen that had a black ink outline with the colors filled in. I think they remind me of coloring books. I picked up an inexpensive set of watercolors at a craft store, and began watercoloring. I found that doing anything large scale required more skill and the right kind of paper. So I found some plain white cards I had and decided to make some thank you cards. I drew a picture using a permanent marker, then started filling it in with the paint.

If the paper gets too wet, blot with a paper towel.

I found that it looks best when it’s not too perfect. A little coloring outside the lines is ok.

Coming up with the ideas of what to draw is sometimes difficult for me. I have an idea in my head, but actually drawing it is not as easy as I first thought. Occsasionally, I’ll copy a picture I see online or in a book. You can print out a picture that you like and trace it if you’re really artistically challenged. Not only is making cards fun and unique, but it also saves money! I have given a stack of 8-10 of these as gifts and people love them. Give it a try!

A boy turns one

My sweet nephew had his first birthday party last weekend and I was in charge of making the birthday cake. My sister made adorable invitations in the shape of the number one with polka dots, so I decided to make a cake to match. My plan was to have a number one like this: 1, but as I tried to frost it, the bottom part started breaking off, so I went with a basic 1.

I had seen a number one cake mold, but decided I could make a cake that was just as cute without the mold. It was more challenging than I thought, and while frosting my cut-out cake, I wondered why I didn't take the easy route! I baked two yellow cakes in 13 x 9 pans. I used box cake mix in order to save time since I had so much other baking and decorating to do. After cooling slightly, I removed the cakes from the pans and let them cool overnight.

That same night I also made sugar cookies to use for the polka dots on the cake (see recipe below). I used a 1.5 inch cutter to cut out the cookies. I cut some of the cookies in half to make polka dots that got “cut off” the edge of the cake. I made a simple sugar cookie glaze (see recipe below), divided it among three bowls, and colored it with concentrated food colorings so the colors would be vibrant.

After my cookies had cooled, I used an offset spatula to ice the cookies. This process seemed to take forever since there were so many very small cookies, but the icing is easy to work with, so that helped. I put the iced cookies on half sheet pans, covered them with plastic wrap, and let them set overnight.

The next day, I used a serrated knife to level the top of one of the cakes. I then transferred it to my white rectangular serving platter.

I whipped up a white frosting (see recipe below), put a not-to-thick layer on top of the bottom layer. I leveled out the second layer and transferred it to the top of the cake. I should have remembered to turn it upside down, as that would have made the top of the cake much easier to frost.

On a piece of paper, I drew a number 1 that I saw online, cut it out, and positioned it on the cake. I used a small serrated knife to cut around the template.

I then began my crumb coat – a thin layer of frosting before the final layer in order to keep all the crumbs stuck to the cake and out of the final layer of frosting. After finishing the crumb coat, I refrigerated the cake for about 30 minutes. I then began the final coat of frosting. I put it on pretty thick at first using large and small offset spatulas.

Then I used a small offset spatula to smooth it out, taking frosting off little by little to make it straight and smooth. I occasionally would dip the spatula in hot water before smoothing out the frosting, which helped a lot. The most difficult part of this cake was the top of the number one. The cake was fragile in the corners which make it challenging to frost.

Eventually, I had to stop trying to make the frosting look perfect, which was difficult for me. My husband reminded me that there would be cookies covering a lot of the cake so most of my imperfections would be hidden.

I pressed the decorated cookies into the cake in a random pattern and had some that were halfway on the side and halfway on top. I refrigerated the cake until party time.

I had a lot of extra cookies, which was part of my plan. I put 3-4 cookies of the same color in a mini muffin wrapper and put about 20 of these on a round platter. That was sure a hit! It was nice to have a sweet snack for people to much after lunch before the cake was cut. I would definitely do that again even for a grown-up party!

White Cake Frosting (I tripled this for my cake)

½ cup shortening (Whole Foods carries a non-hydrogenated shortening)
1 box (16 oz) powdered sugar
4 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon almond extract

Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, mix all ingredients on low speed until powdered sugar is absorbed, then increase the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy.

Sugar Cookies (Adapted from Joy of Cooking)

3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) butter, softened (I used salted butter)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla, and continue beating until well mixed and smooth.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on medium-low speed until smooth. Refrigerate half the dough. Place the other half of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper or wax paper. Roll out to between 1/8 and ¼ inch thick. If it is difficult to roll, you may need to refrigerate the dough for a few minutes before continuing. Once rolled out, refrigerate for about 30 minutes until slightly firm. Once cold, peel off the top paper, cut out the cookies, and transfer them to a parchment lined or greased baking sheet using a spatula. They can be fairly close together. Refrigerate the scraps to roll out later.

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the edges just start darkening. Let cool on the sheet for about 3-4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough. You can continue rolling out scraps and cutting out cookies until you have used up all of the dough.

Glaze with Sugar Cookie Glaze (recipe follows).

Sugar Cookie Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
¼ cup water

Whisk all ingredients together in medium bowl. Divide into small bowls, color using food coloring, and cover until ready to use.